One of the founding members of the Walgreens Deans Advisory Council is now stepping into a council leadership role.
George E. MacKinnon III, PhD, DMSc (Hon), MS, RPh, FASHP, FNAP, professor and founding dean of the Medical College of Wisconsin School of Pharmacy, has been appointed council co-chair alongside John Colaizzi, vice president and head of enterprise pharmacy practice at Walgreens. MacKinnon replaces the council’s founding co-chair, UNC pharmacy dean Angela Kashuba, who served in the role for the past year.
The Walgreens Deans Advisory Council, which launched in February 2024, is a partnership with 17 school of pharmacy deans to enhance the pharmacy profession and better support pharmacists as they provide critical care to their local communities.
Hear from MacKinnon about the council’s achievements so far, as well as what got him interested in the pharmacy profession.
Q: What first interested you in a career in pharmacy?
A: My mother, who was bilingual, worked at a local independent pharmacy in northern Wisconsin. As a child, I would come into the pharmacy when my father picked her up, as she did not drive, and I saw first-hand the role and engagement that the pharmacist had with patients. This role of the pharmacist who was well-known in our community intrigued me.
Q: Why did you agree to become co-chair of the Deans Advisory Council?
A: I originally joined the council as I embraced the need for local pharmacists and pharmacies to take on a greater role in the health of our communities. Yet, there are many levers that need to be pulled, operationalized and regulatory changes needed to enable this. Likewise, we need a supply of incoming student pharmacists in academic pharmacy to empower this. When asked to step into the role as co-chair, I knew the work of the council, supported by the executive leadership at Walgreens, was on a strong trajectory and I felt I could help keep us on track.
Q: The Walgreens Deans Advisory Council just marked its one-year anniversary. What council achievement are you most proud of so far?
A: The PharmStart initiative to recruit existing Walgreens pharmacy technicians into our colleges and schools of pharmacy across the 140 programs in the U.S. is an excellent outcome from the council working with Walgreens leaders to collectively assist the pharmacy profession.
Q: What are you excited about working on with the council this next year?
A: I am most excited about serving on the council with impassioned leaders of both academic pharmacy and Walgreens as we are all in this together—academia, practice and the profession.
I also look forward to welcoming Walgreens pharmacists to our campuses through the Shared Faculty Pilot program beginning this coming year. As practitioner role models, this should help to expose student pharmacists to the various paths to practice in community and specialty pharmacy.
