Donor support celebrated at Dean’s Circle Reception

On May 15, 2019, Interim Dean Christine Allen and the Advancement and Alumni Relations Office hosted the Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy’s annual Dean’s Circle Reception to thank and acknowledge our most dedicated and generous donors of the Faculty. Many thanks to all the Faculty, staff and student donors that continue to  ensure equality of access for all qualified students no matter their economic circumstances, and continue to help us maintain our reputation as the leading Faculty of Pharmacy in Canada.

Associate professor Jamie Kellar presented recent results of her research which explores the professional identity of pharmacists with a view on how the profession has evolved over time.  Matthew Luu, past president of the Undergraduate Pharmacy Society and Michael Saikali current co-president of the Pharmaceutical Sciences Graduate Student Association spoke to the impact donor support has had on their academic careers.

In particular, Michael shared his experience of how receiving donor support provided through the Shaping Student Life and Learning fund enabled him to present his research at the American Society of Spectrometry’s annual conference. “At this conference, I received incredible feedback on my work, met tons of new people, and learned a lot of new skills,” he said. “In fact, while at my poster, I actually chatted with the developer of a new mass spec technique, and immediately when I got back we actually used that technique and included it in our most recent publication a few months later. It was amazing. This story is not unique to me. And none of this would be possible without donor support.”