2013 Alumni Service Award Recipient

Although JoAnn Sanborn, BSPharm’77, was as a staff pharmacist at Herrick Hospital in Tecumseh, Mich. (1984–1995) and a staff pharmacist at Oakwood Hospital in Dearborn, Mich. (1981–1982), her major mark has been in community pharmacy. For the first five years of her career, she was a store manager for the Cunningham Drug chain (at one time, the largest community drugstore chain in Michigan). Since 1982, Sanborn has been owner and vice president of Hudson Pharmacy Inc., in Hudson, Mich. A member of the College’s Alumni Board of Governors since 2007, Sanborn is best known, statewide, as a strong supporter of the Michigan Pharmacists Association (MPA), an organization she joined during her senior year at the College.

She has been MPA’s treasurer since 2008. In this capacity she is responsible for the financial oversight of the Association; serves as chair of MPA’s audit and investment committees; and is vice chair of the budget committee. From 2006 to 2011, Sanborn was a trustee on the Michigan Pharmacists Foundation board. Her tenure coincided with significant organizational changes at the Foundation.

Sanborn is a dedicated supporter of the Foundation’s fundraising efforts, participating in the organization’s golf classic, annual gala, and charity auction. In 2009, she and her husband, pharmacist Mike Sanborn, helped launch the foundation’s first capital campaign. JoAnn remains active in Foundation events. MPA bestowed its Good Government Award on Sanborn in 2007. The award is given to individuals who have partnered with elected officials on issues of importance to state pharmacists. Sanborn was recognized for her outreach to the state legislators. She invited a state representative into her pharmacy to see, firsthand, what pharmacists do as direct patient care providers. That representative became one of pharmacy’s strongest supporters in the Michigan State Legislature.