John Armitstead, system director of pharmacy services at Lee Memorial Hospital in Ft. Meyers and Cape Coral, Fla., and the 2015 president of the American Society of Health Systems Pharmacists (ASHP), will be the guest speaker for the seventh annual Sebok Pharmacy Lecture presented by the Ohio Northern University Raabe College of Pharmacy. He is a 1979 graduate of the University’s College of Pharmacy. Armistead will deliver his lecture entitled, “Perfecting Your Practice: Continuous Professional Development,” in the ONU Freed Center for the Performing Arts on Friday, Feb. 12, at 1 p.m.

Armistead’s lecture will place importance on how to best manage health system pharmacies large and small, and how continuous professional development can increase a pharmacist’s ability to provide the best care for patients. He began his career as a pharmacy intern whose passion for helping others has catapulted him through a successful professional incline as a pharmacist and health-system leader.

Armitstead has served on the ASHP Board of Directors and on several ASHP councils and committees. He is active in the Florida Society of Health-System Pharmacists and is a founding member of the Florida Residency Conference. He is a past president of the Kentucky Society of Health-System Pharmacists and Ohio Society of Health-System Pharmacists and is a recipient of the Clifton J. Latiolais Award from the Ohio State University School of Pharmacy.

The Sebok Pharmacy Lecture was established by alumni and friends to honor Dr. Albert A. Sebok, a 1953 graduate of the Raabe College of Pharmacy and one of its most distinguished alumni. A Cleveland native, Sebok joined Standard Drug as a store manager after graduation. In 1961, Revco acquired Standard, and Sebok began his rise in store operations, culminating in his appointment in 1971 as senior vice president for store operations of Revco DrugStores Inc. Under his leadership, Revco became the largest discount drug chain in America with more than 2,000 stores. He was an original member of ONU’s Pharmacy Advisory Board and the founder and instructor of the college’s contemporary pharmacy practice class. He received an honorary doctorate degree from Ohio Northern in 1988.