Newswise — MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — Patricia Chase, Ph.D., dean of the West Virginia University School of Pharmacy, has been selected as president-elect of the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy (AACP).

AACP is a national organization comprised of 129 accredited colleges and schools of pharmacy that represents the interests of pharmacy education.

Dr. Chase will serve as the AACP 2013-2014 president-elect, 2014-2015 president and 2015-2016 immediate past president.

Chase has been active in AACP for many years. She has taught at the Academic Leadership Fellows Program for the past nine years and has served both as chair and secretary of the Council of Deans and chair of AACP’s Women Faculty Special Interest Group. She was also the lead editor for the AACP Dean’s Compass: Practical Advice for Achieving Excellence and served as a facilitator for the Institute for Pedagogical and Curriculum Change and the New Teacher’s Seminar.

“I am thrilled to have been selected as AACP’s president-elect,” Chase said. “With the Affordable Health Care Act, there is tremendous opportunity for academic pharmacy to educate future pharmacists to become key providers in team-based care models.”

Chase is the third dean in the history of the WVU School of Pharmacy who will serve as AACP president. J. Lester Hayman, the first dean of the WVU School of Pharmacy, was AACP president from 1948-1949, and Raphael O. Bachmann, second dean of the school, was president from 1969-1970.

Chase will be installed as president-elect at the AACP Annual Meeting in July 2013. She will be active in this position on AACP’s Board of Directors until she begins her term as 2014-2015 President.

For more information about the WVU School of Pharmacy, visit http://pharmacy.hsc.wvu.edu.