As second-year students hoping to make it through pharmacy school, Susan Thompson Summers (’90) and Donna Smail MacNeil (’90) bonded when they flunked organic chemistry together.

“I was so upset,” recalls Summers. MacNeil comforted her by saying, “I couldn’t take the final.”

Together, they repeated the class, each earning an A the second time around. They went on to become roommates, pharmacy graduates, and lifelong friends.

Theirs was the quintessential college story: Friends who commiserate over difficult classes, stay in touch after graduation, and go on to celebrate each other’s weddings and the birth of new babies.

“You spend five years together, you get to know each other pretty well,” says classmate Lisa D’Orazio, who also graduated in 1990, and asked MacNeil to serve as godmother to her youngest child. “Donna was a real special person.”

The friendship was cut abruptly short in October 1999, when MacNeil succumbed to breast cancer at the age of 31, after battling the disease for six years. Married just 14 months earlier, she wore a wig to her wedding to disguise the chemo-therapy induced hair loss, and she bravely struggled down the aisle on crutches to serve as an attendant in Summers’ wedding in 1997.

In MacNeil’s final days, when she was on oxygen, Summers spent her maternity leave driving to MacNeil’s home in Greensburg, Pa., so her friend could meet her new daughter.

“She was a fighter, she just never gave up,” says Summers. “That’s why she lived so long, because she was determined that she was going to fight it. She was happy, she got to get married and have a big wedding. She got to have all her dreams fulfilled.”

To honor MacNeil’s legacy of courage, D’Orazio and Summers began raising money in late 2004 to create an endowed scholarship in her name. To date, they have raised $9,350, solely through donations from those who loved her. CVS, the pharmacy for which MacNeil worked, later contributed an additional $10,000.

“It’s such a tribute to her, and it’s exciting to know her name will live on, and her memory,” says Summers.

The friends had tossed around the idea of creating a scholarship for a few years, but didn’t know how to get started. Then a chance meeting between D’Orazio and the wife of Lawton “Lawney” Snyder, the School of Pharmacy’s director of development, got the ball rolling. Snyder’s wife told D’Orazio to get in touch with her husband, and they were able to begin the dialogue that led to the fundraising efforts.

“I could tell that it was something people were very interested in, and wanted to support,” says Snyder. “It turned out to be a really good campaign, and what a nice way to remember their friend. They did a great thing that I think they’ll be pleased with. The endowment will last here at the school forever, and have Donna’s name on it.”

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Receiving a white clinician’s coat is an international tradition for those entering the medical profession. Now, thanks to Assistant Dean and Associate Professor of Pharmaceutical Sciences Gordon J. Vanscoy (BS ’84), students in the School of Pharmacy will receive the same professional induction. Vanscoy is also chair and chief executive officer of University Pharmacotherapy Associates LLC.

Vanscoy’s $220,000 gift to name the School of Pharmacy’s annual white coat ceremony will ensure that it remains an important and celebrated event for students and their families for decades.

“To have an outstanding alumnus and faculty member name this annual student event is inspiring not only to our students, but also to our alumni and faculty,” says Patricia D. Kroboth, dean of the School of Pharmacy.

The first Dr. Gordon J. Vanscoy White Coat Ceremony took place in January 2004. During the ceremony, PharmD students each received a white clinician’s coat and publicly declared their commitment to integrity, ethical behavior, and honor by reciting the Pledge of Professionalism.

“My father always wanted a doctor in the family,” says Vanscoy. “After his recent passing, I wanted to do something in his honor that would articulate his ambitions for his children and his trust in the clinical work of those in health care. I know this event would have made him very happy.”

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The University of Pittsburgh School of Pharmacy has received a $500,000 grant to develop a diabetes management course that will serve as a model for diabetes management course work in pharmacy schools nationwide. Novo Nordisk, a healthcare company considered to be a leader in diabetes care, is funding the project.

Faculty in the School of Pharmacy will develop the educational program over several months with the input of a panel of nationally renowned experts in diabetes management, pharmacy education, and instructional development. The panel will create teams of educators to prepare the trainers who will teach the course, and schools of pharmacy will be invited to send faculty members to the regional training sessions. Schools adopting the program will receive extensive instructional materials, including practice kits for hands-on training of insulin administration and glucose monitoring techniques.

“Millions of Americans with diabetes rely on their pharmacists to understand their condition and the diabetes care products prescribed by their physicians,” says Martin Soeters, president of Novo Nordisk. “This intensive program in diabetes management will provide pharmacy students and pharmacists the tools to take an active role in their patients’ diabetes care team.”

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The School of Pharmacy celebrated its 125th anniversary on June 5, 2004, with a grand celebration at Soldiers and Sailors Memorial Museum, but two days earlier it received a spectacular anniversary gift. That afternoon, Dean Patricia D. Kroboth received a call from a couple who are friends of the School of Pharmacy. They offered to pledge $1 million in honor of the school’s 125th anniversary. The donors requested to remain anonymous but asked that Kroboth announce the gift at the anniversary gala. That announcement brought a gasp of excitement from the crowd.

Thanks to these anonymous donors, the school is now positioned to make history for the next 125 years. This gift will be used to establish the CXXV Anniversary Endowment, which will be administered at the discretion of the dean of the School of Pharmacy for the purpose of developing, implementing, and evaluating more progressive pharmacy roles in improving patients’ health awareness, ability to manage health problems, and medication use.

This gift comes at a time when the school is launching a major initiative to advance the profession of pharmacy and to improve the health of communities. The School of Pharmacy has developed a program to improve pharmaceutical care by promoting better communication and coordination among patients, pharmacists, physicians, and other healthcare providers. The initiative builds upon pharmacists’ unique knowledge, skills, and access to patients to optimize the safety, efficacy, and cost of medication therapies. The School of Pharmacy would like to thank these very special donors for this exciting gift.

Look for information about the program in the next issue of PittPharmacy.

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