FACULTY AND STAFF
SCHOOL OF PHARMACY STRATEGIC PLAN – 2025-2030
MISSION:
To educate, innovate, discover, engage and serve to improve health
PURPOSE:
Shaping pharmacy, transforming lives
STUDENT SUCCESS
The School of Pharmacy will use data-driven recruitment and admission strategies to attract highly qualified students, ensure students can enter the workforce within a year of graduating, implement a curriculum that embodies academic quality and strategies that will improve student involvement in academic and school-promoted activities. Key Performance Indicators:
- Newly admitted class size increased by 10% in three years and 20% in five years
- All cause attrition rates for Pharm.D. remain below national standards (<25%)
- Rolling three-year average for first-time NAPLEX pass rates exceeds 90%
- Reach 90% student on-time graduation rate for four years straight
- Average time to graduation remains less than six years for graduate students
- At least 90% of graduates are employed within one year of graduation
RESEARCH
The school will build a strong infrastructure that supports research and will develop tenure track faculty lines.
Key Performance Indicators:
- Externally-funding research awards increase by 10% in three years and 20% in five years
- Extramural research funding increases by 25% in three years and 50% in five years
- Extramural research expenditures increase from AY24 baseline annually over five years
- Maintain 10% of university’s total graduate students at the School of Pharmacy
- Increase numbers of peer-reviewed literature manuscripts published by 30% in three years and 60% in five years
- Increase the number of funded faculty by 50% in three years and 75% in five years
- Increase the numbers of successful patent or intellectual property disclosures from 15 to 18 (20%) over five years
STATEWIDE ENGAGEMENT
The school will advocate with partners and constituent groups on critical issues facing the profession through outreach and education; develop and demonstrate innovative pharmacy service models to align with contemporary practice in a consistent, value-based and sustainable manner; and will also disseminate practice advancements throughout the state.
Key Performance Indicators:
- Participation in 30 professional awareness/advocacy/outreach initiatives
- Increase average salary recovery from contracts 3% in three years and 5% in five years
- Implement faculty practice agreements reflecting revenue generation goals (two in three years; four in five years)
- In three years, 5% of practice faculty generate revenue by providing clinical services (in five years, 10%)
- Disseminate one practice advancement semiannually
INCLUSIVE EXCELLENCE
The school will foster strategic partnerships and support faculty and administrative professionals to engage in efforts that enhance access, opportunity and excellence in pharmacy and graduate education.
Key Performance Indicators:
- Establish partnerships with metro and rural K-12 school districts, career immersion and workforce development initiatives
- Students perceive the number of opportunities to gain hands-on experience in addressing healthcare disparities as adequate
- Each student has opportunities to identify and address populations with unmet health needs in communities facing systemic health barriers
- In five years, at least three ongoing programs to broaden students’ professional horizons and career pathways are initiated by the contemporary alumni group
- In five years, at least 10% of faculty have participated in teaching and research exchange opportunities focused on demographies in geographies with limited health resources
- Programming to advance teaching and mentoring practices that effectively support learners from varying backgrounds in consistently offered through school professional development activities and resources
- Increase in the average length of service and rate of internal advancement and participation in career-enhancing professional development programming among school administrative professionals in the next five years
DEVELOPING PEOPLE
The school will work to develop strong and resilient faculty and staff; create a climate of clear communication, transparency and trust; foster engagement and collaboration among faculty and staff to build a dynamic, supportive academic community that drives school success and growth; and will obtain philanthropic resources to support students, faculty and staff.
Key Performance Indicators:
- Increase in climate survey data that reflects a positive workplace environment
- Increase in survey data related to availability of/access to career development resources
- No decrease in survey scores related to faculty and staff feeling connected, valued and heard
- Increase in support for professional development activities
- Average faculty and staff retention rates increase from baseline over five years
- Multiple inter-divisional collaborations for academic innovation and engagement are established in five years
- A faculty and staff recognition program is established in three years
- Annual number of donors increases by 5% in three years and 10% in five years
- The five-year average amount of funds raised increases by 20% in three years and 25% in five years
- Multiple gifts for endowed professorships are obtained in five years
New Staff
Valyssa Caballero was hired in May 2025 as an office support assistant IV in the Division of Pharmacology and Pharmaceutical Sciences at the Kansas City location.
Avery Byrd was hired in November 2025 as a senior office support assistant in the Office of Student Affairs at the Kansas City location.
Jenna Gibbs is the senior director of development for the UMKC School of Pharmacy, Pharmacy Foundation and UMKC’s School of Nursing and Health Studies.
Faculty Milestone Anniversaries
The following faculty members are celebrating milestone anniversaries at the School of Pharmacy. The school thanks them for their years of dedication and service.
Faculty and Staff Departures
NAME Christina Berg, Academic Advisor OFFICE/DIVISION Office of Experiential Learning YEARS OF SERVICE 11
NAME Maqual Graham, Pharm.D., Tenured Professor OFFICE/DIVISION Division of Pharmacy Practice and Administration YEARS OF SERVICE 30
NAME Orisa Igwe, Ph.D., Tenured Professor OFFICE/DIVISION Division of Pharmacology and Pharmaceutical Sciences YEARS OF SERVICE 33
NAME Mark Sawkin, Pharm.D., AAHIVP, Clinical Professor OFFICE/DIVISION Division of Pharmacy Practice and Administration YEARS OF SERVICE 13
NAME Pete Silverstein, Ph.D., Associate Teaching Professor OFFICE/DIVISION Division of Pharmacology and Pharmaceutical Sciences YEARS OF SERVICE 17
NAME Jianping Wang, Ph.D., M.D., Tenured Associate Professor OFFICE/DIVISION Division of Pharmacology and Pharmaceutical Sciences YEARS OF SERVICE 21
Shivani Gargvanshi, Ph.D.
New Faculty
Shivani Gargvanshi, Ph.D., joined the School of Pharmacy as an assistant teaching professor in the Division of Pharmacology and Pharmaceutical Sciences, bringing with her a rich interdisciplinary background spanning pharmaceutical sciences, genetics, microbiology and developmental biology. She recently completed her Ph.D. in Pharmaceutical Sciences and Chemistry at UMKC, where her research centered on multiomics-driven approaches to combating vancomycin resistant Enterococcus faecium.
Gargvanshi expanded her research portfolio as a postdoctoral fellow in Oral and Craniofacial Sciences at UMKC’s School of Dentistry, investigating gene-vitamin A interactions that influence cleft lip and palate susceptibility. Her earlier career includes research fellowships in epigenetics, mammalian biology, virology, parasitic infection and molecular biology at leading institutes in India.
Heather Lyons-Burney, Pharm.D.
Faculty Member Earns Prestigious Award from NCPA
Heather Lyons-Burney, clinical associate professor and assistant director of experiential learning, was honored with the 2025 Outstanding Faculty Liaison of the Year award from the National Community Pharmacists Association Foundation.
Honored during the NCPA Annual Convention in New Orleans, Lyons-Burney was recognized for her leadership, advocacy for independent pharmacy and her support of UMKC’s NCPA Student Chapter. Since joining the School of Pharmacy in 2014, she has mentored student business plan teams, guided experiential learning, taught across a wide range of topics and expanded opportunities in rural and underserved communities
Faculty and staff from the Division of Pharmacy Practice and Administration participated in a retreat on Aug. 6, 2025, at the National Museum of Toys and Miniatures on the UMKC Volker Campus. The retreat offers an opportunity for faculty and staff from Kansas City, Columbia and Springfield to come together for team building, brainstorming and professional development.