The University of Iowa (UI) College of Pharmacy will recognize several alumni and friends during the Osterhaus Medal for Lifetime Achievement Symposium, Alumni Awards, and Professorship/Chair Celebration on Thursday, Oct. 29 in the College of Pharmacy Building. The event is part of the college’s Homecoming festivities. This year's honorees are stellar representatives who have excelled in their pharmacy practice, research, and community advancement, while simultaneously being steadfast ambassadors for the pharmacy profession and the college. Congratulations to these outstanding recipients.
Osterhaus Medal for Lifetime Achievement Award
The Osterhaus Medal for Lifetime Achievement Award is presented annually to one or more individuals who have made extraordinary achievements in the pharmacy profession. This medal is a pinnacle award given to a recipient who has advanced the practice of pharmacy in profound ways or made significant strides in discovery.
Terrence "Terry" Dahl, ’83 PhD
Terry Dahl earned his PhD under the tutelage of Associate Professor Emeritus Lloyd Matheson. Dahl went on to spend more than 40 years in drug product development and commercial manufacturing. Most recently, he served as senior vice president of Commercial Manufacturing Operations (CMO) at Gilead Sciences, leading teams in California and Ireland responsible for in-house and contract manufacturing, packaging, labeling, and distribution across Europe, North America, and Australia. He retired in 2019 but continues to provide technical consulting.
Dahl joined Gilead in 1995 as a senior scientist and was involved in the development or commercialization of 20 of the company's marketed products treating hepatitis B, hepatitis C, HIV, and cardiopulmonary and oncology diseases. Before leading CMO at Gilead, he was senior director of Pharmaceutical Development and Manufacturing, overseeing formulation and process development, scale-up, clinical packaging and labeling, and a pilot plant.
Before coming to Iowa, Dahl received his BS in pharmacy from North Dakota State University (NDSU) and is licensed to practice pharmacy in California, Iowa, Montana, and North Dakota. He has received the Distinguished Alumni Award from both the UI College of Pharmacy and NDSU.
Dahl and his wife Donna sponsor two UI endowments, the Terrence and Donna Dahl Pharmaceutics Fellowship and the Track and Field Excellence Fund. They reside in Sunnyvale, California.
Distinguished Alumni Award
The Distinguished Alumni Award is presented annually to individuals who have made illustrious contributions to the theory and practice of pharmacy or demonstrated major accomplishments in a professional pharmacy practice or pharmaceutical research and development.
Laura Borgelt, ’95 BSPh, PharmD, MBA
Lisa Gersema, ’84 BSPh, ’86 PharmD, MHA
Youlin Lin, ’72 PhD
Randy McDonough, ’87 BSPh, ’97 MS, ’00 PharmD
Laura Borgelt serves as executive vice chancellor for Academic and Student Affairs, provost, and chief academic officer at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, where she oversees all aspects of the faculty and student experience. Her three-decade career as a professor has spanned patient care, teaching, research, and higher education leadership.
Borgelt previously was chief operating officer for the Gates Institute, advancing novel cell and gene therapies, and associate vice chancellor leading campuswide strategy and five-year strategic initiatives. She also established the Office of Digital Learning, overseeing more than 40 degree and certificate programs. Borgelt is a fellow of the American College of Clinical Pharmacy. She credits her UI pharmacy education, and the mentors who encouraged her, with providing the foundation for every opportunity that followed.
Lisa Gersema completed a fellowship in clinical pharmacology at the UI following her Doctor of Pharmacy degree. She went on to earn an MHA from Boston’s Simmons College. Gersema spent more than 25 years as director of Pharmacy and clinical manager at United Hospital, advancing a decentralized, team-based pharmacy practice model. Currently, she is system director of Clinical Pharmacy Practice for Allina Health in Minneapolis, where she leads efforts to develop and optimize system practice standards grounded in evidence-based practice.
Gersema is highly involved with the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists (ASHP). She is serving as treasurer and previously was president, among other board of directors’ positions. Gersema also has chaired ASHP’s International Accreditation Commission and Task Force on Opioids and taught for several years with the ASHP Foundation's Pharmacy Leadership Academy. She was on the UI College of Pharmacy executive leadership board from 2019 to 2024 and is a member of the college’s Zada Cooper Symposium Planning Committee.
