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The University of Mississippi

Pharmacy Alumna to Receive UM’s Outstanding Young Alumni Award

Posted on: September 12th, 2014 by kepolk
Jillian Foster

Jillian Foster

October 9, 2012

Jillian Foster (BSPh 02, PharmD 04, MBA 08) of Oxford will receive the Outstanding Young Alumni Award, one of the Ole Miss Alumni Association’s highest annual honors, as part of Homecoming 2012.

The award recognizes alumni who have shown exemplary leadership throughout their first 15 years of alumni status in both their careers and dedication to Ole Miss.

“My reaction to this award has been filled with humility,” Foster said. “Any service I am involved with is genuinely because I enjoy doing it. From my first semester at Ole Miss, I have been inspired to serve in ways that magnify the strengths of the university and School of Pharmacy and provide constructive feedback on how it can continue to improve.”

Foster is the director of pharmacy at Baptist Memorial Hospital-North Mississippi in Oxford. She is a student preceptor and leads a team of 38 employees in maintaining quality care for patients. She recently received one of 16 national grants to establish a pharmacy residency training program.

Foster graduated from the UM School of Pharmacy with a Doctor of Pharmacy in 2004. She completed a Health Policy Fellowship with Sen. Thad Cochran from 2004-2005. She also completed a Pharmacy Practice Residency and Specialty Residency with an emphasis in Pharmacy Management and Administration at North Mississippi Medical Center (NMMC) in Tupelo.

“There is no one more deserving of this award than Jillian,” said David D. Allen, dean of the pharmacy school. “She has made many outstanding accomplishments since her graduation from Ole Miss and has given back so much to the School of Pharmacy.”

Foster worked as the pharmacy benefits manager at NMMC where she managed the Employee Pharmacy. She was also responsible for oversight of the pharmacy insurance benefit plan at the hospital.

Foster completed the University of Mississippi MBA program in 2008.

She served as the chair of the American Society of Health Systems Pharmacists’ Council on Public Policy in September 2009. She has also served terms on ASHP’s New Practitioner’s Leadership Advisory Committee. Foster was the 2007-2008 Mississippi Society of Health System Pharmacists’ President and is on the Mississippi Pharmacist Association Executive Committee.

She has been named both MSHP’s and MPhA’s Outstanding Young Pharmacist of the Year and has published several columns in the American Journal of Health-Systems Pharmacist.

Foster is president of the Ole Miss Pharmacy Alumni Chapter and is a member of the Oxford Rotary Club, the Delta Gamma Alumnae Chapter and a volunteer at the Oxford Medical Ministries Clinic. She is committed not only to service in her profession, but in her personal. She is a member of North Oxford Baptist church and teaches kindergarten choir.

“Not only has it been rewarding to serve the volunteer roles that I have, but it is always an honor to be asked to serve,” Foster said. “If faculty and staff value my work, then I am thrilled to continue to help out in any way I can. There is nothing outstanding about me, but I have been given outstanding opportunities and took advantage of many of them.”