The Husson Pharmacy program was approved by the Maine Department of Education in June, 2007. Dr. Rodney Larson was appointed the Founding Dean of the Husson School of Pharmacy in August, 2007. Dr. Larson is overseeing the accreditation process through the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy and is also instituting the search for faculty. As faculty appointments are announced, they will be posted on this site.
Rod earned a Bachelor of Science in Pharmacy degree from Ferris State University in 1988. Soon after, he entered graduate school at the University of Florida, and then transferred to the University of Minnesota. He earned a Ph.D. in Social and Behavioral Pharmacy with an emphasis on Ethics at the latter in 1994. Upon graduation, Rod accepted a faculty position a the Idaho State University College of Pharmacy where he taught such courses as Introduction to Pharmacy, Case Studies, Quality Assurance, and Pharmacotherapeutics. In 1997, he was awarded the Rufus A. Lyman award for co-authoring the most outstanding article published in the American Journal of Pharmaceutical Education that year. In 2000, he took a position as Assistant Dean of Admissions and Student Academic Affairs at the Ferris State University College of Pharmacy, where he held this position until arriving at Husson College in 2007. Rod served as Vice President and President of his local recreational soccer club in Michigan, is an amateur photographer, and enjoys hiking, camping and kayaking.
My philosophies regarding the provision of patient care and student education run parallel. I feel that patients and their needs ought to be the primary focus of everyone working within the healthcare system. For example, pharmacists should place meeting their patients' drug-related needs as their foremost responsibility within their practice. Likewise, students and their educational needs should be at the center of everything a college does. With this focus on student needs, a strong and meaningful educational experience can be delivered that will prepare graduates for a lifetime of contribution to their chosen profession/career and society in general.
Lindblad, William J., Ph.D.
Chair, Basic Pharmaceutical Sciences, School of Pharmacy
Pharmacy education has been a major focus of Dr. Lindblad's professional activities for a number of years, and he looks forward to bringing this experience to the new School of Pharmacy at Husson University. Dr. Lindblad received a B.S. degree in Chemistry at the University of Maine followed by an M.S. degree, also in Chemistry, from Cleveland State University. His doctoral degree in Pharmacology & Toxicology was obtained at the University of Rhode Island before moving south of the Mason-Dixon Line for a post-doctoral position at the Medical College of Virginia in Richmond.
Dr. Lindblad's first academic position was in the Department of Surgery at the Medical College of Virginia where he developed his interest in translational biomedical research. He then went on to positions in the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences at the Eugene Applebaum College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences at Wayne State University, Detroit, Michigan and the Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences in Boston. In addition to these academic appointments, Dr. Lindblad was the Founding Co-Editor and Editor-in-Chief of the biomedical journal Wound Repair and Regeneration for 15 years.
Along with a wealth of teaching experience, he is an established investigator in the area of dermal tissue injury, repair and regeneration. Over the past 25 years, he has received numerous grants and contracts from the National Institutes of Health and private corporations to support this research. Recently these studies have focused on impaired healing in individuals with diabetes. These studies lead to the development of a novel wound healing device that uses human cells to modify the wound environment in dermal ulcers that are recalcitrant to other treatments. This work subsequently lead to the formation of a start-up biotechnology company - Keracure, Inc.
The pharmacy profession is moving into the realm of advanced biotherapeutics. Developments in pharmacogenomics, gene therapy, and stem cells give the profession the opportunity to participate in individualized or personalized medicine. While there will be many opportunities for our pharmacy graduates, they will need to acquire new skills and knowledge that will challenge the traditional concept of the profession. This will provide them with rewarding careers helping to not only treat, but cure patients, with a variety of debilitating chronic diseases. I see my role as a facilitator for the students to learn and apply this knowledge.