September 11, 2024                                                                  

For Immediate Release

Contact:

Ellen L. Woods, President

(571) 404-0471

woods@afpepharm.org

The 2024 American Foundation for Pharmaceutical Education

William M. Heller Mentor of the Year is awarded to

 Anna Schwendeman, Ph.D.

Fairfax, VA – The William M. Heller Mentor of the Year Award recognizes faculty who are nominated by their students and colleagues, for their guidance, dedication, leadership, instruction, and encouragement.

Anna Schwendeman, PhD, is the Hans W. Vahlteich Professor of Pharmacy and a member of the Biointerfaces Institute at the University of Michigan. Her research focus is on the optimization of high-density lipoprotein (HDL) nanoparticles for the treatment of diseases such as atherosclerosis and sepsis, as well as other drug delivery purposes. In 2016, together with Dr. James Moon, she co-founded EVOQ Therapeutics, an immunotherapy company that utilizes a propiertary synthetic HDL NanoDisc technology to improve the lives of individuals fighting autoimmune diseases. EVOQ has also successfully established partnership deals to develop drugs for autoimmune diseases. Prior to starting her academic career in 2012, Dr. Schwendeman spent 12 years in the pharmaceutical industry at Cerenis Therapeutics, Pfizer, and Esperion Therapeutics. Esperion Therapeutics was acquired by Pfizer in 2004 for $1.3 billion. She was involved in the discovery and translation of HDL drugs to Phase II clinical trials. Currently, Dr. Schwendeman is also a co-director of the FDA funded Center for Research on Complex Generics.  

Over the past 12+ years Dr. Schwendeman has taought over 18 different courses for multiple cohorts of graduate and PharmD students. She has mentored 80+ graduate and undergraduate students, postdocs, visitng scholars and research staff. On receiving the 2024 William M. Heller Mentor of the Year Award, a further motivated Dr. Schwendeman shared: “I am honored to receive this award knowing that my students have nominated me. I am also honored to be among an elite group of previous awardees, some of whom were my mentors. Being a mentor or advisor is an important responsibility. It is a delicate balance between guiding mentees through their careers, while simultaneously encouring them to think and discover independently. As the old idiom says,“you can lead a horse to water, but you can't make them drink”. I am glad that this mentoring strategy is well received by my mentees and continues to have a positive impact on their training!"

Anna also mentioned: "I also would like to thank the many people who have taught me to be a good mentor, scientist, faculty member and businesswoman. These include my parents, my professors at Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology, Steven Schwendeman, Narendra Lalwani, William Brinkerhoff, Jean-Louis Dessaux, Alan Remaley, John Tesmer, Y. Eugene Chen, Kerry-Anne Rye, Francis Szoka, Maria Castro, Nick Kotov, Danny Tawfik, Andrew Leiberman, Kathleen Stringer, David Sherman, and many others. Each person has taught me something valuable that I later applied in how I conduct research, how I interact with people and how I make decisions."

About AFPE

AFPE supports the education of pharmaceutical scientists and strengthens pharmacy education at U.S. schools of pharmacy through scholarships and fellowships that provide recognition and financial support to outstanding pharmaceutical science graduate students, PharmD candidates, and pharmacy faculty researchers. AFPE uses annual tax-deductible contributions from corporations, foundations, associations, alumni, friends and former Fellows to support the robust pharmaceutical education scholarship and fellowship programs.

American Foundation for Pharmaceutical Education

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