Mary Anne Koda-Kimble, PharmD, has served as dean of the School of Pharmacy, University of California, San Francisco since 1998. She brings to the position a history of leadership in PharmD education and practice; staunch support for PhD science education and research; commitment to collaboration among disciplines; and advocacy for innovation across the academic landscape. Her career has been shaped by her experiences as an Asian-American woman; the daughter of California rice farmers; a University of California alumna; a teacher; and a patient care provider.

As an undergraduate, she attended the University of the Pacific in Stockton, California. Before earning a degree, she was accepted to the doctor of pharmacy program at UCSF and graduated with a PharmD in 1969. In 1970, she joined the UCSF School of Pharmacy faculty. She taught pharmacy students, nurses, and physicians. She practiced initially in the UCSF Medical Center’s pharmaceutical operations and subsequently in the surgery satellite, on the medicine service, and in the diabetes clinic.

She quickly assumed increasing administrative and leadership responsibilities in the School—first as vice chair of the division of clinical pharmacy and associate dean for student affairs, and then as chair of the department of clinical pharmacy. She held the latter position until she was named dean.

Dr. Koda-Kimble was part of the movement, begun in the 1960s at UCSF, to train pharmacists as drug therapy specialists and not simply drug dispensers. As a result, pharmacists began to work side-by-side with physicians and nurses to provide direct care to patients and consultation to patients' families. Pharmacists became active, clinical members of the health care team.

Dr. Koda-Kimble was one of the founding co-editors of the textbook, Applied Therapeutics: The Clinical Use of Drugs. This was the first clinical pharmacy textbook to be based on patient case histories. She has continued as a co-editor since the textbook was first printed in 1978. It is now in its 9th edition has been translated into many languages, and is widely used in the United States and internationally. Dr. Koda-Kimble is also the author of many scholarly publications.

She is one of just a few pharmacists elected to the Institute of Medicine. She is a past president of the United States Pharmacopoeia Board of Trustees and a past president of the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy. She has served on the California State Board of Pharmacy, the United States Food and Drug Administration’s Nonprescription Drugs Advisory Committee, and the Board of Directors of the American Council of Pharmaceutical Education.

Among her many awards, Dr. Koda-Kimble was designated a Founding Member and Distinguished Practitioner of the National Academy of Practice in Pharmacy. She is a recipient of the 2007 Paul F. Parker Medal from the American Colleges of Clinical Pharmacy, which honors distinguished service to the profession. In 2008, she received the Outstanding Dean Award from the American Pharmacists Association-Academy of Student Pharmacists. In 2010 she received two national awards—the Robert K. Chalmers Distinguished Pharmacy Educator Award from the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy and the Remington Honor Medal from the American Pharmacists Association. The latter is the profession's highest honor.