Recent Stories

Rural pharmacists helps patient.

2024 rural health faculty experts

October 31, 2024, Laura Morris

More than a quarter of South Carolina residents live in rural areas and must overcome greater health care challenges than their urban counterparts. USC faculty members are available to offer their expertise in rural health services and research. To coordinate an interview, contact the staff member listed with each expert entry.

Satellite image of an Atlantic hurricane

2024 hurricane faculty experts list

May 01, 2024, Laura Morris

The Atlantic hurricane season officially begins June 1. Researchers at the University of South Carolina are available to discuss multiple aspects of the 2024 hurricane season, including preparation and communication, environmental impact and historical perspectives.

Students perform during summer conservatory

USC youth summer camps 2024

March 01, 2024, Communications and Marketing

With only a few short months until summer, it’s time for parents to find summer activities for their children. USC offers a wide variety of summer camps for all ages and all interests from music to soccer, dance and engineering.

Noah Raganschmalz

A Navy submarine engineer's journey to community pharmacy

February 27, 2024, Alexis Watts

Noah Raganschmalz once orchestrated the inner workings of nuclear submarines as a Navy-trained engineer. Today, the 33-year-old first-year pharmacy student is working toward a career in community pharmacy. “Everyone has had to take medication or has needed help navigating through medical jargon,” he says. “I believe that pharmacy is the front line of helping people.”

Illustration of

Searching for hidden connections

November 13, 2023, Page Ivey

A team of researchers, including several in the College of Pharmacy, are hoping to use the computing power of artificial intelligence to find subtle connections among the hundreds of drug-therapy studies published each year. The researchers are mining data on approved drugs and their outcomes, particularly in patients with HIV-associated neurocognitive disorders.

Gamecock Pharmacist IPE students

Collaboration, leadership break down barriers

November 13, 2023, Lauryn Jiles

USC’s Interprofessional Education program brings together students in the university’s 12 health science professional programs across six colleges and schools to help them have meaningful interactions with others training to be pharmacists, doctors, nurses, social workers, physical therapists and speech pathologists, among other fields.

Stan Papajohn dances on the Horseshoe

The Big Fat Greek Gamecock Family

July 25, 2023, Michaela Taylor

When Stan Papajohn first met with the faculty at the College of Pharmacy, he was a man ready to retire after 40 years in the world of retail pharmacy. The deal they struck was for Papajohn to come on as a part-time clinical instructor for “just a few years.” Now, 23 years after he agreed to come on board, Papajohn is officially hanging up the white coat.

Eugenia Broude smiles while meeting with other faculty members.

Pharmacy researcher driven to find weapons in the fight against cancer

October 12, 2022, Margaret Gregory

College of Pharmacy professor Eugenia Broude had personal inspiration to pursue a career in science, and a newly awarded $3 million R01 grant from the National Cancer Institute will allow Broude and her co-investigators to continue their work in a groundbreaking area of breast cancer research.

A black and white pill opposite of a black and white background

Many drugs have mirror image chemical structures - while one may be helpful, the other may be harmful

August 16, 2022, Sajish Mathew

Many drugs have the same atoms and bonds but are arranged differently in space. These drugs are called chiral compounds — meaning they exist as two mirror images. Sajish Mathew writes for The Conversation on how these compounds are arranged in space can drastically change the effects they have in the body.

Man holding glass of water with prescription pills next to him on a table

Taking certain opioids while on commonly prescribed antidepressants may increase the risk of overdose

August 01, 2022, Ismaeel Yunusa

While doctors prescribe the opioid oxycodone to treat moderate to severe pain after surgeries and injuries, it can also become a common drug of abuse. Professor Ismaeel Yunusa writes for The Conversation on how taking oxycodone at the same time as certain antidepressants can increase the risk of opioid overdose.

donna walker

Leadership program puts pharmacists on forefront of improving health care

January 11, 2022, Page Ivey

Helping develop and inspire pharmacy leaders is the goal of the Walker Leadership Scholars Program at the University of South Carolina’s College of Pharmacy, says program founder Donna Walker (1979 pharmacy, 1984 MBA). Each year, the competitive program selects two high-capacity students from the first-year pharmacy class to be scholars for three consecutive years.

