Dr. Elaine Mackowiak earned her BS in Pharmacy in 1962, MS in Radiological Sciences in 1964 from Temple University and her PhD in Pharmacology from Thomas Jefferson University in 1974.

While working as a hospital pharmacist, Dr. Mackowiak returned to school and completed the Master of Pharmacy program in Radiological Health and Safety. This program focused on providing pharmacists with the knowledge and skills to work safely with radioactive pharmaceuticals. This created a new career path for pharmacists in nuclear pharmacy. Following her completion of the program, the University offered her a faculty position to teach in the MS program and integrate information about diagnostic agents such as radiopharmaceuticals and radiopaque drugs into the pharmacy curriculum.

The pharmacy profession was changing rapidly in those years and so was the curriculum. Certain therapeutic courses had a section on diagnostic drugs which eventually expanded to lecture and laboratory courses. Once the PharmD program was started, a clinical rotation was added at one of the commercial radioisotope companies in the Delaware Valley area, thus giving TUSP students the full experience of working in a nuclear pharmacy setting. Dr. Mackowiak's greatest satisfaction was providing students with a new opportunity for a pharmacy career.

Dr. Mackowiak was the second woman to join the faculty, stating "it was very satisfying to see the rise in the number of women in the faculty and student body". Dr. Mackowiak became the faculty advisor for Lambda Kappa Sigma Fraternity and watched young women learn organizational skills to work within the fraternity system.