Lawrence “LB” Brown, PharmD, Ph.D., FAPhA, associate dean of student and academic affairs for Chapman University’s new School of Pharmacy, has been elected as the next president of theAmerican Pharmacists Association (APhA), the association has announced. The APhA is the largest professional association of pharmacists in the world.

“Some of us former presidents used to like to say “galaxy” versus. world.  This really is a huge honor in our profession,” said Ronald P. Jordan, R. Ph., FAPhA, the founding dean of the School of Pharmacy.

Brown, after serving as the 2014-2015 president-elect, will succeed Matthew C. Osterhaus, BSPharm, FASCP, FAPhA of Maquoketa, Iowa to the office of APhA president on March 30, 2015 at the conclusion of the 2015 APhA Annual Meeting and Exposition in San Diego.

Brown, in addition to his deanship at Chapman, is also a professor of pharmacoeconomics and health policy in the Chapman pharmacy school, which was established last year and looks forward to welcoming its first cohort of students in fall 2015.  Prior to this position, Brown served as associate professor and director of graduate studies in health outcomes and policy research for the University of Tennessee College of Pharmacy.  He received his PharmD from the University of the Pacific and a Ph.D. in social and administrative pharmacy from the University of Minnesota.  He is a former U.S. Air Force pharmacy technician.

Brown has served as marketing consultant for community pharmacy MTM (medication therapy management) providers and as co-chair of the Quality Metrics Workgroup for the Pharmacy Quality Alliance.  He has been an APhA delegate for the past 15 years.  Some of his former offices include APhA-Academy of Student Pharmacists (ASP) chapter president, speaker of the house of delegates for APhA and APhA-ASP, APhA trustee, national president of the Kappa Psi International Pharmaceutical Fraternity, and UTHSC faculty senate president. Brown was awarded Pharmacy Student of the Year by the California Pharmacists Association, and his international involvement resulted in his receiving the “Medallion of the Association” award from the Hungarian Private Pharmacists Association.  He is a member of the Kappa Psi, Phi Lambda Sigma and Rho Chi pharmacy leadership and honorary societies.

The American Pharmacists Association, founded in 1852 as the American Pharmaceutical Association, is a 501 (c)(6) organization, representing more than 62,000 practicing pharmacists, pharmaceutical scientists, student pharmacists, pharmacy technicians and others interested in advancing the profession. APhA, dedicated to helping all pharmacists improve medication use and advance patient care, is the first-established and largest association of pharmacists in the United States.