Neil MacKinnon Appointed Dean of UC's Winkle College of Pharmacy

CINCINNATI—Neil MacKinnon, PhD, a professor at the Mel and Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health at the University of Arizona (UA) in Tucson, has been appointed dean of the University of Cincinnati (UC) James L. Winkle College of Pharmacy.

The appointment is effective Aug. 15, 2013, pending UC Board of Trustees approval.

"We’re very fortunate to have a distinguished teacher and researcher with such a strong record of administrative success, interdisciplinary collaboration and community engagement as Dr. MacKinnon join us as dean of the Winkle College of Pharmacy,” said UC President Santa Ono, PhD. "Our College of Pharmacy is one of the oldest and strongest pharmacy schools in the country and I am confident that Dr. MacKinnon will be an excellent leader and continue the great progress the school has made in recent years.”

"Dr. MacKinnon will be a great addition to an already stellar cohort of deans at UC,” added Incoming Provost Beverly Davenport Sypher, PhD. "He’s an innovator with a clear and compelling vision for how access and outcomes can transform the health care landscape.”

Since 2011, MacKinnon has held the Walter H. Pearce Endowed Chair. From 2011-2012 he serves as section chair of Public Health Policy and Management. He also has had an appointment as professor in the UA College of Pharmacy and School of Government and Public Policy and serves as director of the Center for Rural Health, which houses the Arizona State Office of Rural Health. The center partners with other state agencies and organizations to improve the health and wellness of rural underserved populations through service, research and education. It was recently named the 2013 Outstanding Rural Health Organization in the country by the National Rural Health Association.

"This is a time of great change for healthcare in the nation with the implementation of the Affordable Care Act. Access to health care, particularly among rural and urban underserved populations, remains problematic. Health care error, including medication errors, is a significant source of preventable adverse health outcomes. I believe that the faculty, staff and students of the James L. Winkle College of Pharmacy can improve health outcomes in meaningful ways through the provision of patient care and research,” MacKinnon said.

"I’m excited to join President Ono, incoming Provost Davenport Sypher and the other deans and senior leadership at the University of Cincinnati. I can see many opportunities within the university for interdisciplinary education and research, and many opportunities externally with the college’s partners to create innovative practice models for pharmacists and our students.”

Prior to joining the faculty at UA, MacKinnon was the associate director for research and professor at the Dalhousie University College of Pharmacy in Halifax, Nova Scotia. He also has practiced in community and hospital pharmacy settings.

MacKinnon earned his undergraduate pharmacy degree at Dalhousie University. He completed a master’s degree in hospital pharmacy and an administrative hospital pharmacy residency at the University of Wisconsin Hospital and Clinics. He also received a doctorate and fellowship training at the University of Florida followed by a mid-career fellowship in 2007-2008 with the Commonwealth Fund in New York City under the mentorship of Stephen Soumerai, ScD, professor of population medicine at Harvard Medical School.

A past president of the Canadian Society of Hospital Pharmacists, MacKinnon has edited two books, Seamless Care: A Pharmacist’s Guide to Implementing and Evaluating Programs (2003) and Safe and Effective: The Eight Essential Elements of an Optimal Medication-Use System (2007). In 2010, he co-authored the Canadian national bestselling book Take as Directed: Your Prescription for Safe Health Care in Canada with Rhonda Church, MD, a family physician. His research interests include the quality and safety of health care, the role of the pharmacist, health policy and health issues among underserved populations. He has published more than 150 scientific papers.

MacKinnon replaces William Fant, PharmD, who has served as interim dean since Jan. 1, 2012.

Founded as the Cincinnati College of Pharmacy in 1850, the college was the sixth pharmacy school in the nation and the first established west of the Alleghenies. The college was privately operated until 1954 when it joined the University of Cincinnati. Its name was changed to the James L. Winkle College of Pharmacy in 2007 to honor James Winkle, a 1958 graduate and benefactor. The college has more than 470 students in master’s, doctorate and doctor of pharmacy degree programs. MacKinnon becomes the college’s sixth dean since it joined the University of Cincinnati.