Bowl of Hygeia
Wendy Iwasaki, PharmD, BCACP, BCGP
  
Sponsored by: American Pharmacists Association Foundation and the National Alliance of State Pharmacy Associations (NASPA).
Nobody was prepared for COVID. Wendy saw a need for PPE and used her skills to create a community of able-bodied volunteers to make cloth masks and bonnets for health care and essential workers. She developed group through social media “Masks4Hawaii,” and has coordinated the donation of over 10,000 individually hand-sewn masks, 454 sewn surgical bonnets and made over 6,000 mask hooks since March. The volunteers are heroes in every sense of the word. I can’t thank Wendy Iwasaki enough for all her hard work bringing this effort into fruition.
(The 2020 award winners from the other states can be found below.)

 

Excellence in Innovation
Brian White, PharmD 
 
Sponsored by: Upsher-Smith Laboratories, LLC and administered by NASPA
Dr. Brian White is the former Chief of Pharmacy at Tripler Army Medical Center and recently has been promoted to Deputy to the Commander for Patient Services. In the face of unprecedented challenges due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Dr. White has been instrumental in ensuring pharmacy coverage in all aspects of patient care and in creating a plan for TAMC in the event of a surge. He has implemented training for ambulatory care pharmacists to work in an inpatient environment, staff inpatient pharmacists to provide Emergency Department coverage, and a successful drive-thru pharmacy to increase patient and staff safety while maintaining outpatient pharmacy service during the pandemic.

 

 
2020 Distinguished Young Pharmacists (DYP) Award
Jarred Prudencio, PharmD, BCACP, BC-ADM
  
Sponsored by: Pharmacists Mutual
Dr. Jarred Prudencio graduated in 2015 from the Daniel K. Inouye College of Pharmacy (DKICP) and completed a post-graduate year 1 (PGY-1) pharmacy practice residency at UC Davis Medical Center in Sacramento, California. He is an assistant professor at the DKICP and practices as an ambulatory care clinical pharmacist at the Hawaii Island Family Health Center (HIFHC). Dr. Prudencio’s innovation and creativity is displayed in his Instagram account, ambcarerx, which features clinical pharmacy pearls, summaries of guidelines, biostatistics reviews, and medication counseling points. He has amassed over 15,000 followers on his 250+ posts. The account is designed to provide students and clinicians timely and pertinent information through the use of a social media platform and shows his commitment to advancing the profession of pharmacy and supporting life-long learning.

 

Pharmacy Technician of the Year
Christina Method, CPhT
 
Sponsored by: Hawaii Pharmacists Association
Christina has been instrumental in coordinating student experiential sites in view of the COVID-19 pandemic. Working with all experiential sites (retail, hospital, clinic) and their safety restrictions.
 

 

Friends of Pharmacy Award
Allen (Chip) Hixon, MD
  
Sponsored by: Hawaii Pharmacists Association
As Chair for the Department of Family Medicine and Community Health at JABSOM, Dr. Hixon has been a champion of pharmacy partners for over 15 years. The Family Medicine Department has incorporated clinical pharmacists in their academic practices since 2009 beginning in Hilo, expanding to the Physician Center Mililani on Oahu, and most recently opening the University Health Partners, Family Medicine Clinic at Pali Momi with dedicated space for clinical pharmacy education.
Pharmacist of the Year
Sheri Tokumaru, PharmD, BCCCP
    
Sponsored by: Hawaii Pharmacists Association
Dr. Tokumaru is an Associate Professor at the University of Hawaii at Hilo Daniel K. Inouye College of Pharmacy. She currently serves as the Director of Interprofessional Education and Development where she works to implement and advance interprofessional education in conjunction with medicine, nursing, public health and social work education programs. Dr. Tokumaru also manages pharmacy IPPE and APPE experiential education at The Queen’s Medical Center where she practices in the Neuroscience Intensive Care Unit. She was recently chosen as one of the professionals to collaborate on and create Guidelines for the Acute Treatment of Cerebral Edema in Neurocritical Care Patients, which was published in March 2020 in Neurocritical Care Journal.                                  
 

 

Generation Rx Award
Kimberly Legawa, PharmD, BCPS
Sponsored by: Hawaii Pharmacists Association
Sponsored by: Hawaii Pharmacists Association
Kim has worked with the opioid steering committee to develop a partnership between pharmacy, providers, and the patients to ensure the safety of appropriate use of pain medications for patients. She has helped steer the opioid agreements, oversees pharmacists who assist with pain management and downward titration of medications, helped implement Naloxone availability through the outpatient pharmacy, as well as helps to support ongoing monitoring of national pharmacy measures in which Hawaii outperforms other Kaiser Permanente regions.
 
The 2020 American Pharmacists Association Foundation and the National Alliance of State Pharmacy Associations award winners from the other states! Congratulations!