USC School of Pharmacy Dean R. Pete Vanderveen has appointed professor Kathleen A. Johnson to the William A. Heeres and Josephine A. Heeres Endowed Chair in Community Pharmacy and professor Roberta Diaz Brinton to the R. Pete Vanderveen Endowed Chair in Therapeutic Discovery and Development.

“It is with great pleasure and admiration that I make this announcement,” Vanderveen said. “Dr. Johnson came to USC to develop our community pharmacy clerkship in 1984 and is known as a national leader in community pharmacy education. Dr. Brinton has emerged as a leading neuroscience researcher, especially in the area of Alzheimer’s disease in women.”

Johnson, a graduate of the USC School of Pharmacy’s Pharm.D. program, also holds a Ph.D. in health services and an MPH from UCLA. She is the chair of the school’s Titus Family Department of Clinical Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Economics & Policy. Johnson was involved in establishing the community pharmacy residency at USC, the first in California.

Johnson’s work melds clinical pharmacy and pharmacoeconomics, focusing on how clinical pharmacists in various practice settings impact patient outcomes through appropriate drug therapy. In addition, she studies the decrease in overall medical costs associated with exemplary clinical pharmacy practice.

Johnson’s clinical program for students features an innovative approach to teaching through service-learning experiences typically targeting medically underserved patients.

The William A. Heeres and Josephine A. Heeres Endowed Chair in Community Pharmacy was established in 2005 through a planned gift of $2 million by Josephine and William Heeres, a 1963 graduate of the school. A $200,000 cash gift made it possible to activate the chair at this time.

William and Josephine Heeres are longtime supporters of the school and ardent believers in community pharmacy.

“We are concerned about the dwindling numbers of community pharmacists across the nation,” said William Heeres, a member of the school’s board of councilors. “It’s our hope that this gift encourages some of our brightest students to choose community pharmacy as a career.”

The R. Pete Vanderveen Endowed Chair in Therapeutic Discovery and Development has been established through initial funding by Ronald Belville, Eileen Goodis, Kiran Majumudar, Raymond Poon, Tim Siu, Holly Strom and Louis Wong, all current members of the school’s board of councilors.

“I am honored to have this chair named for me and especially pleased to name Dr. Brinton as the first holder,” Vanderveen said. “This chair provides an excellent vehicle for me to promote drug discovery and development – hallmarks of our school’s work.”

Brinton, professor in the school’s Department of Pharmacology and Pharmaceutical Sciences, holds a joint appointment in the Department of Biomedical Engineering of the USC Viterbi School of Engineering and is a founding member of the university-wide Neuroscience Program.

She also serves as director of the USC Science, Technology and Research (STAR) Program, an initiative that provides inner-city, high-school students with an opportunity to join a USC research team.

Brinton earned her Ph.D. in psychobiology and neuropharmacology from the University of Arizona as an NIH Predoctoral Fellow. She was then awarded an NIH Postdoctoral Fellowship in neuroendocrinology at Rockefeller University.

Brinton, the primary investigator on a four-school, $8 million NIH grant, has resolved to determine if hormone therapy prevents or increases the risk of Alzheimer’s disease among women, who make up 68 percent of those afflicted by the illness. She is also a key investigator on the university’s Clinical Translational Science Award planning grant team.

U.S. News & World Report recognized Brinton as one of the “Best Minds to Watch” in 2004. She won the 2006 Science Educator Award from the Society for Neuroscience, 2005 Woman of the Year from the California State Senate and 2003 USC Remarkable Woman Award. She serves on the scientific advisory boards of the Institute for the Study of Aging, the Diabetes Insipidus Foundation and Wyeth Women’s Health & Musculoskeletal Biology.