About TSHP Research & Education Foundation

In the mid-1970’s, the pharmaceutical industry was under heavy political pressure with respect to its’ marketing budget for various professional medical organizations. Specifically, one of the areas of concern was the issue of pharmaceutical companies giving grant monies to professional medical organizations to fund educational seminars. It was thought, at that time, pharmaceuticals companies would be restricted or severely limited in their ability to award these grants and that tax laws would impact the flow of funds to traditional professional societies. Thus, the TSHP Research & Education (R&E) Foundation was created in an effort to address those concerns. The pharmaceutical companies would give professional seminar funding to the Foundation due to its tax-exempt status. The Foundation would then utilize the funds for educational programming at the TSHP Annual Seminar.

The “founding father” of the Foundation was TSHP Past President Danny Thomas. Danny (the first Foundation Executive Vice President) and other forward thinking TSHP members, such as TSHP Past Presidents Harland Henry and Ben Mike Ethridge, along with industry members, such as Glenn Smith of Behrens, Patricia O’Sullivan of Upjohn and Mark Tamble of Smith, Kline & French created the founding documents to register the Foundation with the Texas Secretary of State and the Internal Revenue Service. The Foundation received its charter from the Texas Secretary of State on August 26, 1977 and tax exemption from the Internal Revenue Service in April 1978. Exemption from the Texas franchise and sales tax was obtained on August 29, 1977.

The Foundation began with a $100 ($514 in 2024 dollars) donation from Ben Mike Ethridge and $150 ($772 in 2024 dollars) as a State-of-the-Art Study. It remained at that level until TSHP Past President Ed Zost came into the picture.

The Foundation didn’t gain initial traction or generate significant contributions in its first few years.

The Foundation was revitalized in 1981 by TSHP Past President Ed Zost. While the Foundation had already been legally established, it needed to be re-energized and renewed. This became more obvious when Ed received the working papers and documents of the Foundation which existed in one shoe box. The assets of the Foundation totaled $85; a far cry from what it could potentially become. The Foundation needed an extensive amount of work and guidance to bring it to the organization that could offer extensive scholarships in the future. Ed made a commitment to the Foundation and recruited TSHP Past President Ben Mike Ethridge to act as Interim Executive Vice President. They were able to convince Bob Brown to become the second Executive Vice President in 1982. It was during Bob’s tenure that the Foundation became more visible to the TSHP membership and began organized fund-raising programs. Some of the programs Bob instituted were the Robert G. Leonard Award, internship programs with Abbott Laboratories, Behrens and Cardinal as well as the first three academic scholarships for pharmacy students. The Robert G. Leonard Fund was established in September 1981. The first annual Leonard Lecture was given by Thomas S. Foster in 1983. Scholarships were funded utilizing the general fund along with additional corporate donations. Additionally, Bob obtained donations from various pharmaceutical companies. Bob wanted to present a scholarship to a student in each of our three colleges of pharmacy and he persuaded three pharmacy management companies (Innovative Pharmacy Services, Allied Pharmacy Services and Owen Healthcare) to contribute $200 annually and that funding was immediately disbursed as scholarships. Bob Brown and Jim Smeeding worked with Ernie Renzulli (Abbott regional director) to develop the Internship in Industrial Pharmacy. The first small grant was issued in 1983 funded through the Robert G. Leonard Fund; this was the beginning of the research grant program.

Ed Zost provided the leadership and energy needed to begin the revitalization of the Foundation. Ben Mike Ethridge provided leadership, mentorship and vision of what the Foundation could become in the future. Bob Brown began the programs that allowed the Foundation to move toward that future. These three pioneers proved to be catalysts to get the Foundation started on a path of success.

Because of Bob’s work requirements, he had to step aside as the Executive Vice President. In 1984, TSHP Past President Sandra Evans Webb assumed the position as the third Executive Vice President. By 1987, the Foundation achieved an asset base of $100,000.

Sandra continued Bob’s work and expanded the fund-raising efforts. One memorable event was Sandra’s “Jerry Lewis-like” telethon, at one of the luncheons during the 1993 TSHP Annual Seminar, to get the Foundation to the $250,000 mark in total assets.

During Sandy’s tenure, the scholarship program expanded and 17 scholarships were awarded in 1993. The Internship Program had expanded to include an Internship in Wholesale Pharmaceutical Distribution, an Internship in Hospital Pharmacy and the Foundation could now provide summer internships for up to 15 students per summer. Sandy remarked that several formats had been tried for the small grant program and that in 1993, it had been consolidated to one $5,000 grant per year. The small grant program, during Sandy’s tenure, was funded through the Robert G. Leonard Fund.

In 1988, the Foundation began a Research Award Program to encourage poster presentations at the TSHP Annual Seminar. Four awards were given each year for presentations.

