Issue link: https://tmcpulse.uberflip.com/i/1219671
10 t m c n e w s . o r g Spotlight RASHID MOSAVIN, R.PH., PH.D., MBA, became dean of Texas Southern University's College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences in June 2019. He came from California, where he was executive associate dean for the School of Pharmacy at Loma Linda University, but he has lived in many other places—both in the United States and abroad. An immigrant who speaks three languages, Mosavin is also a Buddhist who practices mindful meditation. Q | Why did you decide to study pharmacy? A | When I was in high school, I had this intense love for chemistry and biology. My parents said, if you love these two subjects and if you want to have a good career at the same time, go to pharmacy school. I tell my students that studying pharmacy is studying the actions and interactions of chemicals in biological systems. Think of your body. A tree. A dog. Each biological system works in harmony until something goes wrong and we have a disease—but when you add the right chemical, it alters what is happening and the issue is resolved. Q | You received a bachelor's degree in pharmacy from the University of Kansas, a Ph.D. in molecular pharmacology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and an MBA from the University of Chicago. Is it safe to say your career took a few twists and turns before landing in academia? A | After pharmacy school in Kansas, I worked for a few years and became very interested in pharmacology, with how drugs really work. I decided to study molecular pharmacology, which asks, Where does this drug actually go? Does it go inside of a cell? In the cytoplasm? The nucleus? What kind of receptors does it interact with? After my Ph.D., I did two years of postdoctoral research at the University of Michigan in gene therapy. I learned that gene therapy wasn't really for me; I wasn't happy doing all the laboratory research. Then I became interested in the economic side of health care, so I moved to Chicago to get my MBA and started my academic career. After Chicago, I saw an ad for a position in California—a brand new pharmacy school that had just opened at Loma Linda University. It was a blank page and just 200 miles from my parents, who had retired in Las Vegas. I was getting so sick of the winters in Chicago. Q | You were born in Iran and you were a teenager during the turbulent lead-up to the Iranian Revolution in 1979. How did the deposition of the Shah and the rise of Ayatollah Khomeini, who became Iran's top religious and political figure, impact you and your family? A | I was a teenager when the tanks rolled onto the streets of Isfahan, the city in the middle of Iran where I was born. My mother, who to this day I thank, says, 'Look. You're a smart kid and you're going to die here. There are tanks on the street. So this is what we're going to do: You go to Paris to live with your aunt and your cousins. When the situation gets better, you come back. Go learn French. Go to high school.' So that's what I did. And after a few years, in April 1981, I moved to the United States. I was 19 and I did not speak English. Q | So you never returned to Iran? A | Never. Several years later, my parents left Iran and brought my younger brother, Ashkan, to the U.S. We all stayed here. My brother now does community pharmacy. I became an American citizen, I think, in 1992. ➟ THE