Groundbreaking Investment

In all the fields of human endeavor, someone has to be first. Charles Lindbergh. Sir Edmund Hillary. Neil Armstrong.

The Pharmacy Network Foundation.

The Pharmacy Network Foundation is what changed tentative steps into definitive strides for the Building the Future of Pharmacy…Together campaign. In 2007, the Raleigh-based foundation pledged $1.5 million to help build a new pharmacy education facility at the Medical University of South Carolina.

It began when board member Jimmy Jackson, a long-time friend of Peter Edwards, ’68, informed fellow directors Andy Barrett, Milton Whaley, Julian Upchurch, and Don Hill, along with foundation president Mickey Watts, of MUSC pharmacy’s facility situation.

The Pharmacy Network Foundation recognized early on that a new pharmacy building at MUSC would have broad impact on the community and the state. “Nobody on the pharmacy network board went to school at MUSC,” Jackson said shortly before the campaign’s public launch. “It is just that the need is there. We hope what we are doing will stimulate the alumni to step up and give as well.”

The foundation invested its resources in the new building because its members believed it was an important asset for South Carolina. They also believed that MUSC pharmacy alumni could make the project a reality. “MUSC is one of the oldest schools with one of the richest traditions,” Jackson said. “One of the things we’ve stressed is that the alumni can get this done if they want to.”

Jackson was proven right. Alumni have contributed thousands of gifts during the course of the campaign, which will all come to fruition in April when the first ceremonial spade of earth is dug for the new pharmacy facility. And it all started with The Pharmacy Network Foundation.