Thimerosal is back in the news as vaccine safety becomes a common topic again.

I wanted to take a moment, post-APhA2025, to introduce myself to anyone who might not know me. It is the honor of a lifetime to serve as APhA’s president. I have spent my life preparing for this leadership role; as a co-owner and CEO of Towncrest Pharmacy Corporation, co-founder and co-owner of Innovative Pharmacy Solutions and professor of pharmacy management and innovation at Loma Linda University School of Pharmacy. 

As my tenure as President of APhA draws to a close, I find myself deeply reflective of the extraordinary work accomplished this year, the incredible individuals I’ve had the honor of working with, and the collective strength of the pharmacy profession. The theme of my presidency—"All In: One Profession. United."—was not just a slogan, but a guiding principle that informed everything we did as an association.

The numbers on opioid use disorder (OUD) alone paint a grim picture. Opioids are tied to over three-quarters of drug overdose deaths. More than a million people have died in the United States from fatal opioid overdoses in the last two decades. We lost 80,000 lives to opioid overdoses in 2021 alone.