Fund raising was a prime concern during Sandy’s tenure as the Executive Vice President. She and Past TSHP President Julie Nelson worked with Glenn Smith of Behrens. Glenn suggested that we use their list of companies they purchased from as a base for a general request for funds. Julie did a significant amount of work refining the Behrens list and then composing a funding request letter; Behrens did the work (at their expense) to distribute those funding request letters. This was the beginning of our outreach to industry for funding.

Several pharmaceutical representatives helped place the Foundation in communication with their home offices and we began to develop regular contributions from companies such as Pfizer, Abbott, Smith Kline & French, etc. Sandy recollects when we had around a dozen industry contributors, she had an idea to have what she called the “State-Fair Award Ribbons” to hang in the exhibit booths of industry contributors. The ribbons were Blue and Gold, along with a gold number, to reflect how many years the company had contributed to the Foundation. Sandy recalls going around the exhibit hall and hanging these award ribbons on the booth of our regular industry contributors. Other exhibitors say the award ribbons helped to generate questions and contributions. Contributions from industry were significant in the early years; more easily obtained than in later years.

Sandra served as the Executive Vice President from 1984 – 1994. When she became the Associate Dean at the University of Houston College of Pharmacy, she could no longer serve as the Executive Vice President. In 1994, Past TSHP President Lois Nash was recruited to become the fourth Executive Vice President. Under Lois’ tenure, the Foundation continued to expand its’ programs. Various new fund-raising programs were launched and the significant expansion of the named fund program began. Contributions to named funds, rather than the general fund, allowed for significantly increased scholarships and awards.

Local TSHP chapters began contributing to the Foundation under the named fund program. By 2017, the largest contributor was the El Paso Area Society which had contributed $94,700 to the Foundation from 1999 - 2017.

The named funds provided resources to develop a pharmacy student scholarship program. Diane Fox initially handled the scholarship program.

In the mid-1990’s, the Alcalde Southwest Leadership Conference reached a turning point. The conference had been established as a forum for Residency Program presentations and was originally sponsored by Lilly. Linda Albrecht coordinated the program on a volunteer basis. Eventually Lilly gave the Conference a two-year warning that it would no longer fund the program. At that time, Lilly paid for the hotel rooms and some speakers. Registration fees were coordinated by Diane Fox by opening a checking account for the deposit of registration fees. With Lilly giving notice, Butch Habeger recommended to Linda Albrecht to approach the R&E Foundation to assume administration of Alcalde. After a presentation to the R&E Board of Directors, approval was given to administer Alcalde as part of the Foundation’s educational component.

In addition to poster presentation competition for pharmacy students, the Foundation initiated a clinical skills competition. Both of these programs continue to this day.

Another significant annual event, that began in the early years was the annual fund-raising breakfast that occurred during the TSHP Annual Seminar. This allowed donors to present donation checks and deliver remarks to members in attendance at the breakfast.

Prior to 1993, the President of the Foundation was the President-Elect of TSHP. At that time, the Foundation’s Board of Directors felt that better continuity of the office of President could be achieved by electing the Foundation President from the membership of the Board of Directors. Past TSHP President Frederick Mullin served as President from 1993 – 2003.

Prior to 1995, finances of the Foundation were self-directed and consisted of C.D.’s and an investment in the Vanguard S&P 500 Index Fund. Fred felt that professional asset management was now needed because the assets of the Foundation had reached a level of $250,000.

Fred drafted an Investment Policy Statement for the Fund’s assets. This policy was approved by the Board of Directors. Next, representatives from three brokerage companies in the Austin area were invited to present a proposal to the Board of Directors for their professional asset management of the Foundation’s assets.

After discussion of the three presentations, in 1995, the Board of Directors selected Legg Mason, Inc. as the first professional asset manager for the Foundation’s increasing asset base. Fred left the Board of Directors in April of 2004 with 24 years of cumulative service. In 2015, Craig Frost, the President of the Foundation, invited Fred to return to the Board of Directors for a maximum of 9 years to the term limited board appointment. In 2017, Fred reviewed the Foundations archive of contributions. The result was an extensive document of all contributions, by name, for the period of 1979 – 2017. The Board chose to move assets from Legg Mason to Morgan Stanely in the early 2000s. After reviewing how Morgan Sanely was servicing the account, Fred recommended to the Board of Directors that a change in asset management would be prudent. As a result of this recommendation, two asset managers, from the Austin area were invited to give a presentation to the Board of Directors in 2019. As a result of these presentations, the Board of Directors selected LPL Financial. LPL Financial still serves in that asset management capacity today. Additionally, the previous investment policy statement, drafted in the mid-90’s, was in serious need of overhaul. Fred updated the Investment Policy Statement which was approved by the Board of Directors.

Today, the Foundation’s managed assets and cash total around $918,000.