More than 261 undergraduate, graduate and PharmD students are expected to participate in Albany College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences’ 143rd Commencement on Saturday, May 13, 2023. The ceremony will take place at 1 pm at Saratoga Performing Arts Center in Saratoga Springs, NY.
The ceremony includes the final graduating class for ACPHS’ Vermont accelerated three-year Pharm.D. program cohort with approximately 10 students graduating in 2023. The College closed the Colchester, Vermont campus in June 2021.
Of the students expected to participate in the ceremony, preliminary estimates based on degree applications indicate that there are 61 undergraduate grads, six BS/MS dual degree grads, 39 Master’s grads, and 155 PharmD grads. Graduates hail from 22 states and 10 countries, including the United States, Canada, Bangladesh, India, Korea, Nepal, Oman, Panama, Saudi Arabia, and South Sudan. Females make up 60 percent of graduates in 2023, while males encompass 40 percent. The graduating classes’ youngest student is age 21, and the oldest is 53.
Employment Trends for 2023 Grads
As these students cross the stage, they will graduate into a job market at least as strong as 2022, despite recession worries. The Bureau of Labor Statistics projects 2.4% employment growth for pharmacists between 2021 and 2031 with an estimated 7,700 jobs opening during that timeframe.
Likewise, Labor Department economists predict that by 2029, health care employment in the United States will grow by 15 percent, adding 2.4 million jobs.
“While market trends in the health care and pharmaceutical industries continue to fluctuate, ACPHS is consistently ranked #1 Best Return on Investment in New York State and #2 in the country by the Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce (CEW),” said ACPHS President and Professor, Toyin Tofade MS, PharmD, BCPS, CPCC, FFIP who will preside over her first Commencement since becoming president in July 2022. “This reassures our students that their ACPHS studies and applied learning opportunities will lead to a lucrative and fulfilling career path.”
2023 Commencement Speakers
Lucinda L. Maine, Ph.D. R.PH., has been named the 2023 Commencement speaker for the College.
Following a 45-plus year career in the pharmacy profession, Dr. Maine retired as executive vice president and CEO of the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy, an organization committed to education and scholarship for improving drug therapy.
Prior to her role at AACP, Dr. Maine served as the senior vice president of policy, planning and communications with the American Pharmacists Association, or APhA. She also served on the faculty at the University of Minnesota where she practiced in the field of geriatrics and was an associate dean at the Samford University School of Pharmacy.
In a pre-retirement interview with Drug Store News in June 2022, Dr. Maine noted the increase in opportunities young people have today just entering the industry — with communications companies, contract research organizations, digital health companies and more. “No one has the knowledge, the expertise, to do what pharmacists do,” she said.
A pharmacy graduate of Auburn University, Dr. Maine received her doctorate at the University of Minnesota.
In addition, following a nomination and voting process, two student speakers have been chosen to deliver remarks at Commencement including Soo Kang and Jason Fine.
Kang is a P4 in the Doctor of Pharmacy program at Albany College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences and is also completing her healthcare management MBA at Clarkson University this year. She has been involved in various clubs and professional organizations during her time on campus. Her experiences thus far working with her peer student leaders, faculty, and upper administration in her previous roles within Student Government Association, Phi Lambda Sigma (PLS), and American System of Health Pharmacists (ASHP) have had a pivotal impact on her professional career growth. Post graduation, she will be pursuing a PGY-1 residency at South Shore University Hospital in Bayshore, NY. She hopes to pursue a PGY-2 in one of her clinical interest areas of infectious disease or ambulatory care while continuing to contribute her experiences to prospective pharmacy students.
Fine is graduating with a doctorate in pharmacy, as part of the final class at ACPHS’ Vermont campus. He has held a number of leadership roles at ACPHS, including in Phi Lambda Sigma Pharmacy Leadership Society as the Vermont liaison to the Albany campus, the president of ACPHS Student Government Association-Vermont, and vice president of the Vermont Pharmacists Association Student Chapter. Since 2020, Jason has been a pharmacy intern at The University of Vermont Medical Center outpatient pharmacy. After graduation, he will be a pharmacy resident at The University of Pittsburgh Medical Center St. Margaret Hospital.
For more information, please visit ACPHS' 2023 Commencement page.
About Albany College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences
Founded in 1881, Albany College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences (ACPHS) is a private, independent college dedicated to educating the next generation of leaders to improve the health of society. ACPHS offers 17 undergraduate, graduate and doctorate programs including online Master of Biomedical Sciences and Master of Biotechnology programs. Students have myriad opportunities to extend what they are learning in the classroom at The Stack Family Center for Biopharmaceutical Education and Training (CBET), at student-supported pharmacies in underserved communities, and at The Collaboratory, a public health resource designed to alleviate community health disparities in Albany’s South End neighborhood. ACPHS ranks #1 in New York State for best return on investment by Georgetown University’s Center on Education and the Workforce and was graded an A+ for value by Niche.