Dr. Gary Pollack has been selected to lead The University of Toledo College of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences.

Pollack joins the University with more than 30 years’ experience in higher education, most recently at Washington State University where he has served as dean of the College of Pharmacy since 2010. His appointment is effective Aug. 15.

“I am excited that Dr. Pollack will be joining us here at The University of Toledo. He is a respected scholar and successful leader who brings a notable breadth of experience that will benefit the College and the University as we continue to move forward,” said Dr. Karen Bjorkman, interim provost and executive vice president for academic affairs.

Prior to joining Washington State, where he also serves as a professor in the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences and was the university’s vice provost for health sciences from 2011 to 2013, Pollack spent 26 years at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He served as UNC’s executive associate dean of the School of Pharmacy, chair and professor of the Division of Pharmaceutics and chair and professor of the Division of Drug Delivery and Disposition (formerly Pharmaceutics).

“The UT College of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences is one of those rare pharmacy programs with a truly comprehensive mission: undergraduate, professional, and graduate education, coupled with faculty-led research and patient care,” Pollack said. “Leading this vibrant community of educators, scholars and clinicians is an exciting prospect. I am very much looking forward to joining The University of Toledo and the broader Toledo community.”

His research is focused on how drugs and toxicants affect the central nervous system, making major contributions to our understanding of opioid tolerance. Pollack is a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and a Fellow of the American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists.

Pollack serves currently on the Editorial Advisory Board of the Journal of Experimental Pharmacology, and served from 2002 to 2006 as Associate Editor of the Journal of Pharmaceutical Sciences. He also serves as a reviewer for numerous journals in his field, and as an ad hoc reviewer for the National Institutes of Health and the Health Effects Institute.

Pollack earned his doctorate in pharmaceutics from the State University of New York at Buffalo and bachelor’s degree in chemistry/psychology from Knox College.

Bjorkman also thanked Dr. Amanda Bryant-Friedrich, interim dean of the College of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, for her leadership during the transition. She will return to her role as dean of the College of Graduate Studies and Vice Provost for Graduate Affairs, effective Aug. 15.

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