Inaugural Pharmacy White Coat Ceremony

	The College of Pharmacy class of 2011 began the academic year with its inaugural White Coat ceremony. Dr. David Allen, dean of the College of Pharmacy, addressed the 73 member class.

Welcome New Faculty and Staff Members

David D. Allen, R.Ph., Ph.D., FASHP, dean of the College of Pharmacy, would like to announce the most recent appointments of new faculty and staff members. Please welcome them to the college community. For more detailed information about each individual, please follow the link for each person.

Louis D. Barone, B.S., Pharm.D., R.Ph., is the Vice Chair of Pharmacy Practice for Experiential Programs and Adjunct Assistant Professor in the Department of Pharmacy Practice. His responsibilities are to identify and monitor practice sites for shared faculty in the department, and work with the Coordinator of Pharmacy Experiential Education to identify clinical clerkship rotation sites for pharmacy students and address concerns related to patient care, practice management and clerkship rotations.

Anupam Bishayee, B.Pharm., M.Pharm., Ph.D., is Assistant Professor of Pharmaceutical Sciences. His research interests include cancer chemoprevention, radiopharmaceutical therapy, biological effects of radiation, phytotherapy and phytopharmacology, and "brain-based learning" and stress reduction in health profession students.

Dale E. English II, R.Ph., Pharm.D., is the Director, Instructional Laboratories and Adjunct Assistant Professor of Pharmaceutical Sciences and of Pharmacy Practice. He provides direction for pharmaceutics and parenteral products laboratories and oversight of professionalism issues for students and the College.

Dennise A. Espéndez, Pharm.D, BCPP, is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Pharmacy Practice, with a joint appointment as a Psychiatric Pharmacotherapy Specialist at Akron General Medical Center. Her roles include psychiatric pharmacotherapy consultation services, provision of pharmacist-patient care in the inpatient psychiatric unit and outpatient psychiatric clinic and education to healthcare staff, pharmacy and medical students and residents.

Susan M. Fosnight RPh, BCPS, CGP, is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Pharmacy Practice, with a joint appointment as a Clinical Lead Pharmacist at the Department of Pharmacy at Summa Health System. She is a member of Summa Health System’s interdisciplinary Acute Care for the Elderly (ACE) team, providing pharmacist-patient care to patients on the ACE unit.

Richard Kasmer, Pharm.D., J.D., is Associate Professor of Pharmaceutical Sciences. His areas of specialty include Pharmacy Law, Ethics & Professionalism. Previously he volunteered his time to co-chair the College of Pharmacy Admissions Committee and was instrumental in selecting and recruiting the inaugural class. He has extensive experience as a practicing clinical pharmacist. He earned his law degree while practicing pharmacy and currently provides continuing education seminars on the topic of health care law. He is recognized by the Ohio State Board of Pharmacy as an official provider of pharmaceutical law continuing education.

Dorcas Letting-Mangira, Pharm.D., is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Pharmacy Practice, with a joint appointment in the Department of Pharmacy at Summa Health System. She is the Pharmacy Residency Director and Internal Medicine Clinical Pharmacist at Summa Health System.

Kristen L. Longstreth, Pharm.D., BCPS, is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Pharmacy Practice, and an Internal Medicine Clinical Pharmacy Specialist at St. Elizabeth Health Center. In addition to inpatient rounding with an internal medicine teaching service, she provides clinical pharmacy consultation services and participates in the education of students and healthcare professionals.

Mary Paisley recently joined the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences as its Department Coordinator. In her new appointment, she will play an important role in assisting the Chair and faculty to move the department forward toward excellence in its key performance areas of teaching, research and service to the community.

Sharon Pedaline is an administrative assistant in the office of the dean. She will be working closely with the Executive Associate Dean helping to support admissions, curriculum, student interactions and other important duties.

Maria Seta, Pharm.D., is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Pharmacy Practice. She is a Critical Care Specialist at St. Elizabeth Health Center where she provides patient care in collaboration with the medical and surgical intensive care teams.

Julie A. Skerl, Pharm.D., is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Pharmacy Practice. She is a Diabetes Inpatient Specialist at Marymount Hospital, where her roles include direct patient care through diabetes management, along with providing education to both pharmacy students and fellow pharmacists.

