ACPHS Alumni Magazine Summer 2019

FROM THE PRESIDENT

SMALL COLLEGE, BIG DREAMS I TRAVEL ACROSS the country and meet

with a lot of alumni. I love to hear them reminisce about their days at ACPHS (or often ACP). They speak fondly of our small, close knit community and how that community helped shape them. I also enjoy learning about the diversity of career paths that our alumni follow, often moving from one specialty to another. I never cease to be amazed by how effortlessly they seem to be able to transition between many different job responsibilities.

The success of our alumni demonstrates quite profoundly that there is something special about the ACPHS experience. Sure we provide all the individual attention of a small college, but there are many other schools that can make similar claims. The uniqueness of our experience is that not only do we provide the direct interaction with faculty but at the same time we provide access to opportunity.

Before they graduate, our students have completed an impressive range of capstone experiences that may include individual research projects, internships, and an amazing array of pharmacy practice rotations. The quality of these experiences is something you would expect from a large university, not a small college.

MAGAZINE STAFF Editor Lauren Jesmer Writers John Backman Lauren Jesmer Taylor Thompson ’20 Design + Illustration Eden Loeffel 3

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These experiences are very special in that they allow students to learn from, and be mentored by, individuals working at the top of their professions. Not only do students gain practical insights, but the experiences convey the basic idea that they too can succeed in these roles. It’s no longer such a reach for them to see themselves in these positions. In short, it allows them to dream.

I personally have seen many of these dreams come true. This issue of the Alumni News documents a few of these stories of students who started out at a small college and realized big dreams. We are proud of their accomplishments and even prouder to have played a role in their success and the success of many others like them.

Send story ideas, suggestions, letters, and comments to: Alumni News ACPHS 106 New Scotland Ave Albany, NY 12208 518.694.7393 alumni@acphs.edu www.acphs.edu

Greg Dewey, Ph.D. President

NOTES

A NOTE ON REUNION REUNION 2019 SEPTEMBER 27-29 Join fellow alumni and current students this September at Reunion 2019! In addition to the new date, there are a variety of fun new events alongside your favorites.

New Events • Be a Student Again • S’more Fun with Students • Student Poster Display • Mr. Science with Dr. Mousa • Alumni Career Panel and Networking Session

Old Favorites • Friends of Noah Sorenson and Mario Zeolla Golf Tournament • Special Anniversary and President’s Brunch • Campus and Throop Museum Tours • Alumni and Family BBQ • Reunion Weekend Dinner Celebration For full details or to register for reunion or the golf tournament, go online to acphs.edu/reunion or call us at (518) 694-7393.

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NINETY YEARS ON HAL SEITZ ‘51 ON REMEMBERING YOUR ROOTS

A

t some point in your life, during an awards ceremony somewhere, you may have scanned the memorial awards in the program and wondered about the people for whom they were named. Maybe you even thought of the awards’ donors and what motivated them.

Harold (aka Hal) Seitz ’51 can answer that last question. He’s administered the Robert J. Sherer Memorial Award for 44 years, and the motivation is pure friendship.

“Bob was a dear friend in my class, the valedictorian,” he said of the Sherer behind the Sherer Award, which is given to the fifth-year ACPHS pharmacy student with the highest cumulative average for their first four years (Sherer graduated with a BS in pharmacy when the program was four years long). “He passed away before his time in 1975 at age 46, leaving two young children and his adoring wife Esther (who never remarried). We’ve raised funds for the award every year since then, among Bob’s personal friends, and it’s been my pleasure to be the collector the whole time.”

Even beyond class friendships, Hal has as many reasons to support ACPHS as he has fond memories of the place. The college—Albany College of Pharmacy (ACP) back then— held a unique combination of advantages for the Albany native, starting with location.

“A five-cent ride on the Greyhound Bus Line to the college was a big plus for a lower-middle-class young man,” Hal remembered. “Everything was in one building: compact, 2

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unconvoluted, and negotiable.

The schooling was top-notch, straightforward, and inculcated to make the student a knowledgeable and self-assured pharmacist.”

“My generation of pharmacists were encouraged to be entrepreneurs, and indeed many of the courses were slanted toward business ownership.”

According to Hal, the curriculum included many courses no longer taught at ACPHS, including pharmacy bookkeeping, pharmaceutical Latin and arithmetic, among others (see sidebar). One particular emphasis figured prominently in his career.

“My generation of pharmacists were encouraged to be entrepreneurs,” he said, “and indeed many of the courses were slanted toward business ownership.” Good thing, too, since Hal owned two community pharmacies in Albany (1965-1984) and worked parttime in many others.

Hal maintains a passion for the U.S. Navy. The day after graduating from ACP, he went on active duty from the Navy Ready Reserve force and spent 30 months as a Pharmacist Mate during the Korean War. That assignment eventually brought him to the USO dance where he met his future wife, Sabina. “It was love at first sight,” he remembered, “and it has remained that way for the last 67 years.”

