College of Pharmacy celebrates accomplished alumni at annual Alumni Awards Ceremony
The Ohio State University College of Pharmacy held its annual Alumni Awards Ceremony on Oct. 21 at the Fawcett Events Center in Columbus, celebrating stand-out Pharmacy Buckeyes.
“I am honored to recognize these accomplished Pharmacy Buckeyes for their commitment to the profession and to the college,” Dean Henry Mann, PharmD, FCCP, FCCM, FASHP, said during the event. “Their innovations to the field will continue to have a lasting impact on future pharmacists, patient care and outcomes, and health care in general.”
2022 Alumni Award recipients
The Lifetime Achievement Award
Anne L. Burns, RPh, BSPharm '80
This award was established for outstanding lifelong accomplishments in pharmacy, pharmaceutical sciences or public service. The impact of the candidate’s stellar contributions to the professional, scientific and/or educational communities is judged by biographical data, including published work and previous honors.
Recipients must have completed a degree or post-graduate training at the College of Pharmacy. This award is not given in any regular, repeating time period, but only when truly outstanding candidates are identified.
“The College of Pharmacy is such a prestigious institution,” Burns said. “I appreciated the opportunity to learn from so many nationally recognized professors and complete practice experiences under such skilled, innovative pharmacists. I cherish the relationships with my classmates and have been so impressed by their many significant contributions to pharmacy practice across the spectrum.”
Read more about Burns and the Lifetime Achievement Award.
"Anne is a beloved, influential teacher and leader and is an outstanding alumna of the College of Pharmacy," said Marialice Bennett, professor emerita at the college. "She is highly respected and admired in the pharmacy world and beyond. I have never met a person that did not speak highly of her expertise, her magnificent style, and her influential passion. Along with being successful, many times behind the scenes, she is one of the most delightful individuals I have ever worked with. I, with many others, greatly admire her and am proud to call her a colleague and friend."
The Josephine Sitterle Failer Alumni Award
Kelli D. Barnes, PharmD, BCACP
Named in honor of Josephine Sitterle Failer, BS ’39, a longtime benefactor who contributed service to the college for nearly five decades. The award recognizes an alumnus who has received a professional degree or completed post-graduate training from the College of Pharmacy within the past 10 years and has made an outstanding contribution to community or professional service.
Dr. Kelli Barnes is an associate professor of practice in The Ohio State University Department of Internal Medicine and is a lead pharmacist in the Ohio State General Internal Medicine clinics. She received her Bachelor of Science in Chemistry from Ohio Northern University and her Doctor of Pharmacy degree from the University of Cincinnati. Dr. Barnes completed a PGY1 pharmacy practice residency and PGY2 ambulatory care residency at the Ohio State College of Pharmacy and is a board-certified ambulatory care specialist.
Dr. Barnes provides innovative primary care including chronic disease, transitional care and population health management for complex patients. She leads a team of primary care pharmacists who provide outstanding care to patients. Dr. Barnes is committed to ensuring sustainability of pharmacy practice models while also working to advance opportunities for pharmacist-provided care in innovative health care models. Dr. Barnes has a passion for residency training and serves as a preceptor for PGY1 and PGY2 residents in the Ohio State Pharmacy Residency Program.
“When I learned I would be receiving this award, I was felt honored and curious about Josephine Sitterlie,” Dr. Barnes said. “I loved reading that she was most known for delivering groceries to the elderly, talking to parents at freshman orientation and giving back to those along her journey. I truly believe that those qualities make the best leaders and I am honored to receive this award that is named after someone who is so special.”
The Jack L. Beal Post-Baccalaureate Award
Diana S-L. Chow, PhD, MS '75, FNAI
Named in honor of Jack L. Beal, PhD ’52, professor emeritus of medicinal chemistry and pharmacognosy at the College of Pharmacy. The recipient of the Beal Award must have a post-baccalaureate degree from the College of Pharmacy and have contributed significantly to research and scholarship in the pharmaceutical sciences and/or contributed outstanding service to the professional practice of pharmacy.
Dr. Diana Chow is a professor of pharmaceutics and the Paula & John J Lovoi endowed professor in drug discovery and development at the University of Houston College of Pharmacy (UHCOP) and the director of the Institute for Drug Education and Research (IDER). She has been an accomplished faculty member in research, education and administrative services at UHCOP since February 1981.
