School of Pharmacy Campaign

Campaign and building news

School of Pharmacy launches “Promises to Keep” capital campaign

The School of Pharmacy has formally launched a $5 million capital campaign, “Promises to Keep,” as part of the university’s MomentUM campaign to meet the needs of students and faculty, to enhance learning and to elevate the school’s standing among America’s premier public pharmacy programs.

Funds from the campaign are to help build a new School of Pharmacy building on the Medical Center campus, create endowments for student scholarships and fellowships, and create endowments to support faculty.

“The success of the capital campaign is essential to the continuing success of the School of Pharmacy,” said pharmacy Dean Barbara G. Wells. “In these harsh economic times, it is even more important for those of us who are able, to step up and support our educational and religious institutions and our charities. If we do not, then literally decades of progress can be lost in a short period of time, and the most vulnerable people and programs will suffer.”

The new 26,000 sq. ft. building, slated to break ground later this year, will feature a technology-driven classroom, small group meeting rooms to enhance the problem-based learning curriculum, and laboratory space for faculty to conduct research.

In addition to the classroom and research space housed in the facility, there will be a student lounge area and space for student association meetings. Now housed under one roof, pharmacy students will have direct access to faculty, preceptors, and administrators.

With the additional space, the pharmacy school will be able to address the critical shortage of pharmacists by implementing a 28 percent increase in enrollment. The new building also is imperative for the school’s continuing accreditation, as its national accrediting agency found the current facilities at the Jackson Medical Mall to be inadequate and out of compliance with new accreditation standards.

“In addition to meeting accreditation standards and allowing us to continue the enrollment increase, the new pharmacy building at the Medical Center will improve the morale of students and faculty immeasurably,” Wells said. “It will allow us to integrate our students into the medical center environment and allow our students to learn, work, and socialize in a truly inter-professional setting.”

The campaign will also focus on increasing endowment funds benefiting student scholarships. Eighty-two percent of the 2009 Doctor of Pharmacy class graduated with student loan debt which averaged more than $49,000. Scholarship endowments provide incentives necessary to attract promising students as well as assist students with heavy financial burdens. The goal of the campaign is to raise $1.5 million in named endowments for merit and need-based scholarships and fellowships.

“It is imperative especially during these times of economic challenge and continuously escalating tuition costs that we exhaust all efforts to assist our students in successfully completing their professional degree program while minimizing their debt burden,” said Associate Dean for Academic and Student Affairs Marvin C. Wilson. “It is indeed tragic in these times of practitioner shortage when the completion of the degree program is jeopardized or worse yet denied by the need to work full time to support oneself and/or dependents. Affordability should never be the factor depriving a qualified individual from the opportunity to achieve a professional degree.”

Endowments raised to support faculty will allow the school to attract and retain the best and brightest professors, clinicians, and researchers.

“Although our pharmacy school is 100 years old, we have no fully funded endowed professorships or endowed chairs,” Wells stated. “These instruments allow us to hire and retain the best teachers and researchers. I can think of no better way to support both students and faculty or to make a gift that perpetually supports and strengthens teaching and research programs than to establish an endowed professorship or endowed chair.”

The “Promises to Keep” campaign is part of the university’s MomentUM campaign, a $200 million capital campaign designed to continue the momentum generated by the university in the last decade.

“Indeed, the capital campaign is about taking the steps to ensure that we keep the promises made long ago,” said Wells. “We owe it to our students to provide them with the very best education available anywhere. Our faculty members are dedicated to doing their part and more. Our students are highly motivated to achieve academic success and to better the lives of those they serve. In spite of difficult economic times, by working together to achieve the shared vision, opportunities will abound for us to continue our growth, to elevate the practice of pharmacy, and to improve the care of our patients.”

Walgreens Supports School of Pharmacy

OXFORD, Miss. – Drug retailer Walgreens has given $50,000 to support the UM School of Pharmacy. The gift will help with costs for the new pharmacy practice building, to be constructed on the University of Mississippi Medical Center campus in Jackson.

