Improving human health worldwide

At the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy, everything we do begins and ends with the patient in mind. Our mission is to advance medicine for life through the discovery of medicines of tomorrow, maximizing the benefit of medicines of today and training the next generation of pharmacists, scientists and educators.

Each day, we are reinventing the way students learn, discovering medication solutions for the world’s most challenging health issues and revolutionizing the way pharmacists deliver patient care. In our classrooms, we are preparing future leaders who will transform pharmacy practice and health care.

It’s our approach to teaching and active learning that sets us apart from other pharmacy schools. By fully integrating active learning and immersive pharmacy practice experiences, we are enabling our doctor of pharmacy students to be self-learners, lifelong learners and agents of change.

Our excellence shows in national and world rankings, as our doctor of pharmacy program is ranked No. 1 by U.S. News & World Report, and we are ranked No. 10 in the world in 2019 QS World University Rankings for Pharmacy and Pharmacology. In addition to the doctor of pharmacy, Ph.D. in pharmaceutical sciences and M.S. in health system pharmacy, the school also offers students the opportunity expand their skillsets and earn a dual degree from two other top-ranked schools at Carolina: UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School and UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health.

While our rankings set us apart from other pharmacy schools, it’s the faces behind those numbers that make us who we are — the students, faculty and staff striving for excellence in everything they do in a rich and inclusive culture that embraces diversity and promotes well-being and resilience.

At the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy, we develop leaders in pharmacy education, pharmacy practice and pharmaceutical sciences with a global mindset. To this end, in 2014 the school forged an international partnership spanning three continents with Monash University in Melbourne, Australia, and University College London in the United Kingdom, which is known as the PharmAlliance. The alliance will take on challenges that no one school could tackle alone to advance and transform research, education and practice in pharmacy and the pharmaceutical sciences worldwide.

In 2014, the Global Pharmacy Scholars program was also established to provide students an opportunity to be immersed within different health care environments and cultures in the world by going on a one-month international rotation. So far, we have developed sites for our students in Australia, China, England, Ethiopia, India, Japan, Malawi, Moldova and Zambia. This year, 52 doctor of pharmacy students will do an experiential-rotations in one of these countries. Our aspirational goal is to offer this opportunity to every fourth-year student in the doctor of pharmacy curriculum.

Additionally, the school has created a postgraduate global engagement fellowship and other internships for students and has several student groups focusing on a variety of global initiatives, including PharmAlliance.

In 2014, the school received the largest gift from an individual in the history of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and the largest ever made to a pharmacy school in the United States — an astonishing $100 million gift from Fred Eshelman. With this gift, the school established the Eshelman Institute for Innovation, which aims to inspire a culture of innovation where imagination and creative solutions accelerate change in education, research and health care.

The institute, through competitive funding, encourages the faculty, students and staff to pursue solutions to problems and challenges that span the mission of the school with bold ideas. By fostering collaboration, creativity and innovation, and entrepreneurship, the Institute stimulates translation of discoveries into new medicines and therapies for patients through development and commercialization of intellectual property.

The Institute provides opportunities to high school students to learn about biomedical and pharmaceutical research through its Young Innovator Program, offers educational and training opportunities to professional and graduate students, and has postdoctoral fellows. Opportunities include: a student-led Innovation Club where students are promoting innovation throughout the school; an Institute-funded internship and fellowship program designed to engage trainees in idea generation, innovation and entrepreneurship; and an innovation lab program, the E(I) lab, that brings together interdisciplinary teams of students to work together over eight months to contribute to solving real-world health care problems.

As I look to the future, I see a clear focus on continuing to transform educational programs; advancing the practice of pharmacy; conducting cutting-edge research and translating inventions and discoveries into positive patient outcomes; and cultivating global partnerships.

We remain relentless in our pursuit of excellence to improve human health worldwide.