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DEERFIELD, Ill. — Walgreens on Wednesday promoted Mike Spear to divisional merchandise manager of the retailer’s personal care division and announced that Lauren Vondrasek is transitioning to the company’s beauty merchandising unit, which is headed by Barbara Larson.

Spear has more than 20 years of retail experience, most recently as director of category planning at Walgreens.

WASHINGTON — CVS Caremark and a panel of health experts explored research findings and the problem of medication nonadherence Thursday morning during CVS Caremark’s first-ever national forum on medication nonadherence at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C.

LOS ANGELES — Kroger banners Ralphs and Food 4 Less have commenced their Honoring Our Heroes fundraising campaign to benefit the United Service Organizations.

The checkstand fundraising, which will run through Aug. 13, is in conjunction with the USO's 70th anniversary.

All monies collected through the Ralphs/Food 4 Less Honoring Our Heroes fundraising program will be donated directly to the USO to support its programs, entertainment and other services for our service men and women.

LANDOVER, Md. — Giant Food is donating nearly $2 million to schools in Maryland, Virginia, Delaware and the District of Columbia as part of its 2010-2011 A+ School Rewards program, the Royal Ahold banner said Wednesday.

The program, which has operated for 22 years, allows customers to support school programs every time they use their Giant card at a Giant Food store.

ALEXANDRIA, Va. — Purdue University, the University of Missouri and the University of North Carolina were the beneficiaries of a $1.5 million grant program designed to expand community pharmacy residency programs for recent school graduates.

The National Association of Chain Drug Stores Foundation announced on Thursday that the academic institutions were the first three beneficiaries of the Community Pharmacy Residency Expansion Project (Community PREP) grant program.

For this first round of awards, the recipients were:

NEW YORK — Royal Ahold executive Kimberly Ross is joining beauty company Avon as EVP and CFO, reporting to Andrea Jung, Avon's chairman and CEO.

Ross currently is EVP and CFO and a member of the executive board of Royal Ahold NV, a Netherlands-based international group with more than 2,970 stores and supermarkets spanning Europe and the United States.

WOONSOCKET, R.I. — Many people who provide care and support to loved ones said they are more likely to be nonadherent to their own personal medication regimen than to neglect providing medications to those they are caring for, according to a new study by researchers at Harvard University, Brigham and Women's Hospital and CVS Caremark. Given this, there's a significant opportunity for pharmacists and doctors to identify and work with caregivers to improve medication adherence and chronic disease management.

CHICAGO — Johns Hopkins Medicine and Walgreens on Wednesday announced an agreement between the two companies that will promote collaboration on population-based research.

Also part of the agreement, Johns Hopkins and Walgreens will jointly review and develop protocols to improve outcomes of patients with chronic diseases and explore the development of new models for improving care for individuals.