“Walgreens has a long-standing partnership with the University of Mississippi School of Pharmacy,” said Tonya Shackelford, a Walgreens district manager who is also an Ole Miss Pharmacy alumna. “Many Ole Miss Pharmacy students intern with Walgreens through our summer internship program and go on to work for us full-time. Ole Miss graduates are an asset to our company and the profession. Walgreens is dedicated to advancing the field of pharmacy, and the new School of Pharmacy practice building will certainly help us do that.”

The new 26,000-square-foot building will not only provide essential facilities to meet the needs of students and faculty, but it will also allow the Pharmacy School to address the critical shortage of pharmacists in Mississippi by allowing for an increase in enrollment in the professional pharmacy program.

The building will feature technology-driven classrooms and research space for students, faculty, residents and fellows. A student lounge will be provided, as well as space for professional associations. A presence on the UMMC campus will foster interdisciplinary collaboration with health care practitioners, faculty and students.

“We are most grateful for this generous gift from our friends at Walgreens,” said pharmacy dean Barbara Wells. “Excellence in pharmacy education requires corporate partners who see the big picture, have a grand vision and understand the importance of their role in building a better world for students, for the profession, and most importantly, for patients. By sharing their vision, expertise, world view and financial resources generously, Walgreens enables us to become more than we are. They help us to rise to new heights.”

Walgreens is the nation's largest drugstore chain and last year donated more than $9 million in educational assistance to thousands of student pharmacists.

Pharmacy Grad Pays it Forward

In his second year of pharmacy school at Ole Miss, Stan Williams remembers walking into associate dean emeritus Joe McCaskill’s office. Williams was paying his way through school and had simply run out of money. When he told McCaskill about his situation, McCaskill pulled out his checkbook and wrote him a $200 check, right then and there.

“He said, ‘Son, you pay me back when you can,’” Williams remembers. “I just can’t begin to tell you how much that meant to me.”

Though the initial loan was repaid long ago, Williams has been working hard to give back in other ways to Ole Miss and all those that helped him along the way. And his love for Ole Miss isn’t just lip-service. Even though the Gulf Coast native attended LSU (and, yes, he does cheer for the Tigers), his heart and soul are in Oxford.

Williams returns often to campus to catch up with old friends and professors, attend football games and mentor pharmacy students. He has served on the School of Pharmacy’s Board of Advisors for 10 years. Williams gives to the Galen Order every year, and has done so since he graduated. And as a recent show of support, he pledged a $1 million life insurance policy to the School of Pharmacy. “Hopefully they won’t need it anytime soon,” Williams jokes.

“There are so many people that don’t look back after graduation, and I have never really understood that,” Williams said. “I got a great education from Ole Miss. It helped launch my career.”

That career, not surprisingly, was helped along by Marvin Wilson, Ph.D., UM's associate dean for academic and student affairs and professor of pharmacology.

Wilson encouraged Williams to apply for a competitive internship with Eli Lilly and Company. Out of 250 applicants, Williams got the job. That summer internship completely changed Williams’ career plans. Instead of working in a retail pharmacy, Williams decided to go into industry.

Williams credits Wilson, along with the rest of the UM Pharmacy School faculty, with his current successes.

“Ole Miss has a great faculty; they really care about the students,” Williams said. “They go the extra mile and make themselves available for extra help. You really don’t see that at large universities.”

Recently promoted as a Director of Sales for the Central U.S., in Abbott Vascular’s Endovascular Group, a division of Abbott Labs, Williams has also worked for the American Heart Association, Quantum Health Resources and Eli Lilly and Company.

He lives in Fort Worth, Texas, with his wife, Carol, a pediatric dietitian at Cook Children’s Hospital, daughter Maggie, 8, and son Jack, 5. When asked why he gives back to Ole Miss, Williams comments, “Life is all about a strong family, good friends and never forgetting where you came from.”

Alumni Support School of Pharmacy

Two loyal pharmacy grads, Jim Ainsworth and Keith Shelly, have each committed $50,000 to support the School of Pharmacy.

