Time & Change campaign helping to revolutionize three key areas of the college

Bold thinkers and problem solvers can’t transform the world alone, so The Ohio State University implemented the Time & Change Campaign in October 2016 to invest in the extraordinary potential of students, faculty, staff and community partners. 

As part of the campaign, each college determined their own list of priorities to improve lives and communities through the campaign, which is slated to end in 2024.

The College of Pharmacy set a goal of $40 million with three main pillars that centered around Dean Henry Mann’s strategic vision for the college.

Transforming patient care

The college has continuously been a top-ten rated pharmacy school in the United States primarily because of its commitment to advancing the pharmacy profession and teaching students how to deliver the best care for their patients through its innovative curriculum.

The college’s labs and partnerships help students and faculty advance pharmacy practice across the state and across the globe.

Gifts have specifically furthered this work by supporting the Community Residency Program, Generation Rx, the MS/HSPAL and Residency Program and the first two endowments supporting the college’s pharmacy advancement and advocacy efforts.

When health care professionals come from a variety of backgrounds, it can boost better outcomes for patients. Therefore, transforming patient care, and ultimately improving patient outcomes, can be achieved through diversifying health care professionals. Recent scholarships given to the college aim to provide aid to first-generation undergraduate students enrolled in the Bachelor of Science in Pharmaceutical Sciences (BSPS) program who intend to practice pharmacy.  

Accelerating drug discovery

Advancing drug discovery and development is an essential part of the college’s mission. To be a leader in drug discovery, the college must recruit and retain the country’s top researching talent while also having state-of-the-art facilities for cutting-edge research. The college’s recruitment and retention of talented faculty who in-turn mentor the next generation of researchers, will have a huge impact on drug discovery.

Dr. Blake Peterson’s recruitment (and building the small-molecule high-throughput screening facility) was a huge accomplishment that strengthened ties with the Ohio State Wexner Medical Center, The James Cancer Hospital and Solove Research – Comprehensive Cancer Center (OSUCCC – James.) These are all strong examples of how we are working to accelerate drug discovery. Alumna Maryann Kennedy and her husband Larry played a significant role in the recruitment of Dr. Peterson and his lab. Their philanthropic support will establish an endowed chair in drug discovery. This chair will be the college’s third endowed chair and represents a transformational investment in our research efforts.   

Additional donors have invested in the research program through the creation of significant fellowship and graduate student support funds, providing PharmD students, graduate students and post-graduate fellows with essential lab and real-world research opportunities. Additional gifts have directly underwritten research projects focused on therapeutic solutions to some of our world’s most complex disease states.

Ensuring student success

Breaking down financial barriers to student success is a key part in making education accessible to all. With the help of donors, the college’s students will worry less about financial burdens when receiving their education. For students to be successful in their future careers, engaging in extracurriculars and other supplemental development opportunities are essential and additional gifts will help students round out their education.

Ensuring student success has been the most popular pillar of the college’s Time and Change Campaign, with more donors directly investing in students than any other campaign priority.

Gifts have provided not only traditional scholarships for undergraduate and professional students, but also travel funds for experiential education, emergency support funds, awards for distinguished students and more. In all, over $13 million has been directly invested in providing opportunity for College of Pharmacy students.

And to top it off, donors have invested significantly in our learning environment by funding the Pharmacy Practice Lab – 10,000 square feet of fully renovated space in Parks Hall providing students with a place to practice the skills of the profession.  

The college is grateful for donor investments in students and their futures. These funds will help provide supplemental opportunities and specialized training beyond the classroom to ensure that students can make the most of their educational experiences.

Time and Change has been a significant success for the College of Pharmacy, with over $47 million raised to date from over 2600 donors. The college has adopted a stretch goal of $50 million.  

As the campaign comes to a close in 2024, there are still many opportunities to support the college’s mission and students. Every gift helps to provide more opportunities for college students, faculty and staff to drive the future of health care and discover cures to problematic diseases.