2012 Alumni Service Award Recipient

Paulette Najarian-Knight, BSPharm’80, says that the idea to become a pharmacist originated with her mother. “I loved chemistry and when I was in sixth grade, my mom showed me a newspaper article about pharmacy being a great profession for women,” Najarian- Knight explains. “I made my decision there and then.” Najarian-Knight has been vice president of customer relations at Omnicare Pharmacies of Michigan since 1999. At Omnicare, she manages a team of nurses and customer account managers who have responsibility for 25,000 residents of nursing homes, assisted living, and other institutions served by Omnicare Pharmacies of Michigan. Omnicare’s long-term care division is the nation’s largest provider of pharmacy and related services to senior communities.

From 1982 to 1997, Najarian-Knight was owner and president of Q.D. Pharmacy, a long-term care pharmacy providing pharmacy and consultant pharmacist services to nursing homes and other healthcare-related customers across the Detroit-metro area and Southern Michigan. Her customer base had grown to 2,400 patients when she sold Q.D. Pharmacy to Arbor Corp. in 1997. When Omnicare acquired Arbor Corp. a few years later, Najarian-Knight joined the parent firm. Paulette is a multi-term member of the College of Pharmacy Alumni Society Board of Governors, and in 2005 established the Najarian Scholarship Fund to help support PharmD students.