Ainsworth, who graduated in 1967, is vice president of regional operations for Baptist Memorial Health Care based in Memphis, Tenn.. He has worked in the Baptist system for nearly 40 years, beginning his career as a pharmacist there in 1969.

“I feel all of us have an obligation to contribute to the education of future health care professionals,” Ainsworth said. “It is no longer realistic to think that public dollars will be sufficient to cover the health care workforce needs of the future.”

The gift from Ainsworth and his wife, Sarah, also a UM grad, will support construction of the new pharmacy building in Jackson.

“We also wanted to support the University because our benefits as students laid the foundation for outstanding professional as well as personal careers,” he said.

Besides Sarah, who earned both her bachelor’s and master’s degrees from Ole Miss in 1965 and 1966, respectively, the couple’s two daughters, Rebecca McGee and Debra Ottens, are also UM alumnae, with Rebecca earning a pharmacy degree in 1991.

Shelly, who graduated in 1978, owns Donelson Drug Mart, a pharmacy in Nashville, Tenn. He also serves as the Director of Pharmacy for Centerstone Community Mental Health Centers, located throughout middle-Tennessee. He says that although he returned to his native Tennessee after graduating from Ole Miss, he never forgot the good times, friendships and value of his education from his time in Oxford. His gift will create the J. Keith Shelly Conference Room in Faser Hall.

“The University of Mississippi is among the nation’s leaders in promoting excellence within our profession by providing quality instruction to its students and by prioritizing research goals,” Shelly said. “I am proud of that fact and recognize that maintaining this standard requires the emotional and financial support of those who have already benefited from this great institution. I am pleased to be able to contribute to the School of Pharmacy to promote its growth, particularly as the School celebrates its 100th year.”

Both gifts are part of the School’s Promises to Keep Campaign, a five year initiative to raise $5 million in private support. Of the money raised, $2.5 million will help construct a pharmacy practice building on the UMMC campus in Jackson; $1.5 million will provide the scholarship support necessary to attract the most promising students and lessen the burden of students with financial constraints; and $1 million will provide faculty support through an endowment to attract and retain the best and brightest professors, clinicians and researchers from around the globe.

Scholarship Honors Family of Pharmacists

One of Allen Linton's favorite childhood memories is of visiting her grandfather's drugstore in Isola, Mississippi, and watching as he stood behind the counter, carefully compounding prescriptions with his mortar and pestle. It's an image that's defined the Linton family.

Pharmacy school brought together Allen's mother and father; they met there in 1946 and were married in 1948. Pharmacy is the career many others in the family chose. And it's the reason Allen and her mother, Sara LeMaster Linton, gave $25,000 to the Pharmacy School at the University of Mississippi to seed the Linton Family Pharmacy Scholarship Endowment.

"We have such pride in our family's pharmacy background," said Allen, who works as a Cancer Navigator at Baptist Center for Cancer Care in Oxford, and holds both a bachelor's and master's degree in nursing from Ole Miss. "And Ole Miss is very dear to all of us. It's a big part of our family. We feel a lot of loyalty to the school. Having the gift of an Ole Miss education is a treasure, especially if passed on to future generations. My mother wanted to do this to help enrich the lives of others."

The scholarship honors the notable number of Linton family members who attended UM's pharmacy school. It will be awarded to full-time students from Mississippi enrolled in the School of Pharmacy, with preference going to students from Humphreys, Lee and Panola counties, where most of the Linton family members call home.

"I am deeply appreciative of this generous gift from the Linton family," said Barbara Wells, Dean of the School of Pharmacy. “The example provided by this wonderful family is an inspiration to pharmacists and pharmacy educators everywhere. Their dedication to help those who follow them into the profession will make a meaningful difference in the personal lives and academic experience of deserving pharmacy students.”

