In August 2025, Kathleen “Kathy” Besinque, Pharm.D., retired from teaching following a distinguished 42-year career in pharmacy education. Besinque’s retirement was appropriately marked by being awarded the 2025 Pharmacist of the Year by California Society of Health-System Pharmacists (CSHP). Besinque’s career is defined by her service and advocacy to the pharmacy profession, and she is
At Harbor-UCLA Medical Center, one of California’s largest safety-net hospitals, patients navigate medical complexities while also facing difficult realities like unstable housing, limited income, low health literacy, and living with chronic conditions that often go untreated for years. These challenges ask healthcare providers to think creatively and compassionately about how to provide specialized care, including
Chapman University School of Pharmacy congratulates Sherry Wang, Ph.D., for being named the winner of the Women in AI’s AI Researcher of the Year Award (North America). This honor was presented on June 6 at the 2025 Women in AI Summit & Awards in Canada, which hosted hundreds of visionary minds who are responsible for
Dustin Le, who is now a Pediatric Emergency Medicine Pharmacist at the Children’s Hospital of Orange County (CHOC), earned his Doctorate of Pharmacy (PharmD) at CUSP. While at CUSP, Dustin participated in student leadership, research projects, and elective courses that directly prepared him for his future career. At CHOC, Dustin works in a 44-bed emergency
In celebration of American Pharmacists Month, we would like to highlight the essential role of pharmacists to ensure patient safety by safeguarding medication safety and promoting access across the continuum of care. This occurs at both individual patient care and health systems levels. At individual patient care level, pharmacists ensure access to medications, provide medication
During the School of Pharmacy’s White Coat Ceremony, Chapman University honored Dr. Wafa Samara with the Gavin Herbert Award. The award is presented annually to an individual that has greatly impacted both CUSP and the pharmaceutical industry through leadership, professionalism, and compassion- The foundational pillars of CUSP. As the keynote speaker, Dr. Samara encouraged incoming
Melinta Theraputics has awarded an Industry Grant to Dr. Gary Fong for his proposal, “Identifying the Need and Potential Role for a Novel Long-Acting Antifungal in a Diverse, Underserved Population“ , totaling $19,836. Dr. Fong will be working alongside his Co-Principal Investigator Dr. Scott Filler, Professor of Medicine at David Geffen School of Medicine at
The American Society of Health-System Pharmacists Foundation has awarded Dr. Jennifer Ko the Pharmacy Leadership Scholars Grant for her project, “Fostering Patient-Pharmacist Concordance with Patients Who Speak Spanish”. The project will investigate how language concordance (LC) and concordance on health beliefs regarding medication-taking (CMT) between pharmacists and Spanish-speaking patients affects patient trust. The research will
In honor of Women’s History Month, Dr. Rachita Sumbria was awarded the 2024 Chapman University Woman of Distinction Award. Selected as one of four faculty to win the award, a total of 12 faculty, students, alumni, and staff were chosen carefully based on demonstration of leadership, impactful contributions to the advancement of women, and service
Publications Dr. Ren Ostrom, Dr. Isabella Cattani-Cavalieri, Dr. Francisco Nuñez, Jordyn Margolis, and PhD candidate Camelia Anicolaesei published Real-Time cAMP Dynamics in Live Cells Using the Fluorescent cAMP Difference Detector In Situ in JoVE Journal Dr. Rachita Sumbria, Dr. Nataraj Jagadeesan, Dr. Devaraj Chandrashekar, and Chuli Roules worked with others on “Modulation of hippocampal protein expression