SOUTH KINGSTOWN — For two years, Ron Jordan served as interim dean of the University of Rhode Island’s renowned College of Pharmacy. But now his position is more permanent.

Jordan, who has filled in since the departure of previous dean, Donald E. Letendre, has been named dean of the pharmacy program.

“Ron’s collaborative nature, understanding of pharmacy and the broader health fields, leadership skills and strong business sense are exactly what are needed at this time to complement the expertise of the faculty and to sustain our position as one of the leading pharmacy education, research and outreach programs,” said Donald H. DeHayes, URI provost and vice president for academic affairs.

While interim dean, Jordan has increased alumni support of the pharmacy program to levels never before experienced, according to URI. He secured commitments for $4 million in private funding for a new home for the College of Pharmacy, and he helped raise $2 million in private support for research and scholarships.

The building project, which will break ground later this summer, is also being supported by $65 million in bonds approved by Rhode Island voters in 2006.

Jordan, an East Greenwich resident, said he also has worked to increase cultural diversity among the student population, and he notes with pride that the incoming class of freshmen pharmacy students is the most diverse class in the college’s history.

Going forward, he said that one of his goals is to develop and advance new roles for the practice of pharmacy.

“The role of pharmacists is changing rapidly, so I want to advance some new models of pharmacy practice, including nontraditional roles in long-term care, home health care and other settings, to demonstrate the added value of pharmacists as key members of a primary care team,” said Jordan, an alumnus of the URI pharmacy program.

Jordan said he also aims to build public-private research partnerships with pharmaceutical companies and related industries to speed the discovery, design and development of new drug products.

“I also want the College of Pharmacy to be a partner in the statewide clinical trials consortium that is being developed by the Lifespan hospitals with Brown University,” said Jordan. “This partnership will advance the state of health care and clinical research in Rhode Island, and it’s important that the college is a part of it.”

Before his appointment as interim dean in 2007, Jordan had been an executive in several startup companies in the pharmaceutical industry over 18 years, URI said. He was president of Drug Benefit Management Systems Inc., founder and senior vice president of ExcelleRx Inc. — formerly Hospice Pharmacia — senior vice president of PharmasMarket.com, and president and chief executive officer of HCIdea LLC.

In 2002, he founded Healthation LLC, which markets a comprehensive health information and benefit management system for all lines of health care, and in 2006 he was recruited to serve as chief operating officer of BidRx LLC, to launch its consumer electronic marketplace for prescription drugs.

As the only Rhode Island resident ever elected president of the American Pharmacists Association, in 1998, Jordan led development of e-business strategies and drove a new collaboration with the chain drugstore industry. Jordan is also former president of the Rhode Island Pharmacists Association.