Dr. Joseph L. Fink III ’65 is Vice President for Corporate Relations and Economic Outreach and Associate Vice President for Research at the University of Kentucky.  He is also Professor of Pharmacy at the University of Kentucky College of Pharmacy, Professor of Health Administration, and Professor of Public Health at the University.  In addition, Dr. Fink is a Professor in the Martin School of Public Policy and Administration, a unit he served as Acting Director during 1998.  Finally, he also holds appointments as a Faculty Associate with the UK Center for Health Services Management and Research as well as a Faculty Associate with the Multidisciplinary Research Center on Drug and Alcohol Abuse.  He has served as Special Academic Affairs at UK from 1988 to 1996.  He was Assistant Dean of the UK College of Pharmacy from 1981 to 1988.

Dr. Fink has obtained a challenging and diverse formal education with degrees in both law and pharmacy.  He received a Bachelor of Science in Pharmacy degree from Philadelphia College of Pharmacy & Science, Philadelphia, PA, in 1970 and a Doctor of Law degree from Georgetown University, Washington, D.C., in 1973.  He is licensed to practice law in Kentucky and Pennsylvania as well as before the United States Supreme Court.  He is trained in both general mediation and health care mediation.

Dr. Fink holds membership in a number of professional organizations in both pharmacy and law, including the American Pharmaceutical Association and the American Bar Association.  Dr. Fink has chaired the committee for the latest revision of the APhA Code of Ethics for Pharmacists and currently serves the Association as Parliamentarian for the House of Delegates. He was founder and first president of the American Society for Pharmacy Law, and while a pharmacy student, he was National President of the Student American Pharmaceutical Association. The Kentucky Pharmacists Association recognized him as “Pharmacist-of-the-Year” for 1988 and conferred on him the Distinguished Service Award in 2002. 

His scholarly works include over 250 publications in the fields of law pertaining to pharmacy, pharmacists and pharmaceuticals, food and drug law, and health care law.  He is an Editor of Pharmacy Law Digest, the most widely used pharmacy law text and reference in the United States.