Florida A&M University Announces Dr. Robert Nobles II as SVP for Health Science Enterprise

FAMU health sciences VP: Nobles takes helm of $70 million research enterprise

Sarah Mills | GlobalBeat

Florida A&M University appointed Dr. Robert Nobles II as senior vice president for its Health Science Enterprise on Tuesday.

The move places a 25-year veteran of academic pharmacy in charge of FAMU’s $70 million health-research portfolio and six professional degree programs.

Nobles inherits a division that has doubled its federal funding since 2021 but still fights for visibility inside a state university system dominated by larger, predominantly white institutions. His selection ends a national search that began after the November retirement of founding vice president Dr. Tashiro.

“I am honored to return to my alma mater and help elevate FAMU’s health-sciences mission,” Nobles said in a campus release. The 1989 pharmacy graduate most recently served as associate dean for clinical affairs at the University of Georgia.

University President Larry Robinson praised Nobles for combining “deep Rattler roots with executive experience at a Research-1 institution.” Trustees approved the appointment 11-0 during a special meeting held by conference call.

Nobles will oversee the College of Pharmacy, the Institute of Public Health, the Clinical Research Center and the looming $40 million Health Annex slated to break ground this fall on Tallahassee’s south side. Combined enrollment tops 1,400 students.

The job carries unusual clout for a historically Black campus. FAMU trains more Black pharmacists than any U.S. college and ranks fourth nationally in National Institutes of Health awards to minority-serving institutions. Its pharmacy graduates staff rural Georgia clinics, Veterans Affairs hospitals from Augusta to Palo Alto and corner drugstores in nearly every Florida county.

Faculty senators said they wanted a leader who could keep that pipeline open while expanding telehealth and genomics coursework. Nobles appears to fit. At Georgia he directed a telepharmacy network linking 53 rural hospitals, helped secure $19 million in HRSA grants and served on the state board that licenses every pharmacist south of Macon.

State senator Shevrin Jones, a FAMU alumnus who sits on the Senate education appropriations committee, called the hire “a statement that Black excellence in health sciences will stay anchored in Tallahassee.” Jones added that he expects Nobles to lobby aggressively for recurring dollars during next year’s legislative session.

Nobles starts July 1 with a base salary of $425,000 plus $75,000 in potential incentive pay tied to research growth and student-success metrics. The contract runs three years with an optional two-year extension.

His first test arrives quickly. The university must submit a progress report to the Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education by October, answering concerns about faculty turnover that surfaced during a 2024 review. Four professors have left since January, lured by higher pay at the University of Florida and private hospital systems.

Interim provost Rodner Wright said retention packages are being drafted and expressed confidence that “Dr. Nobles understands the salary landscape.” Nobles himself departed Florida in 2008 after complaining publicly that Tallahassee salaries lagged market rates by 18 percent.

Student leaders welcomed the stability. Pharm.D. candidate Jasmyn Hudson, president of the Student National Pharmaceutical Association chapter, said rotations at Black-owned pharmacies in Quincy and Live Oak depend on continued accreditation. “We need someone who can keep our sites open and our preceptors engaged,” Hudson said.

Nobles takes charge during an enrollment boom driven by pandemic-era interest in public health. Applications to the Institute of Public Health jumped 34 percent this cycle, while the College of Pharmacy saw a 22 percent rise. Campus housing is so tight that 90 graduate students currently lease apartments 25 miles away in Thomasville, Georgia.

Construction of the 105,000-square-foot Health Annex should ease space pressure. Lawmakers earmarked $25 million last spring, and FAMU is raising the remaining $15 million from donors including AARP Florida and pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly. Renderings show biosafety-3 labs, a 200-seat telehealth auditorium and an on-site pharmacy to serve Southside residents who now drive 4 miles to the nearest CVS.

City commissioner Curtis Richardson, whose district borders the campus, said the facility could become “a beacon for preventive care in a medically underserved ZIP code.” Richardson added that he will ask Nobles to partner on municipal diabetes-screening events already scheduled for 2027.

Background

Florida A&M launched its health-science expansion in 1998 when trustees merged the standalone School of Pharmacy with a new public-health program. The bet paid off: NIH funding climbed from $2 million to $41 million within two decades, and the College of Pharmacy now graduates 160 Doctors of Pharmacy each spring, triple the 1999 tally.

The university’s ability to steer federal grants toward Black health disparities caught Washington’s attention. In 2019 the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services designated FAMU as one of 12 “centers of excellence” for minority aging research, a label that comes with $6.5 million over five years and preferential review for future grants.

What’s Next

Nobles must present a five-year strategic plan to trustees at their September meeting. Draft slides released Tuesday hint at three priorities: grow annual research expenditures to $100 million, launch a Ph.D. track in pharmaceutical outcomes and open satellite clinics in Jacksonville and Miami Gardens by 2028.

The agenda already faces headwinds. Governor Ron DeSantis vetoed $9 million in recurring operational funds for FAMU health programs this spring, citing “budget uncertainty.” University lobbyists will resubmit the request for the 2027 legislative session, but Nobles conceded that “private partnerships will fill any vacuum the state creates.”

Expect pharmaceutical companies to court him quickly. Bristol Myers Squibb signed a $3 million cancer-disparities pilot with FAMU last year, and executives have scheduled a July campus visit. Nobles said he will entertain “mission-aligned” deals but vowed that “student training, not corporate balance sheets, will drive every decision.”