UTCOP Celebrates Annual Feurt Symposium

On October 8th, students and faculty attended the annual Feurt Symposium. UTCOP welcomed Dr. Michael Seropian, MD, FRCPC from Oregon Health and Science University to discuss “Clinical Simulation: Relevance to Pharmacy Education.” Dr. Seropian is the current president of the SimHealth Group, an organization that is working closely with UTHSC to design and develop their simulation program. His passion is to see health professions successfully implement simulation into training, assessment and research. Following Dr. Seropian, UTCOP assistant professor, Chastity Shelton, PharmD, BCPS, BCNSP presented “Future of Simulation in Pharmacy Education at UTCOP.” Dr. Shelton has been actively involved in revising the curriculum at UTCOP to integrate simulation and interprofessional education. Currently Dr. Shelton serves as a faculty liaison on the UTHSC IPECS faculty advisory committee and represents UTCOP on the Interprofessional Simulation Center Development core team and the UTHSC Simulation Program Development Operations Team.

The symposium honors the accomplishments of Dr. Dick Feurt, dean of the College from 1959 to 1975. On March 1, 1959, at age 36, Dr. Dick Feurt became Dean of the UT School of Pharmacy. A native of Missouri and World War II veteran, he earned his BSPh degree at Loyola University of the South in New Orleans, and his MS and PhD degrees from the University of Florida. Prior to his UT tenure, Dr. Feurt was Professor of Pharmacology at the University of Georgia, where he was a co-inventor of the tranquilizer gun, a tool used in wildlife management.

Dean Feurt’s accomplishments at UT are significant, including the change of name to College of Pharmacy, recruitment of acclaimed teachers and scientists to the College, new graduate programs in the pharmaceutical sciences, and the beginning of the PharmD program in 1968. He was described as “a young man, full of vigor, energetic, aggressive, bold, and seething with ideals.” He founded the Tennessee Pharmacy Tripartite Committee to bring the profession together in Tennessee. Dr. Feurt served as dean until his death on January 19, 1975. Because of their respect, members of the Tennessee Board of Pharmacy and Tennessee Pharmacists Association, in cooperation with the University, started the Seldon D. Feurt Memorial Fund to honor Dr. Feurt and provide private funding for scholarships, fellowships, research grants, and other needs of the College.