Associate Dean of Jefferson School of Pharmacy Completes AACP Leadership Fellows Program

Elena Umland, PharmD, Associate Dean for Academic Affairs and Associate Professor of Clinical Pharmacy at Jefferson School of Pharmacy in Thomas Jefferson University’s Jefferson College of Health Professions, recently completed the American Association o Colleges of Pharmacy (AACP) Academic Leadership Fellows Program. The year-long program is designed to develop the nation’s most promising pharmacy faculty for roles as future leaders in academic pharmacy and higher education.

Dr. Umland explains that the program was developed in response to AACP’s evaluation of the near future of pharmacy education, when many deans of pharmacy schools are expected to retire and the number of pharmacy schools is growing. “It’s a challenge to keep people in academia,” she says. “AACP is addressing these issues by preparing the future leaders in pharmacy education.”

To participate in the leadership fellows program, candidates must be nominated and supported by their school dean. The application includes a 1000-word essay that describes leadership or management experiences, future career goals, assessment of strengths and areas needing improvement, expectations of the program and how the individual would like to make a difference in academic pharmacy and higher education.

“Completing the application forced me to evaluate what I wanted to do next,” Dr. Umland says. In her essay, she wrote that she wanted to be an associate dean for academic affairs. Before the 12-month program was completed she achieved that goal, joining the Jefferson faculty at the end of February. “My current goal is to help make things work here at Jefferson. I want to be a part of making it a fabulous top-rate Pharmacy school.”

In addition to developing her leadership skills in higher education, Dr. Umland gained insight about herself through the program. “The fellowship program allowed for personal growth,” she says. “I realized that I could either spend time fixing the areas in which I am not strong, or I could surround myself with people who have the strengths that I lack. And I realized that I can be more effective and efficient if I use my strengths well.”

The strengths-based leadership training began with an assessment of each person’s top five leadership attributes. The cohort of about 24 people was then broken into smaller groups of individuals with complimentary attributes to work together throughout the year. Dr. Umland’s team of six focused on interdisciplinary education, studying how different schools incorporate it into their curriculum, considering the barriers that prevent some schools from implementing interdisciplinary study, and gathering input from administrators at Schools of Pharmacy. “The topic was very relevant to the work that I’m doing here at Jefferson,” she says. “Interdisciplinary education is a key component of our new curriculum.”

“The AACP Academic Leadership Fellows Program has been the best thing that I’ve done for myself personally and professionally,” she says. “It has helped me to better understand myself. Everything I have learned can be applied in my life outside of work as well as at work.”

Jefferson School of Pharmacy will accept its first cohort of 75 students in fall 2008. JSP’s presence on Thomas Jefferson University’s academic health center campus offers students opportunities to learn side-by-side with medical, nursing, and other healthcare students. Students also benefit from a close affiliation with Thomas Jefferson University Hospital which, for more than 40 years, has been widely regarded as having one of the most outstanding hospital pharmacies in the country.

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