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Bequest commitment to support pharmacy school
A $100,000 bequest commitment from Robert J. Miller, B.S. '59, will support the School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences.
Miller is a guest lecturer in the School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences and was a clinical instructor in geriatrics and long-term care for more than 20 years. He served on the school's national campaign committee during the "The Campaign for UB: Generation to Generation" from 1999-2004 and received the school's Preceptor of the Year award in 1980.
"I have long been affiliated with UB," said Miller. "UB gave so much to me, helped me get a great start in my profession. I'm thrilled to be able to include the School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences in my planning."
Miller, the founder of 2121 Main Prescription Center, dba MPC Health Care Services, providing pharmacy services to seniors residing in nursing homes throughout Western New York, served as president and CEO until its acquisition by Fay's Drugs in the late 1990s. Miller continues his professional activities through RJM Consultants and his volunteer work with ASCP, the American Society of Consultant Pharmacists.
"Bob is a leader in pharmacy. He has been particularly active in the ASCP leadership at the local, state and national level," said Wayne Anderson, dean of the school. "We are grateful to him for his generosity and for keeping the school in his long-range planning." Miller is currently president-elect of ASCP.
Anderson said the unrestricted gift likely will support the work of students, residents, fellows and faculty who share Miller's passion in consultant and senior care pharmacy and working with the frail elderly in long-term care. "The money could also promote student leadership among UB's Pharm. D. students," said Anderson, "so as to extend Bob's legacy to the next generation of pharmacy leaders."
A bequest expectancy is a gift made through a will or other similar instrument and, because of its planned aspect, allows UB to plan well into the future. Miller's bequest expectancy will be activated upon his death.
Miller served on the advisory council for the School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences. He is an advisor to the Pharmacist's Association of Western New York and developed student ASCP chapters at New York State schools of pharmacy and at the University of Florida. He assisted in drafting legislation in New York for collaborative pharmacy practice. He is a fellow of ASCP and the UB School of Management's Center for Entrepreneurial Leadership.
Miller received ASCP's 1994 Niemerov Grant for research in long-term care, published in ASCP's award-winning, professional magazine, The Consultant Pharmacist. In 1999, Miller was the recipient of ASCP's prestigious Richard F. Berman Leadership Award.
Architecture student named Tradewell fellow
The Houston-based architecture and interior design firm of Watkins Hamilton Ross (WHR) has announced that Shouvik Chakaborty, a graduate student in architecture in the School of Architecture and Planning, has received the firm's prestigious 2005-06 Tradewell Fellowship in Medical Planning.
The nationally recognized firm selects one nominee each year from a national applicant pool to spend a fellowship year with the firm and to continue employment with it after completing the program.
During his fellowship year, Chakaborty will work with senior medical designers and planners on firm projects, prepare a special project or article suitable for publication on a medical topic, and assist and participate in a spring-semester master's-level course on health facilities design for the University of Houston Master of Healthcare Administration program. He also will review and summarize health-design research articles and publications for senior designers and planners, assist in preparing articles, speeches and presentations, and assist in the selection of the 2006-07 Tradewell Fellow.
WHR is a full-service architecture and design firm with a particular focus on health care, higher education and research facilities design. It has a national reputation for the quality of its designs for evidence-based healing environments, and is known for its commitment to provide design services for mission-based clients, such as universities and centers for laboratory research.
The Tradewell Fellowship is named for the late Gary Tradewell, the firm's former vice president and medical planner. Among the firm's recent projects are Christus St. Michael Health Care Center in Texarkana, Texas; Comanche County Memorial Hospital, Lawton, Okla.; Memorial Hermann Hospital-Hermann Pavilion, Houston, Texas; and many other health facilities in Texas, Arkansas, Colorado, Oklahoma, New Jersey and Utah.
Chakaborty's mentors at UB are Edward Steinfeld, professor of architecture and adjunct professor of rehabilitation sciences, and Gary Scott Danford, associate professor of environmental psychology, both in the School of Architecture and Planning, and both deeply involved in the promotion of universal design.