The tradition started with Anderson Maltruverse Linton, Sr., Allen’s grandfather. In 1911, he was the first member of the family to graduate from the pharmacy school. A dedicated student, he served as president of his pharmacy class while at Ole Miss. He always saw his work as more than a job. It was a calling. He kept prices as low as he could in his Isola store. Sometimes, he didn't charge at all, and routinely waited for payment until the Delta cotton was picked, baled and sold. In some ways, with this gift from his family, that legacy of giving lives on today. The family believes he would be humbled and honored to have a scholarship bear his name.

"He was an extraordinary, humble and gracious man," Allen said. "This is such an appropriate way to honor his legacy. He valued education and was always trying to help people better their lives."

It was a lesson passed on to future generations. His son, Anderson Maltruverse “A.M.” Linton, Jr., attended Ole Miss on the GI Bill after serving in the Army Air Force flying transport supply missions in the China-Burma-India theater during World War II. He graduated from the pharmacy school in 1948 and devoted his entire 33-year career to pharmaceutical service as a Parke-Davis representative. He passed away in 1988 at the age of 65.

Sara LeMaster Linton, originally from Batesville, graduated from Ole Miss with a pharmacy degree in 1948, when pharmacy was considered a non-traditional career choice for women. She was one of only four women in her class.

After graduation, Sara began working retail at various drugstores in and around Tupelo. In 1967 she was the first pharmacist hired at North Mississippi Medical Center in Tupelo and worked there for 33 years. She retired at age 73.

"I can honestly say that every day I went to work I enjoyed it," Sara said. "This was definitely the right professional career choice for me."

And the family tradition in the profession continues. Allen’s cousin, Camille Shofner Roberts, UM Pharmacy 1965, originally from Isola, is a pharmacist at Forrest General Hospital in Hattiesburg. Camille’s son, Robert R. “Rob” Roberts III, UM Pharmacy 1994, works for Compound Pharmaceutical Technologies (CPT), a new compounding-only pharmacy in Daphne, AL. Rob’s wife, Julie Giddings Roberts, UM Pharmacy 1995, currently works for Mobile Mental Health as the Director of Pharmacy for BayPointe Hospital in Mobile, AL. She was also instrumental in starting and managing the pharmacy at Mobile Mental Health’s inpatient division. Allen’s cousin, Samuel Cook “Sandy” Sugg, Jr., UM Pharmacy 1976, also originally from Isola, has worked as a staff pharmacist at Delta Medical Center in Memphis for 23 years.

For more information on giving to Ole Miss, go to http://www.olemiss.edu/giving/index.html.

Medical Marketing Economics, LLC Gives $350,000 to Support UM’s School of Pharmacy

OXFORD, Miss. – Medical Marketing Economics, LLC, a consultancy group based in Oxford, has committed $350,000 to support the University of Mississippi’s School of Pharmacy.

“Faculty, staff and students of the School of Pharmacy are grateful for the generous support of Dr. Kolassa and the MME partners,” said Barbara Wells, the school’s dean. “This gift will make a meaningful difference for both graduate and professional students and their faculty. MME provides a wonderful example for us all – alumni, businesses, faculty and staff – to emulate.

These forward-looking, community-minded individuals believe in the importance of supporting the School to ensure that we can provide the best education possible. We thank them for the faith they place in us and our students.”

The gift will support the pharmacy school in three different ways: $150,000 will create and endow the MME Fellowship in Pharmacy Administration; another $150,000 will create a general fund to support the School; and the remaining amount will support the Science Library located in the Thad Cochran Research Center.

“Our company, MME, wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for the Ole Miss School of Pharmacy,” said E.M. "Mick" Kolassa, CEO and managing partner of MME, who also holds a Ph.D. in pharmacy administration from Ole Miss. “It is where many of us met, the source of many of our employees, and a major source of pride for all of us. We see this gift as a way for us to give back.”

MME works to develop value-based strategies and market research for health care goods and services and assists its clients in gathering, evaluating and understanding the information needed to make profitable, value-based decisions about their products and services. Of MME’s seven partners, four hold degrees from UM’s School of Pharmacy. The company also has an office in Montclair, New Jersey.

For more information on the School of Pharmacy, visit http://www.pharmacy.olemiss.edu.