Making the Difference
Fred Eshelman
A Catalyst for Growth at the School of Pharmacy
By Hope Baptiste
On May 21, 2008, Carolina’s School of Pharmacy became the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy in honor of Dr. Fred Eshelman, a 1972 alumnus, and his longstanding commitment to support pharmacy education at UNC. Though such permanent and public recognition is appreciated, Eshelman said he is most pleased by the school’s growth and achievement.
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| The honoree speaks at a May 21, 2008, event announcing the naming of the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy. |
“UNC is poised to take the lead in preparing people for careers in retail practice, clinical practice, education and research,” Eshelman said. “These endeavors require very different training, and we have a school that turns out excellent practitioners in every area with academic programs that support the very best and encourage excellence.”
His $20 million Carolina First commitment to pharmacy in 2003 was the largest private donation ever to a pharmacy program at that time and third largest to the University. His support, along with that of many other friends and alumni, helped set an aggressive course toward growth that would serve to catapult the school to the forefront of pharmacy education and research. The pharmacy school raised nearly $67 million in Carolina First.
Eshlelman’s commitment affected all aspects of the school. It created five $1 million distinguished professorships to recruit world-class faculty. To attract the best and brightest of the next generation of pharmacists and scientists, the school plans to award eight Eshelman Fellowships to graduate students in 2009 as well as six Eshelman Scholarships.
Eshelman also set up a Fund for Excellence, which provides approximately $250,000 annually to support innovation at the school. Each year, the funding must be used to realize a new idea; it cannot go to support an existing program. This creative gift has enabled the school to develop and launch the online learning module used in a pharmacokinetics course. It has also supported efforts to create international collaborations with universities in Southeast Asia.
Eshelman’s generosity also provided seed funding for 70,000 square feet of state-of-the-art laboratory space in the new Genetic Medicine Building and contributed to the renovation of Beard Hall by providing funds to upgrade the dean’s office and the Campbell Boardroom with technology and furnishings that the state alone couldn’t provide.
“Dr. Eshelman shares our vision of excellence and wants the school to be successful,” said Bob Blouin, dean of the pharmacy school. “We’ve allocated his gift to the areas that will benefit most.”
The school has indeed advanced, having added experts in many disciplines and enrolling some of the most promising students in the nation and around the world. The doctor of pharmacy program earned a number two ranking in U.S. News & World Report’s 2009 rankings of graduate programs. And, since 2003, the school has climbed from 22nd to sixth in National Institutes of Health funding to U.S. pharmacy schools.
In recognition of the school’s progress and to further accelerate its momentum, Eshelman made two additional commitments totaling $10 million to the school to support cancer research and the Educational Renaissance Initiative to foster interactive, innovative learning. Matching funds from North Carolina’s University Cancer Research Fund and the Pharmacy Network Foundation brought the total investment in pharmacy education and research to $20 million and added a fitting finale to the $2.38 billion Carolina First Campaign.
“I’ve seen the progress that the school is making under Dean Blouin’s leadership and decided that if I could help further accelerate it, then all the better,”
Eshelman said. Eshelman, who has served for a decade on the school’s Board of Visitors and as an adjunct faculty member since 1981, is CEO and founder of Wilmington-based PPD Inc. It is a leading global contract research organization providing discovery, development and postapproval services as well as compound partnering programs to pharmaceutical, biotechnology, medical device, government and academic organizations.
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