A Conversation with the Dean
In 2018, Julie Johnson was reappointed for another five-year term as dean of the UF College of Pharmacy.

How do you view your first six years as dean of the UF College of Pharmacy?

We have undergone many changes in all our mission areas, which has made us an even better college of pharmacy. In the Pharm.D. program, we implemented a completely new curriculum, which puts us at the forefront of modernized pharmacy education. We completely disrupted the old way of teaching and curriculum delivery, and very few colleges of pharmacy had done that when we decided to do so. Our faculty were amazing throughout the process and were able to come to the decision very quickly about doing something different and developing a plan. From the time the curriculum task force was appointed in 2013, until we had a new curriculum approved, was less than nine months. The ability of the task force and faculty to think big and move fast was great.
We have also enjoyed unprecedented growth in new faculty during my tenure. In the summer of 2013, the college employed 72 full-time faculty, and six years later, we have 123 faculty in full-time positions. I’m really proud of that. We accomplished this in several ways. First, UF has capitalized on resources from the state, and the college has receive more than our fair share of those new resources. This helped us recruit some really amazing research faculty, who joined with our existing faculty to increase our annual research funding from $8.5 million in 2013, to nearly $24 million in 2018. We have also been very aggressive in not giving away the clinical services of our faculty for free. Under the leadership of John Gums, Pharm.D., associate dean for clinical and administrative affairs, we have created models where our pharmacist faculty’s activities are compensated, either through collaborative practice models with physicians or shared faculty practice models with hospitals. Our new practice model has allowed our clinical faculty to better balance their time between practice, teaching and scholarly activities. One of the things we sell to students applying to UF is that, by and large, our clinical faculty are spending 30-70 percent of their time in clinical practice, which is not the norm among most colleges of pharmacy, so that makes us special.
Finally, the culture in the college is really fantastic. The relationships that exist among faculty within and across departments is really productive. Our new curriculum has forced faculty who had never worked together to collaborate. I think our faculty, staff and students will agree that the spirit in the college is really positive.

How has the UF College of Pharmacy elevated its profile nationally during your tenure?

You cannot have all the changes we have made without people starting to notice. We have been much more intentional about telling our story and all the great things happening here. Historically, the University of Florida has not always been great about telling our story outside UF or the state of Florida. Our faculty growth has been unprecedented and that catches people’s attention. We have always had a really strong reputation nationally as a college, but I think people are saying, “UF has always been really good, but there is something special happening there, and they are on the move.”
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August 2013Julie Johnson, Pharm.D., begins her tenure as the college’s seventh dean
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January 2015The Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education awards reaccreditation through 2021
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August 2015A new curriculum is implemented for first-year Pharm.D. students
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March 2016UF College of Pharmacy climbs from No. 14 to No. 9 in the U.S. News & World Report pharmacy rankings
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March 2017UF College of Pharmacy's APhA-ASP chapter wins National Chapter of the Year
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August 2018Julie Johnson, Pharm.D., is reappointed to another five-year term as dean
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January 2019UF College of Pharmacy eclipses $25 million raised during the Go Greater fundraising campaign (2013-2021)
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April 2019For the fourth consecutive year, UF College of Pharmacy leads the nation in total number of graduates matching with a pharmacy residency
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May 2019UF lands in the Top 5 of the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy research rankings for total funding; NIH funding and federal funding

What are some of the pressures you see nationally that we have had to adapt to as a college?

The applicant pool nationally in pharmacy is down. Fewer students are graduating from high school and college, and that is a national trend we have to pay attention to. Unlike many colleges of pharmacy across the nation that are having trouble filling their class, we have been fortunate to continue to be able to attract outstanding students each year and meet our enrollment goals. Nonetheless, starting in 2019, we are reducing our class size, so we can be ahead of this national trend. There are also sectors of pharmacy that are feeling pressure in the current climate, and pharmacy is sometimes portrayed in negative ways. As a college, we are trying to share with prospective students the many career options and benefits of the pharmacy profession. We’re trying to be forward-thinking and leading the profession, by letting students know there are many satisfying career paths in pharmacy worth exploring.

What do you feel is your biggest challenge at present?

One of the biggest challenges is managing success. We have been highly successful, so making sure we are able to continue to support faculty and maintain and grow our research and education programs is a challenge for our leadership team. This challenge is particularly evident in terms of physical space, and we have worked really hard over the last couple years to make sure we have adequate space for our faculty and students to be successful.

In the nearly 100 years of the college, you are the first female dean and the first dean to hold a Doctor of Pharmacy degree. Do you see yourself as a trailblazer in this respect?

I think it is important for people to see role models in leadership that look like them. More than 50 percent of our students are female, and it has been that way for a couple decades now. I also believe it’s very important to see the leader of the college is a licensed pharmacist who has practiced and understands the profession. That’s ultimately why I decided to apply for the job. I also felt our college needed a dean with a strong scientific background who knew how to move science and elevate the college’s research portfolio. I have maintained my NIH-funded research program while serving as dean, and that is also not the norm, but I believe allows me to lead strongly by example.


What are the college’s top priorities for the next four years?

Our priorities will involve maximizing success. We will continue to fine-tune our Pharm.D. curriculum. We need to be more intentional in helping our Pharm.D. students understand all the career paths available to them, and we are building professional certificate programs that allow them to focus in an interest area. We also want to ensure we continue to support the faculty to achieve even greater things.
On the fundraising side, we’re in the second half of the Go Greater campaign. We have a very aggressive goal of raising $35 million by 2021. The college has already raised more money than we did in the last capital campaign. We really need alumni and donor support to fund student scholarships and endowed professorships. Twice as many faculty in our college are deserving of endowed professorships than we can offer now. We have a lofty goal, but we have true needs in the college. We also need resources that are more discretionary, that allow us to do something we see as game-changing in some way — that we can jump on quickly and empower our faculty.

In 2023, the college will celebrate its 100th anniversary. How do you view this landmark event?

2023 will be an exciting year for the UF College of Pharmacy. It will be cause for a large celebration and a time to reflect on all the things that have been accomplished in our college’s 100-year history. We had the first Ph.D. degree at UF awarded in our college. We were the first college to be co-ed on this campus and the first health professions college. We have a remarkable history to celebrate. All the moves we are making now will help position the UF College of Pharmacy to have a very strong start to our second 100 years.