To ACPHS Community,
As a new president in the summer of 2014, I found myself on a beautiful morning standing at a golf tee in front of a truly multigenerational group, welcoming folks to an alumni golf tournament. I briefly talked about the strong ACPHS community, our students and finally wished them well. When I closed my short introduction, someone hidden in the back of the crowd shouted out “Hey, he didn’t ask for money!” People told me later that this could be a tough crowd and I had better get used to it.
A few years later, I had a more comfortable interaction with many of the same people in the golf crowd. But now it was a Sunday brunch that Cindy and I were hosting for the Francis J. O’Brien Society, a group of individuals that had put ACPHS into their estate plans. Often these gifts were sizeable and represented years of personal savings. As I sat at brunch, I mused about what all these people had in common. Invariably, they or one of their loved ones, had a very special experience associated with ACPHS or more often ACP. Often this experience could be considered transformational. Something happened during their years at ACPHS that changed them, usually it meant being put on a career or personal track that had a profound influence on their life. It might have been Francis J. O’Brien giving them a second chance and betting on them to survive the rigorous curriculum. Or it might be a friendly word of advice and guidance a faculty member gave. Sometimes it was the discovery of a talent or an interest that they did not know they had.
Regardless, often a single thing or individual stood out that made a difference and set them on their path. Now many years later, they want to give back to the school, and most often that giving comes in the form of scholarships. These individuals want to give back so the next generation of students might have a chance to experience the same things they did. These brunches have become one of my favorite events at the College because I get to see first-hand how ACPHS has impacted students’ long and distinguished careers.
We recently launched the public phase of the Discovery for Life Campaign to raise money for a variety of purposes at the College. ACPHS sought feedback from alumni, students, board members, employees, and friends of the College on what strategic initiatives to support with this fundraising campaign. Based on this collective input, the campaign’s priorities fall into three main areas: Scholarships, Student Experience and Bridges to Industry.
Why should someone give to such a campaign? The answer is simple - ACPHS educates the next generation of leaders to improve the health of our society and our students are needed now more than ever. There are three specific and very steep charges that our graduates are going to have to address.
• Fighting future pandemics. ACPHS is uniquely positioned to educate students to fight pandemics. We educate students in clinical laboratory science (testing), public health (tracking and tracing), pharmacy (vaccination), microbiology, virology and infectious diseases (the molecular basis of pandemics), and pharmaceutical science (vaccine development).
• Realizing the Potential of Precision Medicine. The dream of precision medicine is to create therapies tailored to an individual’s genetic make-up, physiological state and history, lifestyle and socioeconomic status. ACPHS students will be the generation to realize the dream of precision medicine. Public health teaches about the social determinants of health and the importance of community. Clinical laboratory science will provide the host of physiological monitors, both devices and assays, to characterize the physiological state. Pharmacogenetics will teach how the efficacy of different drugs depends on genetic makeup and can be assessed by genetic screens. Genetic counselors and physicians cannot do this. This is a job for the pharmacists. The Stack Family Center for Biopharmaceutical Education and Training (CBET), which recently opened, will educate our students in the production of biopharmaceuticals, high efficacy therapies targeted for very specific conditions. Increasingly, we are seeing applications of biopharmaceuticals to the many rare diseases that confront humankind.
• Leveling the Field on Healthcare Inequality. One of the most accurate predictors of your health is your zip code. Healthcare inequality parallels socioeconomic inequalities. Our public health students grapple with this almost immediately in their studies. The healthcare system will continue to be challenged as 1/3 of the primary care physicians in the country are in their sixties. They will be retiring soon and will not be replaced in kind. Our pre-professional students moving into medicine, physician assistant and nurse practitioner programs will be the ones to fill the primary care void. They will be the ones who wrestle with the growing medically underserved populations. And there are also the pharmacy students. Their education enables them to be a pivotal member of the healthcare team. Pharmacists are one of this nation’s untapped medical resources and they will be called upon to level the field on healthcare disparities.
The Discovery for Life Campaign is designed to help our students advance and have the opportunity to meet their full potential. But it is about more than our students, it is about the future of healthcare in this country. I am not asking you for money. I am asking you to support, in your own way, the next generation of healthcare professionals and health scientists who must confront these significant healthcare challenges.
Greg Dewey
ACPHS President
