apha history

The APhA Academy of Student Pharmacists unofficially began in 1921 when students from the University of North Carolina petitioned the APhA Council to be recognized as an APhA student branch. Since then, the student section of APhA has gone through a steady evolutionary process. After the first student branch was recognized, many other schools and colleges of pharmacy began to form their own student branches.

In 1954, a formal student section was created due largely to the efforts of the late Dr. Linwood F. Tice of the Philadelphia College of Pharmacy, who felt that students needed a voice in the nation’s professional society of pharmacists. This allowed students the opportunity to send one delegate to the APhA House of Delegates.

This progress continued until 1969, when the APhA membership approved new bylaws which created three Association subdivisions, one of which was the Student American Pharmaceutical Association (SAPhA). During the next ten years, the number of student delegates in the APhA House of Delegates increased from one to 15.

That number increased to 28 in 1986 after passage of new APhA bylaws that created the APhA Academy of Students of Pharmacy (APhA-ASP).

At the 2004 Annual Meeting in Seattle, Washington, the APhA-ASP House of Delegates voted in favor of a proposed resolution to change the Academy’s name to the American Pharmacists Association - Academy of Student Pharmacists (APhA-ASP), in order to better define the professional role of student pharmacists and to emphasize students’ commitment to the profession of pharmacy.

The mission of the American Pharmacists Association Academy of Student Pharmacists (APhA-ASP) is to be the collective voice of student pharmacists, to provide opportunities for professional growth, to improve patient care, and to envision and advance the future of pharmacy.

Founded as the American Pharmaceutical Association on October 6, 1852, in Philadelphia, APhA today represents more than 60,000 practicing pharmacists, pharmaceutical scientists, student pharmacists, pharmacy technicians, and others interested in advancing the profession. APhA, dedicated to helping all pharmacists improve medication use and advance patient care, is the first-established and largest association of pharmacists in the United States. Three academies—Pharmacy Practice and Management, Pharmaceutical Research and Science, and Student Pharmacists—make up APhA

APhA’s reach goes far beyond the shores of the United States. An active participant in the International Pharmaceutical Federation (FIP) since 1925, APhA has both hosted and attended dozens of meetings of pharmacists from around the world, and its staff and officers have held key positions in FIP and other international pharmacy organizations.

Policy for APhA and the profession of pharmacy as a whole is developed by the APhA House of Delegates. Comprising representatives from all major national pharmacy organizations, state pharmacy associations, federal pharmacy, and APhA’s three academies, the APhA House of Delegates meets during the APhA annual meeting each spring to consider matters of timely and critical importance to pharmacy. The House was first organized in 1912.

A spinoff of APhA’s centennial celebration was the APhA Foundation, created in 1953. The Foundation, recognized as a 501(c)3 charitable/educational nonprofit organization, conducts research demonstration projects, such as its Project ImPACT, and its latest initiative, the HealthMapRX, a project that aims to combat the effects that chronic diseases have on America’s workforce. Along with demonstration projects, the Foundation offers programs to pharmacists such as the Advanced Practice Institute, National Clinical Issues Forum, and the Incentive Grants for Practitioner Innovation in Pharmaceutical Care. The Foundation also hosts the Pinnacle Awards each year to recognize health professionals’ contributions to the health care system.

In the 1920s and 1930s, APhA was able to secure coveted land on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., for construction of its national headquarters. Designed by famed architect John Russell Pope, the American Institute of Pharmacy was built at 23rd Street and Constitution Avenue and dedicated in 1934. An annex was constructed later, being dedicated in 1960. Today, the annex has been demolished and has made way for a new addition to the original Pope building, completed in 2009.

APhA Executive Vice President and CEO John A. Gans, PharmD