Two CFP Board Members earn lifetime achievement awards

JULY 2016 – Canadian Foundation for Pharmacy Vice-President, Derek Desrosiers, and Executive Director Dayle Acorn, were recently honoured for their long-standing service to the profession.

“It’s always humbling to be recommended by your peers in such a manner—especially when you have a passion for this and really hope that your efforts are making a difference,” says Desrosiers who received his lifetime achievement award from the BC Pharmacy Association during its annual conference in May. “I’ve always been an advocate of getting involved and giving back and I look for ways to assert myself in things that can advance the profession.”

Desrosiers has a long resume of doing just that having served as the association’s president at six different times, in addition to participating on many committees and boards of directors  for both provincial and national pharmacy organizations.

In his role as CFP’s Vice-President, Desrosiers is looking forward to drawing from all of his past experience to raise the Foundation’s profile, especially among individual pharmacists. “I have a good feel for how pharmacists think and that will help us develop new marketing strategies to raise awareness with grassroots pharmacists,” he says. “Despite all the gloom and doom a lot of people see in the profession, there is a lot of opportunity to take pharmacy to a whole difference place—and for CFP to be a part of that.”

Acorn, who received his lifetime achievement award at the Canadian Pharmacists Association’s annual conference in Calgary last month, says he’s honored to be recognized and thankful to be a part of an organization that is all about promoting the profession.  “At CFP, I think we’ve been successful at supporting innovation in the profession and giving pharmacists an opportunity to develop some high-impact initiatives,” says Acorn who joined the Foundation in 2007 after almost 30 years working with some of Canada’s top pharmaceutical companies. “I agree with Derek that there is a lot of opportunity still on the horizon.”