Media Releases

Appointment of Dr. Zubin Austin as The Murray B. Koffler Chair of Pharmacy Management

February 13, 2015

TORONTO, ON – The Leslie Dan Fac­ul­ty of Phar­ma­cy at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Toron­to is pleased to announce the appoint­ment of Pro­fes­sor Zubin Austin as The Mur­ray B. Kof­fler Chair in Phar­ma­cy Man­age­ment fol­low­ing a lengthy glob­al search.

Pro­fes­sor Austin has been a part of the Uni­ver­si­ty of Toron­to com­mu­ni­ty since 1984, when he enrolled in the Bach­e­lor of Sci­ence in Phar­ma­cy pro­gram. Since then, he has earned Mas­ter of Busi­ness Admin­is­tra­tion, Mas­ter of Edu­ca­tion, Mas­ter of Infor­ma­tion Sci­ence, and Doc­tor of Phi­los­o­phy degrees. In 1991, he joined the Fac­ul­ty as a Clin­i­cal Tutor, and has pro­gressed through the Faculty’s aca­d­e­m­ic ranks serv­ing as a Lec­tur­er, Assis­tant Pro­fes­sor, and Asso­ciate Pro­fes­sor, before achiev­ing the sta­tus of Full Pro­fes­sor in 2012. From 2001 to 2012, Pro­fes­sor Austin held the pres­ti­gious Ontario Col­lege of Phar­ma­cists’ Pro­fes­sor­ship in Phar­ma­cy Prac­tice Research.

Pro­fes­sor Austin brings con­sid­er­able expe­ri­ence in phar­ma­cy prac­tice to this role, hav­ing held clin­i­cal and admin­is­tra­tive posi­tions at Mount Sinai Hos­pi­tal since 1988, where he con­tin­ues to prac­tice part-time. His research inter­ests focus on orga­ni­za­tion­al devel­op­ment in phar­ma­cy and the health­care sec­tor, and his recent pub­li­ca­tions have focused on man­age­ment of change in com­mu­ni­ty phar­ma­cy, inter­ven­tions to enhance inter­pro­fes­sion­al col­lab­o­ra­tion in pri­ma­ry care, and edu­ca­tion to sup­port the adop­tion of expand­ed scope of prac­tice activ­i­ties. His schol­ar­ly activ­i­ty has led to over 90 peer-reviewed pub­li­ca­tions, three ref­er­ence texts, awards from a vari­ety of pro­fes­sion­al orga­ni­za­tions and asso­ci­a­tions, and over $10 mil­lion of exter­nal­ly-fund­ed research grants and con­tracts from nation­al and inter­na­tion­al orga­ni­za­tions.

In addi­tion to his out­stand­ing research accom­plish­ments, Pro­fes­sor Austin is also an award-win­ning edu­ca­tor and recip­i­ent of the Asso­ci­a­tion of Fac­ul­ties of Phar­ma­cy of Cana­da Excel­lence in Phar­ma­cy Edu­ca­tion Award, the Gov­ern­ment of Ontario’s Lead­er­ship in Teach­ing Award, the Uni­ver­si­ty of Toronto’s President’s Teach­ing Award, and the Amer­i­can Asso­ci­a­tion of Col­leges of Pharmacy’s Lyman Award for out­stand­ing schol­ar­ly work in phar­ma­cy edu­ca­tion. More­over, under­grad­u­ate stu­dents at the Leslie Dan Fac­ul­ty of Phar­ma­cy have vot­ed him Pro­fes­sor of the Year on 15 sep­a­rate occa­sions.

“I am very pleased to appoint Zubin as The Mur­ray B. Kof­fler Chair in Phar­ma­cy Man­age­ment,” said Pro­fes­sor Heather Boon, Dean of the Leslie Dan Fac­ul­ty of Phar­ma­cy. “I am con­fi­dent that his excep­tion­al research back­ground, expe­ri­ences as an award-win­ning edu­ca­tor, com­mit­ment to life­long learn­ing, and ded­i­ca­tion to the pro­fes­sion of phar­ma­cy will serve him well in this new role, and look for­ward to work­ing with him to devel­op edu­ca­tion pro­grams and prac­tice inno­va­tions that will rev­o­lu­tion­ize patient care.”

The Mur­ray B. Kof­fler Chair in Phar­ma­cy Man­age­ment was estab­lished by alum­nus Mur­ray Kof­fler to advance the prin­ci­ples of phar­ma­cy man­age­ment, includ­ing finance, human resources, oper­a­tions, tech­nol­o­gy, lead­er­ship, mar­ket­ing, and com­mu­ni­ca­tions. As such, the Chair is respon­si­ble for explor­ing inno­v­a­tive busi­ness mod­els for new phar­ma­cy ser­vices, estab­lish­ing pro­grams and ser­vices to inves­ti­gate the expand­ed role of the phar­ma­cist, and serv­ing as an advo­cate for the pro­fes­sion of phar­ma­cy.

In assum­ing this appoint­ment, Pro­fes­sor Austin will be respon­si­ble for lead­ing the new­ly-cre­at­ed Cen­tre for Prac­tice Excel­lence, a key strate­gic pri­or­i­ty for the Fac­ul­ty. Built on the core objec­tive of patient-focused care, the Cen­tre is in a unique posi­tion to address the issues impact­ing the future of health­care by equip­ping stu­dents and prac­ti­tion­ers to max­i­mize their clin­i­cal exper­tise while enhanc­ing qual­i­ty of care and improv­ing patient out­comes in a cost-effec­tive man­ner. The Cen­tre will focus on man­age­ment edu­ca­tion, trans­for­ma­tion­al research, and prac­tice inno­va­tion.

“I am tremen­dous­ly excit­ed to take on this role, and anx­ious to begin build­ing the Cen­tre for Prac­tice Excel­lence into a world leader in phar­ma­cy prac­tice research and inno­va­tion,” not­ed Pro­fes­sor Zubin Austin. “By lever­ag­ing research into edu­ca­tion and inno­va­tion, we aim to devel­op and imple­ment inno­v­a­tive solu­tions at the com­mu­ni­ty lev­el that will help every­day phar­ma­cists and phar­ma­cy man­agers incor­po­rate evi­dence-informed, cut­ting-edge prac­tices into their dai­ly work, which will ulti­mate­ly ben­e­fit patients in com­mu­ni­ties across Cana­da.”

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For fur­ther infor­ma­tion, please con­tact:

Jef Ekins
Man­ag­er, Mar­ket­ing & Com­mu­ni­ca­tions
Leslie Dan Fac­ul­ty of Phar­ma­cy
Uni­ver­si­ty of Toron­to
j.ekins@utoronto.ca
416–946-7036