Dear UCSF Community,

After more than four decades of remarkable contributions to the field of pharmacy, as well as to UCSF, our students, faculty, staff, and the patients we serve, School of Pharmacy Dean Joe Guglielmo has decided to retire at the end of 2021.

Joe joined our faculty in 1979, after completing his residency here at UCSF in pharmacy practice. Those were the early years of clinical pharmacy – a field founded at UCSF – in which pharmacists serve as part of the clinical team in hospitals to guide therapeutic decisions for patients.

Early in his career, Joe recognized the tremendous need for antibiotic management in hospitals, where drug resistance had already become a significant danger. He went on to become a nationally recognized expert on the use of drugs to control infection. He turned that knowledge into direct improvements in the care we provide, creating and leading the antimicrobial management program at UCSF Medical Center, which became a model for hospitals nationwide.

Joe’s contributions to the School of Pharmacy will have a lasting impact. Over the course of his career, he has been a leading clinical pharmacist, researcher, teacher, and administrator. As chair of the Department of Clinical Pharmacy – which he assumed in 2006 – and now as dean, Joe has led the transformation of the curriculum for the School’s doctoral program and the way pharmacy is taught. It is widely viewed as one of the preeminent programs in the nation and has continued to evolve under his leadership as dean.

In research, Joe has built upon the School’s stellar record in innovative science, recruiting top-tier faculty and overseeing a 40% rise in the School’s NIH funding...