Professor Melanie Joy, PharmD, PhD, has been appointed the inaugural David and Nancy Lamb Endowed Chair in Pharmacy Innovation and Entrepreneurship at the University of Colorado Anschutz Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences. The new endowed chair position will help advance innovation and entrepreneurial impact across pharmacy education, translational research, and student mentorship.
“It is a tremendous honor to be named the inaugural David and Nancy Lamb Endowed Chair in Pharmacy Innovation and Entrepreneurship,” Dr. Joy said. “Disruption and creation of new technologies, tools, and processes across the pharmacy disciplines happens when novel scientific and clinical discoveries (the innovations), the how to package, translate, and commercialize it (the entrepreneurship), and patient and provider (the stakeholders) needs intersect."
"I am deeply grateful to David and Nancy Lamb for their vision and support, which will help us accelerate the translation of new ideas into novel therapies, devices, and solutions that improve patient care while also creating new opportunities for trainees to learn how to bridge laboratory and clinical science with the business of science," said Joy.
Joy is a tenured Professor at CU Anschutz Pharmacy, Director of Innovation and Commercialization, Director of the Center of Excellence Program for Model Informed Drug Development, and CU Anschutz Pharmacy champion for the campus Healthcare Innovation and Entrepreneurship (HIE) Initiative. Joy also holds a joint appointment in the Division of Renal Medicine at the School of Medicine. She previously led Entrepreneurship Education for the NIH funded SPARK/REACH program through CU Innovations and served on the CU-Anschutz Chancellor’s Committee on Innovation, and CU President’s Workgroup on Innovation and Entrepreneurship. Her NIH-funded laboratory and translational research focuses on biomarkers, kidney injury and diseases, precision medicine, pharmacometrics, and the preclinical and clinical development of therapeutics and medical devices.
Over her 30+-year career, Joy has helped advance the development of multiple drugs and medical devices for kidney diseases, some of which have resulted in commercial products. She is the founder and CEO of Katharos Inc., a start-up company developing novel treatments for patients with kidney diseases.
Joy has committed to teaching and mentoring students and other trainees as a central component in her academic career. In 2022, she was named an Outstanding Ally by Women in STEM in recognition of her commitment to advancing inclusion and supporting the success of women in science. In 2024, she received the Chancellor's Teaching Recognition Award for the CU Anschutz Graduate School.
“During my pharmacy undergraduate degree in the late 1980s, I started to identify and think about all of the unmet therapy needs of the patients who I encountered and how entrepreneurial thinking is essential to turning ideas and discoveries into real-world solutions for patients,” said Joy. “I’m especially excited about the opportunity the Lamb family support creates for teaching and mentoring students and trainees toward translating their scientific and clinical ideas into impactful therapies, devices, and techniques.”
“Dr. Joy embodies exactly the kind of bold, translational leadership that moves our school, and our profession, forward,” said CU Anschutz Pharmacy Dean Brian Tsuji, PharmD. “She has spent her career bringing science to life by turning discoveries into therapies, technologies, and companies that improve patient care. I’m deeply grateful to David and Nancy Lamb for their vision in establishing this endowed chair, which will empower leaders like Dr. Joy to dream big, mentor the next generation of innovators, and accelerate the impact of our research. When we combine brilliant science with entrepreneurial thinking and incredible people, there is no limit to what we can accomplish—together.”
The David and Nancy Lamb Endowed Chair in Pharmacy Innovation and Entrepreneurship was established through the generosity of CU Anschutz Pharmacy alumni David and Nancy Lamb. David Lamb, RPh, a 1979 graduate who earned dual degrees in pharmacy and business administration, went on to become Colorado’s first registered nuclear pharmacist. Nancy Lamb, RPh, also a 1979 graduate, is a respected clinician and pioneer in home infusion and consultant pharmacy whose decades of work have advanced patient-centered care for vulnerable populations. Together, they founded Good Day Pharmacies, a Colorado-based company that has grown to 20 locations over four decades.
