{"id":130580,"date":"2026-03-17T02:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-03-17T07:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/?p=130580"},"modified":"2026-03-16T09:18:48","modified_gmt":"2026-03-16T14:18:48","slug":"dr-shaffer-named-pharmacys-senior-associate-dean","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/2026\/03\/17\/dr-shaffer-named-pharmacys-senior-associate-dean\/","title":{"rendered":"Dr. Shaffer named pharmacy’s senior associate dean"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

The UNMC College of Pharmacy has named Chris Shaffer, PharmD, PhD, to the position of senior associate dean. Dr. Shaffer will in effect serve as the college\u2019s chief operating officer, said Don Klepser, PhD, the Joseph D. Williams Endowed Dean for the college.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWith so much growth, including the Kearney campus, other developments we have planned, internal and external partnership opportunities, and multiple upcoming accreditation visits, the college needs a conductor to make sure the trains are all running on time,\u201d Dr. Klepser said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Having a strong chief operating officer will allow the dean to focus on external relations and strategic growth, Dr. Klepser said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dr. Shaffer fits the bill. He\u2019s long been a leader within the UNMC College of Pharmacy, most recently as interim associate dean of academic affairs. Dr. Shaffer also works with the Child Health Research Institute as director of its Pediatric Clinical Pharmacology Program. He\u2019s had multiple leadership positions at Nebraska Medicine. Prior to joining UNMC, he was pharmacy director at both Nebraska Medicine and Children\u2019s Nebraska. He\u2019s currently a fellow in the University of Nebraska\u2019s NU Developing Excellence in Academic Leaders (NU DEAL) program.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cDr. Shaffer\u2019s strengths and background will make the college more efficient, which will allow us to invest in growth and new opportunities,\u201d Dr. Klepser said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI am excited to assume this new role within the UNMC College of Pharmacy,\u201d Dr. Shaffer said. \u201cThere are incredible opportunities for our faculty, staff and students in the future of health care. I look forward to working with individuals within and outside the college to develop these programs.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pharmacy will launch an internal search for a full-time assistant or associate dean for academic affairs, Dr. Klepser said.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Chris Shaffer, PharmD, PhD, has long served as a leader within the UNMC College of Pharmacy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":75,"featured_media":130579,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"39049,63030,67822,67089,70075,30652","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-130580","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","topic-inside-unmc","department-college-of-pharmacy","department-unmc-front-page","department-unmc-today-todays-headlines","author_override-kalani-simpson-unmc-strategic-communications"],"yoast_head":"\nDr. Shaffer named pharmacy's senior associate dean<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Chris Shaffer, PharmD, PhD, has long served as a leader within the UNMC College of Pharmacy.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/2026\/03\/17\/dr-shaffer-named-pharmacys-senior-associate-dean\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Dr. Shaffer named pharmacy's senior associate dean\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Chris Shaffer, PharmD, PhD, has long served as a leader within the UNMC College of Pharmacy.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/2026\/03\/17\/dr-shaffer-named-pharmacys-senior-associate-dean\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Newsroom\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/unmcedu\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-03-17T07:00:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/ChrisShaffer031626.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1580\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1054\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Jeffrey Robb\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@unmc\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@unmc\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Jeffrey Robb\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/2026\/03\/17\/dr-shaffer-named-pharmacys-senior-associate-dean\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/2026\/03\/17\/dr-shaffer-named-pharmacys-senior-associate-dean\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Jeffrey Robb\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/#\/schema\/person\/6c55382c243ff55b6c4dee62262b6a5c\"},\"headline\":\"Dr. Shaffer named pharmacy’s senior associate dean\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-03-17T07:00:00+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/2026\/03\/17\/dr-shaffer-named-pharmacys-senior-associate-dean\/\"},\"wordCount\":297,\"commentCount\":11,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/2026\/03\/17\/dr-shaffer-named-pharmacys-senior-associate-dean\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/ChrisShaffer031626.jpg\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/2026\/03\/17\/dr-shaffer-named-pharmacys-senior-associate-dean\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/2026\/03\/17\/dr-shaffer-named-pharmacys-senior-associate-dean\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/2026\/03\/17\/dr-shaffer-named-pharmacys-senior-associate-dean\/\",\"name\":\"Dr. Shaffer named pharmacy's senior associate dean\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/2026\/03\/17\/dr-shaffer-named-pharmacys-senior-associate-dean\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/2026\/03\/17\/dr-shaffer-named-pharmacys-senior-associate-dean\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/ChrisShaffer031626.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-03-17T07:00:00+00:00\",\"description\":\"Chris Shaffer, PharmD, PhD, has long served as a leader within the UNMC College of Pharmacy.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/2026\/03\/17\/dr-shaffer-named-pharmacys-senior-associate-dean\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/2026\/03\/17\/dr-shaffer-named-pharmacys-senior-associate-dean\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/2026\/03\/17\/dr-shaffer-named-pharmacys-senior-associate-dean\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/ChrisShaffer031626.