The University of Washington School of Pharmacy congratulates the recipients of the following endowed professorships. These prestigious professorships were made possible by the support of alumni and friends.
Clinical Professor of Pharmacy Don Downing
Institute for Innovative Pharmacy Practice (“I2P2”) Endowed Professorship
Downing is a prolific advocate for pharmacists, patients and underserved populations. He has devoted his career as a professor and practitioner to moving the profession of pharmacy forward.
His practice and training interests have included the development of the nation’s first pharmacist-provided emergency contraception program and the first pharmacist-initiated ongoing hormonal contraception services. Further, Downing and then-Professor Jackie Gardner led the first-in-the-nation charge in the 1990s to educate and certify Washington state pharmacists to provide flu shots and other vaccines to large populations of vulnerable people.
He has also created pharmaceutical care and business strategy partnerships between the School of Pharmacy and the Nisqually, Skokomish and Shoalwater Bay Indian Tribes. His close relationship with area tribes stems from his previous role as pharmacy director of the Puyallup Tribal Health Authority for more than a decade.
Downing, along with now Professor Emeritus Jackie Gardner, co-founded the School of Pharmacy’s Institute for Innovative Pharmacy Practice in 2005. He currently directs the institute. As the I2P2 Endowed Professor, he will have increased opportunities to further enhance innovations in pharmacy practice and education.
The Institute for Innovative Pharmacy Practice is a premier center for pharmacy training, research and advocacy. It draws on the School’s strengths in senior care, pharmacy management and community health programs. It prepares well-rounded pharmacists who promote entrepreneurial solutions for better health and better business. It also creates research partnerships to help practicing pharmacists implement cost-effective, health-enhancing practice innovations.
Professor of Pharmaceutics Shiu-Lok Hu
Milo Gibaldi Endowed Professorship in Pharmaceutics
Hu has established a vibrant research program in the areas of virology and AIDS/HIV vaccine development. He is currently part of three, multiyear National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases HIV Vaccine Research and Design grants, for which his collaborative contributions total more than $9.5 million.
One such collaboration, with researchers at the University of Massachusetts Medical School and New York University Langone Medical Center, is exploring the development of protective antibodies targeting the part of the HIV virus that binds to immune cells — considered by many the Achilles heel of the virus. Hu and his colleagues are looking at how structural changes to the part of the virus that binds to the cellular receptor may impact the development of novel vaccines.
Hu is a member of the Scientific Organizing Committee for the AIDS Vaccine 2011 Conference in Thailand this September. He is also a member of the editorial board for the journal AIDS Research and Human Retroviruses and an associate editor for Current HIV Research.
The Gibaldi Endowed Professorship will support Hu as he pursues new directions in research and teaching, such as those emerging from the impact of biotechnology on pharmaceutical sciences.
The fund was created in 2008 in honor of the late School of Pharmacy Dean Milo Gibaldi. He was dean from 1978 to 1998 and was renowned for his work in pharmacokinetics. He helped make the UW School of Pharmacy one of the nation’s premier pharmacy institutions. He passed away in 2006.
Dean Emeritus and Professor of Medicinal Chemistry Sid Nelson
Drug Metabolism, Transport and Pharmacogenomic Research (DMTPR) Endowed Professorship
Nelson is internationally renowned for his groundbreaking research in the elucidation of chemical and biochemical mechanisms of foreign compound metabolism. His pioneering translational research has resulted in 221 peer-reviewed articles and 48 invited reviews and book chapters. His studies have also led to a heightened understanding of how reactive drug metabolites are formed and how they react with cellular molecules to cause toxicities. The ultimate goal of this research is the development of safer medications.
In addition, during his 13-year tenure as dean, he helped the UW School of Pharmacy achieve national prominence in its research activities. Under his leadership, the School secured a top 10 ranking in National Institutes of Health funding among pharmacy schools
Nelson has been awarded two patents and has received the John J. Abel Award from the American Society of Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics. In recent years, he has held an NIH fellowship to conduct research in metabolomics/metabonomics at Imperial College London. This July, Nelson will accept the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy’s Volwiler Research Achievement Award.
The DMTPR professorship will help Nelson strengthen the School of Pharmacy’s research mission and respond to critical industry needs in the areas of drug metabolism, transport and pharmacogenomics.
Created in 2003, DMTPR is a partnership between the School of Pharmacy and corporate and industry constituents. It seeks to provide the pharmaceutical industry with excellent future researchers and with training, analysis and research in drug metabolism.
Chair and Professor of Pharmacy Peggy Odegard
Shirley & Herb Bridge Endowed Professorship for Women in Pharmacy
Odegard is known nationwide for her expertise in diabetes treatment and geriatric pharmacy and for her commitment to advancing the profession of pharmacy. Much of Odegard’s career has been devoted to highlighting the important role that pharmacists play in patient care and to promoting collaboration among health providers.
Both a practicing pharmacist and an educator, she was recently named the Chair of the School of Pharmacy’s Department of Pharmacy. In 2008, along with pharmacy faculty members Annie Lam and Jackie Gardner, she helped found the School’s consulting pharmacy program, UW Pharmacy Cares. Odegard has been active in UW Pharmacy Cares in forming business partnerships with area pharmacies and care facilities. She is a long-time faculty member and director of the School of Pharmacy’s Plein Certificate in Geriatric Pharmacy Program.
Odegard’s numerous honors include the Washington State Pharmacy Association’s Pharmacist of the Year Award and the UW School of Pharmacy Gibaldi Excellence in Teaching Award.
The Bridge Professorship helped Odegard to initially establish UW Pharmacy Cares. Now, it will allow her to further grow the program as well as the program’s medication-therapy-management training program for Pharm.D. students.
The Bridge Endowed Professorship was created in 2008 by the late Shirley Bridge, ’45, and her husband, Herb. After graduating magna cum laude from the School in 1945, Shirley Bridge became one of Washington state’s first female registered pharmacists. She continued practicing until 1982. She was a long-time supporter and friend of the School of Pharmacy.
These endowed funds represent the unwavering generosity of our alumni and the remarkable work of our faculty. If you would like to support one of these professorships, please click here.
~June 9, 2011
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