Keith Campagna Reflects on Life at Retirement
fter 25 years of service to Harrison School of Pharmacy, Keith D. Campagna, Associate Professor and Coordinator for Advanced Practice Experiences, has retired. A reception, attended by coworkers, family and friends, was held in his honor on March 11, 2003 at Greystone in Auburn.
Much could be listed among Keith Campagna's accomplishments after such a long career. In this article, however, we will only talk about the ones most important to Keith. You see Keith recently submitted to a rather intense interview for this article. In some ways, perhaps, his life review at the pearly gates won't be any more demanding. We're kidding, of course, but he did have to dig deep for some of these answers. Many of our readers will know Keith as a colleague, a friend, or a teacher/mentor, but we're betting there will be some surprises here.
It's appropriate to start at the beginning of most things - lives are no exception. That being the case, Keith was born in Sharon, Pennsylvania, and lived in Sharpsville, Pennsylvania until he was 16. With a name like Campagna, one would rightfully assume Keith has Italian heritage, but as it turns out, it's Italian with a twist. He says, "My Dad Angelo is 100% Italian (an immigrant from Italy, actually). My Mom Patricia is of German, Dutch and American Indian ancestry. So, I am only ½ Italian (although, it might be the bigger "half")." Friends who know him will concur.
Campagna was the first of his family on either side to receive a college education. He relates, "My Dad and Mom both had humble beginnings, both being raised in the country (Dad in Italy, Mom, in Illinois)." Some years later, Keith's Dad was transferred to Buffalo, NY, where Keith graduated from high school. Deciding on a college took him back to Pennsylvania and Duquesne University in Pittsburgh where he received his BS in pharmacy in 1969. That's where he met his wife-to-be Mary Ann, who was also in pharmacy school there.
Did Campagna grow up knowing he would choose pharmacy as a career? Yes, he chose pharmacy as a career while in high school. "I thought long and hard about medicine," he said, "but I did not want a worthless pre-med degree if I did not get into medical school. And, once I encountered the clinical practice of pharmacy, I knew I could get all the enjoyment out of my professional life that I previously thought only medicine could offer. So," he concluded, "pharmacy was a great choice for me."
After a tour of duty in the U.S. Army and a year of community pharmacy practice, Keith returned to Pittsburgh to complete a Residency in Hospital Pharmacy from Mercy Hospital in 1974, and a Pharm.D. from Duquesne University in 1976. After 4 years of working at the University of Illinois, Keith moved to Auburn as the first head of the Department of Clinical Pharmacy Practice. For the following 17 years, from 1978-1995, he held that position. Then, Dr. Campagna broadened his professional experience by expanding his roles with the School. From 1995 through 1998, in addition to his HSOP responsibilities, he was a faculty member at the University of Alabama at Birmingham School of Medicine-UAB Montgomery's Internal Medicine Residency Program. From 1998 through 2002, he held a similar position with the Montgomery Family Medicine Residency Program at Baptist Health. In 2002, he became the Coordinator of Advanced Practice Experiences for the HSOP Office of Experiential Learning. And the rest, as they say, is history.
What is Keith's A-No.1 accomplishment in his career at HSOP? The answer may surprise you. True to the thoughtful and considerate administrator he was, he said he is most proud of "being successful with every tenure and promotion recommendation sent to the University-wide committee." That attitude speaks volumes about Keith Campagna. In noting his 25 years' worth of service, Dean Lee Evans said Keith was "the consummate leader and everyone's friend. His collegiality and professionalism could always be counted on." Certainly his departmental colleagues would agree.
What, in particular, made this accomplishment stand out above the rest? "We made the argument that the Department of Clinical Pharmacy Practice had four areas of performance (teaching, scholarship, service and clinical practice), not the customary three, as do other units on campus," Campagna said. "Furthermore, our department members demonstrated productivity without the aid of a graduate program." With solid reasoning like that, the committee agreed with Campagna that the Pharmacy Practice candidates were "highly deserving of tenure and promotion." Campagna added, "That was a real achievement, and a pivotal point in our beginnings as an academic discipline at Auburn University."
