Commencement Convocation 2003 ~ May 31st, Power Center for the Performing Arts
Stay Connected, Dare to Lead, Urges Alumna Cynthia Kirman

Looking out at the 39 PharmD students who were about to graduate into her own chosen profession, 2003 commencement convocation speaker Cynthia Kirman, BSPharm’73, PharmD’74, RE’74, manager of the National Managed Care Program at General Motors Corp., offered this sage advice: “Our profession is small, and we tend to know each other. Every position I have had, I was hired by someone whom I knew directly through the University of Michigan College of Pharmacy, or who knew someone at U-M who recommended me. Networking and keeping in touch with your Alma Mater will serve you well.”

Kirman also called on her newest fellow alumni to become the new generation of leaders that pharmacy will need to advance the profession. “Never in our history has there been a greater need for focused leadership of pharmacy than at the present,” she said. “It is to you that our profession will look for leadership. As you leave the small, select group of U-M pharmacy students, you are entering the larger but equally prestigious group of U-M pharmacy graduates. I wish you all the best.”

Other program highlights included the bestowal of the 2003 Teaching Excellence Award to David E. Smith, chairman and professor of the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences; personal reflections by Lindsey Pontius, PharmD’03; recognition of the five members of the class of 1953 attending the commencement (see page 26); the recitation of the Oath of the Pharmacist, led by Sherry DeLoach, PharmD’03; the U.S. Navy commissioning of Andrew Romelhardt, PharmD’03;
the recognition of 2003 PharmD graduates; and a welcoming into the alumni ranks by Sandra L. Chase, BSPharm’83, PharmD’84, chair of the College of Pharmacy Alumni Society Board of Governors.