Our goal is to keep our alumni connected to the university, the COP and each other. We want to recognize you for the great things that you have achieved, and help you to continue to achieve even more.
Continuing Education Program
The College of Pharmacy offers several training opportunities and educational programs to help you excel in the pharmaceutical field. Many classes are offered online for your convenience. Click here for more information.
DISTINGUISHED ALUMNI AWARDS
Distinguished Alumni Awards are given out annually to honor those alumni for their personal contribution toward pharmacy achievement, leadership and service to the profession, the society and the College. We hope these alumni inspire our students and provide role models for the next generation of pharmacists. One award will be given for achievement in professional practice and one for achievement in the academic community or in industry.
Criteria for Selection:
- An individual who has made distinguished contributions to the theory and practice of pharmacy or has demonstrated major accomplishments in a professional pharmacy practice or in pharmaceutical research and development.
- An individual who has managed or directed an organization that has made noteworthy national or international contributions to the pharmacy profession.
- An individual who has contributed truly exceptional service to their community, the College, the profession or the public.
- The individual must be a graduate of the University of Iowa College of Pharmacy.
2008 Recipient: Hal E. Schimmelpfennig, '55 BS
 Hal Schimmelpfennig graduated from the College of Pharmacy in 1955 with a Bachelor of Science degree. He then enlisted in the U.S. Air Force and was stationed at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Weisbaden, Germany, where he was in charge of the pharmacy at the base's 350-bed hospital. In 1959, Schimmelpfennig was hired as a pharmaceuticals sales representative covering central Ohio for Eli Lilly and Company. His success led to other key management positions with the company in Stockholm, London, South Africa and the Philippines. In 1981, he returned to Indianapolis to serve as director of international marketing for Lilly. Throughout his career he has been an active member of the American Pharmaceutical Association and the Indianapolis Association of Pharmacists, and he has worked with students at Indiana University, Miami University in Ohio and Purdue University. Schimmelpfennig's career has extended beyond the pharmacy profession. He served as the marketing manager for the Pan American games in 1987 and then became marketing manager of the Indianapolis Zoo, where he works today. As throughout his career, he continues to assist on various environmental and civic projects.
2007 Recipient: James D. Carlson, '71 BSPh, PharmD
 Jim Carlson was born and raised in the small farm community of Linn Grove, Iowa and completed his B.S. in Pharmacy from the University of Iowa in 1971. Following a tour of duty with the Indian Health Service from 1972-1974, he completed his Doctor of Pharmacy degree from the University of Michigan and a pharmacy residency at Buffalo General Hospital in New York in 1976. In 1977, he joined the VA in Fargo as a clinical pharmacy coordinator and later became a full time faculty member at North Dakota State University College of Pharmacy, from 1981-1983.
In 1983, Dr. Carlson working with a physician colleague at NDSU started a small generic drug product evaluation unit that became a commercial operation in 1983 with a very small staff and facility. This company, now PRACS Institute, Ltd. and still located in Fargo, has grown exponentially over the last 20 plus years and is now one of the major Phase I clinical trials organizations in the country. During his career, he has over 70 publications and remains active in AAPS, ASCP, and the Drug Information Association and is a past president of the North Dakota Society of Hospital Pharmacists. He has also received numerous individual awards for achievement and leadership in pharmacy and in business with particularly notable honors as North Dakota Business Innovator of the Year in 2005 and the Ernst and Young Entrepreneur of the Year in the Life Sciences for the MN/ND region in 2006.
2006 Recipients: Bernard Cremers '64 BSPH and Larry D. Milne '70 PhD .
 Bernard Cremers is a native of northwest Iowa and began his pharmacy career as a pharmacy intern in Storm Lake in 1959. He obtained his bachelor of science degree from the UI College of Pharmacy in 1964. Following graduation, he worked as a pharmacist in Newton and Iowa City and later became a store manager for Drug Fair and Peoples Drug in Iowa City. In 1989, Cremers became the co-owner of Towncrest and Medical Plaza Pharmacies in Iowa City where he continues to this day. He served as a clinical pharmacy instructor for the College of Pharmacy from 1971–1998, working with the experiential programs. He was an officer, and ultimately president as well as chairman, of both the Iowa Pharmacy Association board of trustees and its foundation board. He is also active in the American Pharmacists Association and the American College of Apothecaries, and he also is involved in both the University of Iowa Alumni Association and the College of Pharmacy alumni board.
 Larry D. Milne is a native of Kansas and earned a bachelor of science degree in pharmacy in 1963 from the University of Kansas. He earned a doctorate in medicinal chemistry at the UI in 1970. That same year he started as an assistant professor at the Medical University of South Carolina and later began his administrative career as an associate dean. In 1975, he was recognized as the South Carolina Pharmacist of the Year, the first full-time academic pharmacist ever to receive the honor. In 1977, Milne became the youngest pharmacy dean in the country when he became the second dean of the School of Pharmacy at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences. In his long tenure as dean at Arkansas he mentored several faculty members who later assumed pharmacy deanships or other university administrative positions, as well as many student who assumed leadership positions in pharmacy within Arkansas and across the nation. In 2000, Milne was asked by the University Chancellor to assume the position of Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs and Research Administration.
