Dean Mary Anne Koda-Kimble

Dean, 1998–2012

Mary Anne Koda-Kimble earned her PharmD degree in 1969 from the UC San Francisco School of Pharmacy and joined the faculty in 1970. She was part of the movement, begun in the late 1960s at UCSF, to train pharmacists as drug therapy specialists and not simply drug dispensers. As a result, pharmacists began to work side-by-side with physicians and nurses to assure the best selection and administration of medicines and to advise patients and their families on the expected effects of their medicines and how to best take them. Pharmacists became active, clinical members of the health care team, particularly within hospitals.

Koda-Kimble began her career in the UCSF Medical Center’s pharmaceutical operations, expanding her practice to the surgery satellite, the medicine service, and the diabetes clinic. Her administrative appointments grew rapidly—from vice chair of the Department of Clinical Pharmacy and associate dean of student affairs to chair of the department.

Koda-Kimble, along with fellow UCSF School of Pharmacy alumni Brian Katcher, PharmD; Ted Tong, PharmD; and Lloyd Young, PharmD, was one was one of the founding co-editors of the textbook, Applied Therapeutics: The Clinical Use of Drugs. This was the first clinical pharmacy textbook to be based on patient case histories. It has been translated into many languages and is widely used in the United States and internationally.

Named dean of the School of Pharmacy in 1998, Koda-Kimble was the first female dean of a top-ranked pharmacy school. She brought to the position a history of leadership in PharmD education and practice; staunch support for PhD science education and research; commitment to collaboration among disciplines; and advocacy for innovation across the academic landscape. Her career has been shaped by her experiences as an Asian-American woman; the daughter of California Japanese-American rice farmers interned during WWII; a University of California alumna; a teacher; and a patient care provider.

As dean, she was a strong force in supporting research along the continuum of the basic, translational, and clinical sciences, and she was a dedicated advocate for diversity. She expanded the School of Pharmacy faculty by more than 25 percent. During her tenure, National Institutes of Health research funding to the School increased from $4 million to $27 million per year. One of a very few pharmacists elected to the Institute of Medicine, she served on many boards and received numerous national and international honors and recognitions. She was president of the United States Pharmacopeia Board of Trustees and the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy. She was the 2010 recipient of the Remington Honor Medal, the highest award of the American Pharmacists Association, and she also received the association’s Robert K. Chalmers Award for her excellence as a teacher, researcher, and scholar, and for her overall impact on the profession of pharmacy.

The UCSF School of Pharmacy Mary Anne Koda-Kimble Seed Award for Innovation was established in 2012 to honor Koda-Kimble upon her retirement and to reflect her support for new directions in science, education, and patient care.

When she retired in 2013, UCSF had been the top-ranked pharmacy school in the United States for many years. She said, “My job has been to clear the path—to facilitate the big thinking that results in great plans—all so the faculty and staff can march forward at the best possible pace. They are the pioneers.”

Source: Biographical material held by the School of Pharmacy