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/ChrisShaffer031626.jpg\",\"width\":1580,\"height\":1054,\"caption\":\"Christopher L. Shaffer, Pharm.D., BCPS, is Associate Dean for Student Affairs and Assistant Professor in the Department of Pharmacy Practice, College of Pharmacy\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/2026\/03\/17\/dr-shaffer-named-pharmacys-senior-associate-dean\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Dr. Shaffer named pharmacy’s senior associate dean\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/\",\"name\":\"Newsroom\",\"description\":\"\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/#organization\",\"name\":\"University of Nebraska Medical Center\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/overview-1.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/overview-1.png\",\"width\":500,\"height\":153,\"caption\":\"University of Nebraska Medical Center\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/unmcedu\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/unmc\",\"https:\/\/instagram.com\/iamunmc\",\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/user\/UNMCEDU\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/#\/schema\/person\/6c55382c243ff55b6c4dee62262b6a5c\",\"name\":\"Jeffrey Robb\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/author\/d09bf41544a3365a46c9077ebb5e35c3\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Dr. Shaffer named pharmacy's senior associate dean","description":"Chris Shaffer, PharmD, PhD, has long served as a leader within the UNMC College of Pharmacy.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/2026\/03\/17\/dr-shaffer-named-pharmacys-senior-associate-dean\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Dr. Shaffer named pharmacy's senior associate dean","og_description":"Chris Shaffer, PharmD, PhD, has long served as a leader within the UNMC College of Pharmacy.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/2026\/03\/17\/dr-shaffer-named-pharmacys-senior-associate-dean\/","og_site_name":"Newsroom","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/unmcedu","article_published_time":"2026-03-17T07:00:00+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1580,"height":1054,"url":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/ChrisShaffer031626.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Jeffrey Robb","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@unmc","twitter_site":"@unmc","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Jeffrey Robb","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/2026\/03\/17\/dr-shaffer-named-pharmacys-senior-associate-dean\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/2026\/03\/17\/dr-shaffer-named-pharmacys-senior-associate-dean\/"},"author":{"name":"Jeffrey Robb","@id":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/#\/schema\/person\/6c55382c243ff55b6c4dee62262b6a5c"},"headline":"Dr. Shaffer named pharmacy’s senior associate dean","datePublished":"2026-03-17T07:00:00+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/2026\/03\/17\/dr-shaffer-named-pharmacys-senior-associate-dean\/"},"wordCount":297,"commentCount":11,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/2026\/03\/17\/dr-shaffer-named-pharmacys-senior-associate-dean\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/ChrisShaffer031626.jpg","inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/2026\/03\/17\/dr-shaffer-named-pharmacys-senior-associate-dean\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/2026\/03\/17\/dr-shaffer-named-pharmacys-senior-associate-dean\/","url":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/2026\/03\/17\/dr-shaffer-named-pharmacys-senior-associate-dean\/","name":"Dr. Shaffer named pharmacy's senior associate dean","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/2026\/03\/17\/dr-shaffer-named-pharmacys-senior-associate-dean\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/2026\/03\/17\/dr-shaffer-named-pharmacys-senior-associate-dean\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/ChrisShaffer031626.jpg","datePublished":"2026-03-17T07:00:00+00:00","description":"Chris Shaffer, PharmD, PhD, has long served as a leader within the UNMC College of Pharmacy.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/2026\/03\/17\/dr-shaffer-named-pharmacys-senior-associate-dean\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/2026\/03\/17\/dr-shaffer-named-pharmacys-senior-associate-dean\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/2026\/03\/17\/dr-shaffer-named-pharmacys-senior-associate-dean\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/ChrisShaffer031626.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/ChrisShaffer031626.jpg","width":1580,"height":1054,"caption":"Christopher L. Shaffer, Pharm.D., BCPS, is Associate Dean for Student Affairs and Assistant Professor in the Department of Pharmacy Practice, College of Pharmacy"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/2026\/03\/17\/dr-shaffer-named-pharmacys-senior-associate-dean\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Dr. Shaffer named pharmacy’s senior associate dean"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/","name":"Newsroom","description":"","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/#organization","name":"University of Nebraska Medical Center","url":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/overview-1.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/overview-1.png","width":500,"height":153,"caption":"University of Nebraska Medical Center"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/unmcedu","https:\/\/x.com\/unmc","https:\/\/instagram.com\/iamunmc","https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/user\/UNMCEDU"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/#\/schema\/person\/6c55382c243ff55b6c4dee62262b6a5c","name":"Jeffrey Robb","url":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/author\/d09bf41544a3365a46c9077ebb5e35c3\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130580","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/75"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=130580"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130580\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":130581,"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/130580\/revisions\/130581"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/130579"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=130580"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=130580"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=130580"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}