Through her innovative research in drug discovery and development, she has received multiple patents in various stages of development for clinical applications that led her to be inducted as Fellow of National Academy of Inventors in 2016. An FDA-approved product, Busulfan®, is a product of her research and is considered the gold standard preparative regimen of blood, bone marrow or stem cell transplant.
In 2021, Dr. Chow was awarded the University of Houston (UH) Outstanding Graduate Mentor Award and the Outstanding Graduate Mentor Award in February 2022 by the Conference of Southern Graduate Schools for training 41 PhDs, including two PharmD/ PhDs, seven master’s program students and 26 postdoctoral fellows during 1984-2022. All her mentees have gone on to have productive and successful careers in academia, pharmaceutical industry, FDA, consulting, pharmacy, business or medical practice settings.
Dr. Chow has been on the UH faculty senate since 2012 and has been active in other professional organizations and society services, including the NIH, the DoD and the Research Grant Council (RGC) of Hong Kong, as a grant reviewer.
"It is a tremendous honor to be selected for the Jack L. Beal award this year," Dr. Chow said. "I am deeply humbled by this recognition and will be forever grateful for those formative years at Ohio State where I started as a timid international student 49 years ago."
The Distinguished Alumni Award
Suzanne A. Nesbit, PharmD '92, BCPS, FCCP, FASHP
Todd W. Nesbit, PharmD '91, MBA, FASHP
Young Kyu Park, BSPharm '62
Recipients must have a degree from the College of Pharmacy or completed post-graduate training; have made distinguished contributions in the fields of public health and public service; have performed outstanding activities in the interest of the college and its students; and have an outstanding record in the profession of pharmacy.
Dr. Suzanne Nesbit is a clinical specialist in the Department of Pharmacy and currently serves on the Palliative Care Service and the Neuroscience Pain Resource teams at The Johns Hopkins Hospital. Dr. Nesbit also serves as the director of the PGY2 Pain and Palliative Care Pharmacy Residency at The Johns Hopkins Hospital. She holds faculty appointments in the Department of Oncology and the Center for Drug Safety and Effectiveness in the Bloomberg School of Public Health at Johns Hopkins, as well as the schools of pharmacy at University of Maryland and Notre Dame University of Maryland.
She has been practicing in pain management for over 30 years and has served as chair of the Pain Management Subcommittee of the Maryland Cancer Plan, chair of the Pain & Palliative Care PRN of ACCP (American College of Clinical Pharmacy), chair of the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists (ASHP) Pain and Palliative Care Section Advisory Group, and was appointed to the Joint Commission Technical Advisory Panel for Pain Management in 2016.
She served on the Board of Regents for ACCP from 2012-2015 and was elected as a Fellow in 2016. Dr. Nesbit also served as ACCP presidential officer from 2017-2020. She co-chairs The Johns Hopkins Hospital Pain Management Committee and in 2018 was named co-chair of The Johns Hopkins Health-System Opioid Stewardship Clinical Community. Additionally, in 2018, she was appointed to a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention workgroup focusing on estimating opioid prescribing practices. Currently, she is serving a three-year term on ASHP’s Commission on Credentialing and became a Fellow of ASHP in 2022.
"As many who stand here receive awards often comment, one does not achieve this type of award nor accomplish so much without profound support both professionally and personally," Dr. Nesbit said.
Dr. Todd Nesbit is the chief pharmacy officer for The John Hopkins Hospital and vice president for pharmacy services at John Hopkins Health System in Baltimore, Maryland. As executive leader for the pharmacy enterprise, he is responsible for directing hospital and health-system practice and strategic planning and the implementation of system-wide pharmacy services across the continuum. Dr. Nesbit has worked to promote and advance the role of the pharmacist and clinical pharmacy in health systems.
Following his graduation from Ohio Northern University with a Bachelor of Science degree, Dr. Nesbit began his career in institutional practice in 1984. He graduated from the Ohio State College of Pharmacy with a Doctor of Pharmacy in 1992 and from the Johns Hopkins University Carey Business School in 2008 with an MBA in medical services management. Since then, Dr. Nesbit has served as preceptor and mentor for numerous pharmacists, pharmacy residents and pharmacy students. He has been active in various pharmacy organizations and has served as the secretary-treasurer and as president of the Ohio chapter of ACCP. Dr. Nesbit was recognized as a Fellow of ASHP in 2017.
