Virginia Commonwealth University professor David Holdford, Ph.D., has devoted his career to teaching, writing, and conducting research on how to apply business tools to solve problems in pharmacy. He argues that economics, marketing, and leadership offer pharmacists solutions to achieve the best possible health outcomes for their patients. But his biggest contribution, his students say, has been his mentorship, not in giving them the answers but in helping them discover how to answer life's biggest questions for themselves.

Throughout his career, Holdford has earned national recognition from his peers for his teaching and research, authored six books – and co-edited a seventh – on patient care, leadership in pharmacy and marketing for pharmacists, and served in leadership roles for the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy, including, most recently, as its treasurer and executive board member on its Board of Directors. Through it all, a lifelong passion for learning and mentorship fueled his pursuit of making the profession better, not just for his students but for the patients they serve.

After more than 30 years at VCU, Holdford, a professor in the Department of Pharmacotherapy and Outcomes Science who has served as the school's director of international programs and a leader for the school's dual degree programs, is retiring this month.

At his retirement celebration in late April, he shared his trademark sense of humor with his colleagues and former students who came from around the country to celebrate him.

"I used to have a real job before I became a faculty member," he joked to laughter from the crowd. "I didn't like that. I didn't like the ‘real job.' I like being in academia. Every day I get out of bed and come to work, and I enjoy it. I enjoy what I'm doing."

Holdford wasn't always sure pharmacy would be his path, despite a childhood spent observing his father's career as a pharmacist. "I initially thought, ‘I don't want to follow in my father's footsteps,'" Dr. Holdford recalls, "but it sounded like a good field where you could constantly learn and use your mind, so I decided to go to pharmacy school."

After earning his B.S. in pharmacy at the University of Illinois Chicago and his M.S. in pharmacy administration at The Ohio State University, he joined Grant Hospital in Chicago as a staff pharmacist, a decision that would change his life.

That is where he met Diane, a staff nurse, over the pharmacy counter.  "I was smitten," he recalls. Soon after, they began dating and married in 1985.

"The best decision I ever made in my life was marrying Diane Holdford," Dr. Holdford said. "She makes me look good, like I'm smarter than I really am. We laugh all the time – she's just good to me, and I'm good to her."

After several cold Chicago winters, the two sought a warmer climate in South Carolina, where Dr. Holdford completed his Ph.D. in pharmacy administration at the University of South Carolina. After graduation, they found their way to Richmond, where David joined the faculty at the VCU School of Pharmacy, and Diane began a role in the clinical research program for the Department of Radiation Oncology at the VCU Massey Comprehensive Cancer Center.

As a new assistant professor in 1995, Holdford taught in areas he was familiar with from his days as a staff pharmacist and supervisor, such as organizational behavior and leadership, but he was also asked to teach emerging subjects, such as Pharmacoeconomics, where he was less experienced.

"I find that the best way to become an expert in something is to teach it and conduct research about it. So, I taught students and colleagues about Pharmacoeconomics and conducted numerous cost-effectiveness and cost-of-illness studies about the costs and consequences of illnesses, drugs and pharmaceutical services."

The more he learned, the more he shared his knowledge, publishing more than 75 papers on topics ranging from professional education to marketing and health economics. His dedication to sharing his knowledge would earn him the 2015 AACP Rufus A. Lyman Award for his paper, "Is a Pharmacy Student the Customer or the Product?" and, in 2016, place him among the nation's first class of educators to earn the AACP Distinguished Teaching Scholar Award, honoring those who study how to improve how faculty educate future pharmacists.

"Dr. Holdford's work has shaped how pharmacists think about leadership, marketing, and patient-centered care, and his commitment to teaching has profoundly influenced countless learners at both the professional and graduate levels," said Dave Dixon, Pharm.D., chair of the Department of Pharmacotherapy and Outcomes Science. "He has strengthened the culture of inquiry and innovation in our school, and his legacy will continue to enrich pharmacy practice long after his retirement."

Holdford's gift for sharing knowledge with others has carried far beyond the literature and the classroom.

Before Rafael Saenz, Pharm.D., M.S., became Vice President of Knowledge Management & Thought Leadership at McKesson Health Systems – and before he served in any of his previous roles as CEO of the National Hispanic Medical Association, COO of the American Pharmacists Association, and Chief Pharmacy Officer at the University of Virginia –, he was a Pharm.D. student in the Class of 2003. He was assigned to Dr. Holdford's advisory group – "I likened it to a homeroom," Saenz said.

"I always tell people I have lived a charmed career," Saenz shared recently. "And it's because of Dr. Holdford, and it's because of other mentors that I have had like him, but he was the first."

As he went through school, Saenz was unsure what path would serve him best after graduation so he came to Holdford. Holdford was "very objective in his wisdom," Saenz said. "Getting a straight answer from him and taking the easy way out was never his style. It was always about, ‘Think about this, you know this. What is your gut telling you? How are you going to deal with this?'

