Ohio Northern University student Taylor Lewis, a fourth-year pharmacy major from Cincinnati, Ohio, has been appointed to the National Community Pharmacists Association (NCPA) Student Leadership Council (SLC) for a two-year term.

Lewis will serve one year as a junior member and will be elevated to a senior member in her second year. She is just one of eight pharmacy students selected from across the country to serve on the council. This marks the eighth consecutive year that an ONU student has been named to the board. ONU has had five students represent the school over the last six years. 

Emily Ickes, a fifth-year pharmacy student from Jeromesville, Ohio, is currently a senior member of the SLC.

The SLC represents all student pharmacist members of the NCPA. The SLC is comprised of 16 student members who each complete a two-year term, the first as a junior member and the second as a senior member. Any college of pharmacy who has an NCPA chapter may submit applicants each year, but only one student may be appointed to the SLC at either the junior or senior level. With Lewis’ appointment ONU represents SLC leadership at both levels. All SLC members must have held an office on the chapter level, and all must be current student members of NCPA.

The goal of the SLC is to support the development of future leaders in community pharmacy and to recognize student pharmacists who have a strong interest in entrepreneurship and pursuing a career in community pharmacy. The SLC supports the associate director of management and student affairs at NCPA in providing the student pharmacist perspective in developing programs for NCPA student members.

The NCPA represents the interests of America’s community pharmacists, including the owners of nearly 23,000 independent community pharmacies. Together, they represent an $88.8 billion health care marketplace, dispense nearly 40 percent of all retail prescriptions and employ more than 300,000 individuals, including more than 62,000 pharmacists.