Pharmacy Prof Selected for Award

Pharmacy Prof Selected for “Young Alumni Leadership Award” by her Alma Mater

Volunteer Work in Haiti Cited

Buffalo, New York – May 30, 2012 – Patricia J. Pitts, "PJ", clinical assistant professor of pharmacy at D'Youville, has been selected by Pacific University Alumni Association to receive their Young Alumni Leadership Award.

In making the announcement, the Association cited her for "service during the Haiti earthquake and the following recovery. Patricia became a Chief Pharmacy Officer for 'Project Medishare' while in Haiti."

A 2009 graduate of Pacific University's first pharmacy class, she worked in Haiti for two years to help in the recovery and relief effort in 2010, according to an article on Pitts in Pacific magazine, a university publication.

"She volunteered as a pharmacist in Haiti immediately after the quake and continues to work on trainings and projects for multiple humanitarian organizations in that country."

According to her blog, she worked in a tent hospital in the days after the quake, helping improvise medical care with few supplies and little electricity, she wrote.

Pitts met Dr. Robert H Leopold, associate professor and chair of the Department of Pharmacy Practice at D'Youville, while in Haiti and was invited to speak at the college. Obviously impressing the pharmacy department, she was hired in February of this year.

She is working to develop a practice at 'Jericho Road,' a community health center for refugees in Buffalo and to develop experiential rotations abroad.

Pitts, a native Oregonian, graduated from Portland State University with a degree in interdisciplinary science and completed her doctorate in pharmacy as part of Pacific University's first class from the School of Pharmacy.

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