Daryl Davies, PhD has been appointed to the newly-created role of associate dean for undergraduate education at the USC School of Pharmacy.
Davies spearheaded the creation of the USC School of Pharmacy’s undergraduate programs to better prepare undergraduates focused on pre-pharmacy, pre-medicine and other health-related professions, Dean Vassilios Papadopoulos said in a memo announcing the appointment. This included the launch of the school’s first minor in Science and Management of Biomedical Therapeutics during the 2016-2017 academic year, followed by the launch of the bachelor of science in Pharmacology and Drug Development in the 2017-1018 academic year.
The combined programs and associated courses have seen rapid growth. By the 2018-2019 academic year, 39 students had declared the major, 21 students were pursuing the minor and a total of 377 students were enrolled in all courses offered. Additionally, 11 students have now graduated with the B.S. in Pharmacology and Drug Development and nine have enrolled in the PharmD program, to start in fall 2019.
The USC School of Pharmacy’s undergraduate programs include:
- B.S. in Pharmacology and Drug Development
- Minor in Science and Management of Biomedical Therapeutics
- One lower-division general education course, “The History and Geography of Drugs,” and one upper-division general education course, “Globalization in the Biomedical Industry”
- Twenty upper-division courses covering a wide range of topics, including “Neuropharmacology in Health and Disease,” “Mysterious Deaths: Toxicology, Poisons, Literature, History,” “Immunology and Immunotherapeutics,” “Pharmacology and Sociology of Drug Abuse,” “Medical Products: From Idea to Market,” “Twenty-First Century Medical Issues and the Law” and “Organ Physiology, Drug Delivery, and Drug Action”
In addition to Davies’ work with the undergraduate program, he serves as director of the USC STAR program, a cooperative venture in science education between the USC Health Sciences Campus and Francisco Bravo Medical Magnet High School. He also leads a research team at USC that is working to discover and develop novel therapeutics for the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases and alcoholism.