Chapman University students, faculty, and alumni turned up in record numbers at the 2024 Western Pharmacy Exchange, hosted by the California Pharmacists Association (CPhA) in Las Vegas from April 19-21.

CPhA honored Dr. Laressa Bethishou with the 2024 New Practitioner Award, which recognizes an outstanding new practitioner who has demonstrated leadership at multiple levels of pharmacy. The criteria honors someone who actively participates in the profession, advocacy, and community affairs related to the practice of pharmacy who graduated with their PharmD less than 10 years prior. You can watch a short speech of Dr. Bethishou thanking her colleagues and family here on the official California Pharmacists Association page.

Our student organizations also took home awards. CUSP’s chapter APhA-ASP/CPhA won both the Chapter of Excellence Award and Most Entertaining Award for the WPE Film Festival.

PharmD candidate Maraiah Colarines serves as a CPhA Board of Director 2023-2024, and has led much of CUSP CPhA/OCPhA chapter success. “This Chapter of Excellence awarded to our chapter is a culmination of hard work from all of my fellow board members, our advisors Dr. Bach and Dr. Xavioer as well as all of the students who supported our events,” she said. “I look foward to what my successor and the rest of the future CPhA Board of Directors will do in the future!”
Students also participated in the Quiz Bowl, which included topics such as cardiology and gastroenterology. Featured left to right, students who participated on the team were Trisha Lu (P2), Jacqueline Nguyen (P2), Mark Ubongen (P2), Justin Boktor (P2) and Philip Tran (P1).
Dozens of students displayed their research, including Cindy Tran and Katherine Ghattas on “Effects of at-home blood pressure monitoring and ambulatory care pharmacists on blood pressure” under the guidance of Dr. Albert Bach and Dr. Jelena Lewis. Other poster topics included bioinformatic approaches on vascular dementia, uses of ChatGPT in pharmacy practice, and artificial intelligence in drug discovery and pharmaceutical research.