Nominations Announced for AIHP Board Positions

AIHP’s Nominations Committee has announced the nominees to fill the positions of two members of the Institute’s Board of Directors whose terms will end in November 2021. John Grabenstein, RPh, PhD, AIHP’s current Vice President, is being nominated to become the Institute’s next President. The Institute’s current President, W. Clarke Ridgway, plans to retire from the Board when his current term ends. Professor John E. Clark, PharmD, MS, FASHP, FFSHP, is being nominated to replace current At-Large Director Angela Long, who is leaving the Board after serving two three-year terms.

The Nominations Committee will present these nominations at the Institute’s upcoming Annual Business Meeting, scheduled for Thursday, November 5, at 1:00 pm Central/2:00 pm Eastern. AIHP members will have the opportunity to offer additional nominations for these positions at the meeting.

Dr. Grabenstein was appointed to AIHP’s Board of Directors in January 2018. He was elected as the Institute’s Vice President in 2019. A globally recognized vaccinologist, pharmacist, and epidemiologist, Dr. Grabenstein was awarded APhA’s 2020 Remington Honor Medal for his “decades of excellence as a leader in promoting public health and wellness through immunization practice by pharmacists.” Prior to his recent retirement, he was Global Executive Director of Medical Affairs for Merck Vaccines. He previously was Director of the US Department of Defense Military Vaccine Agency.

Professor Clark is an Assistant Professor at the University of South Florida (USF) College of Pharmacy, where he also serves as the Director of Experiential Education and Pharmacy Residency Programs. He also is a Clinical Pharmacist and Faculty Preceptor in Ambulatory Care at the USF Morsani Health Center “BRIDGE” (Building Relationships and Initiatives Dedicated to Gaining Equality) Healthcare Clinic. The BRIDGE Healthcare Clinic is a student-run, multidisciplinary, non-profit clinic that services uninsured and underinsured patients in the Tampa area.

Professor Clark earned a BS in Pharmacy from Texas Southern University College of Pharmacy and a PharmD from Florida A&M University. He earned an MS in Pharmaceutical Administration from Wayne State University and completed his residency training at Detroit General Hospital.

Professor Clark is a past president of the Association of Black Health-Systems Pharmacists (ABHP). In that role and others, he has been a vocal advocate for the creation of culturally competent systems of care as a means to address racial and ethnic disparities in healthcare. Professor Clark has led efforts to increase collaboration between ABHP and the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists (ASHP), including reducing health disparities and increasing ethnic and cultural diversity in the workplace. At ASHP’s 2019 Midyear Clinical Meeting, he received the ASHP-ABHP Joint Leadership Award, which recognizes individuals who have demonstrated exceptional leadership in efforts to reduce racial and ethnic disparities in healthcare.

Professor Clark has a deep and active interest in the history of pharmacy. His current projects include a historical review of the contributions of African American women in pharmacy and an analysis of the ways early, and now defunct, African American pharmacy schools impacted health disparities. He presented papers on these topics at the 44th International Congress for the History of Pharmacy. He and AIHP Assistant Director Gregory Bond, PhD, have collaborated on several projects, including a February 2020 podcast (sponsored by ASHP) about the history of pharmacy education at Historically Black Colleges and Universities.

Under AIHP bylaws, any member in attendance at the Annual Business Meeting can nominate additional candidates if seconded by two other members. The Nominations Committee’s nominees, plus any additional members nominated at the Annual Business Meeting, will be on the ballot circulated to members in 2021. If elected, Dr. Grabenstein and Professor Clark will assume their positions in November 2021.

AIHP members W. Clarke Ridgway, Angela Long, and Greg Higby serve on the Nominations Committee.