CONTACT: Frank Fortin
202.223.7189; ffortin@aphanet.org

Marialice S. Bennett, BSPharm, of Columbus, OH, is the recipient of the 2021 Remington Honor Medal, the highest honor bestowed by the American Pharmacists Association (APhA) and the profession’s highest recognition. 

Bennett, the seventh woman to be recognized since the Remington Honor Medal’s inception in 1919, retired as the Director of the Community and Ambulatory Care Residency program and as a Professor of Clinical Pharmacy at The Ohio State University (OSU) College of Pharmacy in 2015. Currently, she is a Professor Emeritus at OSU. 

Bennett was selected in recognition of her passionate leadership and pioneering vision for advancing patient care and the profession of pharmacy through her creation of innovative community practice sites, her contributions to pharmacy education and community-based residency training, and her mentoring impact on the professional and personal lives of  generations of current and future pharmacists. She served as the 2011–2012 APhA President.

Throughout her 50 years of local, state, and national service to the profession, Bennett has developed and implemented major innovative practices to transform community pharmacy practice. 

“She is an early adopter of new ideas and a natural leader who shattered boundaries to move the profession of pharmacy forward,” Bennett’s nominators wrote. In the late 1980s, she moved from hospital practice to the community pharmacy setting and “leveraged the clinical care skills she developed from inpatient practice to realize her vision for pharmacists in community-based settings.” 

In the early 1990s, her Clinical Partners Programs at the OSU Pharmaceutical Care Clinic was among the first practice sites where pharmacists provided disease state management services through one-on-one appointments with patients. It was among the first programs in the nation to bill insurance companies for clinical pharmacist services. And it was a participant within the APhA Foundation’s first pharmacist-provided patient care projects.

In the late 1990s, Bennett collaborated with Dr. Stephanie Cook, an emergency department physician, to create University Health Connection, a cutting-edge, interprofessional clinic that offered a blend of community pharmacy, urgent care, and primary care services.

In 2012, Bennett’s vision continued when Kroger and the OSU College of Pharmacy created the first-in-the-nation postgraduate year (PGY)1/PGY2 Community Pharmacy Practice Residency and combined a Master of Science in Health-System Pharmacy Administration (with emphasis in Community) training program, the first of its kind to be accredited by the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists (ASHP). 

According to one of Bennett’s letters of support, “We’d be hard pressed to identify another pharmacist who has excited more young pharmacists to be the leaders we need for the profession of tomorrow. And she enjoys every minute of every interaction with both [student pharmacists] and practitioners.” 

Another letter of support noted, “Marialice embodies the very essence of an exemplary leader—she inspires others with her passion, challenges the process and seeks innovative ways for improvement, and shares her vision for the future. To top that off, she is a genuinely good person who makes everyone around her smile, feel welcome, and want to contribute more to the profession than they ever thought they could.”

The Remington Honor Medal, named for eminent community pharmacist, manufacturer, and educator Joseph P. Remington, was established in 1918 to recognize distinguished service on behalf of American pharmacy during the preceding years, culminating in the past year or during a long period of outstanding activity or fruitful achievement. The APhA Foundation has created the Remington Endowment to lead collaborative problem-solving with the entire profession of pharmacy and its stakeholders to improve our nation’s most pressing medication use and safety issues.

Bennett will be officially recognized during the APhA Annual Meeting & Exposition in Los Angeles, CA, March 12–15, 2021. The APhA awards and honors program is the most comprehensive recognition program in the profession of pharmacy.

Bennett received her pharmacy degree from OSU. She has received the APhA Gloria Niemeyer Francke Leadership Mentoring Award, APhA Community Residency Excellence in Precepting Award, APhA Daniel B. Smith Practice Excellence Award, APhA Linwood F. Tice Friend of APhA–ASP Award, APhA Fellow, APhA Foundation Jacob W. Miller Award, Bowl of Hygeia Award from Ohio, and many others, including those from ASHP, the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy (AACP), OSU and the Ohio Pharmacists Association (OPA).

Beyond OSU and APhA, Bennett has served in leadership, expert, and mentoring roles for the APhA Foundation, the U.S. Pharmacopeia, AACP, ASHP, the Center for Pharmacy Practice Accreditation, OPA, the Ohio Pharmacist Foundation and in the area of diabetes.

Marialice and her husband, Jon, are grateful for their three sons and their families: Jay and Cayenne; Vincent, Stephanie, Jaxon, Tyson and Lulu Rose; and Bryan, Jessica, Josie and Hudson.