Dr. George E. MacKinnon III

The new College of Pharmacy, which will offer the Doctor of Pharmacy (PharmD) degree, will be Roosevelt’s sixth college and the first it has opened since 1970 when the Evelyn T. Stone College of Professional Studies was developed. Creation of the new college comes at a time of extraordinary growth and accomplishment at Roosevelt. Through a strong commitment to academic excellence and social justice, the University has attracted an expanding pool of talented faculty and highly qualified students. Credit hours are at the highest level in University history and have increased by 50 percent during the past six years.

"We are prepared to meet the demand for pharmacists head on," said Roosevelt University President Chuck Middleton. "We expect to have 65 students when the college enrolls its first class in fall 2011 and we anticipate that number will grow to a total of 195 students within three years."

About Dr. MacKinnon

A Wisconsin native, Dr. MacKinnon holds a BS in pharmacy and an MS in hospital pharmacy administration from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where he also completed his post-graduate clinical training. In addition, he has a PhD in higher educational leadership and policy studies from Loyola University Chicago. During his career, he has delivered more than 200 presentations, written more than 60 publications and authored three book chapters in the pharmacy and health sciences areas.

Dr. MacKinnon has held joint academic appointments in medicine and pharmacy at several educational institutions and has engaged in clinical practice, research, teaching and administration. He previously was associate dean, founding chairman and professor at the Department of Pharmacy Practice and Pharmacy Administration, Midwestern University College of Pharmacy in Arizona and the assistant dean for Experiential and Post Graduate Education at the Chicago College of Pharmacy.

The College of Pharmacy

"Roosevelt University is presented with a tremendous opportunity through the establishment of the new College of Pharmacy to offer a health science program in Chicago’s Northwest suburbs in partnership with world-class regional and rural health care facilities, national chain pharmacies and local pharmacy practitioners," said Dr. MacKinnon, who has considerable experience in establishing academic pharmacy programs in the United States. He will bring a seasoned approach to creating the new program at Roosevelt.

"The new College of Pharmacy will embody the spirit of Roosevelt University in preparing its diverse graduates to become responsible citizens in a global society, of which the profession of pharmacy is an integral part of ensuring optimal medication therapy outcomes in patients," Dr. MacKinnon said.

"The College of Pharmacy will embrace a patient-centered curriculum, which will produce pharmacy graduates who are competent, committed and compassionate, and who are ready to enter the health care marketplace that is ever evolving," he added.

James Gandre, Roosevelt’s provost and executive vice president, said, "Dr. MacKinnon’s vision, commitment to social justice and experience in pharmacy education will be invaluable as we develop our College of Pharmacy. Under his leadership, we will be moving forward immediately to obtain accreditation, hire faculty and recruit students."

The creation of this college is important because pharmacists are urgently needed in Illinois and across the nation. According to a study by the Illinois Department of Employment Security, the state will have more than 500 openings for pharmacists annually through 2014. Nationally, employment of pharmacists is expected to grow by 22 percent between 2006 and 2016, which is much faster than the average for all occupations, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reports.

The college will prepare pharmacists to be effective in a variety of organizations, such as nursing homes, hospitals, mental health institutions and neighborhood health clinics, in addition to retail drugstores. It will offer the PharmD degree in an innovative three-year, year-round format, the only program of its kind in Illinois and one of only seven in the nation. By offering courses in an accelerated manner, Roosevelt will be able to deliver pharmacists to employers in three fourths the time of traditional programs and PharmD students will be able to graduate and begin their careers in pharmacy earlier.

As part of Roosevelt’s social justice mission, a major emphasis of the new program will be the recruitment of minorities and students from rural areas. They will help address the shortage of pharmacists from underrepresented populations. One example exists in hospitals where only 14 percent of these pharmacists were from underrepresented groups, according to a survey released in 2007 on Illinois Hospital Pharmacist Workforce trends.

Schaumburg Location

Roosevelt will build new laboratories and classrooms at the Albert A. Robin Campus in Schaumburg for the College of Pharmacy. The campus, located near major hospitals, health care companies and growing concentrations of minority families, is the largest, most comprehensive university facility in Chicago’s Northwest suburbs. The 250,000-square-foot facility is situated on a 30-acre site and has 2,500 undergraduate and graduate students.

An external group of leaders in pharmacy practice, including representatives from health care systems, pharmaceutical companies and retail pharmacies, has been advising the University and will continue to assist the new dean in the establishment of the College of Pharmacy.

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