Dean Sarah L.J. Michel, PhD, outlined the University of Maryland School of Pharmacy’s (UMSOP) vision during her State of the School address on September 23, 2026, highlighting the school’s progress over the past year and the priorities guiding its future under the 2026-2031 strategic plan — a new chapter in UMSOP’s 185-year history. “Our history gives us a strong foundation, but it is what we do with that foundation that will define our future,” Michel said. “We have an opportunity to build on our strengths, embrace new possibilities, and ensure that everything we do continues to make lives better.” Michel organized her remarks around the plan’s five themes: Pharmapreneurship; Educational Excellence; Discovery and Collaboration; Engagement for a Stronger Community; and Strategic Resilience and Growth Opportunity.
From Ideas to Impact
A central focus of Michel’s address was Pharmapreneurship — the school’s commitment to turning science and ideas into lasting health care solutions. Michel framed this not as a new initiative but as an extension of a tradition dating back to UMSOP’s founding in 1841: early alumni include Alpheus Sharp (Class of 1842) and Louis Dohme (Class of 1857), who founded Sharp & Dohme (later Merck Sharp & Dohme), and George Bunting (Class of 1899), who created Noxzema, the brand that eventually launched Cover Girl.
Today, student initiatives include the Dolphin Tank (a platform for pitching pharmapreneurial ideas), the Wagner Family Scholarships (supporting student innovators), and the HiPitch Competition, an interdisciplinary challenge tackling issues like mental health and chronic care for older adults. Under the new strategic plan, the school plans to launch a Pharmapreneurship accelerator to further advance promising ideas. “Pharmapreneurship asks us to look beyond the idea itself and think about what it can become,” Michel said. “It is about connecting imagination, science, and action to create solutions that improve health and health care.”
Preparing Students for What Comes Next
Educational excellence remains central to UMSOP’s mission. Michel highlighted the launch of M-Pact, the school’s reimagined PharmD curriculum — competency-based, practice-ready, and future-focused, with students beginning experiential learning early through introductory pharmacy practice experiences in settings including faculty practice, community pharmacy, health systems, and government. The school also continues expanding opportunities beyond the PharmD through fellowships, residencies, industry partnerships, co-ops, and a diverse portfolio of graduate programs in emerging areas including artificial intelligence, pharmacometrics, regulatory science, medical cannabis, pharmaceutical sciences, and palliative care. “Our responsibility is to prepare graduates not just for the health care environment of today, but for the one they will help create tomorrow,” Michel said. “That means giving them opportunities to learn by doing, to explore new fields, and to connect their education directly to the communities and careers they will serve.”
Moving Discovery Toward Patients and Communities
UMSOP’s research and clinical enterprises provide another bridge between innovation and impact. The school’s nearly $38 million grants and contracts portfolio spans basic, translational, clinical, outcomes, and regulatory science, while its clinical enterprise serves approximately 38,000 patients annually across 25 practice settings and provides about 190,300 hours of pharmacy services each year.
Michel said the school’s next research phase will focus on strengthening connections between discovery, translational science, patients, and communities, while expanding interdisciplinary collaborations across the University of Maryland, Baltimore, the University System of Maryland, and beyond. “Discovery has its greatest impact when it reaches people,” she said. “We want to strengthen the pathways that move our research from the laboratory and the data to solutions that improve the lives of patients and communities.”
Investing in People and the Future
Michel also emphasized building a community where faculty, staff, students, alumni, and partners can thrive, with the strategic plan calling for greater connection and belonging, a stronger student experience, and continued investment in faculty and staff development. At the same time, she acknowledged UMSOP is navigating real headwinds across higher education — enrollment pressures, Maryland’s budget challenges, changes in the federal research environment, and constrained resources — and said the school will respond by strengthening enrollment, increasing the value of its educational programs, diversifying revenue, expanding partnerships, and growing philanthropic support.
“We have to be both ambitious and thoughtful about our future,” Michel said. “Strategic resilience means knowing where we can make the greatest difference and having the resources and flexibility to invest in those opportunities.” She closed by returning to the plan’s overarching purpose: “Our future is about turning ideas into impact, preparing graduates to lead, moving discovery toward solutions, building a community where people thrive, and creating the resources to sustain innovation. That is how we will continue to make lives better — and that is the future we are building together.”
