School of Pharmacy’s Shady Grove Expansion Draws Praise

Montgomery County officials join UMB leaders in celebrating program’s successful launch.

By Jeffrey Raymond
January 16, 2008

The University of Maryland School of Pharmacy’s expansion to the Universities at Shady Grove last fall is being hailed not only as a success in educating the next generation of pharmacists, but as an opportunity to accelerate progress in areas from access to higher education to breakthroughs in research.

At a Jan. 14 reception at Shady Grove to celebrate the expansion, Montgomery County officials predicted the program would provide a much-needed boost to the area work force. Considering the Interstate 270 corridor, where the campus is located, is already home to dozens of biotechnology and pharmaceutical companies, graduates of the pharmacy program at Shady Grove will be able to transition into careers that are shaping the rapidly evolving industry’s future.

State Treasurer Nancy Kopp called the School of Pharmacy’s expansion into her home county a “great convergence of need” that would serve students and the area economy. Delegate Brian Feldman, whose district includes the Shady Grove campus, urged the School to bring some of the research at its Center for Nanomedicine and Cellular Discovery to Shady Grove.

Dean Natalie D. Eddington, PhD, said she expects the School of Pharmacy to forge job and research partnerships with neighborhood pharmacies and with many of the biotech and pharmaceutical companies and agencies in the area. Already, said Heather Congdon, PharmD, CACP, CDE, assistant dean for Shady Grove, students at the campus have formed the D.C.-Metro Student Pharmacist Association as a community outreach activity.

University of Maryland, Baltimore President David J. Ramsay, DM, DPhil, said the pharmacy program at Shady Grove should not be considered a satellite operation. “It’s part and parcel of what we do,” he said, in terms of its service to the community, research, and education.

But amid the focus on the bright future for the School of Pharmacy program in Montgomery County, the home base in Baltimore was not overlooked. State Sen. Richard Madaleno Jr. drew an ovation when he said the School’s long-sought Pharmacy Hall addition would continue to earn support in the General Assembly.

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