“I do feel the presence of a guardian guiding angel upon my shoulder, who has given me strict orders to follow the Golden Rule,” Hal mused. “I dare not disobey.”

Not long after the Navy, Hal went to work at the 1,008-bed Albany VA hospital as a Staff Pharmacist, rising to the position of Assistant Chief, Pharmacy Services, which he held for over a decade, (1954 to 1965). The position included an array of midmanagement responsibilities: budget and inventory control, oversight of volunteers, inspections, coordination with other hospital departments, and as Hal put it, “a host of chores ad infinitum that department assistant chiefs get delegated with.” After moving to Florida, Hal worked for a VA hospital yet again, this time in Miami.

He retired at age 67 in 1996. All in all, his pharmacy career spanned 45 years.

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HAL SEITZ IN DETAIL Continued...

Hal is proud of so many things in his life: the loyal clientele at his two Albany community pharmacies, the many ACP students who worked there as externs, his load of pharmacist friends (“most of whom are now gone and ever so sorely missed,” he said).

Sabina and their 10 grandchildren, and the impending arrival of his third great-grandchild are the epicenters of his life today.

At the same time, Hal does have one grand wish. “I would like to attend my 70th Class of 1951 reunion in 2021,” he said. “When we attended our 60th reunion, a college official told us that, to the best of his knowledge, there were no four-year BS in pharmacy grads who had made it to a 70th reunion. Well now, that is a goal worth pursuing.”

A 90-year life is bound to include a host of colorful details. Here are a few from the life of Hal Seitz (with commentary from the man himself):

FIRST CAR 1937 Studebaker (black), purchased 1950, cost $100

CHILDHOOD HOME

Just north of Albany’s Palace Theatre on Clinton Avenue

CHILDHOOD HAUNTS

Downtown Albany, “a child’s delight”: local five-and-dimes and department stores like W. T. Grant, F. W. Woolworth, S. S. Kresge, J. J. Newberry, Whitney’s and John G. Myers Company, “all crammed into a couple blocks on North Pearl Street”

COLLEGE NICKNAME

Sam (“a whole story involved there”)

COURSES TAKEN AT ALBANY COLLEGE OF PHARMACY THAT NO LONGER EXIST

Botany, Zoology, Pharmacognosy (the study of plant and other natural products useful in pharmaceuticals), Pharmaceutical Latin & Arithmetic, Pharmacy Bookkeeping, Pharmacy Economics

COLLEGE DISTINCTIONS

President of Rho Pi Phi International Pharmaceutical Fraternity in senior year at ACP (1950-1951); later President of the Beta Chapter of Rho Pi Phi Alumni Club (1956-1958)

MOST UNUSUAL COLLEGE ACTIVITY

Co-humor editor for the ACP yearbook (1951) and Humor editor for the student newspaper, for which he wrote the column “Life on the Pharm”

HOBBIES

Model trains and a love of History

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ALUMNI SPOTLIGHT

Q&A: NEIL MANDALAYWALA, M.D. B.S. Pharmaceutical Science ’09, Pain Medicine Fellowship at University of Washington – School of Medicine What led you to choose to work in Pain Medicine?

Pain can be incredibly disabling and as a health care system we have not done a great job managing it appropriately.

My objective is to find a more individualized approach to care and management that allows each patient to achieve their goals. The hope is to optimize the process for getting them back to their quality of life.

What is most important to you in your job?

Establishing long-term, goal-oriented relationships with patients. I’m not necessarily looking to cure pain (as that itself is often an unreachable goal), but I want to find ways to overcome the roadblocks that prevent patients from successfully managing their pain and disability. I’ve learned to apply treatment to the patient and not the patient to the treatment. My patients don’t expect perfection; they expect someone to listen and care. Turning off the rote medicine brain for a second and focusing on more personalized care is something to be valued. It may take longer, but it is worth it.

Do you feel the education you received at ACPHS prepared you for this career?

Absolutely. ACPHS set the tone that helped guide the rest of my education and my career. The faculty want you to thrive and motivate you to be as successful as you can be. Dr. Chandrasekara, Dr. Clarke, Dr. Hass, Dr. Voigt, and especially Dr. Dearborn went above and beyond to empower my education.

What stands out to you most about your time at ACPHS? College is really a “coming of age” story, and this was no exception for me.

By the time graduation arrived, I had gone from being a student to a colleague in the ACPHS community.

You need the college experience so that you can grow and mature. I loved that ACPHS had such a strong sense of community, and it’s a place where people want to succeed.

What do you like to do outside of work? What do you find most enjoyable?

Travel is a big hobby of mine and something I do often. I enjoy adding a new place to my passport whenever I can. I’m also a fan of live music and the performing arts. Lastly, hanging out with close friends is something I’ve come to appreciate especially as I’ve progressed in my career. I am also passionate about education. I was a tutor during my time at ACPHS, and that experience lit the fire for my interest in teaching medical students and junior residents. I plan on continuing research in education and wellness with one of my goals being to decrease the amount of time resident physicians spend on their computers charting and increase the time they spend in front of patients.

