Front & Center: Kay Meier brings her science acumen the next generation of WSU-trained pharmacists

Some people know Kay Meier for her award-winning tomato salsa and portrait photography, others for her champion Great Pyrenees dogs.

They may have met her at Spokane County’s Interstate Fair, a farmers market, or on her 14-acre Palouse farm.

Chances are, though, they haven’t read the article Meier’s research group authored on “the effects of lysophosphatidic acid on calpain-mediated proteolysis of adhesion in human prostate cancer cells.”

“If I’m sitting on an airplane and introduce myself as a scientist, sometimes the person next to me will go, ‘Oh, my gosh, I never met a scientist before!’

“Obviously they have. It’s just that most scientists don’t describe themselves that way. They think it sounds too arrogant, so they talk about sports instead.

“But people need to know there are scientists around, and that we don’t spend all our time in the lab. We enjoy a range of interests, just like everyone else.”

During a recent interview, Meier discussed mentoring, the job market for pharmacists, and her mom.

S-R: Where did you grow up?

Meier: In a suburb of Los Angeles.

S-R: What were your interests?

Meier: I raised rabbits and dogs in the backyard. I liked my science courses, but also literature and writing. When I finished high school, I got a prize for science and one for writing.

S-R: Were your parents involved in science?

Meier: No. I’m the first generation in my family to attend college. But my mother, who just turned 100, always encouraged me to do these kinds of things. Part of what got me hooked was when my mother saw something in the newspaper about a National Science Foundation summer program for high school students, and she encouraged me to apply. I thought “whatever,” but I got into that program and have been in the sciences ever since.

S-R: Did you have jobs during high school?

Meier: Yes. I worked a little bit with my father, who was a retail manager. And I wrote purchase orders at the community college where my mother worked. That was a useful experience, because it made me sympathetic toward the staff who run the other side of our operation here, and are critical to everything we do.

S-R: Did you envision a particular career?

Meier: I didn’t have a very clear idea about majors, because my parents weren’t from that realm. But somehow I started getting a newsletter from the Scripps Institute of Oceanography, and thought I might go into marine biology. I did end up going to UC San Diego (which houses the institute), but majored in biology.

S-R: Do you recall the demographics of your peers and teachers?

Meier: Throughout my career until recently, I’ve worked mainly around men. But I never felt like I was at a disadvantage. I had really good mentors.

S-R: Any favorites?

Meier: Paul Insel, my first postdoctoral mentor at UC San Diego. He had tremendous enthusiasm – bubbling with ideas – and would invite students over for dinner with his family. He’s still at San Diego, and I call him occasionally to bounce around ideas.

S-R: How did you settle on your career?

Meier: I had an opportunity to take an undergraduate class in pharmacology – which is how drugs work – from some of the best pharmacologists in the country. It was unusual that they would even have such a class. But some students back in the ’70s – not me – were very interested in pharmacology for personal reasons. (laugh) Anyway, it was a fantastic class, and it made me realize such a field existed.

S-R: What did your training involve?

Meier: I went straight to a Ph.D. after earning my bachelor’s, which is typical in the hard sciences. After I got my Ph.D. at the University of Wisconsin, I returned to San Diego for postdoctoral work.

S-R: Let’s talk about pharmacists, as opposed to pharmacologists. How has that field evolved in recent decades?

Meier: The career is still similar – mostly retail and hospital jobs. But today pharmacists get much more training about how to deal with patients, run a business and file insurance forms.

S-R: How has technology changed their job?

Meier: Pharmacists now have access to computer programs that help them look for drug interactions. And record-keeping is much better, so if you’re traveling and run out of a prescription, it’s easier to pop in somewhere and get a refill.

S-R: What degree do they earn?

Meier: Pharm.D., a doctorate in pharmacy, which takes four years of school.

S-R: Is that after an undergraduate degree?

Meier: Yes. They don’t have to complete an undergraduate degree, but about 70 percent of our students do.

S-R: What’s the current job market for pharmacists?

Meier: In general, all WSU grads can find work, although they may not get exactly the job they want in the place they want. They can’t all work in Spokane, but many of our students are from elsewhere.

S-R: What’s a typical starting salary for a pharmacist?

Meier: Around $100,000. But most of them graduate with debt.

S-R: And a Ph.D.?

Meier: About $50,000 to $75,000.

S-R: Let’s talk about STEM – the acronym for science, technology, engineering and math – and the national focus on those disciplines.

Meier: I’m glad there’s an emphasis on STEM, but I have some concerns. When I’ve gone to STEM events on campus, the students there are all interested in going to medical school, which is great. But to me the core of STEM should be training people to pursue scientific enterprises. And that’s where women are underrepresented – particularly in engineering. So these very lucrative, prestigious jobs end up going to people from other countries.

S-R: Evidence suggests that as countries become more developed, interest in the STEM disciplines wanes. Have you ever heard that?

Meier: No, but smart people who could be good at STEM often shift their focus to what’s trendy or lucrative at any given the time – the law, medicine, the stock market.

S-R: What’s the outlook?

Meier: I’m worried about funding trends. The rest of the world is doing a lot of the science that used to be done in the U.S. because their governments are investing much, much more than we are.

S-R: As associate dean, how do you divide your time?

Meier: Normally I spend 50 percent of my time on administration, and the rest on teaching and lab work. I also review grants for various government agencies, and I’m about to become editor-in-chief of Molecular Pharmacology, a major journal. We all multitask.

S-R: Do you have a busiest time of year?

Meier: Spring, which is admission time for the Ph.D. program.

S-R: How many applications do you get?

Meier: Usually we don’t give out that number, so as not to discourage people. But we get about 10 times more than we accept. This year we accepted nine students, the most ever. Since the program moved up to Spokane in 2013, we’ve been continuously growing, which represents a tremendous investment by the college.

S-R: In what way?

Meier: We pay the students $23,000 a year plus benefits for their first two years of graduate school, and they don’t pay tuition. After they pass their preliminary exam, they get $26,000, which is supposed to be covered by whatever grant is paying for their project.

S-R: What does WSU get in return?

Meier: First of all, the students are part of the lab workforce while also taking classes. By interacting with other students and faculty members, they bring new life and new ideas into their projects. Second, we can’t recruit top-notch faculty without a strong Ph.D. program.

S-R: What do you like most about your job?

Meier: Working with the students.

S-R: What do you like least?

Meier: The many, many education assessment reports we have to fill out.

S-R: Looking back over your career, what surprises you?

Meier: I never saw myself as a leader. It took other people encouraging me to explore that role. But now I’ve embraced it and deliberately try to stretch myself – for instance, going to Capitol Hill and talking to people.

S-R: What are you most proud of?

Meier: The influence I’ve had on my trainees. I work hard to get them wherever they want to go with their career. I take mentoring very seriously.

S-R: What challenges does the graduate program face?

Meier: Right now we’re concerned about funding. There has been some tightening up of finances at WSU that could impact us down the road.

S-R: What’s at the top your bucket list?

Meier: To make even more of a difference in my profession, and also enjoying time with my family now that I’m a grandparent.

S-R: Speaking of family, are you still trying to please your mother?

Meier: (laugh) Probably. Aren’t we all?

This interview has been condensed. If you’d like to suggest a business or community leader to be profiled, contact Michael Guilfoil at mguilfoil@comcast.net