APhA announces candidates for 2015-2016 president-elect; group awards grants for pharmacy-based projects to improve care

WASHINGTON — A pharmacy professor and compounding pharmacy owner are candidates for president-elect of the American Pharmacists Association for 2015-2016, the group said.

The APhA said the candidates for the position are Virginia Commonwealth University School of Pharmacy professor and community pharmacy residency program director Jean-Venable Goode and Newport Beach, Calif.-based Westcliff Compounding Pharmacy owner Michael Pavlovich. Members will have the opportunity to meet the candidates at the APhA Annual Meeting and Exposition in Orlando, Fla., in March.

Candidates for the APhA Board of Trustees for 2015-2018 are Daniel Buffington, Tampa, Fla.; Dennis Helling, Denver; Robert Greenwood, Waterloo, Iowa; and Linda Garrelts MacLean, Spokane, Wash. Metta Lou Henderson of Tucson, Ariz., is running unappeased for honorary president.

In addition, the APhA Foundation announced the 2014 recipients of its Incentive Grants for Practitioner Innovation in Pharmaceutical Care, which offers pharmacists seed money to implement or support innovative patient care services within their pharmacy practice. The recipients are:

• Student innovation in immunization practices, $1,000: Cassandra Song, Washington State University College of Pharmacy, Spokane, Wash.


• Practitioner innovation in immunization practices, $1,000: Donna Montemayor of H-E-B Pharmacy in San Antonio and Brenna Neumann of Collier Drug Stores in Fayetteville, Ark.


• Residents and their preceptors, $1,000: Vaidehi Bhatt, Walgreens, Cleveland, Texas; Courtney Bradley, Kroger Pharmacy, Cincinnati; Kendra Butler, Price Chopper Pharmacy, Overland Park, Kan.; Benjamin Culpepper, Kerr Drug and University of North Carolina Eshelman School of Pharmacy, Chapel Hill, N.C.; Tracy Frame, Rocking Horse Center, Springfield, Ohio; Charles Frye, Brame Huie Pharmacy, North Wilkesboro, N.C.

In addition, eight pharmacists from around the country received awards under the residents and their preceptors category for coordinated efforts between rural hospitals and community pharmacies to reduce readmission rates for high-risk patients, having submitted projects that studied such topics as medication synchronization and medication adherence efforts.