2005 Recipients: Mary Helgeson Ellis '66 and Robert Sindelar ’75MS ’80Ph.D.
Mary Helgeson Ellis ’66
 The College of Pharmacy is delighted to recognize Mary Helgeson Ellis ’66 as a Distinguished Alumnus for 2005. A native of Iowa, Mary received her Bachelors degree in Pharmacy from the University of Iowa in 1966. Following graduation she practiced hospital pharmacy in Moline, IL, Pittsburgh, PA and Colville, WA.
After returning to Iowa she was appointed by Gov Terry Branstad to lead the Iowa Department of Substance Abuse during which time she also obtained her Master degree in Public Administration from Iowa State University. In 1986 Mary was promoted by to the position of Director of the Iowa Department of Public Health, which oversees all health care related issues in the state. In 1990 she was hired by former Governor Bob Ray in the first of three Vice President Positions at Wellmark Blue Cross and Blue Shield, first as VP of external and government relations, next as VP of pharmacy programs and finally as VP of Wellmark’s Medicare benefits for Iowa and South Dakota.
Since retiring in 2000 she has continued to be at the forefront of pharmacy benefit management and design and has worked as consultant for Medicare for various blue cross and blue shield plans across the country. Most recently has been involved as a consultant for implementing Medication Therapy Management Services benefit for the new Medicare Modernization act of 2003. Along the way as been active in the Iowa Pharmacy Association and has been a member of Deans Advisory committees to both the University of Iowa and Drake University colleges of Pharmacy. Mary has two adult children and one granddaughter and she and her husband Dave Readinger live in Des Moines.
Mary is being honored for her extraordinary leadership in Pharmacy and Public Health in the State of Iowa and beyond. She has brought great recognition to the College of Pharmacy and the College is delighted to honor her as a 2005 recipient of our Distinguished Alumnus award.
Robert Sindelar ’75MS ’80Ph.D.
 Robert Sindelar ’75 MS ’80Ph.D. has been Dean of the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver Canada since 2002. Dr. Sindelar obtained his B.S. in chemistry from Milliken College and then his MS and Ph.D. degrees in Medicinal and Natural Products Chemistry from the University of Iowa in 1975 and 1980. Following postdoctoral training at the State University of New York at Buffalo and the University of British Columbia he began a long career at the University of Mississippi in 1985 rising through the ranks to Chair of Medicinal Chemistry in 1993 and Professor and Chair in 1996. From July 2000 to August 2002 he served Acting Dean at Mississippi while maintaining his responsibilities as Director of the Research Institute for Pharmaceutical Sciences. In addition to his leadership role in the Faculty, Dr. Sindelar continues to teach in the professional undergraduate curriculum in several courses.
Dr. Sindelar is highly regarded in medicinal chemistry research with a focus on computer aided drug discovery and design and pharmaceutical biotechnology and has held extramural funding totaling more than $14M in his faculty career. He also has numerous publications and presentations at the national and international levels and holds 6 US patents as well as several other foreign patents for his work. He is also highly regarded as a teacher and has been active in national professional pharmacy organizations in the US and Canada. He serves on the editorial board for various scientific journals, including The APhA Biotechnology Initiative, Current Medicinal Chemistry and IDrugs: The Investigational New Drug Journal.
Dr. Sindelar is a highly regarded academic leader and pharmaceutical scientist and pharmacy educator across the country and in Canada and has brought great recognition to the University of Iowa. The University of Iowa College of Pharmacy is honored to be able to recognize him as a Distinguished Alumnus for 2005.
HONORARY ALUMNI AWARDS
The Honorary Alumni Award is given out annually to honor those alumni for their personal contribution toward pharmacy achievement, leadership and service to the profession, the society and the College. We hope these alumni inspire our students and provide role models for the next generation of pharmacists. While this criteria is similar to the Distinguished Alumni Award, this recipient is not a graduate of the University of Iowa College of Pharmacy.
Criteria for Selection:
- An individual who has made distinguished contributions to the theory and practice of pharmacy or has demonstrated
major accomplishments in a professional pharmacy practice or in pharmaceutical research and development.
- An individual who has managed or directed an organization that has made noteworthy national or international contributions to the pharmacy profession.
- An individual who has contributed truly exceptional service to their community, the College, the profession or the public.
