Awards Recognize Excellence in the School of Pharmacy

Students, faculty, and staff celebrated a successful academic year with their annual awards ceremonies for campus and online pathways. Recipients were honored for their exceptional academic performance, leadership, research, and service to the pharmacy field.

Lucian Sacheli, Tyler Stoetzel, and James Willard received the Dr. Scott Swigart Scholarship given in memory of the founding dean, Dr. Scott Swigart. The award recognizes Wegmans School of Pharmacy students who demonstrate leadership abilities and are highly engaged in the School and outside community.

Alvin F. and Ruth K. Thiem Foundation scholarships were awarded to Tamer Hassan, Sally Buchheimer, Will Chubb, Johnathon Cox, and James Willard. The recipients are nominated by faculty, staff, and administrators of the Wegmans School of Pharmacy and reward achievements in leadership, school spirit, engagement, research, and perseverance.

Olivia Godley, Matthew Schneider, and Wendi Wojnovich were recognized with the Population Based Healthcare Award for their excellence in creating a video presentation or creating and virtually presenting on population-based healthcare concepts. 

The Pharmaceutical Sciences Recognition Award recognizes students for their academic achievement, engagement, and/or contributions in research within the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences. This year’s recipients included Austin Counts, Mariam Dager, Arsany Fahim, Sandra Fenelon, Hunter Kurz, Valerie Malachin, Annelise McLean, Valentine Orock, Bobby Emet, Chris Falcon, Kim Le, Matt McLaughlin, Sadie Oldfield, Claire Rider, Matt Schneider, Karis Vega, Aaron Weaver, James Willard, and Sara Woytowicz.

Mirzi Allyson Agdinaoay, Alaa Al Rahmoun, Gurleen Bhambra,  Austin Counts, Arsany Fahim, Erica Guarino, Shachyah Lewis, Jamal Nassar, Lauren Schultz, Kim Le, Nghi Le, Victoria Ligouri, Amilya Maniphonh, Lena Schiavo, and Hannah Uchal received the Achievement in Top 200 Award for excellence in the Top 200 medication quizzes.

The Wegmans School of Pharmacy Values in Action Award is given to student pharmacists who exemplify the core values of the Wegmans School of Pharmacy through their actions, character, support of their peers, and/or commitment to their studies. This year’s recipients included Eli Adair, Gregory Hartt, Lily Hassid, Hunter Kurz, Sally Buchheimer, Will Chubb, Randy Lin, Claire Rider, Jekhi Roberts, Aaron Weaver, James Willard, and Sara Woytowicz.

Hena Abdiani received the Walgreens Multilingual Scholarship, recognizing a student who is fluent in one or more languages in addition to English and is actively involved in promoting and embracing collaboration across different cultural groups.

The Walgreens Inclusion Award recognizes a student with demonstrated leadership, academic success, and a commitment to advancing inclusion in the pharmacy profession, driving health equity and high-quality patient care in a community setting. This year's recipient was Tahaara Gazali. 

Harley Gainer and Rushawn Middleton received the Griffis Excellence in Community Service Scholarship. This scholarship is awarded to P2 or P3 students in good academic standing who have shown dedication to serving underrepresented communities. 

The 2026 NCPA Student Chapter Member Excellence Award was presented to Jasmine Small, who was nominated by her peers in recognition of her exceptional commitment to the chapter and her dedication to the future of community pharmacy.

During the ceremonies, students also received Academic Excellence Recognition for their hard work and dedication, earning a GPA of 3.5 and above. 

Each year, students in both the campus and online pathways have the opportunity to recognize outstanding faculty members by voting for the faculty they believe demonstrates excellence. The 2026 Teacher of the Year Awards for the Campus Pathway, selected by each class, were Dr. Theresa Liu (P1), Dr. Amy Parkhill (P2), and Dr. Lisa Avery (P3). The recipients of Teacher of the Year for the online pathway were Dr. Priyanka Bhatt (P1), Dr. Shawn Fellows (P2), and Dr. Lisa Avery (P3).