20 Year Anniversary
20 Years of the Irma Lerma Rangel College of Pharmacy
For 20 years, the Irma Lerma Rangel College of Pharmacy has been a force for good in South Texas and beyond. It has been a place where ambition meets opportunity and students grow into leaders, innovators, and changemakers. This anniversary page celebrates the milestones, memories, and people who have shaped our journey—from our founding vision to the vibrant campus community we are today. Explore the timeline of key moments that defined our progress, browse historical photos that capture the spirit of each era, and discover upcoming events honoring this special occasion. As we reflect on the past two decades, we also look ahead with excitement, continuing our commitment to excellence, access, and innovation for generations to come.
Upcoming Homecoming Events:
TSHP Conference Aggie Alumni Mixer | April 24, 2026, 7:30 p.m. | Moody Gardens, Galveston | Salon H
TPA Conference Aggie Alumni Mixer | July 24, 2026 | The Woodlands Waterway Marriott
Ties & Tennis Shoes Memorial Fun Run | November 06, 2026 | 1010 W. Avenue B, Kingsville, Texas
20th Anniversary Celebration Golf Tournament & Lawn BBQ at RCOP | November 07, 2026 | 1010 W. Avenue B, Kingsville, Texas
Our Timeline
2001
March 2001: In the 2001 Texas Legislature, Irma Lerma Rangel authored and sponsored House Bill 1601, which established the first professional pharmacy school in South Texas at what is now Texas A&M University-Kingsville. Presentation to Texas Higher Education Coordinating included many letters of support, a list of licensed preceptorships in South Texas, a population-to-provider ratio- a comparison of Texas Border Counties to the State, as well as enrollment data at Texas’ four pharmacy schools is provided as evidence for the need for the program. This legislative effort reflected her long-held goal of expanding professional and healthcare education opportunities in underserved South Texas communities.
May 2001: Two lawmakers (Sen. Carlos Truan and Rep. Irma Rangel D-Kingsville) win legislative approval of a measure to create a school of pharmacy at Texas A&M University-Kingsville. It is described by supporters as the first state-funded professional school in South Texas. At the time, the Texas-Mexico border region had a population-to-pharmacist ratio of 1,770:1, a number that was 32 percent higher than the statewide ratio.
House Bill 1640 is passed which authorized the creation of the college and secured tuition revenue bonds for construction.
2003
March 2003: The groundbreaking for the new pharmacy facility—a three-story, roughly 63,000-square-foot building—occurred in March 2003, in the same month that Irma Rangel passed away after a battle with cancer. After Rangel’s death from cancer in March 2003, the Texas A&M University System Board of Regents initiated the process to name the new pharmacy school after her — recognizing that she had fought to make the school’s creation a reality.
2004
In 2004, The Texas A&M University System Board of Regents committed $3.1 million to hire the initial cohort of faculty and prepare for full accreditation for the pharmacy school. A lack of state funding for operations delayed the planned fall 2005 opening until fall 2006.
Indra Reddy, Ph.D. begins his tenure as the school’s first dean. Under his leadership the first professional program south of San Antonio flourished. Prior to joining Rangel College of Pharmacy at Kingsville, Reddy was professor and co-chair of pharmaceutical sciences and professor of ophthalmology at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences in Little Rock, Arkansas. He spent more than 25 years in pharmacy and contributing to its teaching and research.
October 2004: the Texas A&M University System Board of Regents formally named the college the Irma Lerma Rangel College of Pharmacy. They officially designated the college building with her name by unanimous vote.
2006
Opened it's doors to students. The college began educational operations in August 2006, with a 70-student class in a three-story facility. Following approval of The Texas A&M University System Board of Regents and the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board, the Texas A&M Irma Lerma Rangel College of Pharmacy officially joined the Texas A&M University Health Science Center in April 2006. Classes for the first 70 students in the school, on the Texas A&M University-Kingsville campus, began in August 2006.
August 10, 2006: The official opening of the first stand-alone professional school south of San Antonio featured a ribbon-cutting and student-led tours of the new facility on the Texas A&M University-Kingsville campus, followed by a student dinner in the evening.
Sam Fugate, mayor of Kingsville, presented a proclamation declaring Aug. 10, 2006, as “Irma Lerma Rangel College of Pharmacy Appreciation Day” in Kingsville.
2010
Full accreditation was first granted on July 1, 2010, through June 30, 2012.
Diplomas go to the first cohort of graduates, and then each subsequent class, now totaling 1,408 pharmD graduates.
2011
PRF, or the Vivarium (a modular facility), was established on the Kingsville campus in 2011.
2012
The school enters the U.S. News & World Report Ranking as one of the Top 50 schools of pharmacy.
