2017 Pillar of Pharmacy: Marshall Moleschi

MAY 2017 – The Canadian Foundation for Pharmacy (CFP) is thrilled to honour Marshall Moleschi as the 2017 Pillar of Pharmacy Award recipient, to recognize his important contributions to advance the profession. “Marshall has been a catalyst for change within the profession in his leaderships roles in B.C. and Ontario—and all pharmacists across Canada are benefitting from Marshall’s contributions,” says CFP President Derek Desrosiers.

Moleschi’s leadership and numerous contributions to the profession will be formally celebrated at CFP’s annual Pillar of Pharmacy fundraising dinner in the fall.

With a career spanning more than four decades, Moleschi has consistently influenced positive change. After earning his pharmacy degree from the University of British Columbia in 1974, he started out as a community pharmacist in Kitimat, B.C. Only two months later, his employer gave him an opportunity to open and manage an 8,000-sq.-ft. pharmacy in Prince Rupert, where he developed and implemented the pharmacy’s first medication profiles for patients.

In 1977, he opened the first Co-Op pharmacy in B.C., then in 1981 he entered hospital pharmacy as the pharmacy manager at Shuswap Lake General Hospital. During a time when pharmacists stayed in the dispensary, Moleschi challenged the status quo by routinely visiting wards to share his knowledge. He also implemented a distance pharmacy service for 11 facilities spread out across 500 km.

After completing a Masters of Health Administration degree, Moleschi became Chief Operating Officer for the North Okanagan Health Region, and then in 1998 took an executive position with the Health Association of B.C. After 10 years in health administration, he returned to his clinical roots as Director of Pharmacy for the East Kootenay Health Region. During that time he worked with the College of Pharmacists of B.C. to pioneer telepharmacy services. He was recruited by the Northern Health region in 2002, where he worked to establish a medical school at the University of Northern B.C.

In 2005, Moleschi became Registrar of the College of Pharmacists of B.C. He guided the expansion of pharmacists’ scope of practice, the regulation of pharmacy technicians and updated the College’s Code of Ethics. He also took to the road as a public speaker at pharmacy conferences, to motivate pharmacists and technicians to take up their new responsibilities under expanded scopes of practice.

Moleschi moved on to the Ontario College of Pharmacists in 2011. As Registrar, he again helped guide the expansion of pharmacists’ scope of practice, and updated the College’s Professional Practice Principles and Code of Ethics. He evolved practice assessments away from the traditional checklists to include a more qualitative evaluation, which includes coaching pharmacists on how to enhance their delivery of services. He retired in 2016.

Volunteer work has always been part of Moleschi’s commitment to the profession. He has served as president of numerous organizations, including CFP, the B.C. Pharmacy Association and the Regulated Health Professionals of Ontario and CFP. He was awarded CFP’s Lifetime Achievement Award in 2016.