Ilisa Bernstein, PharmD, JD, FAPhA
Ilisa Bernstein, PharmD, JD, FAPhA, is Interim CEO and Executive Vice President at the American Pharmacists Association (APhA). She is responsible for leading the development and implementation of APhA’s strategies, policies, and programs, and guiding APhA as the voice of pharmacists in all practice settings. Prior to this position, Dr. Bernstein was Senior Vice President for Pharmacy Practice and Government Affairs at APhA.
She has over 30 years of experience advocating for pharmacy and patients at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), where she has held several senior leadership positions. Prior to joining APhA, Dr. Bernstein was deputy director of FDA’s Office of Compliance in the Center for Drug Evaluation & Research, leading policies, compliance, and enforcement in areas including drug compounding, supply chain security, drug manufacturing and quality, drug shortages, and post-market drug safety. Dr. Bernstein also served as director of pharmacy affairs for FDA and senior advisor for regulatory policy in the Office of the Commissioner. She started at FDA as clinical pharmacology reviewer of investigational and new drug applications.
Previously, Dr. Bernstein was senior associate director of worldwide regulatory affairs for Pfizer and completed a post-doctoral clinical residency at the National Institutes of Health. She earned her Doctor of Pharmacy from the University of Michigan and her Juris Doctor from American University Washington College of Law.
Rafael Saenz
Rafael Saenz received his Pharm.D. from the Virginia Commonwealth University School of Pharmacy, and his Master of Science in Pharmacy Administration from the University of Wisconsin, while concurrently completing the Pharmacy Administration Residency Program at the University of Wisconsin Hospital.
Between 2011 and 2019, Rafael served as the Chief Pharmacy Officer at the University of Virginia (UVA) where he oversaw the pharmacy enterprise for the health system. In this role, Rafael led an expert team that successfully deployed clinical pharmacist services throughout the system, implemented LEAN medication distribution workflows, oversaw a $250M drug expense budget, increased the department’s revenue to attribute to over 45% of all medical center net revenues, and created several new business lines for UVA including a full service specialty pharmacy. Further, Rafael led the expansion of pharmacy residency programs at UVA, tripling the availability of positions during his tenure.
Prior to UVA, Rafael served as Pharmacy Operations Manager for UPMC in Pittsburgh. In this role, he had oversight for clinical unit-based pharmacy services and retail operations, before switching his focus to the pharmacy practice sites within UPMC’s international ventures in Palermo, Italy and Dublin, Ireland. Rafael has deployed clinical services, information technology systems, created supply chains, met regulatory and accreditation requirements, implemented best practices in medication use safety, and launched new pharmacy business initiatives domestically and internationally.
Rafael has served the profession through active membership in state and national pharmacy organizations. He has served on workforce and education committees with various organizations aimed at increasing the pharmacist and technician scope of practice. In 2015, Rafael was appointed to the Virginia Board of Pharmacy and served as Chair of the Board from 2018-2019.
Mallery Hobbs
Mallery Hobbs is responsible for the information technology infrastructure; network operations and the information security controls for the organization. In this role, she serves as an advisor on IT infrastructure initiatives and provides strategic leadership on technology matters.
She has 30 years of professional information technology experience in IT infrastructure, information systems, database management and data analysis. Prior to this role, she served as the Senior Director, Information Technology, providing oversight and guidance on the organization’s enterprise information systems and network.
Before joining APhA, she served in a data management role for the American Association of State Colleges and Universities (AASCU), which promotes and support public higher education, academic quality, access, inclusion and facilitates educational innovation. Previously, she served in various computer/data analyst roles providing statistical analysis for books and publications for the United Negro College Fund (UNCF), a philanthropic organization that funds scholarships for students for private colleges and universities and Meharry Medical College, a global academic health sciences center advancing health equity through innovative research, transformative education, and health services.
She holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Science from Tennessee State University.
William M. Ellis
William M. Ellis, MS, RPh was named Executive Director of BPS in 2011. From 1997-2011, Mr. Ellis served as CEO and Executive Director of the American Pharmacists Association (APhA) Foundation. He was the Executive Vice President for the Pennsylvania Society of Health-Systems Pharmacists from 1986-1997.
Ellis also served as the elected Chair of the Council on Credentialing in Pharmacy (CCP) from 2012-2015; CCP provides leadership, guidance, public information, and coordination for the profession of pharmacy’s credentialing programs. In 2014, he was appointed a commissioner to the National Commission for Certifying Agencies (NCCA) and was elected as the 2016 Chairman. The NCCA helps to ensure the health, welfare, and safety of the public through the accreditation of a variety of individual certification programs that assess professional competency. The NCCA is an administratively independent resource recognized as the authority on accreditation standards for professional certification programs.
After receiving his pharmacy degree from the Philadelphia College of Pharmacy (PCP), where he served as the chair of the College’s Board of Visitors. He completed an executive residency with the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists in 1986 and earned his Master of Science degree in health education from Saint Joseph’s University in Philadelphia in 1994.