It was as simple as picking up an informational post card about the University of South Carolina College of Pharmacy.
Donald A. Godwin switched from conducting marine biology research at the University of Delaware to moving south.
“I filled out the card and sent it in and the college sent me a brochure about graduate education. That’s how I became a Gamecock,” Godwin says.
Godwin initially enrolled in the master’s program, but a conversation with then-associate Dean Farid Sadik helped convince him to enter the Ph.D. program. Godwin considers Sadik one of the greatest influences in his life.
“He brought me into his office and told me that he thought I had the right stuff to earn a Ph.D.,” Godwin says. “I had a teaching assistantship, and I was assigned to the compounding lab.”
Godwin demonstrated a penchant for sharing knowledge and moved on to teach pharmacy calculations, then pharmacokinetics, then assisting students in summer remediation classes.
“I really enjoyed helping students work through problems and realized that perhaps academia would be the right place for me,” he says. “I discovered my love of teaching while I was at USC.”
Leadership is one of the pillars in our professional development course series, and I am the champion of that pillar. I always tell students that if you are presented with an opportunity, just say yes.
After earning his Ph.D. in pharmaceutics in 1996, Godwin and his wife, Melissa, who he met at the USC College of Pharmacy, headed west. He joined the faculty at the University of New Mexico College of Pharmacy, rising through the ranks to become dean in 2018. He was recently reappointed to a second five-year term.
Even with his many administrative requirements, Godwin maintains a presence in the classroom.
“Leadership is one of the pillars in our professional development course series, and I am the champion of that pillar,” he says. “I always tell students that if you are presented with an opportunity, just say yes. It may not work out, but accept the challenge.
“And then you can say yes to the next opportunity.”
Topics: Alumni Programs, Graduate Programs