Meet the President

The incoming President of the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy (AACP) is Rodney A. Carter, Professor and Associate Dean for Professional and External Relations at the University of Minnesota College of Pharmacy. Rod received a bachelor of science degree in pharmacy from Drake University and a doctor of pharmacy degree from the University of Minnesota. He began his career in academia at Purdue University where he initiated clinical pharmacy services and experiential education rotations at Lafayette Home Hospital. After 10 years in a clinical role, he moved to campus to direct the pharmacotherapy sequence in the doctor of pharmacy program and helped develop and ultimately coordinated the School’s nontraditional doctor of pharmacy program. His clinical and teaching areas of focus were clinical pharmacokinetics and the pharmacotherapy of cardiovascular diseases. After 18 years at Purdue, Rod accepted the position as inaugural Chair of the Department of Pharmacy Practice at the Bernard J. Dunn School of Pharmacy at Shenandoah University. He spent 5 years at Shenandoah with responsibilities for creating practice partnerships and the experiential program, building and developing the Department’s faculty, and helping create an integrated science and practice curriculum. He returned to the University of Minnesota in 2001 to develop the plan for the College’s expansion to the University of Minnesota-Duluth campus. After the program on the UMD campus was functioning, Rod assumed responsibilities for the College’s relationships with alumni and external pharmacy constituents. He and colleagues at Minnesota implemented the use of case studies and discussion groups across both campuses to teach a Pharmaceutical Care Skills course. He has served as Executive Director of Experiential Education and is currently leading the College’s creation of an International Health and Research Initiative. His current teaching is in patientcentered pharmaceutical care practice. Rod has been active in AACP since joining the organization in 1980 and attended his 29 consecutive annual meeting this past July in Seattle. Networking with other nontraditional PharmD program directors at AACP meetings stimulated his interest in participating in the governance of the organization. He has served as Secretary and Chair of the Section of Teachers of Pharmacy Practice, Chair of the Academic Sections Coordinating Committee, Chair of the Council of Faculties, and as the first elected Speaker of the House. He has chaired the Bylaws and Policy Development Committee and served on numerous section, council and AACP standing committees. Rod received the Drake University College of Pharmacy’s Alumni Achievement Award in 2002. He has been described by friends and colleagues as a person who cares deeply about others and has many friends inside and external to the College. He empowers students and colleagues to achieve their best. He was named Mentor of the Year at the University of Minnesota College of Pharmacy in 2004. His door is always open to students. He is described by colleagues as a clear thinker who is dedicated to student learning and development and who has implemented many curricular innovations. He has taken advantage of every opportunity to learn where we are going as a profession and how we fit into the health care team and the reformed health system. Rod is a dedicated family man. For over 29 years, he has been married to Susan Carter, a social worker for Fairview Hospice in Minneapolis. The Carter’s have a son, Scott, who is a flight instructor in the Aerospace Sciences program at the University of North Dakota in Grand Forks. When not working for the College, Rod is an avid Minnesota Twins fan and winds down either by running or by reading a good mystery novel.

Field of study: Education, Medicine