In an interview, Ogbonna reflected on the path that brought him to his new position and some of the biggest challenges and opportunities facing VCU and the Faculty of Pharmacy today.
What inspired you to start your career as a pharmacist?
I am the son of two educators, so they have nothing to do with medicine. My family is from Nigeria. My parents came in at a very young age and wanted to help us sisters and I have a better life as a family. I distinctly remember her two occasions when my grandparents were able to visit us here in America.
During one of those visits, my grandfather required medical attention and had a fairly serious adverse event during his hospital stay, which was related to medication. I told myself very early on that I wanted to be a drug expert that I could have advocated for, supported, helped, and prevented my grandfather’s adverse events. led me to the trajectory of
did you know what happened then?
Not at that time. All we knew was that he had undergone routine surgery and had a complication of acute renal failure. It was much later that these complications were associated with medication. It eventually healed, but it was originally a drug that should not be used on my grandfather. Had he had a pharmacist on his team, I think it might have been avoided, or at least mitigated in some way.
From that point on, this interest arose in how drugs could not only bring great benefits, but could also cause great harm. Responsible.
You are the first African-American to head a school whose founding can be traced in part to the Confederate States of America. i know this is what you thought. What lessons do you draw from it?
It is possible to change it. I think it speaks to why I’m still at VCU and why I chose VCU in the first place. I always say that VCU is a completely imperfect institution, always trying to do the right thing. As we look back at our history, we have the opportunity to think critically about our place within our community, our place within healthcare.
Knowing that only about 65 years ago was the first African American to graduate from pharmacy school, my appointment has not lost its significance. program. Now sitting in this chair and leading the school shows that change is possible. We still have work to do, but we are well on our way to ensuring universal access to both education and health care, and we will play an important role in that.
Another defining aspect: At 36, you officially become a millennial.
yes. (laughter).
Do you have any advice for people in your shoes, your age group, or other professionals interested in the successes you’ve seen?
This is a great question and one I haven’t given much thought to. I think it’s because throughout my career I’ve been really mindful of what I’m doing, focusing on influence.
Looking back to my first appointment at VCU in 2012, I came because of the opportunity to provide care to people who were often inaccessible in the community. I didn’t really care about titles or roles. It was, ‘Wow, we have a great opportunity to partner with the community to provide better care.’
It was the same when I assumed the role of Associate Dean of Admissions and Student Services. This is an opportunity to think differently about how we hire and who we hire, in a collaborative, thoughtful and purposeful way. Now as Dean, I still see the same opportunities to make an impact and think a little differently about what the status quo is.
Coming back to your question, frankly, regardless of your age, given your influence over your role, chances often come your way. I think I was lucky in that sense.
It’s a good successor to what you’re doing now. Please tell us why you chose to study pharmacy.
Healthcare is at a critical time for so many different reasons. The first is to think critically about allowing delegates and patients to see themselves in their care her team. The second is to think critically about access to healthcare and who gets it, when, how and why. Third, our educational model needs to fit better with how healthcare is evolving. Provide better patient access, provide opportunities for students to understand what healthcare can offer, and most importantly, be not only clinically healthy, but also reduce health disparities and patient populations. For example, how our healthcare system can offer strengths and weaknesses depending on who you are, where you come from, the means and resources. Having clinicians aware of all these factors will ultimately lead to better outcomes, better care, and a better healthcare system as a whole.
Generally speaking, what can you expect from the school under your leadership?
I think you can expect to be very focused on student success and think of student success as a whole. I often think about schoolwork and academic performance. And partly because of my clinical background and my real focus on Medicare and Medicaid patients, we talk about the social determinants of health all the time. thinking about the determinants of What are all the barriers that have been put in place? What are the paths for students to truly achieve and ultimately understand their goals and career aspirations? Think critically about not only how to help students work their way through the program, but how we can help students who may have never heard of healthcare or pharmacy. How do we prepare them to work through our program and become the clinicians expected of VCU graduates?
When I say holistic, what do you think of?
By holistic I mean when you have a student and think critically about how the student previously navigated their graduate education. My focus is to get students from all disciplines. In doing so, we need to be really thoughtful and sensitive about the supports, resources and barriers that students may face. That means creating a system that helps students get through difficult situations. This means creating systems to help students who need additional resources, support and tutoring. That means helping students build connections and networks beyond school that ultimately land them in the positions they most desire. That is why overall student success means not only thinking about academic progress, but thinking about academic progress. and Everything that feeds it.
What do you think is the particular advantage of the Faculty of Pharmacy compared to other faculties?
There are four areas that I consistently emphasize. Because I think those are the incredible strengths of the school.
One is our sense of community. When students, faculty and staff come to school, they really feel like they belong. I think we can lean into that.
The second is the excellence of our research. We punch above our weight in many ways. We have a phenomenal researcher in our building, contributing to many initiatives here at VCU, both nationally and internationally.
Third is entrepreneurship and innovation. You will have the opportunity to use your expertise to help your alumni continue their lifelong learning journey as they transition from one environment to another. This can be achieved by providing new programs, certificates and micro-credentials. It creates new resources for schools while better serving our alumni and the communities around us.
The fourth thing that truly sets us apart from other schools is our commitment to student success. When a student comes to her VCU, faculty don’t just tell her to go to her page 10 in Chapter 2 to learn about this case and read about this research exam. They have people on the front lines, doing jobs and creating new areas of research. It will be very important to tell that story and give it to incoming students.
How can we improve?
I think we need to really evaluate where higher education is now. A student entering a pipeline, or a student entering a pathway, is thinking about how to get from point A to point B in the shortest possible way. They are thinking about the overall cost of education and the return on investment. I think we need to think more critically about who our audience is and how we support, engage and engage them. But more importantly, how will they be financially solvent and fulfilled when they reach the end of that journey.
We are also actively looking at how we can help graduates who are already in the field, those who want to transition from one field to another. Another thing I think can be done in a way. We have that know-how in-house. I think the future is very important.
Finally, what lessons did you take from your upbringing to get us back to where we started? what do you have
There are many things that still resonate with me from my childhood. I think the biggest lesson my mom and dad really instilled in me is that the only limits are the ones you impose on yourself.
Maybe this ties in with everything we talked about, from the history and the importance of this appointment to the role I had. Limitations were often things that other people got in your way and I tended to ignore those things and just keep moving forward. I hope it was helpful.
Then, surround yourself with really good people, think critically about mentorship, and don’t be afraid to ask for tips and tricks along the way, if any. These two things I think have been incredibly helpful to me.
Your personal style is active and bright even in difficult situations. what is it that cheers you up?
There are two important activities that I have been involved in during my time here at VCU.
One is about admissions, where I call the student after the interview and tell him that I’ve been accepted into VCU. It’s not the kind of thing that allows you to capture the joy of that moment of letting students know that your career aspirations and the opportunity to go to pharmacy school have come true. The range of emotions that comes with it is staggering.
The second is how to read the graduation ceremony. Getting into and out of school is something I’ve focused on. There is nothing like seeing other people actually achieving what they set out to achieve. I think that’s what drives me and what really excites me.
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