OXFORD, Miss. – Medical Marketing Economics, LLC, a consultancy group based in Oxford, has committed $350,000 to support the University of Mississippi’s School of Pharmacy.
“Faculty, staff and students of the School of Pharmacy are grateful for the generous support of Dr. Kolassa and the MME partners,” said Barbara Wells, the school’s dean. “This gift will make a meaningful difference for both graduate and professional students and their faculty. MME provides a wonderful example for us all – alumni, businesses, faculty and staff – to emulate. These forward-looking, community-minded individuals believe in the importance of supporting the School to ensure that we can provide the best education possible. We thank them for the faith they place in us and our students.”
The gift will support the pharmacy school in three different ways: $150,000 will create and endow the MME Fellowship in Pharmacy Administration; another $150,000 will create a general fund to support the School; and the remaining amount will support the Science Library located in the Thad Cochran Research Center.
“Our company, MME, wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for the Ole Miss School of Pharmacy,” said E.M. "Mick" Kolassa, CEO and managing partner of MME, who also holds a Ph.D. in pharmacy from Ole Miss. “It is where many of us met, the source of many of our employees, and a major source of pride for all of us. We see this gift as a way for us to give back.”
MME works to develop value-based strategies and market research for health-care goods and services and assists its clients in gathering, evaluating and understanding the information needed to make profitable, value-based decisions about their products and services. Of MME’s seven partners, four hold degrees from UM’s School of Pharmacy. The company also has an office in Montclair, New Jersey.
MME’s gift is part of the university’s MomentUM campaign, a four-year initiative to raise $200 million. The MomentUM campaign, which ends in December 2008, already has raised more than $180 million for scholarships, graduate fellowships, faculty support, a basketball practice facility, residential colleges and a new law school on the Oxford campus. Also in the plans are a cancer center at the UM Medical Center and a new building to house the School of Pharmacy, both in Jackson.
For more information on the School of Pharmacy, visit http://www.pharmacy.olemiss.edu.
By Sonia Thompson