For Daren Knoell, Pharm.D., becoming the College of Pharmacy’s new professor and chair of pharmacy practice was coming home.
He grew up a farm kid in Fremont, Neb., the first in his family to go to college, to UNL. He pursued the health professions but realized medicine wasn’t a fit. A close friend told him about the possibilities in pharmacy. Dr. Knoell [pronounced NELL] was hooked.
He bypassed his senior year in a fraternity to enroll at UNMC.
He took classes in what is now the Williams Science Hall, when it had scaffolding on its sides. Clarence Ueda, Pharm.D., Ph.D., dean emeritus, was one of his instructors.
Needing money, he attended a student meeting during which a young woman two classes ahead of him, Karen Ramsay, gave out tips on internships and jobs.
He was hired at Ridgway Clinical Pharmacy. John Ridgway, now director of the office of experiential programs in the COP, hired a first-year pharmacy student each year. Karen also worked there, in the third-year spot.
She and Daren have now been married for 28 years. Two kids.
“Ridgway takes all the credit for it,” Dr. Knoell said with a laugh.
In 1989 the Knoells headed to the University of California at San Francisco, a pharmacy powerhouse, for residency and fellowship training. “It really defined me,” Dr. Knoell said. It was there he confirmed his passion for research.
They embarked on careers at The Ohio State University, establishing lives, raising kids.
Their son is now in medical school at Toledo, in part because he’d heard good things about some guy named Dr. Gold. Their daughter is at Ohio State.
Dr. Knoell had climbed the ladder, to chair of pharmacy practice and science. Karen Knoell, Pharm.D., had a great job. They loved it there.
But Gary Yee, Pharm.D., invited Dr. Knoell back to UNMC to give a talk. He was taken back by the remarkable momentum that he observed.
“It just made me feel good,” Dr. Knoell said. “I have always been proud to be an alum but when I returned home, I was walking with a spring in my step.”
When UNMC officially approached him about coming back to Nebraska, it was a momentous decision. But the future sold him even more than the past.
Karen, “the real pharmacist in the family,” now works for Nebraska Medicine, in her specialty area, ambulatory care.
They are surrounded by family and old friends. “It’s surreal to be back,” Dr. Knoell said. “In the best of ways.”