EDWARDSVILLE - The American Pharmacists Association Academy of Student Pharmacists (APhA-ASP) presented Southern Illinois University Edwardsville’s Gireesh Gupchup, BPharm, PhD, FAPhA, and dean of the SIUE School of Pharmacy (SOP), with its Outstanding Dean Award on Sunday, March 26. Gupchup was honored at the American Pharmacists Association Annual Meeting in San Francisco.
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The award recognizes school or college of pharmacy deans who have made significant contributions to APhA-ASP chapters and who have promoted, with distinction, the welfare of student pharmacists through various community service, leadership and professional activities.
“APhA – ASP allows students to gain skills through co-curricular activities to be of service to their patients in meaningful ways,” Gupchup said. “With advances in medicine, pharmacists have the opportunity to help their patients navigate these changes. Service to patients is one of the highest callings of the profession and is something that I truly value about our profession.”
A year before the school opened its doors in 2003, Gupchup was creating the campus relationships that became the groundwork for a pre-pharmacy student organization. Those founding members formed SIUE’s APhA-ASP chapter.
Gupchup enthusiastically supports the chapter. He ensures that chapter members secure funding to travel to professional meetings and participate in professional development events, including international exchange opportunities.
Gupchup advises pharmacists to get involved. “Be an advocate for the change that you want to see in health care,” he said. “You never know how your actions can help make a change. I love the profession of pharmacy, because it is ever changing.”
Gupchup’s leadership has led to numerous innovative academic programs, including PharmD specializations in education and pediatrics, the joint PharmD/MBA degree and the conditional entry program, which assures qualified high school students a spot in the SIUE SOP.
Twenty-two affiliated residency programs have been initiated under Gupchup’s supervision as well as interprofessional educational opportunities with the SIU School of Dental Medicine and SIUE’s School of Nursing.
Today’s pharmacists improve patients’ lives through the medication and education they provide. Dedicated to developing a community of caring pharmacists, the SIUE School of Pharmacy curriculum is nationally recognized as a model that offers students a unique combination of classroom education, research, community service and patient care. The School of Pharmacy’s areas of excellence include a drug design and discovery core; pediatric practice; chronic pain research and practice; and diabetes research and practice. As the only downstate Illinois pharmacy doctorate program, the SIUE School of Pharmacy is addressing the growing need for highly trained pharmacists in a rapidly growing field.