We couldn't leave Keith's most treasured achievements at one, however, and neither could he, so we will list them, not in any particular order. Here in his own words, along with the tenure and promotion triumph, is what he considers the culmination of his career:
• Launching the first-phase of our post-baccalaureate Pharm.D. program with UAB in 1980 under the direction of our only on-site faculty member, Dr. Diane Beck. Diane did a great job and became part of the fabric of the UAB Department of Pharmacy. Special recognition goes to the UAB pharmacists who did a marvelous job teaching the clerkships in that program. Today, many of the pharmacists practicing at UAB, I am proud to say, earned their Doctor of Pharmacy degrees through this program.
• Launching the second-phase of our post-baccalaureate Pharm.D. program in 1989, which made the program more visible to the Auburn campus, and added additional off-campus Pharm.D. teaching hubs: The Medical Center in Columbus, GA; Huntsville Hospital in Huntsville, AL; Carraway Methodist Medical Center in Birmingham, AL; DCH Regional Medical Center in Tuscaloosa; and the USA Medical Center, Mobile Infirmary and Providence Hospitals in Mobile, AL, all of which are used today in our current entry-degree program. Dr. Mike Reinke was the Director of that program and did a fabulous job, molding an excellent teaching program with high standards upon which we continue to measure the performance of our current Pharm.D. curriculum. I contend that the Department of Clinical Pharmacy Practice really became a department with the advent of this program which united our entire faculty - both those on-campus and those off-campus.
• Instituting clerkship teaching into the B.S. curriculum in 1979 at EAMC, TMC and Tuskegee. Phil Knight came over from Montgomery to help Ann Janer, Larry Thomasson and Jon Tanja teach this two-day per week course at EAMC. Steve Huckleberry managed clerkship teaching at the VA in Tuskegee, and Burnis Breland and Tim Peltier at TMC got clerkships off the ground there.
• Personally obtaining a sabbatical experience with the Department of Pharmacy Care Systems in 1993. The Pharmacy Care Systems faculty made me feel at home, and I am grateful for their welcoming me.
• Working with the physicians and nurses at the Montgomery Family Medicine Residency Program. Samy Saliba, Tom Kincer, Jack Mahurin, Tim Bode, and Melissa Thompson were all great colleagues the years I was with them. Likewise, Jan Parfitt, Cathi Blaylock and Becky Purdom were a real pleasure to work with. The environment there was so accepting and "spiritual". It was a true blessing for me to have been associated with them.
• Working with Diane Beck, April Staton and Janelle Krueger in the Office of Experiential Education this past year. I could not hope to find a more competent, kind and caring group of colleagues. It was a blessing to have served my final year at Auburn with them.
There is one accomplishment Dr. Campagna didn't mention, perhaps out of modesty, so we'll do it for him: He won the Hargreaves Mentor Award in 2000. Since this is an award voted strictly by students, it is a high honor. Typical of his generosity and inclusiveness, Keith said, "Believe me, there are many faculty deserving of this recognition, I just had some students make a special effort on my behalf for their own personal reasons." One of those is Eric Morgan, '02, one of Campagna's last clerkship students. "Dr. Campagna is much more than a mentor to those he teaches," Eric said. "He is a compassionate individual who is able to mix his concern for students with his passion for the profession of pharmacy. He has impacted my life, both personally and professionally, in more ways than I have time to list, and I will always remember my rotations with him. I know there are many current students and former students alike who would agree that the 'World of Pharmacy' is a much better place because he is in it."
Friends say most days you'll find Keith laughing about something, and, perhaps true to his Italian heritage, telling funny stories. We asked Dr. Campagna if he could share some of his stories, perhaps things that happened while he was on trips for the University. Once again, he could not stop at one-and they are funny! There's no way to tell these except in Keith's own words.
