The Taneja College of Pharmacy has enhanced its foundational, didactic, and experiential curriculum to accommodate the diversity of students entering pharmacy school, many with diverse backgrounds in study, work, and life experiences. The curriculum includes components that allow students to pursue their passions, become workforce-ready, and pursue nontraditional pharmacy career paths.

As the USF Health Taneja College of Pharmacy’s (TCOP) new 30,000-square-foot home in downtown Tampa continues to progress, plans include a Maker Space/Creativity Lounge, a space that will connect students, faculty, and staff with leaders and innovators to promote creativity as part of professional development.

“The key to this vision is the ITEHC Academy (Innovation, Technology, and Entrepreneurship in Healthcare). What originally started as a student-developed organization has grown to become the foundation for initiatives focused on advancing our student’s creativity, innovative and disruptive mindsets. It is now the pinnacle of the pillars and strategic plan of the USF Health Taneja College of Pharmacy,” said Kevin M. Olson, MBA, PharmD, CPh, assistant professor at the USF Health Taneja College of Pharmacy and director of the ITEHC Academy.

To help elevate and advance pharmaceutical education further, the new space will include virtual and augmented reality, a multitaction video wall, CAD drawing software, 3D printing, and holographic technology.

The space will allow various student groups, such as ITEHC, to develop innovative ideas and prototypes for health-related devices.

“Envision a space where students, faculty, staff, and community partners can come together and collaborate, a space where they can discover new ways of creating value that will advance pharmacy practice, differentiate pharmacist career opportunities, and reshape the future of pharmacy and health care,” Dr. Olson said.

Story and video by Ryan Rossy, USF Health Communications and Marketing

Rendering of the Student Commons outside the Creativity Lounge.

Rendering of the Creativity Lounge.

Faculty across several disciplines at USF Health earned National Institutes of Health funding to streamline prenatal, obstetric, pediatric, treatment, behavioral and community health care for patients with opioid use disorder.

Called CADENCE (Continuous and Data-Driven Care), the new program will better serve pregnant patients and new parents, as well as their infants, as they navigate the care they need for managing opioid dependence.

Co-principal investigators for the HD2A R61/R33 grant are Kimberly Fryer, MD, MSCR, assistant professor in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology in the USF Health Morsani College of Medicine, and Jennifer Marshall, PhD, CPH, associate professor in the USF Health College of Public Health, and fellow in the Lawton and Rhea Chiles Center.

The primary aim of the new program is to streamline the integration of four “clinics” – or areas that patients might typically access separately. By streamlining these disciplines, care and scheduling will be more coordinated and holistic, and health outcomes of the parent and baby could greatly improve.

The four USF Health clinics being streamlined include office based opioid treatment (OBOT), the maternal family medicine prenatal/obstetric clinic, the PEDI pediatrics clinic, and behavioral health/mental health service.

A “secret shopper” study led by Dr. Marshall a year ago found that only about 20 percent of over 1000 attempts for pregnant women with Medicaid experiencing opioid use disorder were able to set appointments for prenatal care, indicating that many providers may hesitate to take these patients because they do not have the capacity or know how to connect their patients to the addiction treatment critical to helping these patients succeed in caring for themselves and their babies.

By bringing the four primary disciplines together, patients will have access to integrated, continuous, care that will improve maternal engagement in recovery or treatment for maternal opioid use disorder at delivery, neonatal outcomes, and timely referral to early intervention.

The new CADENCE includes two components: a data stage that will create in the first two years an interactive data dashboard that tracks maternal, neonatal, and infant outcomes for pregnancies affected by opioid use disorder and pilot the CADENCE program within USF Health and Hillsborough County; and an implementation stage in the third, fourth and fifth years that will focus on measuring improvement in clinical outcomes at the program level using the data from the dashboard and assessing the implementation and costs of the CADENCE program.

This program of integrated, continuous, care will be rapidly refined using a data-driven approach towards improving maternal engagement in recovery or treatment for maternal opioid use disorder at delivery, neonatal outcomes, and timely referral to early intervention.

A long-term aim of the project is to develop a model that can be shared throughout Florida and at other academic medical programs to help pregnant women in their communities.

The USF Health Morsani College of Medicine Academy of Distinguished Educators class of 2022 (Left to right): Eduardo Gonzalez, MD, FAAFP; Andreas Seyfang, PhD; John Armstrong, MD, FACS; Marzenna Wiranowska, PhD, MS; Susan Pross, PhD.

