On Thursday, September 27, the College of Pharmacy celebrated its latest fully-endowed professorship, the Deborah K. Veale Professorship in Healthcare Policy. The appointment, which aims to actively involve the pharmacy profession in the creation of health care policies that will benefit practice settings as well as patients, was bestowed on William Doucette, PhD, professor and head of the division of health services research.

Dr. Doucette’s work examines the practice of pharmacists, specifically the pharmacist role and professional activities. His research often takes the form of innovating new practice ideas and examining the outcomes of those ideas on practice processes and/or patient outcomes. Dr. Doucette is a leader in a network of scientists who have examined longitudinally the patterns of the changing role and demographics of pharmacist practice. As a scientist, he has over 100 publications and just fewer than 175 scientific presentations to his credit. In his field, this is an exceptional performance. 

Doucette’s publications often appear in the Journal of the American Pharmacists Association, the highest impact journal for his pharmacist intervention work.  His research also appears in the rigorous and well-respected research journal Research in Social and Administrative Pharmacy, as well as clinical journals such as Pharmacotherapy and Annals of Pharmacotherapy. His scholarship in these areas has landed him editorial board memberships at the Journal of the American Pharmacists Association and Research in Social and Administrative Sciences. 

While at The University of Iowa, Dr. Doucette has progressively developed his research grant activity. He is currently the principal investigator on a large Agency for HealthCare Policy and Research (federal) grant and is or has been on two dozen funded grants. He has been and continues to be well funded to undertake his scientific program.

The Veale Professorship is endowed by a gift from Debbie Veale (1981 BSPh) and husband Tom of Palos Verdes Estates, Calif. Debbie is the director of managed care for CVS Caremark, a national integrated pharmacy services provider. Her husband, Tom, is a 1980 UI graduate with a bachelor’s degree in accounting. He is founder and president of Tristar Risk Management and a chair of the College of Pharmacy Executive Leadership Board.