Leadership Team Assembled for College of Pharmacy

Leadership Team: Dr. Cornelis Van der Schyf, professor and chair, pharmaceutical sciences; Dr. Janis MacKichan, professor and chair, pharmacy practice; Dr. David D. Allen, dean and professor, College of Pharmacy; and Dr. Robb McGory, executive associate dean

Robb McGory, Pharm.D., has been named executive associate dean of the College of Pharmacy. In this capacity, McGory works in close collaboration with faculty members and administrators throughout the consortium to provide leadership in the development, coordination and evaluation processes associated with the pharmacy curriculum, develop external relationships to facilitate student recruitment and admissions, build associations internally and externally with a significant focus on experiential education and develop a pharmacy practice plan.

Prior to coming to the College of Pharmacy, McGory served as chair of the Department of Pharmacy Practice and a tenured associate professor at the Western University of Health Sciences College of Pharmacy in Pomona, Calif. From 1987-2002, he served as clinical pharmacy specialist, Surgical Intensive Care Unit, Transplantation Service, Manager of Clinical Transplant Research, University of Virginia Hospital, Charlottesville, Va. His research in the containment of hepatitis B virus (HBV) following liver transplantation for HBV cirrhosis was the first to prove long-term patient survival and was the impetus for reimbursement for HBV liver transplantation by Medicare and several major third party payers. His work was rewarded by a $1 million gift from Nabi for the establishment of a chair in transplant pharmacology in the College of Medicine at the University of Virginia. McGory established clinical pharmacy services at three teaching hospitals where he was a member of medicine, surgery, oncology, critical care and infectious disease teaching services as well as manager of consultation services in nutrition support and pharmacokinetics. He has held several offices in pharmacy and critical care societies. He earned his doctor of pharmacy degree from University of Minnesota College of Pharmacy, a bachelor of science in pharmacy and a master of science in microbiology from the University of Kentucky and a bachelor of science in microbiology from Cornell University.

Janis J. MacKichan, Pharm.D., accepted the post as chair and professor of pharmacy practice. As department chair, she will recruit and supervise the development of approximately 26 clinical faculty members. She has a particular interest in faculty development programs that promote learner-centered teaching methods, scholarship and clinical research, and looks forward to collaborating with other College and university departments in the development of such programs. Prior to accepting the position at the College, MacKichan served as a professor in the Department of Pharmacy Practice at Midwestern University (MWU) Chicago College of Pharmacy, Downers Grove, Ill. She received her bachelor of science and doctor of pharmacy degrees in 1975 and 1977, respectively, from the University of Michigan. She completed a residency in hospital pharmacy at the University of Michigan in 1977, and a clinical pharmacokinetics fellowship at the State University of New York at Buffalo in 1979. While on the faculty of The Ohio State University College of Pharmacy from 1979 to 1992, MacKichan served as principal or co-principal investigator on multiple grants in the areas of clinical pharmacokinetics and drug assay methods, and published and presented in these areas. In 1992, Dr. MacKichan was appointed as chair of the Department of Pharmacy Practice at the newly established Chicago College of Pharmacy of MWU and served in that role until November of 2005. During that time, she received seven teaching awards as well as MWU’s highest honor, the Littlejohn Award, for dedication to service.

Cornelis J. “Neels” Van der Schyf, DSc., will serve as chair and professor of pharmaceutical sciences and professor of neurobiology, effective Sept. 1. As department chair, he will work collaboratively with faculty members and administrators throughout the consortium to recruit and recommend the appointment of new faculty members to the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, supervise the development and proposed delivery of instructional activities for department faculty, facilitate and promote faculty scholarship, work with the director of graduate education to facilitate interactions with faculty in Kent State University’s School of Biomedical Sciences, and help develop incentives for faculty to pursue extramural funding.

Van der Schyf served as tenured associate professor and graduate program advisor for pharmaceutical sciences at the Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center (TTUHSC) School of Pharmacy, Amarillo, Texas, and the Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, TTUHSC, Lubbock, Texas. He earned his B.Pharm., M.Sc. and D.Sc. (equivalent of Ph.D.) degrees from Potchefstroom University in South Africa and completed a postdoctoral fellowship in the Department of Medicinal Chemistry at the University of Connecticut in Storrs, Conn.

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