Tuesday 24 July 2018 10:51pm
Otago's Associate Professor Rhiannon Braund (left) with Pharmaceutical Society of New Zealand President Graeme Smith.
An Otago Pharmacist has been recognised by the Pharmaceutical Society of New Zealand for the significant impact she has made on her profession at a national and local level through teaching, research, publishing, and governance roles.
Associate Professor Rhiannon Braund was made a Fellow of the Society, at its AGM in Christchurch last month – the only person to be recognised with this top honour this year.
She says the recognition was “incredibly humbling”.
“Being an academic is both challenging and rewarding, and it is important to recognise the opportunity (and expectation) that we have to support, strengthen and enhance the wider community. To know that my actions, efforts and energy have had a much wider positive impact on my chosen profession is very rewarding.”
Associate Professor Braund worked at the University’s School of Pharmacy from 2005 to March this year before taking a role at the New Zealand Pharmacovigilance Centre, which is housed in the University’s Department of Preventive and Social Medicine.
"To know that my actions, efforts and energy have had a much wider positive impact on my chosen profession is very rewarding."
Her citation from the Pharmaceutical Society describes Associate Professor Braund as a highly respected and capable tutor of New Zealand’s future pharmacists, who encourages their acquisition of knowledge and curiosity.
It notes her teaching awards, which include New Zealand’s top teaching award, the Prime Minister’s Supreme Award for Tertiary Teaching Excellence in 2012.
It also notes her research achievements – which include being a finalist in the MacDiarmid Young Scientist of the Year in 2008, and her work on the Pharmacy Accuracy Checking Technician project and medicines reclassification.
In addition to her teaching and research her citation notes her contributions to the profession at a local, national and international level, which include being President of the Otago Branch of the Pharmaceutical Society, a member of the Australasian Pharmaceutical Science Association Executive Council, and a member of the Pharmaceutical Society of New Zealand National Executive and representing New Zealand at the Global Congress for Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Science Education.