Dr. McAdam Marx is new pharmacy assistant dean

Carrie McAdam Marx, PhD, professor of pharmacy practice and science, first agreed to step in and lead the UNMC College of Pharmacy’s Office of Experiential Programs on an interim basis. But, “the more I did the job,” she said, “the more it occurred to me that I didn’t want it to end.”

She got her application in just under the deadline and recently learned that she’s been awarded the position permanently. Dr. McAdam Marx now serves as assistant dean for experiential education, effective Sept. 1.

It’s the latest step in a career arc that began when she took her first job, as a soda jerk, in a community pharmacy at age 14. Dr. McAdam Marx said that as she progressed in her career, she realized that pharmacy can be a key to the world.

Keith Olsen, PharmD, dean of the UNMC College of Pharmacy, said he first met Dr. McAdam Marx at his previous job as dean of the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences College of Pharmacy, where Dr. McAdam Marx was on faculty. “And I was so impressed with her leadership and vision that I wanted to bring her to UNMC,” Dr. Olsen said.

The dean added: “We are excited for Dr. McAdam Marx to direct our Office of Experiential Education.”

Dr. McAdam Marx said she is “very fortunate” to be working with both students and preceptors in this role, to “create more than just operational relationships but strategic relationships,” connecting future pharmacists with mentors and environments that prepare them for pharmacy practice today and tomorrow.

She’s held jobs that she never would have thought possible when she was in pharmacy school and wants to open the world to her students in a similar way.

Dr. McAdam Marx is a pharmacotherapy health services researcher who teaches in the areas of U.S. health care policy, health care quality, health technology assessment and health services research methodologies. Her research is focused on demonstrating that patient outcomes are improved when pharmacists are on primary care teams working “at the top of their license” to optimize drug therapy.