College of Pharmacy holds commencement
Graduation ceremonies were held on Thursday, May 11th at Hancher Auditorium for 102 graduating seniors. Class of 2006 President Elizabeth Brown provided the opening speech. The invited keynote address was given by alumnus Susan Winckler ('92 BSPh, JD), currently employed by the American Pharmacists Association in Washington DC. Her full commencement address, "Looking Ahead" can be accessed by clicking on this link. Opening and closing remarks were given by Dean Jordan Cohen, while Associate Dean Michael Kelly, and faculty members Lloyd Matheson and John Swegle helped with the hooding of the graduates.

College of Pharmacy Honors Two Alumni and Honorary Alumnus
The University of Iowa College of Pharmacy honored two alumni and a faculty member during the college's Senior Dinner and Awards Banquet on May 10. The banquet began at 6:00 p.m. at Holiday Inn and Banquet Center in Coralville, Iowa.

Dean Jordan Cohen presented the Distinguished Alumni Awards to Bernard Cremers, who earned a bachelor's degree from the college in 1964, and Larry D. Milne, Ph.D., who earned a doctorate in 1970. Cohen also presented Lloyd Matheson, Ph.D., with the Honorary Alumnus Award.

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.

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.

Currie, Farris Elected To Iowa Pharmacy Association Posts
Two University of Iowa College of Pharmacy faculty members were among eight pharmacists recently elected to officer and trustee positions with the Iowa Pharmacy Association (IPA) for its 2006-2007 administrative year. Jay Currie, '80 BS, '84 Pharm.D., Professor (Clinical), was named president-elect, and Karen Farris, Ph.D., associate professor, was named a trustee at-large.

Congrats!

Congratulations to Robert Kerns who will be promoted to Associate Professor effective July 1st, 2006. Kerns is currently a faculty member in the Medicinal &Natural Products Chemistry Division.

Pharmacy Residency Program In Community Care Reaccredited
A University of Iowa College of Pharmacy residency program in community-based pharmacy practice has been reaccredited by the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists (ASHP) and the American Pharmacists Association (APhA). The six-year accreditation, which was formally approved in late April, was based on an ASHP-APhA report following a survey and site visit conducted last fall. The College of Pharmacy program is the first in the nation to be reaccredited. The 12-month residency program, established in 1997 and administered through the college's Division of Clinical and Administrative Pharmacy, develops graduate pharmacists' clinical skills in community pharmacy settings. Pharmacy residents spend time providing patient care; develop, implement or sustain pharmaceutical care services at the community pharmacy; and participate in ways to better understand or facilitate changes in pharmacy practice.

Although a pharmacy practice residency is not required following completion of the college's doctor of pharmacy (Pharm.D.) degree program, the residency is valuable to many College of Pharmacy graduates, noted Jay Currie, Pharm.D., UI Professor (Clinical) and director of the residency program. "By continuing their education in an advanced practice pharmacy, residents gain knowledge, skills and experience in both patient care and practice innovation that usually takes many years to acquire in practice," Currie said.

Seven community pharmacies in eastern Iowa serve as residency sites for the program: A Avenue Pharmacy and Hy-Vee Pharmacy in Cedar Rapids; Main at Locust Pharmacy in Davenport; Mercy Family Pharmacy in Dubuque; Osterhaus Pharmacy in Maquoketa; Shepley Pharmacy in Mount Vernon; and Liberty Pharmacy in North Liberty.