NSU Horizons Spring 2013

17 HORIZONS The college has become an inter- national force, said Andrés Malavé, Ph.D., dean of the College of Pharma- cy, delivering quality pharmaceutical education to colleges and universities in Latin America. And it has the highest number of Hispanic students pursuing doctoral pharmacy studies in the United States. Using interactive video, the col- lege offers classes in Palm Beach, Florida, and in Ponce, Puerto Rico, allowing students to pursue the Doctor of Pharmacy (Pharm.D.) degree with- out having to stop work or move to the main campus. Residency programs have been created in community pharmacy, drug information, psychiatry, ambulatory care, and general pharmacy practice. NSU is the only pharmacy college in the United States that operates two pharmacies—a community pharmacy on campus and a hospital pharmacy at South Florida State Hospital, a facility in Pembroke Pines, Florida—where students gain practical knowledge. In addition, Drug Information Centers in Fort Lauderdale and Ponce provide area health care providers with current pharmaceutical information. The Medicinal and Healing Garden on NSU’s main campus exposes students to plants that have long been used in treating illness and are sometimes the basis for drugs today. Prepared for real-world situations, Finkel, who is now clinical assistant professor for pharmaceutical sciences at NSU, has witnessed and participat- ed in the evolution of the College of Pharmacy. He said students who go through the college today study harder, and when they leave they are prepared for whatever may confront them. “When they leave here and walk into a phar- macy or a hospital, they have to know as much as someone who’s been there 15 years,” said Finkel, who still works in his pharmacy on Saturdays. Pharmacists also coun- sel patients on why the drug that has been pre- scribed is important and how it works, and some- times, they catch things that may have life or death consequences. “We save lives,” Finkel said. “I’ve had people coming into the store with blue lips, who have been prescribed inhalers. I show them how to correctly use the inhaler. This is a customer coming into my store, and it’s my responsibility.” Fred Lippman, R.Ph., Ed.D., chan- cellor of NSU’s Health Professions Division and founding administrative officer of the College of Pharmacy, also was a community pharmacist in Broward County before he was asked by the late Morton Terry, who was then president of Southeastern Uni- versity of the Health Sciences, to help start a pharmacy school. At the same time, Terry asked Lippman to help with the merger of the two universities, Southeastern University of the Health Sciences and Nova University, to form what is now NSU. “Morton Terry was a cousin of a boyhood friend of mine,” Lippman recalled. “He asked me to do some- thing worthwhile, to see what we could put together.” Lippman, who was serving in the state legislature, organized a panel to study the idea, and, in late 1985, Cynthia Munoz, right, of Ponce, Puerto Rico, became excited about a pharmacy career while serving at a nonprofit group. NSU’s Medicinal and Healing Garden on the main campus, below, highlights plants used in treating illnesses.