When Renée T. Juhl was selecting a college, she knew the University of Pittsburgh would be the best fit. A native of Uniontown, Pa. – just an hour south of Pittsburgh – Renée was looking for the top pharmacy program close to her hometown. “Being in a small school in a BIG university really felt like I had the best of both worlds,” she remembers.

After she received her bachelor’s degree in pharmacy from Pitt, she continued her education by completing her doctor of pharmacy degree at the University of Cincinnati and residency at Bethesda Hospitals in Cincinnati, Ohio. Renée soon returned to Pitt – but this time as a faculty member, not a student. Since 1980, Renée has held faculty positions at Pitt’s School of Pharmacy and School of Medicine and remains an adjunct associate professor in the School of Pharmacy. “It has been a pleasure to come back to the University and work with such bright students. Knowing that I have been able to unravel some of the mystery of a disease state or help prioritize options of a career decision has made it very rewarding,” she explains.

In addition to her work within the School of Pharmacy, Renée also spent several years as the education director of clinical pharmacology of the University of Pittsburgh Family Practice Residency Program and then became the director of pharmacy at UPMC’s Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic, where she was responsible for managing several hospital departments, ambulatory care programs, and physician consult services. Currently, Renée is a senior director in Pfizer’s global medical department and provides medical support for U.S. government and corporate customers. “I have been fortunate to help build or expand many new roles throughout my career,” she explains. “During each of these opportunities, I was equally fortunate to have accomplished these goals with the help of extremely talented colleagues, and this made the journey all the more rewarding.”

Renée and her husband Randy, who is the former dean of the School of Pharmacy and currently serves as vice chancellor for research conduct and compliance at the University of Pittsburgh, have lived in Pittsburgh for the better part of the last three decades. With all of her past successes, Renée’s family life is one of her greatest accomplishments. “My marriage to my husband, Randy, and seeing our sons do well in their careers and happy in their homes with their wives is really what makes me so happy,” she explains.

While Nancy R. Zahniser is currently a professor in the department of pharmacology and the neuroscience program and associate dean for research education at the University of Colorado Denver School of Medicine, her journey began a long way from the Rockies. After receiving a B.A. in chemistry from the College of Wooster in 1970, Nancy spent time in India where she taught in a private school for a few months before teaching ninth-grade science and chemistry at a mission boarding school at the foothills of the Himalayas. There she married her first husband, Mark Zahniser, and they traveled throughout the Middle East before returning to the States.

“Mark was a chemistry major, and we both began looking for graduate schools,” she explains. Nancy knew she didn’t want to continue studying strictly chemistry but wanted to include something biological. After much thought, she realized that what she really wanted to pursue was pharmacology. “I started looking at pharmacology programs, and the first choice was Pittsburgh,” Nancy remembers. “I was so excited to be accepted into the program because we were given the opportunity to do research rotations.”

During these rotations, Nancy discovered she was most interested in studying the nervous system and diseases that protected the nervous system – in particular, psychiatric and neurological diseases. “Once I was in the program, I found it was the perfect fit and I’ve never looked back. Interacting with the faculty and other graduate students was always so enjoyable because you could tell they really cared and gave me such great personal attention,” Nancy remembers.

After graduating from Pitt, Nancy completed postdoctoral work in the department of pharmacology, University of Colorado School of Medicine. There, she quickly became a tenured professor. Nancy’s current research interests include understanding the role of brain dopamine systems in differential individual sensitivity to cocaine-induced brain plasticity and addiction and identifying cellular mechanisms that regulate dopamine transporter activity and expression.

Over the years, Nancy has been committed to mentoring younger scientists, as she was in her years at Pitt. “I take such great satisfaction in seeing graduate students and postdoc students that I’ve mentored blossom and become independent researchers,” she says. “That truly has been one of the most satisfying aspects and real joys of my career. Being at Pitt helped me realize how vital mentoring is.”