"There's so many lessons I can share with you I learned as a post BS doctor of pharmacy student at Ohio State," Dr. Nesbit said. "Let me briefly share just three of the most important lessons that I have endured throughout my career:
- The importance of persistence to achieve ones goals is so important in overcoming the inevitable, and often unforeseen obstacles that we are likely to face. Resillience for me grew infinitely through the academic rigors through the program at Ohio State.
- The importance of learning at all times during all ages. We can never be complacent with the knowledge that we have today, as we need to continue to expand upon our knowledge to face the challenges of tomorrow
- The importance of humility, the understanding of the fundamental job of leadership is to serve others. I can think of no greater example of servant leadership personified than that of Dr. Nahata.
I share with everyone here tonight that the decision to attend the College of Pharmacy, fundamentally changed my career and my life."
Young Kyu Park led a successful career in research pharmacy, beginning at Phillips Roxanne in Columbus and retiring from Abbott Labs in Chicago. After graduating from an esteemed private high school, he translated Korean to English for United States generals during the Korean War. In exchange for his services, the US military gave him the opportunity to come to the United States and attend college in 1953. He majored in chemistry at Wilmington College before enrolling at the Ohio State College of Pharmacy in 1957.
Park invented unit dose cups for potassium chloride liquid for oral medication to be used in hospital unit dose while at Phillips Roxanne. Among many other accomplishments during his 20 years at Abbott Labs, Park formulated Tronolane and Depakote liquid and lead clinical trials for and brought Biaxin to the US and international markets - bringing Biaxin to market earned him a presidential award from the president of Abbott Labs. In addition, Park reformulated Selsun Blue and Clear Eyes. Young was also head taster of the Abbott tasting panel and qualified as a master taster after graduating from the distinguished Arthur D. Little Tasting Academy of Boston. None of his formulations were ever recalled and are still in use today. Park passed away in 2021 at the age of 89.
"We thank you for recognizing our father with this distinguished award here tonight," Park's daughter Ann said. "He was a very humble man and would be very proud to receive this but also embarrassed to be singled out by receiving this award... Young had a wonderful 29 years retirement where he truly enjoyed, in this order, his family, including six grandchildren, Ohio State football, San Diego weather, cooking, his Lexus and a Manhattan cocktail here and there."
The Outstanding Community Engagement Award
Jaime Capestany, BSPharm '98
This award recognizes an alum from any training or academic program of the College of Pharmacy for outstanding accomplishments in the community. Recipients have been involved in outreach and engagement that includes collaboration with one or more community partners who may be public and/or private sector, local to global and external to the university. This work must have provided valuable learning experiences for students and/ or demonstrated impact that addresses an important need.
Jaime Capestany is an ambulatory clinical pharmacist at PrimaryOne Health after almost 30 years with the Mount Carmel Health System. He received his BSPharm from the College of Pharmacy in 1998. Upon graduation, he completed a PGY1 residency at Mount Carmel Medical Center where his residency project involved the assessment of need for a pharmacist-led anticoagulation clinic that developed into multiple sites across the Mount Carmel Health System. In his role with PrimaryOne Health, Capestany serves the health care needs of vulnerable underserved and uninsured residents in Franklin County and Columbus. He provides management services for ailments such as diabetes, hypertension, COPD, HIV PrEP, hepatitis C and more.
Capestany has been a preceptor and clinical instructor for Ohio State’s College of Pharmacy for 20 years in addition to other pharmacy schools and visiting international students. He has worked as a volunteer pharmacist at the Physician Care Connection and with various international medical missions for over 15 years. He is a board member of the Physician Care Connection and part of the College of Pharmacy’s Committee on Diversity Equity and Inclusion. Capestany has received many awards including Outstanding Volunteer Healthcare Provider from Physician Care Connection in 2022, the Distinguished Alumni Award from the Ohio State College of Pharmacy in 2015, the Ohio State College of Pharmacy Preceptor of the Year in 2012, Outstanding Community Volunteer from Physician Care Connection in 2012 and the John Cassady and Kenneth Hale Diversity Award in 2009.
“I am really honored to receive the award," Capestany said. "I love to give back and I get that from my mother. She always taught us to give back. It doesn’t matter what you do or how you do it, but you should always give back because there will always be others who need it.”
