Thomas J. Long School of Pharmacy and Health Sciences

Welcome from the Dean

From the School's founding over fifty years ago, our vision has been our greatest strength and surely a source of inspiration for its faculty, staff, and alumni. Central to that vision are two unwavering and interwoven commitments:

• The first is to affirm the individual worth and fostering the unique talents of every student
• The second is to connect the efforts of the School to the needs of the patients our students will care for, and to the health professions.

These commitments underscore the fundamentally unique dimensions of Pacific, a humanistic approach to education. The strengthening and nurturing of these foundation principles is the central commitment of the faculty and staff of the School.

I am reminded on a daily basis that the quality of every moment our students spend in school is the measure of our impact as a school and that our focus needs to be on their present experience as much as it is on their future preparedness. This leads to the Pacific environment, a place of academic excellence and human connection.

Let me ask each of you to pause for a moment and recall a very positive experience from your schooling. I bet you recall times when you were made to feel special, noticed, and valued. Now, think back to a negative experience... let me guess - you felt like a face in the crowd, perhaps humiliated, not valued, invisible. Such memories underscore the task of a great school, of Pacific, to disappear as an institution and reappear as a community, a place which encourages, and fosters students to question, to dare, to experiment. This has been Pacific's legacy, its foundation.

Associated with a strong tradition of student centered learning and service, the School's faculty are actively involved in scholarship. I am extremely proud of the faculty's unmatched commitment to education, but we are also leaders in research. This energy and effort sparks insight and discovery that lights up our classrooms and laboratories with an exciting and vital glow. Pacific's current facilities include state of the art classrooms, computer laboratory and well equipped laboratories.

In addition to our Stockton campus at the University of the Pacific, we have satellite regions where students can learn and work with patient and licensed practitioners in their field. Sites include: Stockton, Sacramento, San Francisco, Palo Alto, Santa Clara, Santa Barbara, Fresno, Los Angeles, Honolulu, Bakersfield, Chico, San Diego and a number of others.

What we do at Pacific, the caring, the nurturing, the cutting edge is what makes us both vital and distinctive. As a final thought, I have always understood that the most impressive product of education is hope. Not a blind or hollow hope, but the kind of hope that transforms lives. Each day I can see the glimmer of that hope in our students' eyes. Please take the time to come visit us and I know that you will soon become infused with Tiger Pride.

Yours sincerely

Phillip R. Oppenheimer, Pharm.D.
Professor and Dean