Photo of midsection of a person while they inject insulin

Fewer diabetes patients are picking up their insulin prescriptions

November 18, 2021, Ismaeel Yunusa

Changes in insulin prescription rates because of the pandemic underscore the challenges that people with diabetes face in accessing care, Ismaeel Yunusa assistant professor of clinical pharmacy and outcomes sciences, writes for The Conversation. The effects of the pandemic on diabetes go beyond insulin prescriptions. As COVID-19 overwhelmed health care systems, people with chronic conditions like diabetes have experienced significant disruptions in routine and emergency medical care.

archival image of marjorie weber sitting at a desk in education classroom circa 1969

Gamecock family affair

August 23, 2021, Savannah Bennett

Marjorie Weber was a widow in her 40s when she decided to return to college to earn her teaching degree from the University of South Carolina where her late husband had been an education professor. She also served as a starting point for a string of family members attending South Carolina, including a granddaughter and two great-granddaughters, who are current education students. They are among the hundreds of students who follow family members to become Gamecocks each year. 

head and shoulders photo of Patricia Fabel

Garnet Apple Teaching Award: Patricia Fabel

August 05, 2021, Craig Brandhorst

For associate professor of pharmacy Patricia Fabel, classroom education is a team effort, with students contributing their own experiences to the discussion. “Whether we're talking about immunizations, medications, over-the-counter products or things that they've interacted with and their family has interacted with, they bring different perspectives to the table,” she says.

researchers work with test tubes

Resilience, ingenuity define UofSC's COVID response

March 11, 2021, Joshua Burrack

From the classroom to the research lab to the front lines of testing and tracing, the University of South Carolina community has taken extraordinary steps over the past year to safeguard its students, faculty and staff in the face of COVID-19. As we mark the one-year point of the pandemic, here’s the first in a three-part video series documenting the resilience, ingenuity and commitment that have guided us through this period.

Maxcy Monument on the Historic Horseshoe with sunlight streaming through the trees.
Several empty test tubes used for the Salivir Test lined up in a tray. They have the UofSC logo and barcodes on them.

Behind the scenes of SAFE Testing

October 09, 2020, Caleigh McDaniel

By now most students have heard about the university’s free Saliva Assay Free Expedited (SAFE) testing program, but we wondered what happens behind the scenes. We spoke with Carolyn Bannister, who serves as the manager for the College of Pharmacy’s Diagnostic Genomics Lab, to gather insights on what happens to your saliva sample between getting tested for COVID-19 on campus and receiving your results.

Heather Hembree

Class of 2020: Pharmacy student hopes to serve in rural community

April 29, 2020, Tenell Felder

Like many University of South Carolina students, Heather Hembree recently saw her post-graduation plans take an unexpected turn. The College of Pharmacy graduate student, who graduated in May, learned that her board tests might be canceled because of the COVID-19 threat. Despite the setback, Hembree plans to eventually practice pharmacy in a rural community similar to her hometown of Ware Shoals, South Carolina

UofSC faculty experts on coronavirus

March 17, 2020, Carol J.G. Ward

The University of South Carolina’s Office of Communications and Public Affairs has compiled a list of faculty experts who can discuss topics relevant to the coronavirus pandemic.

Portrait of Celeste Caulder

Clinical Practice Teaching Award: Celeste Caulder

September 20, 2019, Page Ivey

For College of Pharmacy professor Celeste Caulder, every day should bring some new piece of knowledge. One of Caulder’s key goals is to teach her students in the classroom and during their clinical rotations how to be lifelong learners. They will need that ability to learn something new every day as they venture into the field of pharmacy where there is not always one single right solution to a problem.

