The third annual USC School of Pharmacy Alumni Awards Gala, held on Sunday, April 28 at USC’s Town and Gown, recognized eight exceptional leaders for their contributions to the school and to the pharmacy profession.
Meet the recipients of the 2019 USC School of Pharmacy Alumni Awards.
The 2019 Distinguished Alumni Award was presented to Sohail Masood, PharmD ’88, President, CEO and Chairman, KabaFusion, a home infusion company with seven pharmacies nationwide with annual revenues of $170 million. He previously founded several other businesses, including MAAS Medical, a medical device manufacturing company that was sold to Baxter in 2007, and Crescent Healthcare, a home infusion company that was sold to Walgreens in 2011
The 2019 Innovation and Pharmacoeconomics Award was bestowed posthumously upon Parvez Mulani, MS ’02, PhD ’09, Vice President of Health Economics and Outcomes Research, Abbvie, Inc. Author of more than 100 peer-reviewed manuscripts, he was known as an extremely bright and strategic thinker who was driven to generate innovative research. He was a manager and mentor to many at AbbVie, was passionate about his team’s professional development, and created curricula on strategic thinking and emotional intelligence.
Martin Solberg, MS ’08, DRSc ’11, Genzyme Sanofi’s Vice President of Global Regulatory Affairs and Head of Rare Blood Disorders, received the 2019 Innovation in Regulatory Science Award.
The 2019 Young Alumni Award was presented to Debrina Johnson, PharmD ’13, BCGP, Clinical Pharmacist at Inland Behavioral and Health Services Inc., Consultant in Mental Health at Pharmacist Integrative Healthcare Inc.
Ken Thai, PharmD ’02, CEO, 986 Degrees Corporation, received the 2019 Community Service Award.
The 2019 Dean’s Medallion Award went to Leonard D. Schaeffer, Advisory Board Chair, USC Leonard D. Schaeffer Center for Health Policy & Economics, Judge Robert Maclay Widney Chair, USC Founding Chair and CEO of WellPoint (now Anthem).
Tony Kuo, MD, MSHS, Director, Division of Chronic Disease and Injury Prevention, Los Angeles County Department of Public Health and Healthy Agency, received the 2019 Honorary Alumni Award.
Li-Jiuan (Rita) Shen, Dean of the National Taiwan University, School of Pharmacy, was presented with the 2019 Research Achievement Award.
Additionally, nine students received Inspire Awards in recognition of outstanding achievements:
• Valerie M. Wang, PharmD ‘22
• John Dawod, PharmD ‘21
• Brian Lee, PharmD ‘20
• Lilia Earnest, PharmD ‘19
• Wendy Clark, DRSc, Regulatory Science ‘21
• Diana Pan, MS, Healthcare Decision Analysis ‘19
• Jiacheng Deng, MS, Pharmaceutical Sciences/ Molecular Pharmacology and Toxicology ‘20
• Jingyu (Sophia) Chen, PhD, Pharmaceutical Sciences ‘20
• Pooja Vijaya Vaikari, PhD, Clinical and Experimental Therapeutics ‘20
• Jonathan Salcedo, PhD, Health Economics ‘21
View more photos from the event here.