Keith Campbell nabs distinguished professorship

R. Keith Campbell, a Washington State University pharmacy faculty member, has been named the first J. Roberts and Marcia Fosberg Distinguished Professor of Pharmacy, effective July 1.

Campbell has been at the College of Pharmacy for 36 years and is a well-known expert in diabetes.

After years of teaching and administrative duties, the endowment from the Fosbergs will enable Campbell to focus full-time on diabetes care programs.

“With the rapid increase in diabetes we would like to devote as much attention as possible to the disease, especially when we have someone like Keith Campbell on our faculty,” said William E. Fassett, dean of the college. “Campbell has long been a leader in diabetes education and care, and I have asked him to devote all his energies to this arena.”

Campbell has served as the associate dean of student services for the past 14 years. Faculty member Catherine A. Elstad will step in as interim associate dean, effective Aug. 1, to replace Campbell.

Elstad, a clinical assistant professor in the pharmaceutical sciences department, is a five-time winner of the Teacher of the Year award and filled in as interim assistant dean from July 2001 through December 2001, when Campbell was on sabbatical. She has been teaching at the college since 1986.

Bob Fosberg is a 1959 WSU College of Pharmacy graduate who went on to obtain an MBA from the Harvard Graduate School of Business in 1965.

He worked in the pharmaceutical industry with Merck & Co. and Allergan Pharmaceuticals.


In 1979, he established a small German pharmaceutical company. In successive positions, he became the president of a biotechnology startup company and then the president and chairman of a drug-benefit management firm.

In 1984, he and a partner founded Flex-Foot Inc., which is now a well-known developer of advanced prosthetic components. He is currently president and chairman Flex-Foot Inc.

The Fosbergs live in Healdsburg, Calif., and have been longtime supporters of WSU. They were founding members of the WSU Foundation Board of Trustees, on which Bob currently serves.

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