The USF Health Morsani College of Medicine (MCOM) recently celebrated the newest members of the Academy of Distinguished Educators during a small induction ceremony Sept. 20.

Class of 2022 Inductees:

• John Armstrong, MD
• Eduardo Gonzalez, MD, FAAFP
• Susan Pross, PhD
• Andreas Seyfang, PhD
• Marzenna Wiranowska, PhD, MS

“To us falls the high privilege and great responsibility of training the generation of doctors.  If we fail to do our job to perfection, people die needlessly.  Too often this simple truth is forgotten, but each of you never forget.” said Charles J. Lockwood, MD, MHCM, USF Health executive vice president and MCOM dean. All of you are a testament to why MCOM continues to thrive and why our reputation across the nation continues to rise.”

The program was developed as a collaborative effort by MCOM’s Department of Medical Education, Faculty Council, and Office of Faculty Affairs to enhance the practice, quality and scholarship of teaching and learning at the medical school through educational service, consultation and research.   The program honors exemplary educators of all medical students, physicians, physician assistants, physical therapists, athletic trainers and scientists within the faculty by awarding the prestigious title of Distinguished Educator.

Nominees must hold an active appointment at MCOM for at least two years and hold the minimum title of associate professor.  Nominees must have made exceptional contributions to the education mission in one or more of the following ways:

• Research in education.
• Innovations and scholarly approaches in curriculum development, instructional design, or assessment of student learning.
• Mentoring and development of faculty as educators or educational researchers.
• Individual learner mentoring and development.
• Leadership in education.

About the Inductees:

John Armstrong, MD, FACS.

John Armstrong, MD, FACS  is a nationally recognized surgeon and USF Health professor who has held multiple positions within USF Health and the Florida government.  He served as chief medical officer of the Center for Advanced Medical Learning and Simulation (CAMLS), surgical director of the USF Health American Colleges of Surgeons Accredited Education Institute and professor in the MCOM Department of Surgery.  He also served as Surgeon General and Secretary of Health under former Governor Rick Scott from 2012 to 2016.

Eduardo Gonzalez, MD, FAAFP.

Eduardo Gonzalez MD, FAAFP, joined USF Health in 1994.  He  serves as a professor and director in the MCOM Department of Family Medicine, professor in the Taneja College of Pharmacy Department of Pharmacy Practice.  He is co-medical director of the USF Health BRIDGE Clinic, a free student-run clinic that serves uninsured adults from underserved communities.  In 2019, Dr. Gonzalez was named Physician of the Year by the American Academy of Family Physicians.  He is also a two-time USF alum having completed his undergraduate degree in 1987, and medical school in 1991.

Susan Pross, PhD.

Susan Pross, PhD has been part of the Morsani College of Medicine since 1975.  She is a professor in the MCOM Department of Molecular Medicine and director of the MCOM Office of Research Innovation and Scholar Endeavors Scholarly Concentrations Program, where she helps to develop and assess elective opportunities for student scholarship.   She is a trained immunologist and microbiologist  with research interests in allergy, immunology, and infectious disease.

Andreas Seyfang, PhD.

Andreas Seyfang, PhD is an expert in medical microbiology and parasitology.  He holds several professor positions throughout the USF Health colleges to include the Morsani College of Medicine, College of Public Health and School of Physical Therapy and Rehabilitation Sciences.  He’s earned multiple outstanding instructor and teaching awards that are voted on by students.  He is the director of the Seyfang laboratory that focuses on membrane permeases as target for drug delivery, and cytochrome b5 reductase as enzymatic drug target in opportunistic microbial pathogens including protozoan parasites and nosocomial and neuro-pathogenic fungi.

Marzenna Wiranowska, PhD, MS.

Marzenna Wiranowska, PhD, MS is an international expert in microbiology and immunology.  She joined the USF Health staff in 1982 where she started as a research associate in the Immunopharmacology Program at MCOM and currently serves as an associate professor in the Department of Pathology and Cell Biology.  She leads the Medical Humanities elective of the Scholarly Concentrations Program.  Dr. Wiranowska has earned many awards as an educator of medical students including the Most Outstanding Pre-Clinical Professor Award voted on by the MCOM class of 2019.

