Her Story
A journey from Ile-Ife to Albany
Every extraordinary leader has a first chapter that most people never see. For Dr. Toyin Tofade, that chapter began in Ile-Ife, Nigeria, in the shadow of one of West Africa's most distinguished universities, and one of its most distinguished pharmacists.
The Beginning
Her father, the late Professor Abayomi Sofowora, was a pioneering pharmacognosist who spent over four decades at Obafemi Awolowo University, including serving as Chairman of the WHO Regional Expert Committee on Traditional Medicine. It was watching him work, watching him translate plant science into medicine that reached communities across Africa, that first sparked Toyin's love of pharmacy. She went on to earn her Bachelor of Pharmacy from OAU, walking the same halls where her father had shaped generations of students.
A Defining Chapter
In the early 1990s, Toyin crossed an ocean to pursue graduate study at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, the number one ranked pharmacy school in the nation. There, she earned both her Master's in Pharmacy Practice (1994) and her Doctor of Pharmacy (1997), completing clinical residencies at UNC hospitals along the way.
Chapel Hill was where she discovered the power of mentorship. It was there that she first crossed paths with Professor Fred Eckel who, she later said, "tapped me when I was a nobody in Nigeria." That relationship would span decades, and come full circle when she became the first Black person to receive the Fred Eckel Pharmacy Leadership Award from UNC in 2019.
"I believe relationships are powerful," she said. "I list the touch points of my career in names rather than CV entries."
Building a Practice, Building a Life
After her training, Dr. Tofade joined UNC hospitals as a clinical pharmacist, eventually rising to Clinical Specialist in the general medicine service. She then took the helm as Director of Pharmacotherapy Services at the Wake Area Health Education Center (AHEC), where she served from 2002 to 2011, shaping the next generation of pharmacy practitioners across North Carolina.
The Pivot into Academic Leadership
When Dr. Tofade moved to the University of Maryland School of Pharmacy in Baltimore, something shifted. "When I switched to academia," she recalled, "my boss told me, 'patients were your first priority in clinical pharmacy. Now your first priority is teaching students how to take care of those patients.' That was my pivot."
At Maryland, she rose from Associate Professor and Associate Director to Assistant Dean of the Experiential Learning Program, gaining the administrative experience and vision that would define her next chapter.
Raising Leaders at Howard
In August 2016, Dr. Toyin Tofade was appointed Dean and Professor at Howard University College of Pharmacy in Washington, D.C., the nation's leading HBCU pharmacy school. She arrived with a clear mandate and an even clearer vision.
"Any institution can produce a pharmacist," she said. "But to raise leaders takes a different kind of environment."
Over six transformative years, she made that environment. Enrollment nearly doubled. Student internships doubled. Alumni giving increased by over 70 percent. The student residency match rate climbed from 36 to more than 50 percent. Howard's College of Pharmacy achieved full re-accreditation for eight years, the maximum possible term. She built 18 international partnerships across 16 countries, realizing her stated goal of reaching every continent on earth, with the exception of Antarctica.
When she left for Albany in 2022, she didn't leave Howard behind. She established the Alfred and Toyin Tofade Aspiring Leaders Endowed Fund, ensuring that future Howard faculty, staff, and students would have resources to pursue leadership development long after her departure.
Making History in Albany
On July 1, 2022, Dr. Toyin Tofade became the 10th President of Albany College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences, and the first Black woman to hold that office in the college's 141-year history.
She did not arrive as a symbol. She arrived as a builder.
Under her leadership, ACPHS launched its boldest strategic plan in a generation, introduced its first online academic portfolio, and approved seven new degree programs in a single year, the largest expansion in the institution's history. Applications rose 19%. PharmD first-year deposits surged 210%. Transfer admissions increased by more than 700%.
At her inauguration in September 2023, she told the gathered community: "Today, I stand before you, not as an individual, but as a representative of a community that has chosen to place its trust in me. Together, we will continue to make history."