UC names Dean of the James L. Winkle College of Pharmacy

Christopher Surratt, PhD, has been selected to lead the historical college

Valerio Ferme, PhD, executive vice president for academic affairs and provost for the University of Cincinnati (UC), announced the appointment today of Christopher Surratt, PhD, as dean of the James L. Winkle College of Pharmacy. 

Surratt, who will join UC July 1, 2022, pending approval by the UC Board of Trustees, currently serves as associate dean of research and graduate programs for the Arnold & Marie Schwartz College of Pharmacy & Health Sciences at Long Island University.

“It is a pleasure to welcome Dr. Surratt as the next leader of UC’s James L. Winkle College of Pharmacy,” says Provost Valerio Ferme, PhD. “His knowledge in pharmaceutical sciences and graduate education coupled with his research expertise will be instrumental in growing the profile of the college and positioning it for decades of high-impact research and scholarly activity.” 

chris surratt

Christopher Surratt, PhD

Surratt joined Long Island University in 2018. During his tenure he launched a pharmacology/toxicology PhD curricular track and co-led the creation of six PharmD–MS shared credit degree programs and increased graduate student enrollment by 40%. Under his leadership, sustainable research also made gains, adding more than $7M in new and transferred federal grants.

“If I could design a college of pharmacy from the ground up, the James L. Winkle College of Pharmacy would be it. I look forward to working with the faculty, staff and students to grow the national prominence of the college,” says Surratt. “By partnering with Cincinnati’s renowned health care and industry representatives, the college can become a leader in training pharmacists, an upper tier research power to discover and design novel treatments and health care products, and serve patients and health care practitioners to transform and save lives.”

Prior to joining Long Island University, Surratt spent 17 years at Duquesne University. He joined Duquesne in 2001 as assistant professor of pharmacology, was named division head of Pharmaceutical Sciences while a tenured associate professor of pharmacology in 2007 and served as professor of pharmacology from 2011 to 2018. Surratt has held previous academic and research positions at the University of Virginia, the University of California - Berkeley, the Albert Einstein College of Medicine and the National Institutes of Health.

Surratt’s research has focused on drug mechanisms of action and medications development for neurological diseases and disorders such as depression, anxiety and psychostimulant abuse. He has served as a grant reviewer for numerous National Institutes of Health study sections and served on the editorial advisory board of the scientific journal ACS Chemical Neuroscience. 

Surratt earned both a BA and PhD in chemistry from the University of Virginia.

About the James L. Winkle College of Pharmacy

The University of Cincinnati’s James L. Winkle College of Pharmacy is a leader in innovation. The college, established in 1850 as The Cincinnati College of Pharmacy, was the first pharmacy college west of the Alleghenies and is one of the birthplaces of clinical pharmacy. With a student-focused mission, the college offers a range of innovative post graduate programs to enhance the skills of those interested in pharmaceutical sciences and the pharmacy profession. The college boasts one of the largest cosmetic science program in the U.S. and was first to offer cosmetic science BS/MS co-op and graduate programs.

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