To our pharmacy community,
With my first year as the Dean of UW School of Pharmacy now in the rearview, I would like to take this opportunity to share my experiences and observations. This past year, I have enjoyed meeting each of you personally and learning about your hopes, ambitions and expectations for our institution, as well as your frustrations and challenges (FT, anyone?). Through these meaningful interactions, I also began to learn about the culture, people, policies and procedures both in the SoP and at UW.
The last 12 months have been a personal rollercoaster ride. We sold our home in Philly and bought a home near Seattle, celebrated our son’s high school graduation and admission to Caltech, bid farewell to our friends in Philly, made some new friends here, and (re)learned how painful moving was. I also navigated how to be productive (or not) during my six-hour cross-country flights – and how great melatonin is in taking the edge off jetlag. I deeply appreciate your patience during this time and your flexibility in meeting with me virtually. Your understanding and support have been invaluable.
In addition to those personal travails, we also faced many workplace challenges, including the trials and tribulations brought about by FT. We have had several staff and leadership transitions, which required you to be flexible and patient and go the extra mile to get things done. Your resilience and commitment to your research, school and our students in the face of these challenges has been truly commendable. Thank you for your grace and dedication.
Despite these challenges, we have made significant progress this past year. We successfully recruited for many key positions, including the Assistant Dean for Finance, Associate Dean for Research, Associate Dean for Professional Pharmacy Education, and Assistant Dean for Advancement. We also just launched a national search for a newly created Associate Dean for DEI position. Our Advancement team is nearly complete, and
our other units and departments have hired for key staff positions and are now stable and thriving.
We established new endowments to support summer undergraduate research and graduate students, received a planning grant from the Washington Research Foundation to explore establishing a Drug Delivery Institute, and are working closely with prospective donors on this and other exciting initiatives. Stay tuned!
We also made some strategic decisions. At a time when most other schools have been increasing tuition, we announced a bold plan to reduce tuition by 14% for non-resident students and hold steady the resident tuition. I expect this will help us recruit highly qualified out-of-state students who otherwise go to our peer schools.
The School’s leadership team, in collaboration with the Elected Faculty Council, has been working on streamlining the composition and charges of the various elected and appointed committees to achieve an equitable and streamlined workload among faculty. This work is nearly done, and we hope to socialize these changes in the next few months.
I am proud of the recognition our students, staff and faculty have received this past year. Our faculty and staff have been recognized by the university for their work on lab safety, our students have won awards at the national level, and our faculty have been elected to
prestigious organizations and have received awards for their achievements. We are who we are because of your hard work, dedication, and commitment.
While summer is a great time to reflect on the past year, it is also a time to plan. The leadership team and I intend to work on several important goals for the school. Our strategic plan ends next year, and we will soon begin planning our next 5-year initiative to solidify the SoP as a leader in cutting-edge research in drug discovery/development and health outcomes, as well as practice transformation. We will work to ensure the SoP is the school of choice for top professional and graduate students, and I will meet with several of our alumni and donors to continue fundraising. We will continue to fine-tune our marketing and communications strategies to improve the image of the profession and the school’s reputation. Finally, we have strengthened our work to enhance our students’ success in NAPLEX and MPJE – a key priority.
Being part of this community has been an honor, and I eagerly anticipate another exceptional year together.
Warm regards,
Jay Panyam
Dean, UW School of Pharmacy