Yellow lightbulb icon

Nephron, UofSC researchers improving medication safety through automation

August 23, 2019, Jeff Stensland

Nephron Pharmaceuticals Corporation has joined forces with the University of South Carolina College of Engineering and Computing to design and implement an automation process that significantly boosts production of pre-filled medication, reducing the physical burden on workers and increasing patient safety.

map of South Carolina with UofSC Alumnni mayor's cities pinned

Keys to the City

August 05, 2019, Craig Brandhorst and Megan Sexton

You don’t need a degree from the University of South Carolina to get elected mayor in the Palmetto State, but it certainly doesn’t hurt. This summer, Carolinian magazine traveled the state, from the Lowcountry to the Upstate, from the Midlands to the Pee Dee, interviewing South Carolina alumni who hold the esteemed office.

Portrait of Diane Wise

The Long Run: Diane Wise

June 13, 2019, Page Ivey

They arrived in the 1970s, some after serving in Vietnam, some fresh out of high school or college. More than 40 years later, they still come to work at the University of South Carolina — some after officially “retiring.” TIMES spoke with a few of these long-term employees to see what keeps them coming back to work on campus, long after they could have settled into that place in the mountains or that home by the sea.

Miracle Kid Ellington Hewitt at Dance Marathon 2018

For the Kids

February 28, 2019, Allen Wallace

A year ago, University of South Carolina Dance Marathon made history, raising more than a million dollars for the kids at Prisma Health Children’s Hospital (then known as Palmetto Health). Just days after that success, they began working to do it again. That yearlong effort concludes Saturday with the student organization’s annual Main Event.

Galen Health Fellows

Galen Fellows

March 19, 2018, Megan Sexton

The first class of Galen Health Fellows arrived on campus in August, a group of more than 450 first-year students with dreams of careers in the health sciences.

joseph parks

Medical researchers work together to improve South Carolina's health

February 08, 2018, John Brunelli

National Council for Behavior Health medical director Joseph Parks will be the keynote speaker at the Integrated Behavioral Health Symposium spearheaded by the College of Social Work. The symposium will be held Monday (Feb. 12) at the Alumni Center.

Year end review

Twenty-Sixteen: By the Letters

December 15, 2016, USC Times

A is for alphabet, at least according to USC Times. To help close out 2016, the University of South Carolina’s monthly magazine for faculty and staff devoted its entire December issue to the ABCs of 2016 — with each letter representing a different accomplishment, announcement or notable arrival from the past year.

brianne dunn

Pharmacy professor takes roundabout route to teaching

November 07, 2016, Laura Kammerer

Brie Dunn earned a chemistry degree as an undergrad and soon found herself wearing a hard hat and steel-toed shoes in an industrial lab. After tiring of that environment, she returned to school to earn a Pharm.D. degree. Through all of those changes, she never thought much about teaching, but that’s exactly what she found herself doing after joining the clinical pharmacy faculty at Carolina six years ago.

Igor Roninson

Breakthrough Leadership in Research

July 21, 2016, Steven Powell

Igor Roninson brought 10 scientists and Senex Biotechnology, a cancer drug discovery company, to USC in 2011 when he was named the new SmartState Endowed Chair in Translational Cancer Therapeutics. But the South Carolina College of Pharmacy professor, who was named a Breakthrough Leadership in Research awardee by the Office of the Vice President for Research, was just getting started in building infrastructure that would enhance cancer research throughout the state.

ACE lab

ACE of Coker basement

March 31, 2015, Steven Powell

The high-tech teaching facility in the basement of the Coker Life Sciences building — the ACE lab — doesn’t involve novice cardsharps learning the latest in sleight-of-hand. There’s a much more serious kind of training going on in the South Carolina College of Pharmacy’s Aseptic Compounding Experience laboratory.