Olympian Michael Phelps to be keynote speaker.

ARLINGTON, Va. — The National Association of Chain Drug Stores Foundation — which continues to heighten its impact on the health and well-being of people through grants that support research and education — will be in the spotlight in August when, for the first time, it holds its premier fund­raising event in conjunction with NACDS Total Store Expo. The 25th annual NACDS Foundation Dinner will take place on the evening of August 12, at the Marriott Marquis San Diego Marina.

Michael Phelps

“If we were going to do something bold for the dinner, this was a good year to go ahead and do that,” says Sara Roszak, president of the foundation and senior vice president of health and wellness strategy and policy at NACDS. “The push behind the change was to try and broaden the visibility of the foundation and to share the message about the good work that we’re doing. By collocating with TSE there’s an opportunity to engage with people who may never have been to the foundation dinner before.”

In keeping with prior years, the foundation dinner will have a theme — mental health and its connection to overall well-being. Michael Phelps, who won 23 gold medals in Olympic swimming and has himself grappled with depression and ADHD, will be the keynote speaker.

Money raised at the dinner — which attracts support from the full spectrum of companies involved in chain pharmacy (members of the foundation board include executives representing everyone from Walgreens, Hy-Vee and McKesson to Pfizer, Haleon and Hallmark) — will help pay for the foundation’s work. Ongoing initiatives in research, education and philanthropy are designed to improve patient outcomes and public health, close gaps in care and prepare the next generation of pharmacy professionals.

Sara Roszak

“Innovative patient care research has been the primary focus for the foundation for close to 10 years,” Roszak says. “So we cultivated this as a space to grow and do some really good work. We’ve evolved over the years in terms of how we go about engaging with research partners, how we go about figuring out where we can do the most impactful work. We’ve iterated on that process, and I’m confident that we will continue to do a lot of good in communities across the country.”

Examples of the foundation’s effectiveness are easy to find. In April it made a $900,000 commitment to support the national expansion of Project Lifeline, a community partnership and research program for substance use disorder led by the University of Pittsburgh. Another recent milestone was publication of results from the second phase of the NACDS Foundation’s Gaps in Care project. Appearing in the Journal of the American Pharmacists Association, the article discusses how intervention by retail pharmacists results in better adherence to statin therapy among diabetes patients.

The publication of results is essential to amplifying the work’s impact. “Having the researchers present a project in peer-reviewed journals and other forums and share their ideas helps others realize the untapped potential of community pharmacy,” says Roszak, who is the coauthor of an article in Health Security, the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security’s journal, about why states should make authorities granted to retail pharmacies under the federal Public Readiness and Emergency Response Act permanent.

Looking ahead, the foundation has awarded a total of $1 million for research at two of the institutions that responded to its recent request for proposals. Loma Linda University’s School of Pharmacy will receive $750,000 to investigate how to combat HIV in vulnerable populations, and the University of North Carolina’s Eshelman School of Pharmacy will get $250,000 for a project to document improved patient outcomes when pharmacies help ensure access to childhood vaccinations.

In addition to research, the NACDS Foundation continues to support education. At the NACDS Annual Meeting in April, the foundation awarded $175,000 in scholarships to six schools of pharmacy. Roszak is convinced that the money is well spent, since future pharmacists will be called on to play an expanded role in health care.

“I have a public health background,” she says. “It’s interesting that when you take public health goals and ideas, and then you take all of the things that pharmacies are doing and trying to do, there’s so much overlap of opportunity to positively impact communities and do good work to address health inequity and to improve patient outcomes. That’s where I like to be, in that middle space.”