RALEIGH, N.C. — Rebecca Chater, executive vice president of Kerr Health, has been elected as president of the North Carolina Board of Pharmacy.

Chater will serve as president of the board for the 2010-11 term, according to Kerr Health. With the election, she is not only serving in her second five-year term on the state’s pharmacy governing board but also assumes the role of president for the second time.

"It is an honor to serve in this capacity," Chater said in a statement. "With some measure of national health care reform legislation imminent, it is imperative that we, as pharmacists, continue to assume an ever-increasing role in upholding and protecting public safety."

At Kerr Health, a health care services subsidiary of drug store chain Kerr Drug Inc., Chater directs the care management service previously known as KDI Health Solutions, specializing in preventive and chronic care services.

In leading the development of clinical pharmacy services within Kerr Drug, Chater earned recognition for Kerr as 2006 Pinnacle Award recipient by the American Pharmacists Association Foundation; 2007, 2008 and 2009 National Medication Therapy Management Provider of the Year by Outcomes Pharmaceutical Health Care; 2008 North Carolina Provider of the Year by the American Diabetes Association; and the 2008 Eagle Award by the North Carolina Alliance of Healthy Communities.

She also has been recognized nationally for her professional leadership as a past Trustee and Fellow of the American Pharmacists Association, past recipient of the prestigious APhA Gloria Niemeyer Francke Leadership Mentor Award, as well as the APhA Academy of Pharmacy Practice and Management Administrative Practice Award. At the state level, she is past recipient of the North Carolina Young Pharmacist Award, North Carolina Preceptor of the Year, North Carolina Association of Pharmacists Innovative Practice Award, the North Carolina Association of Pharmacists Don Blanton Award, and the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy Distinguished Service Award. Extensively published, she is a Fellow of APhA and the Wharton School of Business.

Kerr Health is a regional health care provider offering three primary service lines — specialty pharmacy, outsourced pharmacy/long-term care pharmacy services, and care management — to patients, employer groups, medical practices, long-term care facilities and municipalities.