William E. Evans, Pharm.D., FCCP, BCPS, has been chosen by the Parker Medal Selection Committee as the 2017 recipient of the College’s Paul F. Parker Medal for Distinguished Service to the Profession of Pharmacy. Evans currently holds the ALSAC Endowed Chair of Pharmacogenomics at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital (SJCRH). Before assuming his present position, Evans served as the CEO of SJCRH from 2004 to 2014.
Paul Parker was one of clinical pharmacy’s most influential proponents. Before his death in 1998, Parker spent 24 years as director of pharmacy at the University of Kentucky Albert B. Chandler Hospital in Lexington. His innovations include developing decentralized pharmacy services, placing pharmacists in the hospital’s clinical areas, and developing the nation’s first pharmacist-staffed drug information center. Parker’s vision for pharmacy practice was passed along to the more than 150 residents and fellows who trained in the Kentucky program during his tenure. These disciples include many of today’s leaders in clinical pharmacy who continue to pass on his wisdom and vision to their trainees and colleagues. The Paul F. Parker Medal recognizes an individual who has made outstanding and sustained contributions to the profession that improve patient or service outcomes, create innovative practices, affect patient populations, further the professional role of pharmacists, or expand the recognition of pharmacists as health professionals.
The Parker Medal Selection Committee noted Evans’ lifetime research record, visionary leadership, and international impact. The committee wrote the following in its report to the ACCP Board of Regents,
One of his nominators described him as “the preeminent clinical pharmacy scientist in the world.” His research findings on the pharmacokinetics, pharmacodynamics, and pharmacogenomics of anticancer drugs have been published in the most prestigious journals in the biomedical and life sciences, and the citation of his work ranks among the top 1% of scientists worldwide. He has been continuously funded by the National Institutes of Health for several decades, including three consecutive MERIT awards.
Dr. Evans is also a visionary leader. While President and CEO of SJCRH, he led St. Jude’s efforts to achieve recognition as the only NCI-designated comprehensive cancer center devoted solely to children. Prior to that, Dr. Evans served as chair of the Pharmaceutical Department. Through his departmental leadership, clinical pharmacists have been embedded at SJCRH for decades as significant members of the health care team. St. Jude was the first major health care institution in the United States to clinically implement broad-ranging pharmacogenetic testing―it was also the first institution to launch an ASHP-accredited PGY2 residency in pharmacogenomics.
Throughout his career, Bill has never forgotten his pharmacy roots. In his supporting letter, [University of Illinois at Chicago Dean] Dr. Jerry Bauman noted, “I’m quite certain he revels in making sure scientific colleagues from other disciplines know he is a pharmacist.”
Evans’ supporters commented further on the influence of his research. In his letter of nomination, Parker Medalist Milap Nahata wrote, “Bill’s work has had staggering impact, resulting in increased survival and decreased morbidity in children with cancer.” In her letter supporting the nomination, University of Florida dean Julie Johnson pointed out that Evans’ research has had a “direct and lasting impact, which has resulted in the extension of life in countless numbers of children with cancer.” She added:
His work ranges from highly practical clinical trials that change treatment approaches, to complex genetic and molecular biology studies that enhance our fundamental knowledge. His research findings have dramatically affected the manner in which patients with acute lymphoblastic leukemia are treated throughout the world. Among his contributions are helping to define the combinations of drugs and doses that are highly efficacious in this patient population, the determination of optimal drug concentrations to improve efficacy and reduce toxicity of the drugs used in the cancer treatment regimen, and the impact of genetic variability on metabolism of thiopurines and many other drugs used in childhood cancers.
Evans has written more than 400 scientific publications and has received several awards for his research, including the ACCP Therapeutic Frontiers and Russell Miller awards, the Pediatric Oncology Award from the American Society of Clinical Oncology (shared with Mary V. Relling of SJCRH), the Team Science Prize from the American Association for Cancer Research (shared with colleagues at SJCRH), the American Pharmacists Association Remington Honor Medal, and the Oscar B. Hunter Award from the American Society for Clinical Pharmacology and Therapeutics. He currently serves on the Board of Directors of the Board of Pharmacy Specialties as its immediate past chair, as a member of the Board of Trustees of the University of Tennessee system, and as chair of the Scientific Advisory Board of the Princess Máxima Center for Pediatric Oncology in the Netherlands. He was elected to the Institute of Medicine of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences in 2002, the U.S. National Academy of Medicine in 2015, and the German National Academy of Sciences in 2016. He is a founding member of ACCP and served as its second president.
The 2017 Paul F. Parker Medal will be presented during the Awards Ceremony at the 2017 ACCP Annual Meeting in Phoenix, Arizona, on Sunday morning, October 8. Evans will attend to accept the medal and deliver a brief acceptance address. The Parker Medal Selection Committee is composed of representatives from member organizations of the Joint Commission of Pharmacy Practitioners, together with past presidents of ACCP. Members of the 2017 selection committee were Gary Yee (chair), Nicole Brandt, Curtis Haas, Lynnae Mahaney, Jean Nappi, Mary Beth O’Connell, Matthew Osterhaus, Peggy Piascik, Robert E. Smith, and James Tisdale.