Pharmacy school welcomes donors to campus

Elisabeth “Lisa” Menner Brandt ’66 and her husband, Dick, were toasted and thanked for becoming the first donors to the School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences (SOPPS) at a special reception Sept. 8 in the Anderson Center Reception Room. The toast was as much to honor their 50th wedding anniversary that weekend as it was their generosity.

The couple had traveled from California to attend the SOPPS inaugural White Coat Ceremony, to be held the next day. However, their trip was still shorter than some of Menner Brandt’s family, which includes five generations of pharmacists, who had come from Austria for the occasion. Michael Menner and his sister Sandra Kutten, both pharmacists, were accompanied by Kutten’s husband, Christof, and 4-year-old son, Jonas – perhaps a future member of the sixth generation of Menner pharmacists. A video about the Menner family in Austria is available on the web.

Menner Brandt, not a pharmacist but a retired chief administrative law judge for the state of California, made the very first gift to SOPPS, endowing the Menner Familiy Endowed Faculty Fellow. Assistant Professor of Pharmaceutical Sciences Tracy Brooks holds the fellow position. Her research focuses on oncology, anti-cancer therapeutics and drug target development. “She’s also been teaching since 2011, and was teacher of the year in 2013, 2014, 2015 and 2016,” Founding Dean Gloria Meredith said. “So when she’s teaching, pay attention!”

“I want to tell you why I wanted to do this,” said Menner Brandt. “I’d been in this country for five years when I came to college [at Binghamton] and I was made to feel at home. By the time I left, people couldn’t tell I hadn’t been born here.

“I thought it was just the world’s nicest coincidence that Binghamton had decided to have a pharmacy school just when I was heading into the next generation of pharmacists in my family,” she added. “That’s when you say, ‘That’s meant to be.’ It’s wonderful to see my family and Binghamton at the same time.”

Starting a new school is a daunting task, said President Harvey Stenger. “You can’t just come in and say ‘Let’s do this.’” But in this case, we did it well. We found our strengths,” he said. “It seemed to be doable, but what put it over the edge for me was that I got a call the day before Christmas from our local senator [the late Sen. Thomas Libous], who said, ‘I understand you want to have a school of pharmacy. How much do you need? And build it in Johnson City.’

“I said, ‘We only need $60 million,’ and it got through the budget process,” Stenger said. “We started on schedule and we’re still on schedule. That’s part of the miracle of creating something this special. Then to have Lisa step up and say, ‘I want to support that,’ even when it was still an idea – and hear the family story.”

Stenger said that being a pharmacist is one of the strongest career paths a person could follow in the future, but alongside pharmacists are the scientists and researchers who will work hand-in-hand to make people’s lives better.

“We’ve already won $4 million in federal research grants at this point,” he said. “I do know that not just this school is a miracle, but Gloria is a miracle worker herself to hire the kind of faculty that doesn’t yet have a building or accreditation, but has the promise of a great future. It’s been a pleasure to watch her manage through the process.”

Speaking to Menner Brandt, Stenger said her gift won’t be the last. “Many more will support this great school at this great University,” he said. “I want to thank everyone here who made the school possible. This has been a tough chore. Stay? You won’t be able to get rid of me. This was my biggest big idea when I got here and you made it possible.”

Meredith also thanked RoseAnn and Timothy Jankowski for their support of the White Coat Ceremony. “RoseAnn was our first chair for Pharmacy Practice and traveled from California for six months to help us out,” she said. Jankowski is an active pharmacist and expert consultant for the California Board of Pharmacy.