Randy P. Juhl, Ph.D. is Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus and Dean Emeritus of the University of Pittsburgh School of Pharmacy. A native of Forest City, Iowa he received an A.A. from Waldorf University in 1968 and a B.S., M.S. and Ph.D. in pharmacy from the University of Iowa in 1972, 1974 and 1976 respectively.
His first academic appointment was at Ferris State University where he served as an assistant professor and director of the school’s clinical pharmacy programs.
In 1979 he moved to the University of Pittsburgh to serve as chair of the department of pharmacy practice. He was named dean of the School of Pharmacy in 1986, a position he held for 16 years until 2002. During his tenure as dean, the school converted its entry level practitioner degree program from the bachelor’s level to the Pharm.D., instituted advanced practice residencies in conjunction with the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) and other partners, developed an innovative clinical scientist Ph.D. program and increased its endowment more than tenfold.
The school also attained a top ten ranking among schools and colleges of pharmacy as measured by grant support from the NIH.
Juhl left the deanship to join the university’s senior leadership as vice chancellor for Research Conduct and Compliance in 2002 . His responsibilities as vice chancellor included the administrative oversight of the University Institutional Review Board (IRB), the Institutional Animal Care and Use Committee (IACUC), the Radiation Safety Program, the Recombinant DNA Office, the Embryonic Stem Cell Research Oversight Committee (ESCRO) and the university conflict of interest reporting and monitoring functions.
Additional interim leadership responsibilities included the Medical and Health Sciences Foundation(2002-03), the Institute of Politics (2004-06), chair of the University NCAA Accreditation Steering Committee (2005-06) and Interim Athletic Director in 2014-15 and again, post-retirement in 2016-17.
His research included the effects of disease states and other conditions on the pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics of drugs. He has authored or co-authored more than 70 manuscripts, abstracts and books on these and related topics. Juhl served as president of the Academy of Pharmaceutical Research and Science in the American Pharmaceutical Association in 1992-1993.
In 1992, he was asked to chair the newly created FDA advisory committee on non-prescription drugs. Juhl served as this committee's chair from 1992 to 1996. The committee is responsible for advising the FDA on a range of issues related to non-prescription drugs, including the Rx-to-OTC switch process. In 1998, Juhl was appointed chair of the Pharmacy Compounding Advisory Committee for the FDA. This new advisory committee was created by the FDA Modernization Act of 1997 to serve as a public forum for the resolution of regulatory issues affecting pharmacy compounding.
Juhl has been honored as a distinguished alumnus of both Waldorf University (1995) and the University of Iowa’s College of Pharmacy (2000) and received the Distinguished Service Award from the University of Pittsburgh’s School of Pharmacy Alumni Society (2004). In 2022 he received the Osterhaus Medal for Lifetime Achievement from the University of Iowa College of Pharmacy,
In 2008, he was named Distinguished Service Professor of Pharmacy at the University of Pittsburgh, the first to be so honored in the School of Pharmacy’s 130-year history. He retired from Pitt in 2015.
