Announcing the 2025 Wellspring Award recipients

Congratulations to this year’s recipients of grants from the Canadian Foundation for Pharmacy’s Wellspring Pharmacy Leadership Awards! The three winners from Ontario and B.C. are building their expertise and leadership in the areas of advocacy, humanitarian aid and patient safety.

All three were honoured in Toronto on September 25, as part of the Ontario Pharmacists Association’s annual awards ceremony.

Nishan Devani, Costco Pharmacy, Ontario

Since graduating from the University of Waterloo and completing a Master’s of Pharmacy from the University of Brighton in 2014, Devani has worked in community, hospital, industry and administrative pharmacy settings. In addition to his current position as a Pharmacy Manager at Costco Pharmacy, his volunteer work includes serving as Vice-President of both the Pharmacists’ Association of the Niagara Peninsula and the Hamilton & District Pharmacists’ Association, and as the Canadian delegate of the Commonwealth Pharmacists Association. He is a frequent speaker at pharmacy conferences, coordinates continuing education programs, advocates for policy changes, and mentors the next generation of pharmacists.

Devani used his Wellspring grant to attend the 83^rd FIP World Congress of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences held in Copenhagen, Denmark, in September. The conference’s agenda offers best practices in four areas: clinical and practice innovation; professional development; global health initiatives; and organizational leadership.

“International perspectives will enable me to contribute more effectively to Canadian practice advancement discussions and continuing education program development,” wrote Devani in his Wellspring application. He expects his learning will also enable him to do more for international students, who “face twice the difficulty accessing healthcare services compared to Canadian-born individuals, [which] demonstrates the critical need for innovative pharmaceutical care models that address diverse population needs.”

Anthony Lau, Vancouver General Hospital, B.C.

The need for pharmacist-led humanitarian aid is pressing around the globe, yet there are few structured programs in Canada that actively support and encourage pharmacists to volunteer their services. Anthony Lau, Clinical Pharmacy Specialist in Emergency Medicine at Vancouver General Hospital, intends to change that.

With funding from the Wellspring Award, Lau’s journey will begin with the Pharmacy Leadership Academy program, an online leadership development program available through the ASHP Foundation based in Bethesda, Maryland. The program builds leadership skills in advocacy, program development and mentoring, among other areas.

Next, Lau will create a network of volunteer pharmacists for humanitarian aid, with the goal of training 20 Canadian pharmacists over the next five years. He also hopes to partner with healthcare organizations to implement pharmacy capacity-building initiatives in at least two resource-limited countries. “This initiative will empower Canadian pharmacists to take on leadership roles in international humanitarian work and integrate pharmacy practice into multidisciplinary global aid efforts,” wrote Lau in his Wellspring application.

Rahim Pradhan, Northwest Telepharmacy Solutions, Ontario

A patient safety incident almost 20 years ago left an indelible mark on Rahim Pradhan, a new pharmacist at the time. He completed a Master’s in Health Administration not long after and has focussed his career in hospital pharmacy on improving patient safety. As part of his current role as hospital pharmacist and pharmacy consultant for Northwest Telepharmacy Solutions, Pradhan evaluates hospitals’ drug distribution systems and recommends changes in technology and workflow to improve efficiencies and lower the risk of medication errors.

The Wellspring Pharmacy Leadership Award will take his leadership in these areas to the next level. Over the next year and half, Pradhan plans to complete the Project Management Certificate program at the University of Toronto. He will also complete two Lean Healthcare Certification programs available through LeadingEdge Group, a global consulting firm specializing in business transformation. The lean philosophy, popularized by car manufacturer Toyota, constantly seeks to create more value for customers with fewer resources and less waste. The Healthcare Certifications focus on the operational concerns unique to healthcare organizations.

“While my experience has equipped me with a strong instinct for identifying operational gaps and leading change, I now seek formal training to enhance the consistency, scalability and impact of my work,” wrote Pradhan in his Wellspring application. “I plan to apply these capabilities not only within my own practice, but also to mentor colleagues, support smaller hospitals, and advocate for safety-focused policy and operational changes across the healthcare system.”