About the Award
The Honorary Alumni Award annually honors friends of the college for their personal contribution toward pharmacy achievement, leadership and service to the profession, or exhibits exceptional service to the college. These individuals inspire our students and serve as role models.
Nominees include individuals who have made contributions to the theory and practice of pharmacy, demonstrated major accomplishments in a professional pharmacy practice or in pharmaceutical research and development. Recipients also include those who have managed or directed an organization that has made noteworthy national or international contributions to the pharmacy profession, in addition to truly exceptional service to their community, the college, the profession, or the public.
2024 Honorary Alumni Award Recipients
Judith E. Domer
A graduate of Tusculum College in Greenville, Tennessee, Judith Domer, PhD, is dean emerita of Graduate Studies and Research at Appalachian State University in Boone, North Carolina. After earning a BS in biology and chemistry, she received a microbiology and immunology PhD from Tulane University. It was there she met and married Floyd Domer, ’54 BSPh. Judith went on to become a professor and teach medical and graduate students for 28 years in the school’s microbiology and immunology department while researching the immunology of opportunistic fungal diseases. She later was appointed Graduate School associate dean and then acting vice chancellor for Graduate Studies at the Medical Center.
In 2021, Judith received the American Society for Microbiology Founders Distinguished Service Award. She is a long-time supporter of the college.
Timothy R. Franson
Timothy Franson, BS Pharm, MD, has extensive experience in early and late phase drug development relating to clinical, regulatory, quality, and associated disciplines for small molecule, biological, cell, and gene therapies. As principal of Faegre Drinker Consulting’s life sciences regulatory consulting practice, he has worked with more than 100 clients and more than 20 major product approvals. Franson spent most of his professional career with Eli Lilly and Co. (Lilly Research Laboratories), retiring as global vice president for Regulatory Affairs and Drug Safety in 2008.
Franson’s expertise has led to significant leadership roles, including testifying before Congress for several renewals of the Prescription Drug User Fee Act and serving as chair of the Critical Path Institute board of directors, of which he still is a member. He has been part of alma mater Drake University College of Pharmacy & Health Sciences’ National Advisory Committee and the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy’s Pharmaceutical Education Advisory Committee. Franson’s success has earned him accolades and speaking invitations, among them the Lilly Chairman's Ovation Award.
Past Honorary Alumni Award Recipients*
2023 Honorary Alumni Award Recipient
Gary Milavetz, BS, PharmD
2022 Honorary Alumni Award Recipients
Nancy Alvarez, PharmD
Vern Duba, BA, MA
2021 Honorary Alumni Award Recipients
Barbara Kelley, BBA, BA, MBA
Edward Yorty, MS Fin, FCAS, FSA MAAA
2019 Honorary Alumni Award Recipient
Leslie Williams, BSN, MBA
2018 Honorary Alumni Award Recipients
Kate Gainer, PharmD
Lisa Ploehn, PharmD
2017 Honorary Alumni Award Recipients
Mundi McCarty, BS
CoraLynn Trewet, PharmD
2016 Honorary Alumni Award Recipient
Bernard A. Sorofman, PhD, FAPhA
2015 Honorary Alumni Award Recipient
John Forbes, PH
George Hiller, ’80 BBA, ’82 MBA
2014 Honorary Alumni Award Recipients
Robert Greenwood, PharmD
James Otterbeck, BBA, MBA
*No ceremony was held in 2020.