Cutler is honored by APhA for pharmacy leadership

Timothy Cutler, PharmD, a faculty member in the UCSF School of Pharmacy, is the 2011 recipient of The Albert B. Prescott / Glaxo SmithKline Pharmacy Leadership Award from the American Pharmacists Association (APhA).

The annual award spotlights a young pharmacist who the association deems likely to evolve as a significant leader of the profession. Cutler received the award at the annual APhA meeting held in Seattle, Washington, March 25-28, 2011.

“Dr. Cutler began demonstrating his keen leadership attributes during his student days with us, and he has continued doing so ever since,” says Mary Anne Koda-Kimble, PharmD, dean of the UCSF School of Pharmacy.

As a pharmacy student at UCSF, Cutler was president of his class, an officer in state and national professional organizations, and recipient in 2000 of the School’s highest honor for a graduating student—the Bowl of Hygeia Award.

Soon after graduation, Cutler moved to Alaska where he was a consultant pharmacist for two skilled nursing facilities. He was subsequently elected to the Board of the Alaska Pharmacists Association. He ultimately returned to California where he has been actively involved in the California Society of Health Systems Pharmacists. He serves the Academy of Managed Care Pharmacy as a member of the Editorial Board for its Journal of Managed Care Pharmacy and is an elected member of the Board of Governors of the UCSF Pharmacy Alumni Association.

As a practitioner with the Mercy Medical Group in Sacramento, California, Cutler managed the group’s “Pay for Performance” program, a bonus-awarding program for medical groups in California that provide high-quality care. Together with UCSF School of Pharmacy faculty member, Marilyn Stebbins, PharmD, he created a program at Mercy Medical Group to help underserved seniors understand the new Medicare Part D prescription drug benefit.

He then joined with Stebbins and UCSF School of Pharmacy faculty member Helene Levens Lipton, PhD, to lead the development of a California statewide partnership among 7 pharmacy schools. The goal was to train student pharmacists to provide Medicare outreach to seniors in underserved communities throughout the state, teach other health professionals about the policy implications of Medicare Part D, and provide medication therapy management in the ambulatory setting.

As an associate professor in the UCSF School of Pharmacy, Department of Clinical Pharmacy, Cutler manages the School’s off-site education program headquartered at the University of California, Davis where 18 student pharmacists are assigned annually to participate in clinical rotations. In November 2010, he moved for a semester to Japan as a visiting professor at Kobe Gakuin University of Pharmaceutical Sciences.

“Tim has left an indelible mark on patients, pharmacy students, and countless others. The best part is that he has only begun; in his remaining 40 or so years of practice, I fully expect that he will continue to impress and delight as he discovers many other exciting outlets for his leadership prowess,” says Koda-Kimble.