2008 Recipient: Jack Rosazza
 Jack Rosazza received bachelor's (1962), master's (1966) and doctoral (1968) degrees from the University of Connecticut. As a doctoral student, he was a National Institute of Health trainee in the first natural products chemistry program in the United States involving organic chemistry, mycology and pharmacognosy. Following a postdoctoral appointment at the University of Wisconsin, Rosazza came to the UI College of Pharmacy in 1969 as a faculty member in the Division of Medicinal and Natural Products Chemistry. His career at the college includes serving as head the medicinal and natural products chemistry division for 18 years, during which he served as mentor and advisor for 30 doctoral students and 30 postdoctoral or visiting scholars. His research encompassed biocatalysis (the use of natural catalysts or enzymes to cause chemical changes on organic compounds) in organic chemistry, and he and his research colleagues have identified many microorganisms and new biocatalytic reactions. Rosazza established the UI Center for Biocatalysis and Bioprocessing (CBB), a multidepartmental research group that includes 60 faculty members from eight UI departments and one of the leading fermentation and bioprocessing laboratories in the world. In addition, Rosazza has served as a consultant to the National Cancer Institute as well as numerous pharmaceutical and chemical companies. Now a professor emeritus, Rosazza maintains a research laboratory at the CBB.
2007 Recipient: Dennis K. Helling, PharmD
 Dennis Helling is closely connected to Iowa and our university as he started his faculty career here in 1973 following his B.S. at St. Louis COP and a 2 year residency at the University of Cincinnati. Dennis was instrumental initiating the primary care model here at Iowa that led to pharmacy faculty being deployed full time in our regional family medicine residency program sites across the state and was with us until 1988 serving as Division Head for many years. Following 4 years at the University of Houston Dennis joined the Kaiser Permanent Organization in Denver Colorado where he has served as Executive Director of Pharmacy Operations and Therapeutics ever since.
In addition to his highly successful academic and Kaiser careers (88 publications and 75 presentations at national and international meetings) he has made enormous contribution to the profession through his service and leadership at APhA, ACCP, AACP and most recently as a Board Member and then president of the Accreditation Council on Pharmaceutical Education (aka the dreaded ACPE). In addition he earned an Executive Management credential from Stanford, and was awarded an honorary doctorate from Mercer University. He has also received the distinguished alumni awards from St. Louis College of Pharmacy and the University of Colorado and has been a visiting lecturer and scholar at numerous institutions here and abroad. He received the prestigious Daniel B. Smith award from APhA in 2004; his team received the 2003 Pinnacle award from that same association and he was the first recipient of the Paul Parker Medal for Distinguished Service to the Profession awarded by ACCP in 2002.
2006 Recipient: Lloyd Matheson
 Lloyd Matheson is a native of Wisconsin. He received a bachelor of science degree in 1964, and a doctorate in 1970, from University of Wisconsin in Madison. He spent two years as a faculty member at North Dakota State University before coming to Iowa. At the UI, he was assistant, and later associate, dean of professional programs. In this role Matheson worked with a small staff to provide leadership to professional programs, student services and admissions. Matheson was instrumental in working with Dean Gilbert Banker and faculty members to implement the Doctor of Pharmacy (Pharm.D.) program, and he also facilitated the planning and construction of the new Pharmacy Building, which was completed in 1996. Matheson served as a faculty member in the college's Department of Pharmaceutics at Iowa until his retirement in 2004, and he continues to participate as a part-time professor in both Pharmaceutics and the Pharmacy Practice Laboratory. During his faculty career, Matheson taught nearly every pharmaceutics course in the professional program as well as several graduate courses, and he served as a faculty advisor for several student groups.
2005 Recipient: Gilbert S. Banker
 It is with great pleasure that we recognize Dr. Gilbert S. Banker as the College’s Honorary Alumnus for 2005. Dr. Banker is originally from New York State, and received his B.S. in pharmacy from Albany College of Pharmacy in 1953. He then attended graduate school at Purdue University and earned his M.S. and Ph.D. there in 1955 and 1957, respectively in Industrial Pharmacy. Dr. Banker stayed on as a faculty member at Purdue rising through the ranks to Professor and served as Head of the Department of Industrial and Physical Pharmacy from 1967-1985 while gaining national and international recognition for his science in the field of industrial pharmacy and pharmaceutics. Dr. Banker then moved to Minnesota as Dean of the College of Pharmacy, a position he held from 1985-1992, when he was lured to Iowa Dean of the College of Pharmacy serving us from 1992-1999.
Dr. Banker presided over tremendous growth at Iowa and was primarily responsible for guiding the College through the major curricular changes needed to implement the Doctor of Pharmacy degree as the entry level degree to practice, with the initial all Pharm.D. admitted in 1996 and graduated 2001. Dean Banker was also instrumental in developing the case statement and the political and economic resources for our College of Pharmacy addition which provided the college with much needed and highly modernized teaching and research space at over double of our previous capacity. During this period the College’s division of Pharmaceutical Services was also upgraded to its current capacity and effectively serves over 80 pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical companies across the country in the formulation and manufacture of clinical trials formulations of new drugs.
Dr. Banker is now retired but is still very active as Dean and Professor Emeritus and stays involved in his research discipline while dividing his time between Iowa City and Naples with his wife Gwen, also a Purdue Pharmacy graduate.
The college is grateful for Dean Banker’s strong leadership during a critical growth period. The University of Iowa College of Pharmacy is honored to recognize Dean Banker for his contributions to our college as the Honorary Alumnus for 2005. |
