Alumni Updates

Badger pharmacists are moving around, getting new jobs, expanding their families, taking trips, and retiring from amazing careers. Stay in touch with your fellow UW–Madison School of Pharmacy alumni across the country by checking (and sharing) Class Notes in each DiscoveRx digital magazine issue.

• Check out our previous edition of Class Notes from the Winter 2019 issue.
• Submit your class note for the next Summer 2020 issue.

Job Updates

Geetika Nehra (PhD ’19): “Since I graduated from SoP in August 2019, I have been working as a postdoctoral scholar in the Bauer-Hartz laboratory at the Sanders-Brown Center for Aging. My project focuses on identifying mechanisms that lead to memory loss in Alzheimer’s when blood components enter the brain. I have recently received an NIH scholarship to visit the Jackson Laboratory in Bar Harbor, Maine over the spring and learn more about preclinical testing at their MODEL-AD consortium.”

John Davis (BS ’90) was recently promoted to Vice President of Pre-Clinical Development at Wave Life Sciences, a clinical stage genetic medicine company.

Elliott Sogol (BS ’78, MS ’83, PhD ’86) is Associate Director of Post Graduate Education at the University of Wyoming and President of EMSogol Consulting Services.

Accomplishments & Awards

Dani Fischer (PharmD ’13) received the highest individual honor awarded on an annual basis from USA Triathlon, as she was named 2019 Female Overall Athlete of the Year. Highlights of Dani’s year include being the top female finisher at both Madison 70.3 and Muncie 70.3, and she was also the age group champion in both the sprint and Olympic-distance triathlons at the 2019 USAT Age Group National Championships held in Cleveland, Ohio.

Amy Kennedy (PharmD ’08) is being inducted as a fellow of the APhA Academy of Pharmacy Practice and Management (APhA-APPM).

Katherine (Kat) Miller (PharmD ’08) was elected as President of the Kansas Council of Health-System Pharmacy, to be inducted in April 2020.

Barb Marquardt (BS ’93): The company, PharmID, was the Seattle Business 2020 Leaders in Health Care Gold Award Winner for Achievement in Medical Technology. Barb is Chief Product and Medication Officer at PharmID.

Duane Kirking (BS ‘74): The American Pharmacists Association (APhA) will honor him with its 2020 Hugo H. Schaefer Award for outstanding voluntary contributions to society as well as to the profession of pharmacy and APhA.

Robert A. Buerki (BS ’63, MS ’67): Professor Emeritus, Ohio State University College of Pharmacy, 2011- | Popat N. Patil and Robert A. Buerki, A History of Drug Sciences at the Ohio State University College of Pharmacy (Ronkonkoma, New York, 2019), 468 + xvii pp. | David M. Baker, John L. Colaizzi, Kelsey Leite, Robert A. Buerki, Gregory J. Higby, Robert L. McCarthy, and Clark Ridgway, “Teaching History of Pharmacy in U.S. Pharmacy Schools,” American Journal of Pharmaceutical Education 83:1 (February, 2019), pp. 100-107. | National Secretary, American Institute of the History of Pharmacy, 2005-

Personal Updates

Mark Putzi (PharmD ’11): “I am now working for Walgreens as a floater, a definitive upgrade over Shopko where I worked until Jan. 2019. In the last two and half years, I’ve overcome surgery on my right Achilles tendon, paid off all my student loan debt, written and published half a dozen short stories in small press literary magazines, and self published a book of political satire. I intend to continue to write fiction and poetry after I retire. Photo is of my wife Sharon and I on our wedding day, Oct. 2015.”

Bruce Wiesman (BS ’70): “Miami to Los Angeles through the Panama Canal was amazing!”

Rick & Pat (Fregien) Zimbric (BS ’70): “Pat and I both retired in 2009 and have done a lot of traveling since then. We have eight grandchildren who are way too young to begin a conversation about a career in pharmacy. We get back to Madison and the UW campus regularly…especially in the Fall when we attend most of the Badger football games.”

Bob Listecki (BS ’62): “Who would have thought. Getting ready for a hip replacement. Doc suggested taking an Iron supplement. I chose Ferrous bis glycinate 38mg, and in five days it caused severe rectal bleeding and in seven days with two hospitalizations. They did upper/lower and a nuclear leak test and could not find the source of the blood loss. Lost three pints in six hours. I was sent home and started the Iron, and in two days the problem started again. I recall talking to a surgeon some years back, and he recalled a patient with an aspirin allergy who was oozing blood like a sponge in the stomach. I figured I may have had something similar. Now I am on hold to get my hemoglobin back up to 11.7. It was 6. Stop by for a dish of liver and onions if you need iron. 61 years at Glen Ellyn Pharmacy. A lot of good stuff at glenellynpharmacy.com. 20 years of student papers, all at 8th grade level. They all got A’s.”

Sally Ann Woock nee Anderson (BS ’54): “Kept pharmacy license for over 50 years. Law degree in 1979; traffic judge in Florida for 13 years ending last year. Still licensed in law in Florida and Wisconsin. Admitted to all levels of law, including U.S. Supreme Court.”

Retirements

David Bitter (BS ’81): “Retired as of January 5, 2019!”

Tom Newkirk (BS ’71) is retired and still does some relief work for Trigs Pharmacy in Eagle River, Wis.

In Memoriam

Brian Keith Seefeldt (BS ’80): Died on January 4, 2020 at Aspirus Wausau Hospital. He was a pharmacist at Gwidt Pharmacy in Wittenberg, Wis., where he has worked for many years. Brian was an avid Wisconsin sports fan and enjoyed the Packers, Brewers, Bucks and Badgers. He especially enjoyed visiting and socializing at Tavern Front in Wittenberg.

Saul Kadin (PhD ’61): Died January 3, 2020