Alma Littles appointed interim dean of FSU School of Drugs

Florida State College Provost Jim Clark has named Dr. Alma Littles interim dean of the School of Drugs. The appointment will start Feb. 1.

Littles, who has served as senior affiliate dean for medical training and tutorial affairs on the medical faculty for practically 20 years, succeeds Dr. John P. Fogarty. Fogarty is retiring after 14 years because the School of Drugs’s dean.

“Dr. Littles is assuming this position at an thrilling time for the School of Drugs,” Clark mentioned. “Her lengthy tenure at FSU mixed along with her relationships with the native well being care group make her a great match to guide the school, and we’re grateful that she is prepared to tackle this problem.”

Littles grew up in Quincy because the youngest of 12 kids and returned there following medical faculty to supply main care in an space the place such medical suppliers had been scarce. The FSU School of Drugs was created to provide extra main care physicians, particularly those that would take care of older sufferers and sufferers in rural and minority communities.

“The medical faculty’s mission gave the impression of my life story,” Littles mentioned. “I used to be from a rural space, and I used to be within the well being care of individuals from rural areas and in recruiting extra college students from these locations into medication. The phrases within the mission assertion about serving underserved communities had been like they had been written for me.”

After graduating from the UF School of Drugs, Littles accomplished her household medication residency at Tallahassee Memorial Hospital, later returning to function this system’s director. She grew to become the performing after which founding chair of the Division of Household Drugs and Rural Well being not lengthy after the FSU School of Drugs was created throughout the 2000 legislative session.

“Rising up, and having practiced medication in a small, rural Florida city, I used to be conscious about the wants concerning physicians offering main care and serving residents in rural and different underserved areas of the state,” Littles mentioned. “It was my recognition of and dedication to this objective that motivated me to depart the patient-care setting I cherished to maneuver to the FSU School of Drugs.”

She additionally grew to become performing dean of the Tallahassee Regional Campus when the primary cohort of third-year medical college students at FSU went out into group settings to finish their required and elective rotations. The faculty additionally went on to open regional campuses in Daytona Seaside, Fort Pierce, Orlando, Pensacola and Sarasota.

In her position as a senior affiliate dean, Littles has led the school’s accreditation efforts, the event and evolution of its curriculum and the growth of its community-based training mannequin that differs from the overwhelming majority of medical faculties.

FSU’s mannequin sends college students throughout Florida for one-on-one, apprenticeship type clerkships with established group physicians. Most medical college students within the U.S. full their clerkships in a big educating hospital or tutorial medical middle. The purpose at FSU is to additionally expose college students to the position of group physicians and the worth these people have in a affected person’s life.

From its preliminary class of 27 graduates in 2005, the school has produced 1,721 M.D. alumni, and not too long ago graduated its fourth class of doctor assistants. Greater than 1,000 FSU alumni physicians are actually in observe (with greater than 500 of these in Florida) whereas others are finishing residencies and fellowships. Practically 200 PA graduates have additionally entered the workforce.

Littles assumes management of the school at a crucial juncture. FSU is partnering with Tallahassee Memorial HealthCare and the St. Joe Firm to develop an educational well being care campus positioned on an 87-acre parcel close to Latitude Margaritaville Watersound, a 55-plus group deliberate for 3,500 properties in Panama Metropolis Seaside.

The campus initially will embody an ambulatory and pressing care middle, for which a groundbreaking ceremony will happen Jan. 17. Future improvement plans embody the development of an pressing care middle and a 100-bed inpatient facility in a area the place the closest hospitals are 30 to 45 minutes away.

The college is also getting ready for the event of a brand new tutorial analysis constructing in Tallahassee with a $125 million appropriation from the Florida Legislature.

“The FSU School of Drugs can turn out to be a medical faculty that demonstrates the efficient coexistence of a powerful medical training program, strong analysis program, and formidable medical school observe with out shortchanging success in all areas,” Littles mentioned. “Along with its robust academic applications, our medical practices might want to develop in a fashion that meets the medical faculty’s mission and targets for affected person care, gives medical training websites for college students and residents, and contributes to the rising medical analysis initiatives.

“The medical practices of school on the regional campuses present a wealthy useful resource for medical and translational analysis and training and require continued nurturing to permit the medical faculty to advance information within the twenty first century.”