Athens, Ga. – Paul J. Brooks, who has overseen outreach services with the University of Georgia College of Pharmacy for six years, has been named associate vice president for public service and outreach, effective July 15.
Jennifer Frum, UGA vice president for public service and outreach, welcomed Brooks to the team, which will work on advancing a culture of engagement and outreach and helping Georgia prosper.
“Dr. Brooks brings a career-long focus on outreach that will help enhance our mission to continue building collaborative partnerships that benefit the state and the university,” Frum said.
Brooks, who holds doctorates from the UGA Institute of Higher Education and the Mercer University School of Pharmacy, has been involved in public service and outreach his entire career. He held a joint appointment to Duke University and the University of North Carolina from 1989 to 1992 that included serving as an outreach liaison to practicing pharmacists in a nine-county region around Fayetteville, N.C.
UGA hired Brooks in 1995 to help create a nontraditional doctor of pharmacy degree program in partnership with Mercer University and state professional organizations. He later collaborated with the Small Business Development Center, a UGA public service and outreach unit, in the development of a pharmacy practice business management program. And his dissertation in higher education administration focused on public service and outreach faculty.
In addition, Brooks was a member of the UGA Public Service and Outreach Leadership Academy’s inaugural class. He has worked to increase the number of public service faculty in the College of Pharmacy and across the university.
“When I was first hired at the College of Pharmacy, there were only two public service faculty. Today there are 15. The college views public service faculty as vital to the instructional and service mission of the college and university,” Brooks said.
As associate vice president for public service and outreach, Brooks will be responsible for helping to build collaborative linkages and networks across the institution that deepen UGA’s engagement with the state. He will also work to integrate more fully the engagement of academic faculty and students from all areas of UGA in PSO programs.
UGA’s Office of the Vice President for Public Service and Outreach includes nine units that contribute to Georgia’s short- and long-term prosperity by bringing university resources to bear on the state’s most pressing economic, social and community needs: Archway Partnership, Carl Vinson Institute of Government, J.W. Fanning Institute for Leadership Development, Georgia Center for Continuing Education, Marine Extension Service, Office of Service-Learning, Small Business Development Center, Georgia Sea Grant and the State Botanical Garden of Georgia.
