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Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences

Fall 2024

Right now I am feeling incredibly inspired. 

I'm inspired by the international leaders who united at the White House's inaugural summit on drug shortages, hosted at UC San Diego, and pledged their commitment to solving this ongoing crisis.

I'm extremely inspired by our incoming students, whom we celebrated at our White Coat ceremony, and who are one of the most impressive classes we have had the honor to welcome to our school. Meet some of newest students in our latest story.

And I'm deeply inspired by our faculty and staff, who continue to advance cutting-edge research—including AI models that may help hospitalized patients, better ways to mine the ocean for medicines and more—all for the benefit of humanity. 

Thank you all for the inspiration. Together, I know we will create a better future for all.

Brookie M. Best, Pharm.D., M.A.S. (she/her/hers)
Dean and Professor

The new White House initiative brought together industry leaders and government representatives from the U.S., Korea, Japan, India and the European Union to discuss solutions to the growing global crisis of drug shortages. Dean Best provided opening remarks, noting that the number of drugs reported to be in shortage in two or more countries has doubled since 2021 according to the World Health Organization. 

As family, friends and loved ones looked on proudly, more than 70 future pharmacists donned their white coat and recited the Oath of a Pharmacist—pledging their dedication to the health of humanity, the support of diversity and the training of the next generation of pharmacists—at our White Coat ceremony. Nearly a third of the class are first-generation college students and more than half speak two or more languages. 

The National Institute on Aging grant enables UC San Diego and University of Pennsylvania scientists to prepare a tau-targeting drug for future clinical trials. The compound was identified through a joint drug discovery program at UC San Diego and Penn.

The new method, described in Nature Communications, enables chemical compounds to be captured directly from the sea. This approach could allow researchers to more fully tap the biochemical potential of the world’s oceans for the benefit of humanity.

Trained on real-world hospital data, the model accurately predicted levels of a standard-of-care marker of kidney function in critically ill patients. This advance, described in JAMIA Open, may help physicians and pharmacists identify and manage patients at high risk of acute kidney injury, a major cause of death during hospitalization.

The Skaggs Therapeutics: Discovery, Development, Practice and Policy (DDPP) Seminar Series features world-renowned experts discussing all aspects of medicinal research—from discovery to drug pricing—with the goal of sparking new ideas and forging collaborations that will improve human health. 

From a student organization fair, wellness panels, student-led tours of San Diego and more, we were delighted to help our incoming students get to know our school better and start building strong relationships among their classmates. 

The first skill our students learn is immunization, allowing them to start serving our communities right away. As the only pharmacy school in San Diego, our students are uniquely able to help fill care gaps, particularly for underserved communities. 

At our annual Advanced Pharmacy Practice Experience (APPE) rotation fair, P3 students explored our numerous rotation offerings, which ranged from pharmaceutical and biotech firms and hospitals to community pharmacies and specialty clinics and more.

In honor of National Pharmacy Week we took a moment to celebrate our faculty, students and staff and their invaluable contributions to the field of pharmacy—including patient care in hospitals, community pharmacies and more.

In our latest alum profile, we catch up with Rebecca Kandilian, our 2023 Distinguished Alumna of the Year and guest speaker at our White Coat ceremony. She shares more about her current role as an inpatient pharmacy supervisor at Kaiser Permanente and how the Skaggs School of Pharmacy prepared her for her current role. 

Fleur Ferguson received the National Science Foundation’s Faculty Early Career Development Program award, which supports early career faculty who have the potential to serve as role models in research and education and lead advances in the mission of their department or organization. 

Our California Society of Health-System Pharmacists (CSHP) student chapter received a "Best New Project" award from the American Society of Transplantation for their work raising awareness of organ and tissue donation. Award criteria included creativity, impact and execution.

We were delighted to welcome more than 100 elementary, middle and high school students as part of our summer programs that aim to spark an interest in STEM. Many alums of these programs have gone on to pursue careers in the health sciences, including Faculty Member Eduardo Fricovsky and incoming class of 2028 student Sophia Nguyen.

The development and growth of our novel pre-pharmacy underrepresented mentorship program (PUMP) was described in the American Journal of Pharmaceutical Education. The program aims to provide guidance and support to pre-pharmacy students who are committed to serving underrepresented communities with health disparities.

Faculty Member Eduardo Fricovsky teamed up with the National Hispanic Pharmacists Association to offer free screenings for type 2 diabetes and hypertension at the Mexican Consulate in San Diego. 

Faculty Member Jacinda Abdul-Mutakabbir organized free health and wellness clinics at libraries in El Cajon and Spring Valley in partnership with the County of San Diego Health & Human Services Agency.

We had a wonderful time celebrating the LGBTQIA+ community alongside more than 500 colleagues from UC San Diego Health and UC San Diego in the San Diego Pride parade—our largest group to date and one of the largest contingents of the parade!

Health Sciences Vice Chancellor John Carethers joined our JEDI committee for a tour of the O'Farrell Charter School, Valencia Park/Malcolm X library and the UC San Diego student-run free clinic to learn more about how we can best serve our communities.

We were delighted to welcome the classes of 2009, 2014 and 2019 at our alumni reunion! From roles in clinical pharmacy, drug development, managed care and more, it was clear our alums are making waves across the pharmacy world. We were also delighted to celebrate Distinguished Alumna of the Year Rebecca Kandilian, Pharm.D., '14., at the event.

The deep impact of the Skaggs family’s generosity was clear at the 2024 Skaggs Biomedical Research Symposium, which united all of the beneficiaries of the ALSAM Foundation. We are forever grateful to Aline and L.S. “Sam” Skaggs for their visionary $30 million gift, at the time the largest ever to UC San Diego Health Sciences, which supported the founding of our school.  

Every year we recruit and accept the most promising students to pursue their pharmacy education at UC San Diego. However, just because they are offered admission does not mean they can afford to attend our school. Your gift can change a student's life and give them the opportunity to stay focused on their education, research and patient care. 

You may opt out of receiving fundraising information for UC San Diego Health by contacting us toll-free at 1-800-588-2734 or by emailing optout-hsdev@ucsd.edu. Your treatment or payment will not be affected by your choice to opt out of a fundraising communication.