Education

The College of Notre Dame of Maryland holds the distinction of being the only women’s college in the Free State (since Hood College went coed in 2003), as well as the nation’s first Catholic women’s college to grant a four-year degree. This fall, Notre Dame also becomes the first women’s college in the United States to open a school of pharmacy.

In a recession filled with budget cuts and hiring freezes, what compelled the College of Notre Dame to embark on such an expansion? Simple: an evaluation of supply and demand.

“We started looking at data on workforce shortages in the state of Maryland, starting with nursing and teacher education,” explains President Mary Pat Seurkamp. “We saw shortages in pharmacy.”

States throughout the country are witnessing similar shortages for a variety of reasons, but most fingers point to a particular demographic as a major culprit: the baby boomers. Born between 1946 and 1964 and an estimated 78 million strong, this generation is beginning to exit the workforce in droves, increasing both the number of vacancies in the field of pharmacy and the demand for it and other health services. Over the next 20 years, the supply of pharmacists could reach a shortfall of nearly 40,000 practitioners, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

For 168 years, the University of Maryland had operated the only school of pharmacy in the state; however, the need for access to pharmacy programs is higher than ever. To wit, five to 10 qualified applicants currently compete for every one slot in American pharmacy schools.

Following approval from its board of trustees to move forward, Notre Dame began the long, multi-year road to accreditation, overseen by the Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education (ACPE).

First up, Notre Dame had to pick a dean: Enter Anne Lin, PharmD. Eighteen years ago, Drug Topics named her “one of pharmacy’s seven future superstars.” Since then, Lin’s contributions to the pharmacy world have taken her across the map, including Midwestern University in Arizona, Wilkes University in Pennsylvania, Long Island Jewish Medical Center, and the Chinese University of Hong Kong. This past May, she received the Alumni Outstanding Achievement Medal from St. John’s University in New York.

The school of pharmacy at Notre Dame, however, offered her something far more delectable than mere accolades.

“The opportunity to establish a new school is not one that comes along all the time,” says Lin. “You can start from scratch.”

And start from scratch she did.

After Lin officially began in January 2008, she had to fill faculty positions in accordance with ACPE accreditation standards—meaning it would take 12-18 months before enrolling the first students.

One of the pioneer professors to join the new PharmD program staff was Dr. Michelle Fritsch, who designed its first-year curriculum.

“It’s Anne Lin’s fault,” jokes Fritsch, who believes so wholeheartedly in the future of the Notre Dame program that she picked up and moved her family from North Carolina to Baltimore County. “She has made such an amazing impact on pharmacy and the role of women in pharmacy.”

In conceiving the new school’s instructional approaches, Lin’s taste for innovation shaped the curricula. The school focuses on four major areas: leadership, women’s health across the lifespan, public health, and professionalism. Taking advantage of its close proximity to the nation’s capital, the school will use the current climate of healthcare-policy reform to expose students to the role of advocacy and legislation in the field of pharmacy.