I wanted to take a moment, post-APhA2025, to introduce myself to anyone who might not know me. It is the honor of a lifetime to serve as APhA’s president. I have spent my life preparing for this leadership role; as a co-owner and CEO of Towncrest Pharmacy Corporation, co-founder and co-owner of Innovative Pharmacy Solutions and professor of pharmacy management and innovation at Loma Linda University School of Pharmacy.

The numbers on opioid use disorder (OUD) alone paint a grim picture. Opioids are tied to over three-quarters of drug overdose deaths. More than a million people have died in the United States from fatal opioid overdoses in the last two decades. We lost 80,000 lives to opioid overdoses in 2021 alone.