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C A M P U S U P DAT E

FINDING THE WAY

Amanda Gee ‘19, BS Public Health works to make community clinics more visible for a restaurant, pharmacy, or farmer’s market, you probably turn to the internet first where the main source of information about a business or organization comes from its own website.

WHETHER YOU’RE LOOKING

“Most people only visit websites they find on Google. And those searches often lead them to Google Maps,” said Colleen McLaughlin, Ph.D., Founding Chair & Associate Professor in the Department of Population Health Sciences at ACPHS. “But many not-forprofit community-based organizations and public health organizations are not doing a good job of using Google to let people know where they are and what they do.”

As a project in her Geography of Health class, Dr. McLaughlin had her students work with a communitybased organization to increase its presence on Google Maps by taking and posting 360-degree photos. One student was especially excited by the prospect of helping organizations with their missions as well as enabling community members to learn about available services.

Amanda Gee ’19 started with The Collaboratory, an ACPHS led community health initiative in Albany’s South End, enhancing the information available on the web and posting photos on Google Maps. But she didn’t stop there.

“I searched for an STD clinic and the closest one that came up was in Saratoga, 40 miles away,” Amanda recalled. “With more than 10 colleges and universities in the area alone, that didn’t seem possible. That’s when I realized these places needed to be easier to find.”

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She continued her work in the summer of 2018 and during this past academic year. Her work with Google has benefited organizations like the Capital South Campus Center, Trinity Alliance of the Capital Region, and the Albany County Health Department.

She even created a website for the South End Community Collaborative.

“Most people only visit websites they find on Google.”

On Google, when an account makes contributions like pictures and reviews, it earns points. Once a certain amount has been accumulated, the account can become a “Local Guide”, which gives their reviews more weight. Amanda’s Google account, ACPHS Student, is a level 4 guide with 46 photos at 11 locations that have been viewed over 22,000 times as of April 2019. During the 2019 spring semester, Amanda trained another public health student to continue her work, using the account.

“Public health is about working with populations and helping everyone,” Amanda said. “But with these organizations, I know I’m working with people who really need the help. I feel like I’m making a difference.”

EVENTS

UPCOMING IN FALL 2019

JOIN US ON FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 27 at

Normandside Country Club in Delmar, NY for the 12th Annual Friends of Noah Sorenson & Mario Zeolla Memorial Golf Tournament. The tournament kicks off at 9 AM with the Opening Ceremony and Shotgun Start. Register now at acphs.edu/events/fonsmz-golf-tournament and we will see you in September!

WHAT’S BETTER THAN VERMONT IN THE FALL? Foliage,

cider, Church Street, and the Vermont ACPHS Campus Homecoming! Save the Date, October 4 & 5, 2019. Full details coming soon. If you are interested in planning an event for Homecoming, please email us at alumni@acphs.edu.

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FRIENDS WE’LL MISS

1948 Walter W. Houghtaling August 2, 2018

Harold Weisberg December 25, 2018

Imgard S. (Schuler) Kaiser November 1, 2018

1956 William E. Nieffer March 31, 2019

1950 Francis E. Foley July 24, 2018

1957 Leo J. Bigler April 5, 2018

1951 Nancy (Ward) Snyder June 25, 2018

1958 Richard K. Barber February 27, 2018

David Silverhart January 16, 2019 1952 Joseph T. Polito July 24, 2018 1953 Robert E. Thiess March 17, 2019 WIlliam H. Hotaling August 5, 2018 1954 Norman G. Kraft February 24, 2018 James Desorbo March 30, 2018 Scott W. Brown May 21, 2018 John J. Rivolta Jr. August 21, 2018 1955 Edward L. Burns December 14, 2018

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1960 James P. O’Brien October 12, 2018 1961 Harvey Goldstein July 31, 2017 Arnold Cohn April 13, 2018 1962 Ford C. Balch July 16, 2018 1963 Elizabeth A. (Aron) Jones December 10, 2016 1964 WIlliam N. Epstein January 7, 2016 1965 Lee Rae (Brown) O’Brien March 14, 2017 Evan (Mac) D. MacEwan April 15, 2019

1966 Mary L. (Rigosu) Carney July 17, 2018 1968 Barbara (Kuziara) Tessier November 27, 2018 1974 Susanne Bakowski February 1, 2019 Douglas E. DeLucco July 21, 2018 1978 Joseph P. Sanzone Jr. February 5, 2019 1987 Andrea (Moskin) Kuhner June 15, 2018 Josephine Cavone August 15, 2018 1990 Paul W. Henningson July 3, 2018 2008 Andrew T. Cowan February 5, 2019 2011 Alyssa (Williams) Sardelli June 10, 2018

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