Alumni Awards Gala

The 2026 Gala will take place on Sunday, March 15, 2026, at the Langham Huntington, Pasadena, Los Angeles. 

2026 Alumni Award Recipients

Danielle Colayco & Kevin Komoto

Community Service Award

Duane Saikami

Distinguished Alumni Award

Penny Cai

Honorary Alumni Award

Neal Storm

Innovation in Regulatory Science Award

Vaishali Patel

Innovation in Pharmacoeconomics Award

Vincent Lee

Research Achievement Award

Heno Yousefi

Young Alumni Award

Highlights from the 2025 Alumni Awards Gala

2024 Alumni Awards Gala

Past Honorees

Community Service Award

2025: David Seto, PharmD ’15
2024: Raffi Svadjian, PharmD ’03, MBA
2023: Vaccination Volunteers
2022: Reda Alhoussayni, PharmD ’00, MBA
2019: Ken Thai, PharmD ’02
2018: Lisa Gunther Lum, PharmD ’86
2017: Roslyn Blake, PharmD ’92

Dean's Medallion Award

2025: David Makhani, PharmD ’87
2024: Robert Popovian, PharmD ’93, MS ’96
2023: Richard Dang, PharmD ’13
2022: Edward Martin Lieskovan, PharmD ’85, MBA ’90
2019: Leonard D. Schaeffer
2018: Dong Koo (D.K.) Kim
2017: Rita Shane, PharmD ’78

Distinguished Alumni Award

2025: Vinson Lee, PharmD ’06
2024: Steven Dohi, PharmD ’84
2023: David Truong, PharmD ’07, MS ’07
2022: Linh Lee, PharmD ’01
2019: Sohail Masood, PharmD ’88
2018: Irv Sitkoff, PharmD ’54
2017: Charles Leiter, PharmD ’83

Honorary Alumni Award

2025: Alex Kang, PharmD, MBA
2024: Ramesh Upadhyayula, BPharm, RPh, APh
2023: Jimmie L. Overton, PharmD
2022: Hattie Rees Hanley, MPP
2019: Tony Kuo, MD, MSHS
2018: Shushma Patel, MBA, RPh
2017: Michael Hochman, MD, MPH

Pharmaceutical Health Economics Award

2024: Annie Ogostalick, PharmD ’97, MS ’00
2023: Jeffrey S. McCombs, PhD
2022: Robert Popovian, PharmD ’93, MS ’97
2019: Parvez Mulani, MA Economics ’00, PhD ’03
2018: Craig Cheetham, PharmD ’78, MS ’97
2017: Yong Yuan, MA Economics ’96, PhD ’98

Regulatory Science Award

2024: Mary Ellen Cosenza, PhD, MS ’08
2023: Duane Mauzey, DRSc ’12
2022: Weicheng Wu, MS ’03, PhD ’04
2019: Martin (Marty) Solberg, MS ’08, DRSc ’11
2018: Susan McCune, MD
2017: Peter Lassoff, PharmD ’86

Research Achievement Award

2025: Jie Shen
2024: Eric Forssen, PharmD ’77, PhD ’81
2023: Charles W. Stark, PharmD ’82
2022: Hovik Gukasyan, PhD ’04
2019: Li-Jiuan (Rita) Shen
2018: Jason (Jiansheng) Wan, PhD ’91
2017: Eric Q. Wu, MA ’00, MSc ’02, PhD ’03

Young Alumni Award

2025: Jessica Abraham, PharmD ’11
2024: Michael Pazirandeh, PharmD ’11
2023: Lilia Xu, PharmD ’12
2022: Grace Cheng, PharmD ’13
2019: Debrina Johnson, PharmD ’13
2018: Gustavus A. Aranda Jr., PharmD ’04, MS ’06
2017: Danielle C. Colayco, PharmD ’08, MS ’10

Lifetime Achievement Award

2025: Josephine & William Heeres, PharmD ’63
2017: Mel Baron, PharmD, MPA

Innovation in Pharmacoeconomics Award

2025: Ben Cohen, PhD ’20

Innovation in Regulatory Science Award

2025: Frances Richmond, PhD

USC Alfred E. Mann School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences
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