The dean of the Presbyterian College School of Pharmacy (PCSP), Dr. Richard Stull, announced on Friday, December 14th that he is stepping down as dean on December 31, 2012. Dr. Cliff Fuhrman, professor and associate dean for academic affairs, will serve as interim dean for the School of Pharmacy starting on January 1, 2013. In the new year, Presbyterian College will begin the search for a new dean.

Stull came to PCSP in 2008 from the University of Charleston in Charleston, West Virginia, where he was dean of the school of pharmacy and assistant provost for graduate studies. Stull holds a bachelor’s degree in biological sciences and a master’s and doctorate in pharmacology. He also served as a postdoctoral scholar at the University of California San Francisco School of Medicine.

While at PCSP, Stull led the development of programs that support the school’s motto Care for the Community and that emphasize rural, indigent, and medically underserved populations. Dr. Claude C. Lilly, President of Presbyterian College, expresses his gratitude for Dean Stull’s service to Presbyterian College and the School of Pharmacy.

“Dean Stull’s robust leadership has laid a solid and promising foundation for the Presbyterian College School of Pharmacy. Thanks to his recruitment of superb faculty, staff, and students, PCSP will continue to embody the commitment to service and excellence that has guided Presbyterian College through its 132-year history,” Lilly says.

The mission of PCSP is to improve the health of South Carolinians and society in general—a mission to which Stull has contributed significantly. He spearheaded the development of an ongoing state-wide initiative called COMPASSION. This program began in 2009 as a collaboration between PCSP, South Carolina Free Clinic Association, and the BlueCross BlueShield of South Carolina Foundation to provide care to underserved patients in South Carolina’s free medical clinics.

A strong advocate and supporter of community pharmacies, Stull initiated the PCSP Center for Entrepreneurial Development (CED), a program that fosters innovative thinking and a culture of entrepreneurism for pharmacy students, undergraduate students, and community members. The CED is just one of many partnerships that PCSP has developed with the City of Clinton to help support the town and surrounding communities.

“Building a graduate pharmacy school is a significant undertaking. Thanks to Dean Stull’s leadership at a crucial time, PCSP is now set to make a positive and lasting difference in both the lives of our current and future pharmacy students and in the health of our fellow citizens in the Southeast,” Lilly adds.

Citing the good work already accomplished, Lilly looks forward to the contributions of Dr. Cliff Fuhrman and the PCSP faculty and students as they continue to build upon the foundation that has been laid for the School of Pharmacy.

Before joining PCSP in 2009, Fuhrman was assistant dean and clinical associate professor at the department of basic pharmaceutical sciences at the University of South Carolina College of Pharmacy. He also served there as director of curriculum assessment and development and as staff pharmacist at Palmetto Baptist Hospital in Columbia. Fuhrman is a past president of the South Carolina Society of Health Systems Pharmacists, which named him Pharmacist of the Year in 2001. He was named USC College of Pharmacy Teacher of the Year in 1998 and 2003.