Story by Freddie Coleman.  Photos by Ryan Rossy

The Tampa Bay Street Medicine Project (TBSM) is a USF Health Morsani College of Medicine (MCOM) student-run service organization that was formed in 2014. In response to the growth of the organization, the TBSM Continuity Clinic at Tampa Hope in Ybor has been opened to provide medical care, education, and connections to community members who are homeless, unsheltered, or living below the poverty line.

USF Health medical students, volunteer providers, and other health care professionals operate the clinic, which acts as a transition for patients who do not have constant access to health care. Students provide hygiene kits, over-the-counter medications, and take vital signs. Meanwhile, volunteer faculty physicians and other health professionals help patients with more serious medical conditions.

Third-year medical student Dalan Smallwood at the Tampa Continuity Clinic as part of the TBSM effort.

“In places of most vulnerability, we want to be there to provide service for them and to make sure their health is being taken care of while they’re transitioning through different parts of their lives,” said Natasha Ram, third-year medical student at Morsani College of Medicine and the Tampa Continuity Clinic co-director.

Emily Small, a second-year student in the Physician Assistant program, checks the blood pressure of a patient on a recent street run for the TBSM program.

In addition, the organization continues to serve patients who reside on the streets. The students meet up in Downtown Tampa to take vitals, provide hygiene kits, socks, over-the-counter medications, and prescription medications to the underserved. Volunteer faculty physicians and other health professionals supervise the group when more serious problems arise.

“The goal of Tampa Bay Street Medicine,” said Richa Bisht, fourth-year medical student at Morsani College of Medicine and the Tampa Bay Street Medicine vice president, “is to take care of the homeless here as best we can, offer them as many resources as we can, and give our students the opportunity to work with this group because it’s an important community to take care of.”

To serve more of the underserved population the TBSM community continues to seek the help of more students and volunteers. By bringing together the university and the community, more resources can be made available to those in need. Here is where you can donate to help maintain and grow the mission of the student organization.

“Really the number one thing that we would really need is just having people come volunteer, come help us out, see our patients, and help them feel better,” said Ram.

Story, photos, and video by Ryan Rossy, USF Health Communications and Marketing

The Florida Blue Health Knowledge Exchange, located in the USF Health Morsani College of Medicine and Heart Institute features an interactive MultiTaction wall.

When the new USF Health Morsani College of Medicine and Heart Institute opened in 2020 as a medical school of the future, it was equally important to include a library meant for the future, as well.

Thus, The Florida Blue Health Knowledge Exchange (FBHKE) was born.

Located on the second-floor mezzanine, the Knowledge Exchange is nearly completely digital –with no shelves lined with books – that expands the research and education support of the Shimberg Library, located at the USF Health campus in north Tampa.

Some of the features of the Knowledge Exchange are a large-scale video visualization wall for multimedia presentations, an executive reading room, computers available to the public, an IT help desk, and space for technology demonstrations and recording lectures.

Distance learning students, and staff across multiple USF Health campuses can take advantage of the digital database as well.  The state-of-the art, world-class library features more than 4,500 online research journals and 4,500 electronic books, including the New England Journal of Medicine, the oldest and one of the most prestigious peer-reviewed medical journals.

Library specialists like Courtney Bates-Walker are there to help students, staff and physicians navigate the futuristic library.

The 5,000-square-foot space is also available to Taneja College of Pharmacy students, Heart Institute researchers, USF Health and Tampa General Hospital physicians and patients, and the downtown and greater Tampa community.  Dedicated research librarians play several roles within the library and college, and often go into lecture halls, collegia spaces, and other study areas to meet with students.

“This is truly a place made to support discovery, engagement and collaboration,” said Rose Bland, assistant vice president of the USF Health Libraries and assistant dean at MCOM. “Resources are available 24/7, so we are available whenever our students and faculty are.  Libraries are changing for what students need today so, while there are some quiet spaces, the Knowledge Exchange is meant to be a place where people meet and collaborate.”

“Keeping pace with the rapidly evolving world of health data and technology is critical in today’s healthcare environment,” said Pat Geraghty, Florida Blue chief executive officer, in 2017 after giving a $1 million gift to support the Knowledge Exchange. “The Florida Blue Health Knowledge Exchange is aptly named as it will serve that goal by facilitating more information sharing and collaboration among students, health professionals and entrepreneurs.  USF and the Tampa Bay community are well positioned to be a center of health knowledge and learning.  We are very proud to be a part of this public facility, which aligns so closely with our own mission of helping people and communities achieve better health.”

