William Riffee Dean’s Endowment

This fund was established by Compass Knowledge Holdings, Inc., in honor of Dean William Riffee, to support teaching, research, academic programs and technology advancements for students and faculty in the College of Pharmacy.

William Riffee received his bachelor’s degree in pharmacy from West Virginia University in 1967 and a doctorate in pharmacology in 1975 from Ohio State University. He moved through the academic ranks in the College of Pharmacy at the University of Texas at Austin. For many years, he served as the Director of the Learning Resources Center there and was active in curricular design.

Since 1990, Riffee has concentrated his research and teaching on distance education and educational technology and its utility in the classroom. He is a nationally-known innovator in the use of television and computer-based presentation technology. In 1997, Syllabus Press named him as one of five Syllabus Scholars charged with leadership in the organization’s annual conference, the Syllabus Institute and various regional conferences on information technology and its use in education.

In June of 1996, Riffee was named Dean of the College of Pharmacy and a Professor for the Department of Pharmacodynamics at the University of Florida. Under his leadership, the College of Pharmacy developed the Working Professional Pharm.D. Program, a distance education program that provides professional doctoral education to pharmacists nationwide.