ALEXANDRIA, Va. — Former Generic Pharmaceutical Association head Kathleen Jaeger has joined the National Association of Chain Drug Stores as senior vice president of pharmacy care and patient ­advocacy.

NACDS executives say Jaeger, who resigned earlier this year as executive vice president and chief executive officer of the National Community Pharmacists Association, will serve as the highly visible public face of high-quality and affordable patient care.

They explain that as NACDS’ senior vice president of pharmacy care and patient advocacy she will be a highly visible spokeswoman for pharmacy patient care before key constituencies and target audiences, including in the media and at public and health care events.

She also will direct the staff of NACDS’ newly renamed Pharmacy Care and Patient Advocacy Department.

The department advances pharmacy information and research; conducts outreach with association members and with external constituencies, including colleges and schools of pharmacy; and provides pharmacy insights and expertise that contribute to NACDS’ public policy advocacy and communications initiatives.

In addition, Jaeger will serve as president of the NACDS ­Foundation.

“With 24 years of experience and leadership as a trade association CEO, pharmacist, attorney and advocate, Kathleen Jaeger will serve as a clear and compelling voice for the value of community pharmacy and for the needs of patients in this new and expanded role at NACDS,” association president and CEO Steve Anderson ­comments.

Jaeger’s role at the trade group is one of extreme importance, he says, and highlights one of NACDS’ top priorities going forward.

“[Our] absolute commitment to telling the story of community pharmacies as the face of neighborhood health care has brought us to the point that pharmacy no longer is talking only to itself,” Anderson says. “We are raising awareness of the value of pharmacy among consumers and patients, among elected officials and policy makers, among the media, and among all health care partners and stakeholders. Now, it is time to take this work to the next level of ­success.”

Jaeger, who holds degrees in pharmacy and law, left the National Community Pharmacists Association in April after slightly more than five months at the helm.

Prior to that she spent eight years as president and CEO of the Generic Pharmaceutical ­Association, was a partner in the food and drug practices of two Washington-based law firms and was a hospital pharmacist at the National Institutes of Health.

Advocating for the role of community pharmacists in the nation’s health care system, Jaeger says, is something that is close to her heart (besides being a trained pharmacist, she is the daughter of an ­independent pharmacist).

“Every day, countless patient care success stories play out in pharmacies in neighborhoods across America,” she says. “I look forward to helping to tell this story to advance patient care.

“It is a distinct honor to represent community pharmacy and the value that it delivers to patients and to the broader health care system,” she says.