Back in 2007, four University of South Florida Morsani College of Medicine (MCOM) students started a student-run free clinic with a couple of exam rooms at the Hillsborough Health Department and an idea to help the underserved communities surrounding the university.

“We wanted to establish somewhere (that) is more a pillar for the community,” said Waldo Guerrero, MD, one of the co-founders of the BRIDGE Clinic. “What really drove the idea of the clinic was having a more substantiable way to provide care to the underserved folks.”

Fifteen years later, the BRIDGE Clinic encompasses more than 20 exam rooms in The USF Carol and Frank Morsani Center for Advanced Healthcare and the volunteer services of USF students from medicine, pharmacy, public health, social work and physical therapy. The experience not only helps the students care for their neighbors but also assists their health care education.

“It was a great opportunity for me to be able to give back to the community while also getting a lot of hands-on experience,” said Marissa Maldonado, a fourth-year MCOM medical student.

The clinic has grown in response to rising demand for medical services among the uninsured and underserved in the community. The US Census Bureau reports that 14.9 percent of people 65 and under lack health insurance, and the Florida Department of Health says that 15.7 percent of employed people in Hillsborough County do not have insurance.

“The proudest moments are every Tuesday night after clinic is done, “said Eduardo Gonzalez, MD, co-medical director of the BRIDGE clinic. “Patients were seen and provided wonderful care that they otherwise they would not have been able to obtain.”

Donations are welcome to maintain and grow the clinic.

“Whatever gift is given, it will be used,” Dr. Gonzalez said. “It will be used 100 percent in the caring of patients.”

Graduate programs at USF Health had significant gains in this year’s rankings from U.S. News & World Report (U.S. News), strong improvements that highlight the advances USF Health continues to experience on the national stage.

In the U.S. News 2023 Best Graduate Schools list released March 29, the USF Health Morsani College of Medicine, College of Nursing, and the College of Public Health all had programs that moved up in rank.

• #46 in Medical Schools for Research: The USF Health Morsani College of Medicine remains in the top 50 for U.S. medical schools for research, moving up two spots from last year, from #48 to #46.
• #56 in Medical Schools for Primary Care: The Morsani College of Medicine also improved for U.S. medical schools for primary care, going from #69 to #56.
• #42 in Nursing—Master’s: The USF Health College of Nursing jumped an incredible 14 spots, going from #56 last year to #42 this year, making it the top-ranked public nursing master’s program in Florida.
• #16 in Public Health: The USF Health College of Public Health remains in the top 20 and rose four spots this year to rank #16 up from #20 last year, making it the top-ranked public health program in Florida, public or private universities.

U.S. News does not provide new rankings for all graduate programs each year, so the USF Health Taneja College of Pharmacy maintains its rank of #68, and the School of Physical Therapy and Rehabilitation Sciences maintains its rank of #49.

“Programs across USF Health continue to rise in national rankings, providing a spotlight on our commitment to building high-quality graduate curricula filled with outstanding graduate student experiences,” said Charles Lockwood, MD, MHCM, senior vice president for USF Health and dean of the Morsani College of Medicine. “These new rankings demonstrate the incredible work of our faculty in elevating our programs through world-class health education, ground-breaking research and excellent clinical care.”

According to U.S. News, its methodology uses data from expert opinions and statistical indicators when measuring a program’s ranking, examining qualities students and faculty bring to the educational experience and graduates’ achievements linked to their degrees, such as job placement and research impact.

More on ranks for USF graduate programs…

I started some weeks ago to put together a message on Black History Month.  But as the world watches with horror at what is happening in Ukraine between two peoples whose destinies seemed inseparable only 30 years ago, I thought perhaps now is a best time to recount some thoughts that remind us how America is a nation of many peoples, but all united by their belief in liberty. My own understanding of America is one rooted in the known experiences of my ancestors, both slave and free, and what I’m confident to be factual occurrences in history.  While America’s history is filled with conquest, defeats, tragedies and celebrations, pristine things and imperfect things, it is nevertheless a great history that all Americans can embrace as their own.

Although we usually think of Black History Month as a time to recognize the contributions of African Americans, I’m inclined to view this as a time for all of us to celebrate how Americans as a nation have come to realize all people should be free. We are after all, one nation.

