Class Notes: Summer 2018

Amanda Margolis (PharmD ’09, MS ’17) is being promoted to assistant professor in the Pharmacy Practice Division of the UW–Madison School of Pharmacy. Margolis, an experiential education coordinator, is taking a data-driven approach to improving experiential education.

Ed Portillo (PharmD ’14) is being promoted to assistant professor in the Pharmacy Practice Division of the UW–Madison School of Pharmacy, where he will continue his work on curriculum advancement.

Steve Bartz (BS ’82), has been elected president of the Wisconsin Academy of Family Physicians. He is an assistant professor of Family and Community Medicine at the Medical College of Wisconsin in Milwaukee.

Jack Vanden Heuvel (BS ‘86), founder of INDIGO Biosciences and professor at Penn State University, received the inaugural Pharmacology-Toxicology Alumnus of the Year award from the UW–Madison School of Pharmacy. Vanden Heuvel was the program’s first graduate.

Aaron Steffenhagen (PharmD ’01), a pharmacy manager at UW Health, is being honored as a fellow of the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists (ASHP).

Marnie Wickizer (PharmD ’03) is being honored with the Academy of Managed Care Pharmacy (AMCP) 2018 Managed Care Pharmacy Director/Preceptor award. Wickizer, a preceptor for UW–Madison School of Pharmacy students who helped found the School’s AMCP student chapter, is pharmacist for clinical programs and residency program director at Navitus Health Solutions.

Sylvia Belford (PharmD ’02, MS ’04), operations administrator and director of the Continuum of Care at Mayo Clinic, is being honored as an ASHP fellow.

Susanne Barnett (PharmD ’04), associate professor in the Pharmacy Practice Division, was appointed to Editorial Advisory Association for the Federal Practitioner, a peer-reviewed clinical journal serving practitioners working in the Department of Veterans Affairs, Department of Defense, and Public Health Service.

Kate Rotzenberg (PharmD ’07) won the 2018 Curtis A. Johnson Award from the Journal of the Pharmacy Society of Wisconsin Editorial Advisory Board.

Mindy Bauer (PharmD ’08) won the 2018 Curtis A. Johnson Award from the Journal of the Pharmacy Society of Wisconsin Editorial Advisory Board.

Philip Brummond (MS ’09), currently director of pharmacy at Froedtert Hospital, is being honored as an ASHP fellow.

Shabnam Sahebi (PharmD ’12), won the 2018 Curtis A. Johnson Award from the Journal of the Pharmacy Society of Wisconsin Editorial Advisory Board.

Bernie Mulvey (BS ’13) is now in the MD-PhD program at Washington University in St. Louis, Mo.: “I recently had the first first-author paper of my scientific career accepted in Cell Reports, entitled “Molecular and Functional Sex Differences in the Mouse Locus Coeruleus.” The approach we took to validating one of our sex differential gene expression findings in this paper—targeting a receptor with a drug, based on its expression patterns, to alter behavior—was inspired and guided by my undergraduate training in the Pharm-Tox program.”

Muriel (Meyer) Wootton (BS ’44): “I’m still active at 95, now living in Austin, Texas. I only practiced pharmacy while in Madison until Jim got his PhD. When he joined the Procter and Gamble research team in Cincinnati, P&G let me know in no uncertain terms that they did not want employees ‘ wives to work (outside the home) but rather to promote cultural events and offerings in the city. That was fine with me as I found that part-time pharmacists were only in demand for work at night and on weekends, neither of which appealed to me.

Instead, I helped to promote issues that made Cincinnati such a great place to raise a family of three boys. I must admit that I did substitute teach in our local schools, which allowed me to know what was going on in our small school district just north of the city.

After the boys left for college, Jim and I travelled the world which we truly enjoyed. We moved to Austin as we aged, so we could be near one of our sons. The other two live in the San Francisco area.

Jim died about 10 years ago, and I moved to a super retirement home in Austin two years ago. I love it here and fly out to California several times a year to catch up with the other two sons and their families. So life at 95 is VERY GOOD!!” 

Sol Wasserman (BS ’52, MS ’54) just returned to Wisconsin from a winter stay in warm, sunny Florida.

Rick Pyter (BS ’73, MS ’76, PhD ’80): “This summer we are moving to the north end of Libertyville, Ill., our home town of 38 years, to a ranch style custom town home. It’s very exciting, and the process of selling our home of 32 years is “interesting.'”

Stefanie (Baker) Forman (PharmD ’10) is living in the greater Boston area, got married, bought a new house, and had a baby in October 2017. She is an associate professor for Massachusetts College of Pharmacy, where she started pharmacy services in the intensive care unit, and co-leads new initiation for antimicrobial stewardship at a large community hospital and works on research for optimizing antibiotics in critically ill patients.

Evan and Lindsay Goyette (BS ’14), former classmates in the School’s Pharmacology-Toxicology program, got married in May 2018—the first known Pharm-Tox married couple in the history of the program.

Lucas Fass (BS ’15) now attending medical college in Chicago.

Ronald Hoffman (BS ’55): “After 63 years practicing pharmacy, I have retired as of April 1, 2018.  I would like to leave a few comments about our profession for past, current, and future pharmacists. In 1951, our tuition was $50 per semester, and I believe that may have reached $150 by 1955 (wow). Also, to point out changes, our class was about 75 students, with only three being ladies. Quite a change compared to today.

There was no real emphasis on clinical, as I felt the goal of many of our graduates was to go into retail and eventually own your own pharmacy and be respected in your community. Again, quite a change. In my case, I went from intern to staff to partner to owner (with my twin brother, Rich) then to manager, and lastly from full time to part time and eventually to retirement—the whole 9 yards.

Over the years I have seen the respect for our profession fluctuate, but eventually, with the guidance of good leaders, both state-wise and nationally, I saw a lift in our position and respect in the medical field. I am fortunate to have seen and been a part of these changes, and, to have also made sodas, malts, and banana splits. How many current pharmacists can say that?

We are a great profession, and my comment to current and future pharmacists is this: You are in a great and respected profession. Enjoy it, and have fun promoting it!”

Philip J. Schneider (BS ’70) retired from the University of Arizona College of Pharmacy as professor and associate dean at the new Phoenix Biomedical Campus after almost 10 years of service. His favorite accomplishment is having established a branch campus for the College of Pharmacy in Phoenix. Prior to that, he was professor and founding director of the Latiolais Leadership Program at The Ohio State University College of Pharmacy, having served there for 33 years. Schneider is also completing an eight-year term as vice president of the International Pharmaceutical Federation and currently lives in Scottsdale, Ariz.

Connie Kraus (BS ’75, PharmD ’93) is retiring—or “repotting”—after 25 years with the UW–Madison School of Pharmacy, and 17 years at UW Hospital and Clinics before she joined the School. Kraus was one of the first graduates of the School’s PharmD program and was instrumental in developing the School’s many international opportunities for pharmacy students.