CUW PharmD alumnus Kyle Rehrauer is the sole pre-doctoral student in Wisconsin to receive an American Foundation for Pharmaceutical Education Award this year. He’s also the first student to matriculate into CUW’s dual PharmD/PhD program with UWM.
The AFPE Pre-Doctoral Fellowships support PhD candidates who will contribute to research that holds potential to positively impact public health and patient outcomes. Rehrauer received the Rho Chi First Year Graduate Fellowship. This scholarship will help to offset his tuition costs as he continues his studies as a PhD candidate at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee this upcoming year.
CUW’s dual PharmD/PhD program
Rehrauer is the first Concordian to participate in the new dual PharmD/PhD pathway partnership between CUW and the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. The program, which CUW Associate Professor Christopher W. Cunningham, PhD, helped build, is designed for the individual who wants to specialize in both the clinical and research aspects of the pharmacy field.
“There are certain jobs that strike a good balance between the scientific and clinical sides of pharmacy,” said Rehrauer. “I want to be able to contribute to both in the long-run. I ultimately want to be able to help change people’s lives through drug development.”
Students in the program complete two years of undergraduate coursework, four years of pharmacy school, and 3 ½ years of PhD coursework to potentially earn a BS, PharmD, and PhD in under 10 years, as opposed to the 13-plus years it would take if completed consecutively.
Contributing to neuropsychiatry research
Rehrauer will spend the next three-plus years working towards his PhD in Chemistry with access to the vast research resources available to him as a UWM student. Through the dual degree program, however, he will still have access to and support from Cunningham, who has carved a niche as a noted expert in the cannabinoid research field.
It was Cunningham’s Pharmacology and Medicinal Chemistry I course, which Rehrauer took in his first year of pharmacy school, that ultimately sparked Rehrauer’s passion for research.
“I think it’s amazing that we can change one little atom on a molecule, and that, in turn, changes the whole makeup, leading to such a huge impact on the patient down the line,” Rehrauer said.
As a UWM student, Rehrauer will be able to continue his contributions to Cunningham’s research pursuits, which seek to modify the endogenous human cannabinoid system to target certain disease states, such as anxiety and drug withdrawal.
Want in?
Concordia University Wisconsin’s School of Pharmacy is one of only three PharmD offerings in Wisconsin, and Concordia is the only private Christian university in the state to host a pharmacy school. CUWSOP graduates routinely earn high pass rates on national certifying exams, with last year’s cohort earning the second-highest NAPLEX pass rate in the region. Graduates also routinely exceed national residency match rates.