Black History Month was previously known as African American History Month, which grew out of “Negro History Week.”  The latter was the brainchild of noted historian Carter G. Woodson and other prominent African Americans.  Dr. Woodson, whose parents had been enslaved, was one of the first Black scholars to earn a PhD from Harvard. Later, as a dean of Howard University, a historically Black institution in Washington, D.C., he was dismayed to find that sitting academics were ignoring Black history and the contributions of Black people to American life. So Woodson established the first Negro History week in 1926. Since 1976, every U.S. president has officially designated the month of February as Black History Month.

The histories of white and black Americans are clearly intertwined and interdependent.  Many Americans are not aware that when the slave Nat Turner staged the rebellion of enslaved Virginians in Southampton County, Virginia, in August 1831, Black Africans had already been enslaved in America since 1619; some 200 years before Nat Turner.  The point here is that Blacks were enslaved in America for 246 years, but have only been constitutionally free for 157 years.  As a physician now witnessing the sometimes-racial tensions that occasionally reignite in America, I am reminded that, gestationally speaking, America is still new to its concepts of freedom for everyone.  Many of us would like to believe slavery occurred in the long-ago era of a lesser nation (only 34 American States existed at the start of the Civil War), but our historical timeline indicates that even now we Americans are still newborns to freedom.

So, in the context of America’s history, it was not that long ago that Harriett Tubman was born into slavery, suffered whippings at the hands of her enslavers, later escaped and subsequently made some 13 missions to rescue approximately 70 more enslaved people.  She accomplished this via a network of both white and black antislavery activists following passage of the Fugitive Slave Act in 1850.

Last month we celebrated Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., and his many contributions as one of the most visible spokespersons of the Civil Rights (and Human Rights) Movement and for his advocacy for equality and voting rights throughout the late 1950s and 1960s.  This movement had to overcome unspeakable cruelty, hate, and frequent violence including the death of many Black leaders such as Malcolm X, other supporters of the movement, and Dr. King’s own tragic and untimely assassination in 1968. Nevertheless, even Dr. King’s efforts still accelerated some healing for all Americans from racism.  For instance, I recently saw that some 15% of marriages in America are now interracial, which is fascinating considering that it was only 53 years ago that Chief Justice Earl Warren wrote that the freedom to marry outside one’s race cannot be infringed upon by the State (Loving v. Virginia).  I can’t imagine such a statistic ever occurring without the Civil Rights Movement, and so suggest that we all have reason to be encouraged by the gradual progressions of race relations in America.

Recently, President Biden nominated Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson for appointment to the Supreme Court of the United States.  This is an historic first for a Black woman.  While she has unparalleled qualifications for this nomination, some will scrutinize her fitness unfortunately because of her ancestry. However, if Congress appoints Judge Jackson to the Supreme Court, she will serve as a Supreme Court Justice for all Americans, and all Americans can take pride in a continued racial healing in America.  We clearly have far to go before America reaches perfection, but when I consider our freedoms and way of life, I have to believe that Americans are more blessed than most and that we will continue to mature in our understanding and acceptance of each other with each passing year.

Haywood Brown, MD
Senior Associate Vice President of Academic Affairs for USF Health
Vice Dean of Faculty Affairs for the Morsani College of Medicine

The USF Health Ybor Youth Clinic (YYC) is proud to announce successful completion of the Adolescent-Centered Environment Assessment Process (ACE-AP) and certification as a silver adolescent-centered health center; the first clinic in Florida to receive this designation. Funding for participation in this certification process was provided by the Healthy Start Coalition of Hillsborough County’s Adolescent & Teen Health Program.

As part of a countywide initiative to improve teen access to health services and community resources, the program launched in 2019 and has led to the placement of an adolescent health navigator at the YYC, development of an online resource directory (www.TeenConnectTampaBay.org), formation of the Teen Connect Youth Advisory Board, and trainings for health care providers, parents, and youth-serving professionals to help advance the delivery of youth-friendly care.

The ACE-AP, developed and facilitated by the Adolescent Health Initiative out of the University of Michigan Medicine program, is a comprehensive self-assessment and guided improvement process designed to minimize barriers and improve the delivery of care to adolescents. The ACE-AP is comprehensive, spanning 12 key areas of adolescent-centered care, including adolescent best practices and standards of care, confidentiality, behavioral health practices, adolescent involvement and empowerment, and cultural responsiveness.