"Now, many, many years later, after I've become a parent, and after I have become a mentor to others, I now understand the wisdom of what he was doing, in that it was never about being the guy people went to for answers. It was about being the guy who would listen and help you resolve your own dilemmas with your own talents."

Leigh Anne Hylton Gravatt (Pharm.D. '03) has been a student, a mentee and a colleague of Holdford's. Now an associate professor in the Department of Pharmacotherapy and Outcomes, she was a fellow member of Holdford's Pharm.D. advisory group in the Class of 2003 alongside Saenz and had a similar experience when seeking Holdford's advice.

"Dr. Holdford is really the true definition of a mentor: He's not always going to tell me what to do, but he's going to guide me on the path that I need to go on and make sure I meet the right people along the way," she said.

Holdford's mentees in the school's Ph.D. in pharmaceutical sciences, with a concentration in pharmacoeconomics and health outcomes, echoed this praise for Holdford's ability to help them problem-solve well beyond their time in graduate school.

"One thing that always stood out about him was that he never gave straight answers to my questions but always guided me to find ways to get to these answers," said Kunal Saxena, Ph.D., a 2015 School of Pharmacy grad who is now a Director of Health Economics Outcomes Research at Merck. "Sometimes it was frustrating but in the longer run, that skill became one of the most valuable skills that I still use in my day-to-day life."

Saxena also recalls a common element of alumni's reflections on Holdford – "the element of humor and enthusiasm in his teaching and mentoring style."

"From our very first meeting – where he hid behind his office door to surprise me – all the way to my graduation day, I really enjoyed working with him," Saxena said.

Holdford's penchant for making others laugh – and for being himself – stood out to his students across the graduate and Pharm.D. programs.

"We keep things light-hearted between us, but he's Dr. Holdford. Over the years, he has demonstrated that he has my best interests in mind and makes any mentoring opportunity less about his advice and more about helping me be a more secure and confident leader.  As a result, I don't question his wisdom. I trust him with my questions, I trust him with my doubts, and I trust him with my dreams. I would never question – if he says something that makes me rethink my position or perspective, it's the truth," Saenz said. "To me, that's what being a good leader is. I'm in command of my knowledge, I'm in command of what I know and what I know of the profession, but I'm going to do it my way. And I love that."

A few years ago, a serious illness landed Dr. Holdford in the hospital. One of his most recent Ph.D. mentees, Vasco Pontinha (Ph.D. '22), an assistant professor in VCU's Department of Pharmacotherapy and Outcomes Science, had just joined the faculty and was tasked with teaching courses Holdford had been teaching for years.

"‘How did Dr. Holdford teach this course?' ‘Should I make changes?' ‘Will he agree with those changes?' ‘Is it OK if I step away from his research focus because I need to become an independent researcher myself?' I remember grappling with all these questions and finally opened the toolkit as if we were having a conversation in his office: ‘I trust your judgment to make the necessary adjustment in this course and any other decisions for your career,'" Pontinha said. "I can only hope to mirror his unfiltered and unabated ability to trust his students and colleagues. For me, his legacy is more about how he trained thinkers and problem solvers, and less about metrics of scientific performance."

Holdford shared his gratitude for his peers and for the school's leaders, who joined Diane by his side in the hospital when things weren't looking so good. As for his illness – "I'm conquering it," Holdford says, and now, he is retiring on his own terms, with plans to travel, ride horses, and read non-professional material like history and science fiction.

"People keep asking me what I want to do when I retire. Pretty much whatever I want to do, and that's what I've been doing as a faculty member. But now I get to do it without getting paid," he added with a playful smile to the laughter of attendees at his retirement celebration.

In noting Dr. Holdford's accomplishments at the event, K.C. Ogbonna, Pharm.D., M.S.H.A., dean of the VCU School of Pharmacy, turned to both David and Diane Holdford and made clear: "VCU would not be the place it is today if it wasn't for you." He offered his gratitude for their collective dedication to teaching, research and mentorship, for championing our faculty, staff and students, and for the added stability they will give future students through the David and Diane Holdford Food Security Fund. "The impact is immense," Ogbonna said, "and we are incredibly grateful for the lasting impact."

The Holdfords established the fund to ensure VCU School of Pharmacy students have access to food in any circumstance. "Of all the problems in the world, I can't stop world hunger, but hunger among our students? That I can do something about, and that's why we decided to do this," Dr. Holdford said.

In a recent interview, Holdford broke with tradition. Asked what advice he'd give his colleagues and students, he offered a straightforward answer – and one that reflects how he's lived his life.

"Life is a lot better when people are treating each other well. You're healthier and happier when your interactions with human beings are positive than if they're negative," Holdford said. "Be that person that's a joy to be with."