Recognize the humanity in people, and don't define them by their disabilities.Sydnee Chavis, DMD, MS, clinical assistant professor in the Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery in the University of Maryland School of Dentistry, shares a story about growing up with her older sister, Brandy, who has cerebral palsy and developmental disabilities, and how she didn’t perceive her as different until the family was out to dinner one night.

Experts need integrity and benevolence above all else to gain public trust.Andrew Coop, PhD, MA, professor in the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences and associate dean for Graduate Programs in the University of Maryland School of Pharmacy, shared those words during the third annual Faculty Convocation at the University of Maryland, Baltimore.Dr. Coop has been a faculty member at the University of Maryland School of Pharmacy since 1999, serving as chair of the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences (PSC) from 2007 to 2015. In addition to his current role as UMSOP’s associate dean for graduate programs, he previously served as the school’s associate dean for academic affairs from 2016 to 2024 and as PSC’s vice chair of academic affairs from 2006 to 2007.Dr. Coop has received funding from the National Institutes of Health’s National Institute on Drug Abuse for his research on opioids, stimulants, and depressants, all of which were interdisciplinary projects concerned with the design and development of novel tools to allow pharmacological study of the biological systems involved in the abuse of these drugs.