Opened in 2012, the Ybor Youth Clinic is a program in the Department of Pediatrics in the USF Health Morsani College of Medicine, and is staffed by health care providers from pediatrics, adolescent medicine, and infectious disease, among other specialties. The Clinic provides targeted health care and risk reduction services to youth (ages 13 to 24) and has earned several awards for its outreach, most recently the 2021 Excellence in Adolescent Health Award from the Adolescent Health Initiative.

“As the only clinic in our community specifically designed for youth, the Ybor Youth Clinic provides a safe, inclusive and non-judgmental environment for teens and young adults to access sexual and reproductive health services confidentially,” said Dr. Patricia Emmanuel, professor and chair, Department of Pediatrics in the USF Health Morsani College of Medicine. “This certification underscores the clinic’s ability to effectively respond to the changing healthcare system with innovative and collaborative approaches tailored to the unique needs of young people.”

“The Ybor Youth Clinic serves as an outstanding model of youth-centered care for our community,” said Jane Murphy, executive director, Healthy Start Coalition of Hillsborough County. “We are honored to partner with the YYC and continue our work together to share best practices to improve access to health services and reduce barriers to care for youth and families.”

During adolescence, youth experience disproportionately high rates of sexually transmitted diseases, mental health issues, substance use, and unintentional injuries that can lead to significant morbidity and mortality. Consequently, the health care needs of adolescents are unique from other patient populations. Young people may avoid accessing the services they need for various reasons including concerns around confidentiality, fear of judgment, and inconvenient hours and location.

Adolescent-centered environments effectively provide comprehensive services for adolescents, ensuring that they feel well cared for. An adolescent-centered environment is inclusive of, informed by, and responsive to the needs and values of adolescents.

Connecting Teens to Health Services and Resources.

Through the Healthy Start Coalition of Hillsborough County’s Adolescent Health Initiative in partnership with Hillsborough County Public Schools, USF Health and youth-serving organizations, like the Ybor Youth Clinic, Teen Connect Tampa Bay was created to improve teen access to health services and community resources. Teen Connect is an online resource directory and referral database for teens and young adults that provides personalized services based on their individual needs.

On Monday, Dec. 13, the University of South Florida announced a $5 million gift made by Naples philanthropist Timothy Ubben in November to create the Ubben Family Center for Pulmonary Fibrosis.

Sadly, that night he passed away at the age of 84.

Sharon and Timothy Ubben with Dr. Jose D. Herazo-Maya.

Housed in the USF Health Morsani College of Medicine, the center will increase research to fight pulmonary fibrosis, a disease that causes lung scarring.

Through the final year of his personal battle with pulmonary fibrosis, Ubben wanted to help future patients have better options for fighting the condition. In February, USF announced Ubben’s first gift of $1 million to establish the Ubben Family Pulmonary Research Laboratory, led by Dr. Jose D. Herazo-Maya, associate chief of the Division of Pulmonary, Critical Care and Sleep Medicine and director of the Ubben Program for Pulmonary Fibrosis Research in the USF Health Morsani College of Medicine.

“Pulmonary fibrosis doesn’t get popular support or much research funding,” Ubben said in November. “I probably won’t be around to benefit from the results of Dr. Herazo’s research, but hopefully other pulmonary fibrosis patients will. I want him to find the cure, and I want him to do it at USF Health.”

Herazo began caring for Ubben as his pulmonologist in Naples, and he continued providing care after he moved to Tampa to join USF in January 2021.

“Mr. Ubben was a wonderful friend, and it is humbling to receive such support to lead this critical research,” Herazo said. “Pulmonary fibrosis is a devastating disease, and Mr. Ubben’s generous gift will help us better understand its root causes so we can expedite the discovery of new tests and treatments.”

“We are saddened by the news of Mr. Ubben’s passing,” said Dr. Charles Lockwood, USF Health senior vice president and dean of the Morsani College of Medicine. “We will do our best to honor his generosity and legacy as we work to find new therapies for pulmonary fibrosis patients.”

“It is inspiring how even while he was dealing with his own health challenges, Mr. Ubben was determined to help future patients through his philanthropy,” USF Foundation CEO Jay Stroman said. “We extend our deepest condolences to his wife, family and friends.”

Ubben founded Lincoln Capital Management, a successful Chicago-based investment firm, in 1967. Since retiring in 1999, he dedicated his time, resources and expertise in board leadership to nonprofit and educational organizations.

In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations be made to the USF Ubben Pulmonary Fibrosis Fund at usf.to/ubben or by calling Arty Giallourakis at 813-974-3676.