So, here's episode #1: "During the early 90's, an ASHP Mid-Year Clinical Meeting was held in Las Vegas. I had never been to Vegas, and did not really anticipate enjoying it. Well, that changed pretty quickly the minute I heard the coins splashing into the buckets at the slot machines. What a hoot! The most fun, however, was when my colleagues Andy Pennell, Tim Martin and I went out for a night of casino hopping, and ended up at one called "Silver City". This was just our kind of place, low antes. Well, we played blackjack practically all night long, and did pretty well when the dealers were folks with names like "Milwaukee Merle" and "Minneapolis Mary". But when they changed dealers to "Bangkok Billy" we began losing like crazy. I swear he could pick the cards he was going to deal from the shoe. So, we went home a little lighter than we began, but we had a really great time. One that I will never forget."
Episode #2: Each Spring the University of Georgia hosts a SE Regional Residency program where residents from various programs make platform presentations. Great experience for residents. Well, our second-phase Pharm.D. program students would attend this meeting and make presentations, since several of them were doing research projects with the faculty. So, needless to say, the rest of the faculty and I were quite proud of our students competing favorably with these post-graduate residents. Of course, the event is not all work and no play, and being in Athens, GA, one just has to go out to do a little clubbing. On one of those occasions, Michael Malloy (former professor of the Pharmacy Practice Dept.) and I ended up at the same club. Mike had been talking to a young lady who was a resident from Tennessee. He came over and asked mye if I knew her. I said "No". He said maybe after you talk to her you will change your answer. Well, it turns out that this 25-year-old woman had been my next-door neighbor in Arlington Heights, IL 20 years previously. She went to the U of Illinois and then took a residency position at the University of Tennessee. Wow! What a shock! I felt 100 years old, to think of this little kid now being an adult. And, she also told a story on me to Michael. She remembers me, with garden hoe in hand, running after a speeding car in our neighborhood and yelling at the driver to slow down because children were playing there. Very embarrassing!"
Episode #3: Another story about Michael Malloy. "Michael wore an ear ring on occasion. So, at one of our department meetings, we all put on an audacious ear ring in advance, then we walked in and began the meeting. We all acted very serious, but Michael about fell over with laughter."
Episode #4: Story about Bill Ravis (Head of Pharmacal Sciences Dept.). "During the first-phase Pharm.D. program at UAB, Bill and I would travel to UAB every week where Bill would teach a pharmacokinetics course. This required a night's stay, and we would invariably be up late and end up at Hogan's Hide-Away, I believe it was called. The band and food were not that good, but it became our routine. Maybe, that's where Bill got the itch to play guitar, as he now does along with Barry McConatha, Don Davino and Chip Carter at Fat Daddys, Carter's restaurant in Auburn. I don't know how we survived those late hours. Needed less sleep then, I suppose."
Keith Campagna is a man who loves life and he must have enjoyed those trips to the max... But, as anyone who knows him can tell you, Keith's family and his church (St. Michael's Church in Auburn and the Cursillo Movement of the Diocese of Mobile - two communities that have enriched and strengthened the Campagnas' spiritual lives) are the most important things in his life. "Mary Ann and I both try to keep faithful to our daily prayers and scriptural readings," Keith said. "And, keeping a great life's mate through all of the twists and turns of life, and, together, raising three wonderful young men who have great hearts filled with compassion and sensitivity, is my greatest personal accomplishment." The Campagna's sons are Christopher, 31, Marc, 27, and Adam, 22. Christopher is an AU graduate, and a faculty member in the English department at University of Cincinnati. He is also a consultant to Educational Testing Service at Princeton, NJ. In August 2003, Christopher is to be married to Jodi Wyett, a member of the English department at Xavier University in Cincinnati. Marc is also an AU graduate, now working in Atlanta, but moving to Athens, GA soon, and contemplating graduate school at UGA. Adam is a recent graduate of Loyola University in New Orleans. When asked why they had no budding pharmacists in the family, Keith laughed and said, "I think Mary Ann and I talking pharmacy all of the time cured them of that."
