Announcement
Assistant Dean Appointed at Shady Grove
Thursday, June 28, 2007
Heather Congdon, PharmD, CACP, CDE, has been named the first assistant dean of the University of Maryland School of Pharmacy program at the Universities at Shady Grove.By: Jeffrey Raymond
Heather Brennan Congdon, PharmD, CACP, CDE
Heather Congdon, PharmD, CACP, CDE, has been named the first assistant
dean of the University of Maryland School of Pharmacy program at
the Universities at Shady Grove.
Congdon is assembling a three-person faculty for the Montgomery
County campus and overseeing the construction of a lab for the
first 40-student class this fall. She is also looking for clinical
practice sites for the students. Classroom instruction will be
delivered from professors at the School in Baltimore via the Internet,
so all students will receive the same accredited curriculum. "Starting
new programs and developing new programs is very exciting for me,"
she says.
She's done it before. In 2003 Congdon became the first pharmacy
faculty member appointed at West Virginia University's Eastern
Division campus in Martinsburg, where she developed and implemented
an ambulatory care practice site. She also identified and enrolled
new fourth-year PharmD rotation sites. She enjoys the challenge
of coming in with a blank slate, saying, "That's my favorite
part of the job."
Congdon earned her Doctor of Pharmacy degree at the University
of Pittsburgh and completed her residency in pharmacy practice
with an emphasis in community care at the University of Maryland
School of Pharmacy in 2003. She lives in Frederick County and practices
at Harpers Ferry (W.Va.) Family Medicine.
As they are accepted into the University of Maryland program, pharmacy
students will have the chance to choose to attend the main campus
in Baltimore or the campus in Montgomery County. Once either campus
fills, the remaining students will be slotted at the campus with
vacancies.
Congdon wants to quickly reach the point where students from the
area make Shady Grove their first choice. With a wealth of federal
agencies, medical centers and private biotech research and development
companies in the area, students will have numerous opportunities
for training and employment right where they study.
"I'm really excited to be a part of it," she says.