Catherine A. Elstad and Jonathan Reynolds were selected by Pharm.D. students as Teachers of the Year for 2006-07.

Elstad has been teaching at the College for 19 years and this is the 9th time she has been selected teacher of the year. In addition to her faculty position in the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Elstad also serves as Associate Dean of Student Services.

Reynolds just finished his third year of teaching. He is a WSU alum who received his Pharm.D. in 1998. He joined the Department of Pharmacotherapy in September 2004. This is the first time he has received the teacher of the year award.

Several pharmacy students earned national recognition in spring semester 2007:

Cris Duvall, class of 2007, was selected in January by the APhA’s Student Pharmacist magazine as a One to One Counseling Recognition Program Honoree. She was chosen because of her superior communication skills that resulted in improved outcomes for patients.

Duvall received airfare to Atlanta for the 2007 APhA Annual Meeting in March, plus three nights of hotel accommodations and complimentary registration for the meeting. This recognition program is endowed by a grant from Johnson & Johnson–Merck Consumer Pharmaceuticals.

Majid Tanas, class of 2007, was one of 12 students nationally to receive a 2006-2007 ASHP … » More …

Warren Hall, owner of Hall’s Medical Center Pharmacy in Centralia, Wash., has been selected by the College of Pharmacy as the 2007 Roche Preceptor of the Year for his outstanding work with the fourth-year students who do rotations at his pharmacy each year. He is one of about 400 active preceptors.

Hall tailors each student’s learning experience by first getting to know them. He asks questions about their past experiences and current expectations, and he then constructs a unique experience for each student.

Hall is the president-elect of the Washington State Pharmacy Association (WSPA) and an active leader in his community. He expects students to … » More …

An autographed basketball, signed by the members of the winning Cougar basketball team, sold for $2,700 at a live auction held as part of the Evening of Excellence on March 30, 2007

The upscale dinner to honor President’s Associates donors, scholarship donors and to showcase College excellence, drew 128 for dinner to the Red Lion Templin’s in Post Falls, Idaho.

The live auction, silent auction and wine raffle raised a total of $6,049 for student groups.

In addition to the two awards for Outstanding Alumni, the College recognized two people who have established endowments – faculty member Danial Baker, who established the endowment in the … » More …

WSU’s Professional Pharmacy Student Organization (PPSO) won the Region 7 award at the APhA meeting for Operation Diabetes.Co-chairs of the outreach were Marsha Goodman and Adrienne Tveit.

PPSO conducted 29 diabetes screening events and screened 779 patients (234 patients last year), educated 879 patients plus 200,000 television viewers who saw them on Q6 in Spokane (only 234 educated last year).

Of the screenings, 54 patients were referred to a physician, 101 students participated (compared to 98 students last year), and 20 faculty and staff participated (last year 9 participated). PPSO was represented by 22 students at the APhA meeting in Atlanta in March 2007.

Two marble, engraved mortar and pestle sets were given out March 30 at the College’s “Evening of Excellence” dinner to the 2007 Outstanding Alumni.

One went to Marshall P. Roberts, class of 1957, who owned and operated a drug store in Odessa, Wash., for 38 years. Marshall’s father owned a drug store in Tekoa, Wash., and Marsh has established a student scholarship at the College in his father’s name. He and his wife Joyce were named to the WSU Benefactors giving club two years ago.

The other award was given to Bert Porter of Spokane, a past president of the Washington State Pharmacists Association and … » More …

David W. Koh has a Pharm.D. and Ph.D. from the University of Kentucky and is currently completing a postdoctoral fellowship at Johns Hopkins University. He is studying the protein Poly(ADP-ribose) Glycohydrolase as a possible target for chemotherapy in cancer patients. He will be joining the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences as an assistant professor before Fall 2007.

Brenda Kelly started work in May 2007 as a clinical assistant professor in Yakima. She received her Pharm.D. from the University of Wyoming, completed a residency in pharmacy practice in July 2006 at Froedtert Hospital in Milwaukee, Wis., and has been working since as a clinical pediatric pharmacist at … » More …

Four WSU pharmacy students took first place in the national business plan competition for students sponsored by the National Community Pharmacists Association (NCPA).

The four students (all from the class of 2009) beat out 29 other teams in the third annual NCPA competition, which ended in October 2006.

The students — Jason Doss, Daniela Beilic, Corinne Gavrun and Joshua Fancher — brought home a $6,000 prize, plus a trip in February to the NCPA Multiple Locations meeting in Aruba for themselves, their advisor (Linda MacLean) and the College dean.

The goal of the NCPA competition is to promote interest in independent community pharmacy ownership. It … » More …

Pharmacists were scored “very high” and “high” for honesty and ethics by 73 percent of the people who participated in the annual USA Today/Gallup Poll in December 2006. That’s up from 67 percent who gave them those scores in the 2005 poll. That puts pharmacists in second place again this year – the same as last year – behind only nurses, who had 84 percent giving them the high scores this year, compared to 82 percent last year. The poll results were made available by the National Community Pharmacists Association. The poll asked Americans to rank 23 professions on their honesty and ethical standards. Telephone … » More …