The College received a four-year, $2.6 million grant from HHS under the Scholarships for Disadvantaged Students (SDS) program. The HHS SDS program is a federal grant initiative administered by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services through the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA).
July 2012: Thanks to a new collaborative agreement, students at the Irma Lerma Rangel College of Pharmacy will be able to enroll in an online master’s in business administration program offered by the College of Business Administration at Texas A&M University-Kingsville.
2013
The Texas A&M Health Science Center officially merged with Texas A&M University.
2014
The School’s growth was undeniable, prompting its expansion to the College Station campus. The college witnessed an increase in demand—647 applicants were vying for 87 slots in 2013—and decided to expand its operations. In fall of 2014, the college launched its second campus in College Station, accommodating 33 students to begin their academic journey in pharmacy. Each year thereafter, the college began to add more students.
2017
Under current Texas law, Section 89.051 of the Education Code (added originally in 2011 and amended effective September 1, 2017) states the following:
- The Board of Regents of The Texas A&M University System “shall maintain a college of pharmacy as a component of the health science center.”
- That college “shall be known as The Texas A&M University System Health Science Center Irma Lerma Rangel College of Pharmacy.”
- The statute also specifically requires that the primary building in which the school is operated shall be located in Kleberg County (home of the Kingsville campus).
- In addition, it must include “Irma Rangel” in its official name.
June 2017: College opens a new facility for drug development, the first of it’s kind in the area. The Good Manufacturing Practice Laboratory, (GMP Lab) opened in June 2017 in the Reynolds Building on the College Station campus. It was a first-of-its-kind facility for the Texas A&M College Station campus, because although liquid forms like injections can be manufactured in a current facility at the National Center for Therapeutics Manufacturing, there had been no place to formulate other dosage forms. The small new facility helped create solid dosage forms such as immediate and modified-release capsules and tablets, novel drug delivery systems including nanoparticles and topical products such as ointments or creams for animal or human testing under rigid regulatory protocols.
2018
The graduation venue was moved from Kingsville to College Station based on the graduating class preference survey, in which 92% of students indicated they preferred to hold the ceremony in College Station.
May 2018: The Texas A&M Irma Lerma Rangel College of Pharmacy received a grant from the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board (THECB) in the amount of $158,519 under the 2018–2020 Recruitment and Retention grant competition in the Minority Health Research and Education Grant Program (MHGP). Funds were awarded to help support the Aggie Student Pharmacists Initiative for Recruitment|Retention and Education (ASPIR2E) program. The initiative aimed to increase recruitment and retention of members of underrepresented minority populations (URMs) in the college.
2019
A doctoral degree program in pharmaceutical sciences at the Texas A&M Irma Lerma Rangel College of Pharmacy was approved July 25, 2019 by a unanimous vote of the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board.
2021
A new degree program, a PhD in Pharmaceutical Sciences is launched. Students begin the program on both the Kingsville and College Station campuses.
2022
A new record is set as the school surpasses the $10 million mark in research funding. The school ranks #31 in total research funding that year, #30 for federal grant funding and #30 for NIH funding according to 2021-2022 AACP research data.
2024
The first student graduates from the PhD program.
Spring 2024: Responding to the increasing demand for pharmacy technicians in Texas, the Aggie Pharmacy Technician Program (PTP) is added to the College’s educational offerings. The first cohort begins in Spring 2024.
2025
Indra Reddy named Founding Dean Emeritus of Irma Lerma Rangel School of Pharmacy. The Texas A&M University System Board of Regents has honored Indra K. Reddy, PhD, with the prestigious title of Founding Dean Emeritus of the Texas A&M University Irma Lerma Rangel School of Pharmacy. This honor recognizes his distinguished and dedicated service during his illustrious 20-year tenure as the founding dean, during which he transformed the school into one of the nation’s leading institutions.
April 2025: Aggie PTP program expands to McAllen. The College responds to the increasing demand for pharmacy technicians in Texas by expanding the Aggie Pharmacy Technician Program (PTP) to the Rio Grande Valley. Students can now receive pharmacy technician training through Texas A&M University at the Texas A&M Higher Education Center at McAllen.
June 1 2025: Mansoor Khan, PhD, becomes the College’s second dean. Khan brings more than 25 years of distinguished leadership experience in academia and federal service. His expertise spans academic program development, research funding acquisition, clinical practice advancement and fostering interdisciplinary collaboration. Prior to joining Texas A&M, Khan spent over 11 years at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, where he served as director of product quality research and senior biomedical research scientist in the Center for Drug Evaluation and Research. His earlier academic appointments included roles at Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center, the University of Louisiana at Monroe, and work in research and development at Novartis Pharmaceuticals in New Jersey.