Newswise — Raymond Love, PharmD, BCPP, FASHP, professor and associate dean at the University of Maryland School of Pharmacy received the prestigious Judith J. Saklad Memorial Award at the annual meeting of the College of Psychiatric and Neurologic Pharmacists (CPNP) “Exploring the New Frontier of Psychiatric and Neurologic Pharmacy” in San Antonio.

The award is presented annually to a senior psychiatric pharmacist, who has achieved an outstanding level of professional achievement distinction.

“Dr. Love has made a tremendous impact on the care of individuals suffering with mental illness, not only through the care that he has provided but through the education of so many students and residents in pharmacy as well as other health care trainees,” said Ann Richards, PharmD, BCPP, Pharmacy Director at the San Antonio State Hospital and past president of CPNP. “Like Dr. Judith J. Saklad, Dr. Love gives endlessly to those individuals who are most vulnerable and continues to improve the entire system for providing care to the mentally ill,” said Richards, pictured above with Love.

Judith Saklad of the University of Texas was among the founders of the group and nationally recognized as an innovator of pharmaceutical care to children and adults with serious mental disorders, developmental disabilities, and mental retardation.

Love is currently a professor in the Department of Pharmacy Practice and Science and associate dean for Curriculum and Instructional Resources at the University of Maryland School of Pharmacy. He is also founder and director of the School’s Mental Health Program.

A recognized leader in pharmacy practice, Love has completed two terms as a commissioner on the Maryland Board of Pharmacy, chaired the Board’s Practice Committee, and led the committee which proposed Maryland’s Pharmacist Collaborative Drug Therapy Management legislation.

As a Board member, he was a key part of Maryland’s response to the October 2001 anthrax mail attacks that killed five people and sickened dozens more, and he helped mobilize pharmacists after Hurricane Katrina. Natalie D. Eddington, PhD, dean, School of Pharmacy, said, “This award is a wonderful acknowledgement of Dr. Love’s life-long commitment to excellence in psychiatric pharmacy. Dr. Love has achieved distinction as the director of the State of Maryland Mental Health Pharmacy program, where he has continued to provide much needed pharmaceutical care to address the mental health needs of the citizens of the state. He has also been instrumental in mentoring psychiatric pharmacists and pharmacy residents, as well as publishing a significant body of work in this arena. The School of Pharmacy is extremely proud of his achievements.”

Love, a 1977 graduate of the School, was as the first director of the Cumberland (Md.) Area Health Education Center (AHEC). He helped establish the University of Maryland’s first AHEC and served as a preceptor for pharmacy, medical, dental, nursing, social work and pastoral care students and residents.

In 1989, prior to the approval of the anti-psychotic drug clozapine, Love developed the Clozapine Authorization and Monitoring Program within the Maryland Mental Hygiene Administration, which then served as a national model for the safe use of the drug in other states, as well as in the Veterans Affairs system. He later served as a consultant for the National Association of Attorneys General in the successful multistate antitrust suit over the bundling of laboratory services with clozapine.

Love has been a reviewer for over 20 psychiatric and pharmacy journals and served on national and international advisory boards and committees including technical panels for both the National Institutes of Health and the National Quality Forum. He has been the recipient of over $40 million in contracts and grants.

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