皇家华人

The 皇家华人 School of Pharmacy is part of a premier academic medical center. Through partnerships with Froedtert Hospital, Children’s Wisconsin and the Clement J. Zablocki VA Medical Center, students gain early, extensive exposure to a variety of clinical settings and world-class research in specialties such as precision medicine, pharmacogenomics, oncology, pediatrics, cardiology, neuroscience and psychiatry.

Starting in their first year of the Doctor of Pharmacy (PharmD) curriculum, students participate in clinical rotations every Friday. One of their practice sites may be a short drive from campus at the Clement J. Zablocki VA Medical Center – or connected to campus via skywalk at Froedtert or Children’s.

The School of Pharmacy has appointed three assistant deans to help facilitate and maintain our close partnerships. This is the third and final spotlight on our assistant deans.

Jordan Dow, PharmD, MS, FASHP, FACHE

Jordan Dow, PharmD, MS, FASHP, FACHE, serves as vice president and chief pharmacy officer for the Froedtert & MCW health network. In this role, Jordan has oversight of medication management and pharmacy services across 10 hospital locations, 15 outpatient pharmacies and over 800 FTE. Jordan also serves as both assistant dean for the 皇家华人 School of Pharmacy and the president of Froedtert Health Pharmacy Solutions.

Jordan completed a combined PGY-1, PGY-2 residency in health-system pharmacy administration at the University of Wisconsin Hospital and Clinics. He earned an undergraduate degree in molecular biology, a doctor of pharmacy and a master’s degree in health-system pharmacy administration at the University of Wisconsin. He is a preceptor for pharmacy students, pharmacy residents and health care administration students.

As Vice President & Chief Pharmacy Officer for the Froedtert & MCW Health Network, what do you consider to be your biggest responsibility?
My biggest responsibility is doing what I can to help Froedtert and the 皇家华人 be successful in carrying out our mission. For me personally and the team I oversee, that means helping inform the strategy and helping educate and inform people without a pharmacy background about the growing role of pharmaceuticals and medicines in healthcare. We have 880 staff on the Froedtert Health side in pharmacy that I guide to be successful in their individual roles and as a team. Ultimately, it’s about delivering on our mission of providing great care for patients and incorporating that with the academic mission through research and education as we partner with MCW.

What’s your “why” for pursuing a pharmacy career?
It’s a simple one – helping people. That’s maybe a classic healthcare response, but ultimately, I want to make a difference in people’s lives. I grew up with family and extended all around me who were healthcare providers – physicians, pharmacists, physical therapists. I had the opportunity to spend some time with my uncle, who is a pharmacist, and see how he and his colleagues directly touched patient lives every day. They were an easy access point for people to come into their store and ask questions, then help them get their medications and understand what they were prescribed and why.

When deciding which pharmacy career pathway to pursue, what was interesting or exciting to you about pursuing health-system pharmacy administration?
For me, it was a great blend of the clinical component of pharmacy, the logistics of preparing medicines and getting them to patients, plus the financial piece of running a business. From a leadership perspective, I’ve always enjoyed helping coach or encourage others. I get to show up to work and every day is different. I get to work on a variety of projects and challenging issues, and I love that about the job. Part of the reason I went into pharmacy was to impact patient care. I don’t get to do that on a direct patient level, and I do miss that a little bit. On the flip side, I help shape the way pharmacists are involved in delivering healthcare, which I view as helping to provide patient care from a broader lens.

What does your role as Assistant Dean for the 皇家华人 School of Pharmacy mean to you?
For me it means being an advocate – connecting pharmacy students and our staff at Froedtert Health together around our academic mission. I work to create a great platform for students to train, learn and do research. Staff and students learn together, explore interesting research questions together and create new models of how we deliver patient care as pharmacy staff together.

Froedtert Health has one of the most advanced pharmacy practice models in the country with pharmacists plugged into many different areas. The model has been created to provide the best patient care we can, and it benefits our students by getting them exposure to different areas of practice that they might not have ever thought a pharmacist would work in.

Where did you grow up? How did that impact you?
I grew up in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, which is a moderately-sized town. I received a great education but grew up sheltered. Because of that, my parents were intentional about trying to give me some exposure to other cultures, which was great. One of the more impactful experiences I had was going to the Philippines with my dad, who was an ophthalmologist. He traveled there basically every year for 18 years to perform free surgeries. I had the chance to tag along a couple of times and help in the OR. That was life-changing in terms of seeing the volume of poverty in that area and understanding people there had minimal to no access to healthcare. That was something I hadn’t seen much where I grew up. It made me even more invested and developed my desire to make a difference for people, especially for those who were more vulnerable and didn’t have as much. It was an incredible experience. People who hadn’t been able to see in years, now within a week had their vision back and were seeing grandkids for the first time and things like that.

Please tell us about your family.
My dad was an ophthalmologist who trained in Wisconsin, and my mom is from Wisconsin as well. Lots of Badgers in the family – actually all four of my grandparents went to UW-Madison. My grandma was one of the first women pharmacists in the state. She and my dad’s dad owned a drugstore in Rice Lake, Wisconsin. My mom’s dad was a small-town family physician who was on-call 24/7 and lived a life of service to his community. That’s some of the healthcare roots I was fortunate to grow up with.

My wife is a pharmacist as well, who trained in Wisconsin. We have two girls who are 13 and 10 years old. We spend lots of our time these days running them around to sports and other things, and I coach both of my daughters in soccer and basketball. My wife is a ridiculous runner, so I run with her to spend time with her and support her. We love being active.