University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Pharmacy

08/25/2026

Congratulations to alumnus Jordan Kennedy (PharmD ’13) on starting a new role as a clinical decision support pharmacist at Optum!

In this role, she is focusing on clinical content management, medication alert optimization, and decision tool configuration.

Find more updates on Pharmacy Badger alumni — including from our recent Class of 2026 graduates — in the latest edition of Class Notes: https://bit.ly/4fLHYys

Stay in touch with UW–Madison School of Pharmacy alumni across the country by checking Class Notes.

08/24/2026

A few months into his first job after graduating from the School of Pharmacy, Nick Capote (MS '17) faced a nationwide IV fluid shortage after hurricanes knocked out production in Puerto Rico.

"Patient care couldn't stop because the supply chain did," he says.

Now executive director of specialty and ambulatory pharmacy at Boston Medical Center, Nick leads medication access, specialty pharmacy, and infusion services for one of the nation's most complex safety-net populations, while precepting residents with the advice his own mentors gave him: optimize for learning, not titles.

For his remarkable work and impact, he's one of the School's 2026 Five of the Future! Read his story: https://bit.ly/4xYKfwL

08/21/2026

Last week the School of Pharmacy celebrated one of the all-time greats — former Dean George Zografi, a pioneer in pharmaceutical sciences — in honor of his 90th birthday!

Alumni and former members of his lab — including speakers and hosts Azita Saleki (BS '88, MS '91, PhD '93), Lynne Taylor, and John Hill — joined faculty and staff to commemorate the broad impact of his leadership, research, and mentorship that continues to ripple outward through the lives he has touched.

Learn more about Dean Zografi's legacy: https://bit.ly/4imVaM1

08/20/2026

What started as one specialty medication clinic in Madison is now going national.

Alum Tyler Albright (PharmD '21), clinical pharmacy practitioner at the William S. Middleton Veterans Memorial Hospital, helped launch their Centralized Specialty Medication Management clinic, where pharmacists walk veterans through complex specialty medications, even guiding them through their very first injection over the phone.

After expanding to VA medical centers in Tomah and Milwaukee, Tyler and his team won the national VA's "Shark Tank" competition, and the model is now operating at seven clinics nationwide with more on the way.

“Everybody wins in this situation,” he says. “Veterans love it. The specialty clinics don’t have to worry as much about the medications.”

Tyler shared his story at our Madison Innovators alumni event. Read more: https://bit.ly/4bUSVM4

08/19/2026

Alum Jenny Moran (BS ’88) is being honored with the School of Pharmacy's 2026 Sustained Preceptor Excellence Award, an award honoring preceptors who have been nominated more than five times for their commitment to teaching the next generation of pharmacists.

“I am actually in awe that I received this huge honor from my previous students,” she says. “As always, I feel my students have taught me a lot more than they ever learned from me.”

Learn more about her journey as a decades-long preceptor with a unique investment in teaching: https://bit.ly/4ha5OoG

08/18/2026

Congratulations to Assistant Professor Paula Voorheis on receiving two grants to move her research forward!

One grant, from UW–Madison's Igniting Interdisciplinary Innovation initiative, will support her work exploring how to close the gap between AI innovation and clinical impact, to develop and evaluate methods to improve the reliability, usability, and clinical implementation of AI-based screening innovations.

Her second grant, from the UW–Madison Community-Academic Aging Research Network, focuses on working with family caregivers, home care aids, and agency staff to refine and pilot test the CuroNow platform — an older adults caregiver coordination app — in real settings.

The Wisconsin Idea in action!

08/17/2026

The UW–Madison School of Pharmacy’s Beta Alpha chapter of Phi Lambda Sigma (aka the Pharmacy Leadership Society) has earned its third national Leading the Way Award, this year for preparing future pharmacists for inclusive practice!

At the center of this award is DiveRxsity Dialogues, a student-led initiative exploring how identity and lived experiences affect healthcare access and inclusive patient care.

“Our speakers and breakout leaders were able to speak on how we can be more inclusive pharmacists and inclusive providers,” says Emily Phillips (PharmD ’26), who was Beta Alpha chapter president in the award-winning 2024–25 academic year. “Having the chance to reflect on that was impactful for our students.”

Learn more about their standout work: https://bit.ly/3RYu9UB

08/14/2026

In the ‘80s and early ‘90s, the idea of widely accessible, effective HIV treatment would have seemed like a miracle. Today, it’s real — and alum Nick Olson (PharmD '03) is one of the people working to make those treatment options more effective and more accessible.

As senior medical scientist in HIV treatment and prevention at Gilead Sciences, he builds on a career spent serving people with HIV, from the AIDS Resource Center of Wisconsin to Sixteenth Street Community Health Centers in Milwaukee. He still gives back locally as a board member at the Brady Street STD Clinic.

"People along the way supported me, mentored me, guided me, and encouraged me," Nick says. "That is what perpetuates the culture that we have created of pharmacy practice in the state of Wisconsin."

Learn how Olson and two fellow Milwaukee-area Pharmacy Badgers are transforming patient care: https://bit.ly/4fjlnZ1

08/13/2026

Professor Weiping Tang has developed a new technique to streamline promising targeted therapies for cancer!

Antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs) — which deliver potent drugs directly to cancer cells — are transforming cancer treatment, but they're notoriously difficult to manufacture consistently.

Professor Tang and University of Wisconsin-Madison researchers have developed a new technique that produces highly uniform ADCs while cutting a key preparation process from more than a dozen steps down to just two. In lab studies, their ADCs selectively killed specific cancer cells while largely sparing healthy ones.

The discovery has already launched a UW–Madison startup, GlycoBridge Biosciences, to bring the technology to broader use.

Read the full story: https://news.wisc.edu/uw-researchers-simplify-production-of-promising-targeted-cancer-therapies/