Youlin Lin earned his bachelor's degree in pharmacy from Kaohsiung Medical College in his native Taiwan before coming to Iowa for his PhD, studying under the mentorship of former Professor Joseph Cannon. He then completed postdoctoral research at Johns Hopkins Medical School. Lin spent 26 years at Mallinckrodt Pharmaceuticals in St. Louis, retiring in 1999 as director of Research. His work focused on diagnostic imaging agents for X-ray CT, MRI, and ultrasound.
In 1983, he designed and synthesized the molecule Ioversol, an X-ray CT intravascular imaging agent that, after years of pharmacological and clinical study, gained FDA approval and launched in 1989 as Optiray. Now used worldwide, his invention earned him Mallinckrodt's President's Extraordinary Performance Award and Distinguished Scientific Achievement Award, along with the National Asian American Corporate Achievement Award. Lin's innovative work has resulted in 22 United States and international patents. He credits his Iowa education with equipping him for a career dedicated to improving human health.
Randy McDonough recently completed his term as president of the American Pharmacists Association (APhA), the nation's largest professional pharmacy organization. He is co-owner and CEO of Towncrest Pharmacy Corporation, which comprises eight practices ranging from community pharmacies to a closed-door long-term care pharmacy, a cash-based functional medicine practice, and an IV hydration health spa. McDonough also is co-founder of Innovative Pharmacy Solutions and a professor of pharmacy management and innovation at Loma Linda University School of Pharmacy.
Board certified in geriatrics and pharmacotherapy, he has published and presented extensively on pharmaceutical care, medication therapy management, and new business models for community pharmacy. McDonough has been recognized nationally with the APhA Daniel B. Smith Award, the National Community Pharmacists Association Independent Pharmacist of the Year Award, and multiple Parata awards for lifetime achievement, entrepreneurship, and patient care.
Honorary Alumni Award
The Honorary Alumni Award annually recognizes friends of the college for their personal contribution toward pharmacy achievement, leadership, and service to the profession.
Jean Eisenbart, BS, MS
Jean Eisenbart's connection to the UI began through her husband, John, a third-generation Hawkeye, whose pride in Iowa City and the university became her own after they married in 2014. John and Jean were important contributors to the College of Pharmacy's new building, dedicating their gift in memory of John's mother, Carolyn, who was a 1942 UI pharmacy graduate.
After John passed away in 2023, Jean continued their shared commitment to students and supports several College of Pharmacy scholarship funds established to honor John, Carolyn, and John's grandmother, Carrie. She also donates to her alma mater, Northern Illinois University. Jean said she feels blessed to know her family of UI alumni are looking down on her saying “you’re a Hawkeye now!”
Genesis Alumni Award
The Genesis Alumni Award honors graduates of the past 20 years who have achieved early distinction in their field.
Christian Fernandez, ’10 PhD
Wes Pilkington, ’11 PharmD
Christian Fernandez followed his time at Iowa, where he was mentored by Professor Kevin Rice, with postdoctoral training in pharmacogenomics at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, studying childhood leukemia. In 2015, he joined the University of Pittsburgh (Pitt) School of Pharmacy and now is an associate professor and vice chair for education in the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences.
Fernandez leads an NIH-funded translational pharmacology program identifying the genetic and molecular mechanisms behind treatment-related toxicities and developing precision therapies for high-risk leukemias. He has helped shape the future of biomedical research through service on the NIH Drug Discovery study section. Fernandez received the Translational and Clinical Pharmacology Early Career Award from the American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics and the Pitt School of Pharmacy's Brenneman Scholar Award, among other accolades. He is passionately committed to developing the next generation of cancer researchers and his trainees have earned numerous competitive awards and fellowships, advancing to postdoctoral and scientific positions at highly regarded institutions.
Wes Pilkington is a UI College of Pharmacy preceptor at Evans Crossing Pharmacy in Evansdale, Iowa, which he co-owns. His approach to patient care took shape during his five years working alongside mentor Bob Greenwood at Greenwood Pharmacy in Waterloo, Iowa. Pilkington recently completed his term as president of the Iowa Pharmacy Association. During his time, he helped pass Iowa's Pharmacy Practice Act and legislation establishing pharmacy benefit manager reforms.
Pilkington spent six years on the Black Hawk County Board of Health, including overseeing the county's COVID-19 response, and is now in his second term on the Black Hawk-Grundy Mental Health Board. He lives in Cedar Falls with his wife, Sarah, and their three children, and coaches youth baseball and flag football.