News @ VCU School of Pharmacy
And the Distinguished Service Award goes to … Dr. Slattum
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Patty Slattum, associate professor and director of the Geriatric Pharmacotherapy Program, received the university’s Distinguished Service Award during its 27th annual Faculty Convocation Sept. 10 at the Singleton Center for the Performing Arts.
Also receiving awards were Everett Worthington, College of Humanities and Sciences (University Award of Excellence); Ena Gross, School of Education (Distinguished Teaching Award) and Rakesh Kukreja, School of Medicine (Distinguished Scholarship Award).
Slattum is a School of Pharmacy alumna as well as professor, having earned her B.S. in 1985 and Pharm.D./Ph.D. in 1992. A page in the convocation program, noting her accomplishments, named several other awards she has garnered and described her work with groups such as the Virginia Alzheimer’s and Related Disorders Commission, the Greater Richmond Chapter of the Alzheimer’s Association, the Plaza Professional Pharmacy at Imperial Plaza retirement community and, of course, her roles as teacher and mentor.
Sheldon Retchin, vice president for health sciences, and Don Brophy, interim chairman for the Department of Pharmacy, introduced Slattum when her award was announced.
Retchin noted that Slattum has made service a part of every role she has assumed. “It not just what she does,” he said, “it’s how she goes about doing it … and all with care, compassion and genuine enthusiasm. He quoted a comment by one of her nominators, Jeffrey Delafuente, associate dean for professional education: “She is the unsung hero to me.”
“Today,” Retchin said, “we sing.”
“I am humbled and honored,” Slattum responded. True to form, she added, smiling, “I’ll put a plug in now for the Memory Walk on Oct. 3.”
Slattum said she felt very blessed to be at a university that not only encourages faculty, staff and student community involvement, but embraces it. She also expressed gratitude for the many advocates for older adults with whom she’s had the opportunity to work.
Finally, Slattum said, she appreciates her parents for instilling in her a commitment to service … not to mention, she said with a laugh, “my husband and children, who participate in many of these activities joyfully … and willingly.”
Among the audience members were three School of Pharmacy previous convocation award winners: Peter Byron, chairman of the Department of Pharmaceutics (Distinguished Scholarship Award, 1998); Richard A. Glennon, chairman of the Department of Medicinal Chemistry (University Award of Excellence, 2006, and Distinguished Scholarship Award, 1993); and Thomas Reinders, associate dean for admissions and student services (who was presented the university’s first-ever Distinguished Teaching Award in 1982).
Other former SOP award winners are Jean-Venable “Kelly” Goode (Distinguished Service Award, 2005); Ralph Small (Distinguished Service Award, 1994) and Donald Abraham (Distinguished Scholarship Award, 2005).
During the ceremony, Ron Ballentine, associate director of admissions and student services, wasn’t the only one to note that the school has been represented remarkably well. But he might have been the only one who actually did the math: “Since they started giving those awards in 1982, our school has had eight total winners out of 108, or 7.4 percent of all the winners, while our school has only about 1.5 percent of the university’s students.
“If you include the pharmacology winners … they do teach our pharmacology classes and live in our building … it is even more remarkable with 13 of the 108 winners, or [another] 12 percent. Pretty cool!”
Pretty cool, indeed. University President Michael Rao would likely agree. In his opening remarks, he recognized the entire academic community for all the important work they do. “I hope you recognize that you have built a great university,” he said, though “admittedly with too few resources.” Citing Gov. Timothy Kaine’s state budget-cut announcement earlier in the week, Rao expressed concern about faculty salaries and the number of faculty.
“We need more [faculty], and we need to competitively reward performance.”
With a great intellectual foundation and a (now) much greater physical foundation, Rao said, “We are at a crossroads.” It’s time to clarify what’s going on at the university, he said, and what VCU is going to become as well as what it’s not going to become.
Rao described what he has seen in his first months on campus as “a profile of a rapidly rising urban research university.” Teaching and learning are at the crux,” he said, but in the context of research. “Today’s [award] winners are a testament to the power of research. We have to hold ourselves and our students to the highest possible expectations.”
As for leading its constituents in a “fantastic journey” toward a stronger university, Rao said, “It is a tough time. But it’s a good time.”
As Faculty Convocation 2009 neared an end, Rao looked to the faculty. “You are truly our role models,” he said. “Thank you.”
Submitted By:
Cynthia McMullen
9/25/2009