Pharmacy Student Selected for USPHS Excellence Award

UC Pharmacy Student Darius Berry has been selected as a United States Public Health Service Excellence in Public Health Pharmacy Award winner. The award recognizes pharmacy students that made significant contributions to public health by promoting wellness and healthy communities.

Only 88 pharmacy students from across the country were selected. This is also the sixth consecutive year that a student from the UC School of Pharmacy has been an award winner.

Berry, from Cumberland, Maryland, graduated from Wheeling Jesuit University with a bachelor’s degree in chemistry and started at the UC School of Pharmacy in 2019. He will graduate with his PharmD this year.

He is president of the Pharmacy Student Governance Association (PSGA) at UC, and member of the American Society of Health Systems Pharmacists, American Pharmacists Association, Industry Pharmacy Organization, UC School of Pharmacy Student Ambassador and Alpha Sigma Nu Jesuit Honor Society.

As a pharmacy student, Berry has been involved in the Industry Pharmacy Organization Value of Industry Pharmacists Case Competition. He participated in the Boy Scouts of America Medication Awareness, Script Your Future Medication Adherence, and Generation RX Medication Adherence initiatives.

He has also been awarded the Outstanding Leader of the Year and named the Student College of Clinical Pharmacy – Clinical Pharmacy Competition local winner.  He has participated in numerous screenings and COVID vaccination events and educated community members to administer naloxone in the event of an opioid overdose. He participated in the Department of Corrections Neonatal Outreach program, which educates female prisoners on neonatal abstinence and available community options.

Berry has also been named as the Outstanding Graduate Student at UC and will be recognized at its commencement ceremonies on April 29.

About the Award: The pharmacists of the United States Public Health Service established the Excellence in Public Health Pharmacy Award in 2003 to encourage student pharmacists to become active in public health. This annual award recognizes pharmacy students who demonstrate a commitment to it, recognizing student pharmacists who are active in developing innovative approaches to current public health challenges and those who will help lead the nation to a healthier future. The University of Charleston School of Pharmacy has established an esteemed track record in student achievements in public health with multiple national recognitions during its years of training future pharmacists.