UF College of Pharmacy honors three leaders in pharmacy

The College of Pharmacy presented distinguished pharmacy awards during spring commencement ceremonies to two college alumni and a nonalumnus for their significant contributions to the pharmacy profession.

V. Ravi Chandran, Ph.D., who is now researching and developing several innovative drugs with Signature Pharmaceuticals, received the Distinguished Pharmacy Alumnus Award for his work in drug development and for his strong support of the college.

Chandran earned a doctorate in pharmaceutical sciences from the UF College of Pharmacy in 1986 and in 1999 established the V. Ravi Chandran professorship for drug design and targeting in the UF College of Pharmacy.

This year’s Distinguished Pharmacy Alumnus Service Award was presented to Michael MacLeay, B.S., who previously served as president of the College of Pharmacy Alumni Association for two years, helped to develop a fund to build a new UF pharmacy building and assisted with the college homecoming reunion. He is recognized for his work with the alumni association and for playing a major role in developing the UF pharmacy distance education campus in Orlando.

The Distinguished Pharmacy Service Award was presented to Thomas D. Keith, Pharm.D., the operations administrator for oncology and director of the department of pharmacy for the Mayo Clinic at St. Luke’s Hospital in Jacksonville. He received the award for his significant leadership in hospital administration and hospital pharmacy practice in his career, his active interest in pharmacy education and for his contributions to the pharmacy profession.