BINGHAMTON, NY – Binghamton University President Harvey Stenger announces that Gloria E. Meredith, dean of the College of Pharmacy and professor of pharmaceutical sciences at Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science in North Chicago, will become the founding dean of Binghamton University’s School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences.

"We are making steady progress to launch our new School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences with support from our legislators, the state and the community, and now, under the leadership of Gloria Meredith, we are poised to recruit faculty, develop curriculum, construct a building and move ahead with Binghamton University’s first new school since creation of the College of Community and Public Affairs nearly a decade ago," said Stenger. "We couldn’t be more excited to be making this announcement."

"We are thrilled to have found someone with Gloria’s depth of experience and stellar qualifications," said Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs and Provost Donald Nieman. "Gloria is already working with the pharmacy school’s planning committee and architect to design the building, and her participation has positioned us to move the project ahead quickly and efficiently."

"She is also working with my office to develop position descriptions for a vice dean, department chairs and others," Nieman added. "Searches will begin in the spring and set the stage for us to hire faculty and staff, and we are on track to meet our goal of welcoming the first class of students in August 2017." 

"This is an outstanding hire for the University," said Susan Strehle, chair of the search committee.  "Gloria emerged as the top candidate in a national search because of her experience founding a school and earning accreditation. She has the energy and personal skills to guarantee the success of the school."

"I am delighted to join the Binghamton team as the founding dean of the new school," said Meredith. "This is a unique opportunity for this University to establish another quality professional program and to enhance research in the biomedical sciences and drug development and delivery."

Meredith was appointed founding dean at Rosalind Franklin in 2009, and has held academic appointments at four medical schools and universities over the past 26 years. A biomedical researcher active in clinical education, she holds bachelor’s and master’s degrees in biology from Southern Methodist University and a doctorate in neuroscience from Georgetown University School of Medicine. She was a National Science Foundation Fellow as a master’s student, and a predoctoral fellow with a National Research Service Award (NRSA) from the National Institute of Mental Health while at Georgetown. She held another NRSA award while a postdoctoral fellow at the Institute for Neurobiology at the University of Amsterdam in The Netherlands.

Meredith joined the faculty at Rosalind Franklin, becoming chair of the Department of Cellular and Molecular Pharmacology in 2004, and was appointed founding dean of its College of Pharmacy in 2009. Prior experience includes teaching and research at the University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Medicine and School of Pharmacy, where she initiated extensive research into Parkinson’s disease; the Royal College of Surgeons in Dublin, Ireland; and the Vrije University Faculty of Medicine in Amsterdam, The Netherlands.

Meredith has extensive experience in education, including course design and development, problem-based learning, small group (clinical case) learning, as well as more formal lecturing – and has been extensively involved in the professional education of surgeons, nurses and medical residents, receiving the top teaching award of the College of Surgeons in 1996.

She is a classical neuropharmacologist who has been continuously funded since 1994, including National Institutes of Health (NIH) funding since 2001. In 2013, Meredith won the Rosalind Franklin University’s top award for meritorious research. Her current research focuses on studies of neuroprotection and levodopa-induced dyskinesia in Parkinson‘s disease, and on basic mechanisms of drug craving in an animal model of amphetamine abuse.

She has more than 160 publications in top-quality journals, including co-authoring in 2007 an article in Nature that tested a potential neuroprotective drug for Parkinson‘s disease that has just completed Phase II clinical trials.

She is a member of several professional pharmacy and scientific associations, including the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy, where she serves on a Dean’s Task Force, the American Society of Health-Systems Pharmacists, the Society for Neuroscience, the Association for Women in Science, and the Movement Disorders Society. She is an elected member of both Sigma Xi Scientific Research Society and the Irish Institute of Neurology and Neurosurgery.