On Wednesday evening, a search committee for Florida A&M University (FAMU) College of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences held a meeting to kick off the search for a new dean. Students and faculty members alike were present for the meeting. Some of them were also members of the search committee.
Since the dismissal of three of FAMU’s deans in May 2017, the College of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences has been without a full-time dean. Since then, Dr. Seth Ablordeppey has served as interim dean for the College of Pharmacy. In addition to serving as the interim dean, Ablordeppey is a current professor of medicinal chemistry at the University.
Faculty and students are ready to find a dean who is able to focus their time and energy on renewing the force of the college of Pharmacy with a focus on teaching, research, fundraising and service.
The search committee is being lead by Reginald Perry, the associate dean for student affairs and curriculum of FAMU and Florida State University (FSU) College of Engineering. During the meeting, Perry introduced timelines for the search and highlighted qualities that the potential candidates should exemplify. These attributes include “A vision to unite all of the colleges constituents”, “A commitment to a culturally diverse workplace”, and “An appreciation for FAMU’s historic mission to educate underserved populations.”
The search committee encouraged stakeholders in the college to voice their opinions and reach out to potential candidates or recommend them to the search committee who will then reach out to the candidates.
“We want to make sure that we talk to stakeholders and whoever has an interest in the Dean in a ‘Town-Hall’ setting” said Perry.
A great deal of the students present at the meeting spoke about their concerns for the direction in which the potential dean would take the college. Asha Rizor, a second-year Ph.D. student in Pharmaceutical Sciences, voiced what qualities she would like to see from a new dean.
“I’d like to see a dean who understands graduate students and graduate research. Who can strengthen the amount of research that’s being done, whether that’s helping faculty to write grants or helping enhance and train students as research scientists. I think that’s something that is really important”, said Asha.
Fran Close, a professor at the Institute of Public Health at FAMU, spoke passionately about not only her, but the faculties love and dedication to its student’s success and development.
“We want a dean that has a vision, that’s going to take us to be the number one college of Pharmacy in the United States”, Close said.
According to their timeline, the search committee hopes to have a new dean appointed by July of 2018.