FAMU’s popular dean of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, Henry Lewis, III, is on the short list for Florida Memorial University’s presidency. He is one of three finalists.The two other candidates are Curtis B. Charles, associate vice chancellor for academic affairs at Fayetteville State University, and Roslyn Clark Artis, the executive vice president for academic affairs at Mountain State University.
Lewis earned his bachelor of science in pharmacy from FAMU and earned his doctor of pharmacy from Mercer University in Atlanta. He previously served as dean of the Texas Southern University College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences for four years.
FAMU pharmacy graduates average 92 percent first-time passage on the National Board of Pharmacy Examination. The school produces one fifth of the nation’s African American pharmacists. FAMU pharmacy is also one of the biggest grant-raisers on the campus. Its current research funding totals $22.5M. $37M is committed through 2012.
Lewis served as FAMU’s interim president for six months in 2002 after the resignation of Frederick S. Humphries. Many FAMU students, faculty, and alumni lobbied the Board of Trustees to consider him for the permanent presidency.
A group of FAMU trustees that included R.B. Holmes, Jr. and Bill Jennings fought bitterly against the pro-Lewis campaign. Holmes became one of the loudest anti-Lewis voices in the media and worked hard to help former board member Jim Corbin appoint his cronies to the FAMU presidency. Holmes and Jennings both lend helping hands to Corbin's drive to hire Castell Bryant as FAMU’s interim president in 2005. Bryant took away 18 faculty and staff positions that FAMU pharmacy needed and failed to spend the funds for the Phase II building. Those problems resulted in FAMU pharmacy being placed on probation with the Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education (ACPE).
New President James Ammons brought Lewis back on board as pharmacy dean in 2007 to save the school. Lewis successfully guided FAMU pharmacy back to good standing with ACPE less than a year later.