April 4, 2016
Leslie Benet, BSPharm’60, MS’62, DSc (hc)’11, Lisa Kroon, PharmD’94, and Larry Wagenknecht, PharmD’79, all received top honors at the 2016 American Pharmacists Association Annual Meeting & Exposition, held March 4-7, Baltimore, MD.

Three College of Pharmacy alumni, Leslie Benet, BSPharm’60, MS’62, DSc (hc)’11, Lisa Kroon, PharmD’94, and Larry Wagenknecht, PharmD’79, all received top honors at the 2016 American Pharmacists Association Annual Meeting & Exposition, held March 4-7, Baltimore, MD.

Larry Wagenknecht received the American Pharmacists Association’s (APhA) Hubert H. Humphrey Award. The Hubert H. Humphrey Award is given to pharmacists, long-time APhA members and public servants who have made major contributions to government and/or legislative service. Dr. Wagenknecht has been working to advance pharmacy through his efforts professionally and personally for more than 30 years. He was selected for the award because of his contributions for pharmacy through legislative and regulatory pathways at the local, state, and national levels.

Dr. Wagenknecht currently serves as the CEO of the Michigan Pharmacists Association (MPA), a position he has held since 1994 after being named the Executive Director in 1986. After graduating from the University of Michigan’s College of Pharmacy in 1979, Larry became a licensed pharmacist in Michigan and an active and dedicated member of MPA.  He serves as an adjunct clinical faculty member at the University of Michigan and Ferris State University Colleges of Pharmacy.

Lisa Kroon, chair of the UCSF School of Pharmacy’s Department of Clinical Pharmacy, has been named a Fellow of the APhA Academy of Pharmacy Practice and Management. The selection honors APhA Academy members for exemplary professional achievements and service to the profession through activities with APhA and other organizations.Kroon, who earned her PharmD from the U-M College of Pharmacy in 1994, has been a leader in developing new models of pharmacy practice and education as well as in changing and implementing public policies affecting pharmacy practice.

Recently, Dr. Kroon chaired the California Pharmacists Association task force implementing the state’s 2014 pharmacist provider status law (SB 493), which expands pharmacists’ health care roles, especially in community settings, allowing them to furnish hormonal contraception, prescription nicotine replacement, vaccinations, and certain travel medications, and to order tests related to managing a patient’s medication regimen.

Leslie Z. Benet, PhD, was awarded the 2016 Remington Honor Medal, APhA’s highest honor. Dr. Benet was selected in recognition of his numerous substantial scientific and public service contributions to the pharmacy profession. Dr. Benet, BSPharm’60, MS’62, DSc (hc)’11, currently serves as Professor in the Department of Bioengineering and Therapeutic Sciences at the University of California, San Francisco. Dr. Benet has amassed 540 publications, edited 6 books, and received 12 patents. His work has been published in the most prestigious journals in the fields of pharmacokinetics, biopharmaceutics, drug delivery, and pharmacodynamics and he is one of the most widely-cited pharmaceutical scientists in the world.

These awards showcase the high caliber of University of Michigan College of Pharmacy graduates.