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Bear Tracks: Alumni News and Happenings June 2023

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Congratulations to the Class of 2023

To the Class of 2023, it was an honor to be with you for the Hooding Ceremony last month. Again, congratulations and welcome to the Mercer College of Pharmacy Alumni Association! Your hard work and sacrifices to obtain your Pharm.D. degree will pay great dividends over your career.

As an alum, remember the College’s mission – to prepare professional and post-graduate students to effectively contribute to and improve health care through excellence in patient–centered care and research. Please consider donating to our mission by staying connected, serving, and giving. Your involvement will make a difference in the lives of many. Visit our alumni page for a list of ways to stay involved and continue to make a difference in our next generation of Mercerians!

As my term as president of the Alumni Board of Directors ends, I want to thank Dean Crabtree for the opportunity to work with faculty, staff, and others on the Alumni Board over the years. It has been an honor to serve by your side.

Again, best wishes to our new graduates as you launch your pharmacy career. Daily, I am thankful for the gift of education from Mercer; I know you will be, too!

Edress Darsey, Pharm.D., FPPAG ‘89
College of Pharmacy Alumni Board of Directors
President, 2022- 2023

 

Dean’s Note

Brian L. CrabtreeHi, everybody, and congratulations on all the accomplishments in this issue of Bear Tracks. Thanks to Edress Darsey and all the College of Pharmacy Alumni Association Board of Directors members for your service and leadership. Upon the recommendation of the Nominations Committee of the Board, Adrian Washington received the Distinguished Alum Award and delivered a fantastic presentation to the Class of 2023 at their hooding ceremony.
The Moye Pharmacy and Health Sciences Building is almost finished! We expect to occupy the building in the fall and teach and learn there in the winter. Many good things are happening and I hope to see many of you at our reception at the GPhA Convention.
Brian L. Crabtree, Pharm.D. 
Dean

Alumni Achievements

  • Reginal Frye, Pharm.D.’90 was named dean of the College of Pharmacy at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center. He began his tenure at UTHSC on June 1.
  • Chuck Ellis, Pharm.D. ’87, on being named PharMerica‘s Regional Pharmacy Director of the Year.
  • DeRoyce Simmons, Pharm.D.’07 was recently promoted to Sr. Director, US Brand Marketing in Eli Lilly and Company’s Immunology Business Unit.
  • Ashlyn Carter, Pharm.D.’12 and Bryce Carter, Pharm.D. ’14 both passed the Board Certification Sterile Compounding Pharmacists (BCSCP) exam and currently work in oncology infusion at Georgia Cancer Specialists through Northside Hospital and Emory University’s Winship Cancer Institute, respectively.
  • Christopher Jones, Pharm.D.’06 was recently selected as the new Director of the National Center for Injury Prevention and Control at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
  • Michelle Aslami, Pharm.D. ’16  received the 2022 AMCP Individual Contributor Award.
    Kasey Willis Cole, Pharm.D. ’15 was promoted to General Manager and Pharmacist in Charge at Omnicare of Panama City, FL.
  • Juliane Park, Pharm.D. ’22 published a drug review, Daridorexant: Comprehensive Review of A New Oral Agent for the Treatment of Insomnia, in the Annals of Pharmacotherapy.
  • Brianna Massey, Pharm.D.’21 is completing her second-year residency in pediatrics and becoming a Board Certified Pediatric Pharmacy Specialist (BCPPS). Brianna is planning to relocate to Savannah, GA to work as the general pediatrics specialist at Children’s Hospital of Savannah.
  • CDR Scott Raisor, Pharm.D.’09 with the United States Public Health Service Commissioned Corps was promoted to Chief, Pharmacy and Therapeutics Section at the Defense Health Agency. The DoD P&T Committee is responsible for managing the TRICARE outpatient drug formulary taking care of the DoD’s 9.5 million beneficiaries and managing the $7.3 billion pharmaceutical budget.

More News

  • Mike Schwartz, Pharm.D.’95 retired as a Colonel from the U.S. Air Force Reserves and is a Clinical Professor at East Carolina University. He holds a faculty appointment from the College of Allied Health Sciences and an Adjunct Professor appointment from the Brody School of Medicine, Division of Infectious Diseases. Mike, his wife, Lorie, and son, Jackson, live in Greenville, NC.
  • Carmen Echols, Pharm.D. ’12 married Matthew Rush on April 24, 2023 in Asheville, NC. Congratulations!
  • Michael Trent, Pharm.D. ’96 married Sheila Parrett on April 14, 2022.
  • Amon Peters, BSPharm.’71 retired and moved to Childersburg Alabama.
  • Margo Mosteller Taylor, Pharm.D. ’07 welcomed a son, Jude Dawkins Taylor, on January 21, 2023. Congratulations on the new addition to your family!
  • Kalu Kalu, Pharm.D. ’17, married Kara K. White, Pharm.D. on April 16, 2023. Congratulations!
  • Michael Rogers, Pharm.D. ’76 will be retiring soon and starting a new YouTube channel called Mike’s Music Channel.
  • Benjamin Reddoch, Pharm.D. ’15 recently obtained his BPS Certification in Infectious Disease. He and his wife, Nancy Tran Reddoch, Pharm.D. ’15, welcomed a son in 2021. Congratulations Ben and Nancy!

In Memoriam

  • Leonard Fordham, BSPharm.’49 of Stockbridge, GA, Aug. 15. 2022
  • Robert Emmett “Bob” Snipes, BSPharm. ’75 of Cashiers, NC, Aug. 21. 2022
  • Martin Thurman Grizzard, BSPharm. ’64 of Thomaston, GA, Sept. 12. 2022
  • Gloria Esperanza Clavijo, BSPharm. ’65 of Cumming, GA, Nov. 25. 2022
  • Marion L. Smith, BSPharm. ’60 of McDonough, GA, March 23. 2023
  • Paula Binion Ketchem, PharmD. ’85 of Dallas, GA May 16, 2023

 

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Categories:
alumni news | deans note
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alumni | beartracks

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