Ghose, McConnell Among 2016 Graduating Class of Provost's Cougar Chairs Leadership Academy

UH College of Pharmacy faculty members Romi Ghose, Ph.D., and Bradley K. McConnell, Ph.D., FAHA, FAPS, were among the members of the Cougar Chairs Leadership Academy's Class of 2016.

Founded by UH Senior Vice President of Academic Affairs & Provost Paula Myrick Short, Ph.D., the Academy is designed "to cultivate leadership talent on the UH campus, including sitting chairs and future departmental leader and to develop specific leadership skills and expertise that will engender student success by scaffolding faculty achievement."

Faculty members in the college's Department of Pharmacological and Pharmaceutical Sciences, Ghose is an associate professor of Pharmaceutics and McConnell is an associate professor of Pharmacology. Ghose's research interest is in the regulation of drug metabolism and toxicity, while McConnell is working in the areas of targeted disruption of beta-adrenergic signaling to alter cardiac contractility and human polymorphisms of heart disease.

Ghose said the Cougar Chairs Leadership Academy (CCLA) appealed to her interest in developing as a leader and enhancing her interactions with other members of the UH community.

"The academy has been very valuable in providing insightful knowledge and training in effective communication, conflict resolution, talent management and other attributes to being a successful leader," she said. "These skills will help me to serve my responsibilities as a mentor to my students, to be a better colleague to my peers and take on additional administrative responsibilities to contribute to the mission of the college and the university."

McConnell said participation in the yearlong program was a rewarding experience.

"I wanted to learn the fundamental skills of being an effective leader, which included developing excellence in communication, exercising good judgment and implementing a vision of success – skills that would be useful toward being an effective leader at the Departmental, College, University and National levels," McConnell said.

"Concepts and skills learned from the CCLA have provided me an awareness of my own natural talents and also have provided me the ability to build these talents into strengths. Not only have I learned my own strengths, but I have also grown to understand the natural strengths, behaviors and talents of others. This journey that I took along with my cherished friends from across campus, including colleague Dr. Romi Ghose, has changed the way I look at myself and how I see the world around me."