Even though their sons have left the roost, Campagna says they don't miss them too much because "one or the other of our boys is often home on weekends. I am also blessed," he says, "to have my parents living in Auburn these past 14 & ½ years." To round out the cozy family picture, Mary Ann's parents, Michael and Margaret Stefanchick live close by in Newnan, GA.
As we near the end this article, we wanted to ask Keith a couple of serious questions about pharmacy and about life in general as a way of reflecting on his life and times. We asked him to contemplate upon this: Pharmacy students of today have grown up in a fast paced, high tech society. This same environment has changed the role of pharmacy and the pharmaceutical industry. You came out oyf a very different environment growing up. In your opinion, how have these generational and environmental differences affected the next generation of pharmacists?
"Hard question," replied Keith, "because I know there is a real generation (or two) gap between me and today's students. Also, I find it very difficult to determine when I learned what I know, i.e. I am not sure what I knew when I graduated with my B.S. degree, or Pharm.D. degree, or Residency. In other words, it is hard for me to put myself in the students' shoes. I do know that today's students are being put through a much more demanding curriculum than what I went through, and they are succeeding."
"What I am concerned about, though," he continued, "is the loss of a sense of history. I came through at a time when the clinical movement was just beginning and we believed that we could make pharmacy something greater than it had ever been. Pharmacists are doing very sophisticated things today that were unthinkable when I was in school. I do not know if our students realize this or not-how far we have come in 30 years. Further, I do not know what their ideals are for the profession. I hope they have as lofty ones as those who started this Pharm.D. path in my generation."
When one is young, one envisions learning a lot about how to live a successful life (not speaking of career) by the time retirement age is reached. With that in mind, we asked Keith if he had any "pearl of wisdom" for those not yet ready to retire. Without hesitation, he said, "Love doing what you do for your job, but realize that you are NOT defined by your job. You are a whole, separate person. Typical of the warm hearted, Christian family man he is, Keith continued, "I mostly want to be remembered by my children and friends as a decent person. I am less concerned about professional achievements. In that regard, we all have professional successes and disappointments. But, you should regard neither of these as who you are. If you do, then every little job related success and failure gets blown out of proportion to the detriment of the rest of your life."
If you imagine, after reading those words of wisdom, that Keith Campagna is ready to ride quietly into the sunset, think again. He accepted a new position with Aventis Pharmaceuticals on April 1, 2003. Aventis is a large international pharmaceutical company (the product of the recent merger of Hoechst-Marion-Roussel and Rhone-Poulenc-Rorer.) "Aventis got a good one!" said Dean Evans. "We wish Keith well."
Campagna serves Aventis as a Medical Scientific Manager (MSM) whose therapeutic area is Respiratory/Infectious Diseases. MSMs are separate from the commercial force, although Keith will be instructing salesmen on products and seeing physicians who have posed questions that only he is allowed to address. Keith's duties will include developing collegial relationships with academic physicians by providing them with scientific information on Resp/ID medications, both current and in the research pipeline, and the treatment of respiratory illnesses in general. But his primary responsibility will be assisting physicians who are interested in medical education and clinical research. Finally, he will give presentations to various groups on request, e.g. to physicians, pharmacists, managed care organizations, etc. Keith said, "I am enjoying my new job quite a bit. I work with other MSMs who are very knowledgeable, but still very knowledge-hungry. In that regard it is much like an academic position." He adds that Aventis appears to be very data-driven, i.e. rigorous scientific studies, use of hard evidence to support its product claims, and strict adherence to ethical policies and procedures. "Further," Keith says, "each person I hyave met appears to be a good, decent human being."
We asked Keith for a parting thought-a period at the end of the long, enjoyable paragraph of his life to date, metaphorically speaking, and he said, "I'm a happy man, and a very blessed one. When I reflect on that young man who started on the road to a better life than his parents had so many years ago, it makes me very proud to think that my folks are pleased with my life. Even more important is how God has shown His presence through my wife, Mary Ann, my sons, Chris, Marc and Adam, and the countless loving and caring people I have met because of my career at Auburn."
It just doesn't get much better than that.
