April 22, 2009 | A Batesville couple with deep roots in the pharmacy profession has donated $100,000 to the Dean’s Chair Endowment Fund in the UAMS College of Pharmacy.

The contribution of Sharon and Steve Bryant of Batesville will help fund new academic programs, faculty recruitment and retention and student leadership activities.

“This generous donation from these two good friends of the College is greatly appreciated,” said Stephanie F. Gardner, Pharm.D., Ed.D., dean of the College of Pharmacy. “Their gift has moved us a great deal closer to our goal of establishing this much needed endowed fund and will serve as inspiration to other donors who want to support pharmacy education in Arkansas.”

Steve Bryant is owner of Bryant’s Pharmacy and Health Care Center and a partner in three other pharmacies. He is a graduate of Arkansas State University (ASU) and the UAMS College of Pharmacy. He serves on the college’s Dean’s Advisory Council and the Arkansas State Board of Pharmacy and previously served on the Arkansas Ethics Commission. He is a member of the Arkansas Pharmacists Association and  the National Community Pharmacists Association. In 2007, he was named “Pharmacist of the Year” by the Arkansas Pharmacists Association. Sharon Bryant also is a graduate of ASU and works in Bryant’s Pharmacy and Health Care Center.

“We are pleased with the advances made by the college and want to support current and future deans in continuing this trajectory to excellence,” said Steve Bryant. “We want the college’s leaders to have the resources they need to assure that our students have the highest quality education possible. With this gift, we endorse Dean Gardner’s vision for the future and ensure that generations of students will benefit from this Dean’s Chair Endowment.”

Founded in 1951, the UAMS College of Pharmacy is recognized nationally for excellence in education, innovation, technology transfer, and student leadership. The college partners with the Arkansas Department of Human Services in an Evidence-Based Prescription Drug Program, which selects the best quality of drugs for the state’s Medicaid patients and has saved Medicaid more than $38 million since starting in 2005. The college has 462 students this year and has one of only 10 Nuclear Pharmacy programs in the nation.

UAMS is the state’s only comprehensive academic health center, with five colleges, a graduate school, a medical center, six centers of excellence and a statewide network of regional centers. UAMS has 2,538 students and 733 medical residents. Its centers of excellence include the Winthrop P. Rockefeller Cancer Institute, the Jackson T. Stephens Spine & Neurosciences Institute, the Myeloma Institute for Research and Therapy, the Harvey & Bernice Jones Eye Institute, the Psychiatric Research Institute and the Donald W. Reynolds Institute on Aging. It is one of the state’s largest public employers with about 9,600 employees, including nearly 1,150 physicians who provide medical care to patients at UAMS, Arkansas Children’s Hospital, the VA Medical Center and UAMS’ Area Health Education Centers throughout the state. UAMS and its affiliates have an economic impact in Arkansas of $5 billion a year. Visit www.uams.edu.