Sharks Rx Spring 2018 | NSU College of Pharmacy

Members of the charter class and some 150 other alumni, faculty members, administrators, and friends celebrated this milestone on November 4, 2017, with poolside cock- tails and an anniversary program at the DoubleTree Resort in Hollywood, Florida. “The pressure was on us to succeed,” said Mark Youngross, B.S. (’90), another charter class member and a Walgreens pharmacy manager in Deerfield Beach, Florida. “We needed to pass, and the professors needed us to graduate for the college to become fully accredited, so it was a symbiotic relationship.” While some NSU pharmacists encountered a healthy dose of stigma and skepticism in the profession in those early years—Youngross still remembers hearing, “Well, it’s not a real school” and “Well, you’re not a real pharmacist”— others remember those times differently. “We took it as a challenge that people felt we could not be successful,” said Frederick Lippman, R.Ph., Ed.D., NSU’s interim executive vice president and chief operat- ing officer and a founder of the COP. “Rather than trying to prove we could be successful, we challenged ourselves to show people we were right, that there was a tremendous need, and that we were going to obligate ourselves to filling the void.” That void was the lack of a pharmacy college in fast- growing South Florida. The new pharmacy program was the first approved in the United States in 18 years. Indeed, the vision of those founders has been proven right over the past 30 years. “The profession today has the highest regard for our program,” said Lippman, “because our graduates have shown the quality of their education in their careers through industry-distribution pharmacy, hospital management, and hospital pharmacies. They’re at the highest levels of reputation.” While the NSU COP has looked with pride at the achieve- ments of its alumni throughout its 30 years, a culture shift has brought new recognition to the program, according to the college’s dean, Lisa Deziel, Pharm.D., Ph.D. Today, research—which is a key to funding—is a critical component of what the college does. “As a younger, new school without research infrastruc- ture, we weren’t able to compete for federal funding, and funding is one way schools are ranked,” she said. “Now, the university has the necessary research infrastructure, and faculty members know if they’re going to work here, research is an expectation that’s positive for their individual development, for the college, and for our students.” “We took it as a challenge that people felt we could not be successful.Rather than trying to prove we could be successful,we challenged ourselves to show people we were right, that there was a tremendous need,and that we were going to obligate ourselves to filling the void.” Frederick Lippman NSU interim executive vice president and chief operating officer — (continued on next page)