VIDEO: Feb. 23 announcement of the Phil and Jocelyn Hagerman donation.
VIDEO: Phil and Jocelyn Hagerman
UPDATE: For local, regional and national coverage of the Hagerman donation, click here.
Ferris State University is pleased to announce a $5 million gift from Phil and Jocelyn Hagerman and the Hagerman Foundation, to the university’s College of Pharmacy. Hagerman is chair and chief executive officer of Diplomat Pharmacy, Inc., based in Flint, Mich. The Hagerman gift, announced today, represents the largest outright gift ever made to Ferris.
“This is a symbol of our commitment to education and our commitment to Ferris,” Phil said. “We want to make sure that the pharmacy industry recognizes what an important part Ferris has been in my personal success, my family’s success and in the growth of our company, Diplomat. For myself and my wife, Jocelyn, one of the most rewarding parts of the gift is to support youth. We believe in the pharmacy profession and we believe in students. One of the goals, for Jocelyn, I and the Hagerman Foundation, is to support education.”
Ferris President David Eisler, on behalf of the university, expressed gratitude for the generous and historic contribution on behalf of the Hagerman family and the Hagerman Foundation.
“This is an extraordinary moment in Ferris State University’s history. As a university community, we are all very grateful to Phil and Jocelyn Hagerman, and the Hagerman Foundation, for this wonderful investment in Ferris’ College of Pharmacy, our faculty, staff and most importantly, our students,” Eisler said. “For years to come, our entire pharmacy community will enjoy the opportunity to learn and work in the Hagerman Pharmacy Building.”
In addition to the College of Pharmacy building being renamed in honor of the Hagerman family, this gift will fund the Hagerman Family Endowed Scholarship in Pharmacy, the Hagerman Family Pharmacy Scholarship Fund and the Hagerman Endowed Chair for Medical Informatics.
“As Diplomat becomes more and more innovative and the pharmacy industry continues to move into areas of informatics and analytics, I think we’ve come to recognize that academia needs to stay on that cutting edge,” Phil said. “By making our contribution and partnering with Ferris, we can create that same kind of innovative pathway for Ferris that Diplomat has been on and in turn, one can fuel the other.”
Stephen Durst, dean of the College of Pharmacy, acknowledged the importance of this gift toward strengthening student access to a quality pharmacy education and long-range facility improvements.
“Through this leadership-level gift to the College of Pharmacy, Phil and Jocelyn Hagerman will be enhancing opportunities for students with the introduction of a transformative scholarship program, expanding curricular options through support of program development and ensuring students are educated in state-of-the-art facilities,” Durst said.
This gift to Ferris has a personal meaning for Phil and the Hagerman family.
“My father, when he got out of the service, was excited about being in some form of the medical profession, and he picked pharmacy and started at Ferris,” Phil said. “Through his entire time at Ferris, all of his stories were exciting and positive and it launched a career for him, and set me, my older sister and my eldest daughter on that same path.”
Through three generations of pharmacy graduates, the Hagerman family has enriched the 122-year history of pharmacy at Ferris State University. The Hagerman tradition started with Phil’s father, Dale, a 1951 graduate of the College of Pharmacy. Phil’s sister, Deborah (Hagerman) Ward, is a 1974 alumna. Phil graduated in 1975 and Phil’s daughter, Jennifer, graduated in 2003.
“I believe Ferris is a top choice because of its history, because of its legacy and because of its critical importance to pharmacists in the state of Michigan,” Phil said. “Ferris is a tremendous place for me, and my wife Jocelyn, to give this legacy and know that it’s going to have long-term impact and make a difference.”
Ferris is a public university with campuses in Big Rapids, Grand Rapids and satellite campuses across the state of Michigan. Ferris offers more than 180 educational programs, including doctorates, master’s, bachelor’s and associate degrees, through eight academic colleges: Arts, Sciences and Education, Business, Education and Human Services, Engineering Technology, Health Professions, Kendall College of Art and Design, Michigan College of Optometry and Pharmacy.