Author: [AUTHOR] Published on 4/1/2025 12:00:00 AM
Richard L. Lalonde, PharmD, Adjunct Professor, University of Florida, Bradenton, Florida
What does being the 2025 Henry Elliot Distinguished Service Award Recipient mean to you?
I am greatly honored to receive the 2025 Henry Elliot Distinguished Service Award. It has been my pleasure to be a member of ASCPT for more than 40 years and to see the growth and evolution of our Society over these decades. My message to young members is to seek opportunities to get involved, serve, and help shape the direction of ASCPT, its meetings, and its family of journals. ASCPT has changed significantly over the years, and you can help move the organization forward in the future.
What professional accomplishment are you most proud of?
I am proud of helping lead the Clinical Pharmacology organization at Pfizer in the development and application of model-informed drug development, contributing to the approval of many drugs that are now having an impact on the lives of millions of patients around the world. In terms of an ASCPT accomplishment, I am particularly proud that, when I was President, we made the decision to develop and launch a new journal, CPT: Pharmacometrics & Systems Pharmacology (CPT:PSP). That decision had a long-standing impact on our discipline because CPT:PSP has been a great success for which we thank the editorial leadership and the numerous contributors to the journal over the past 13 years and for many years to come.
What is the most important leadership lesson you have learned the hard way?
The importance of recruiting and retaining highly skilled individuals who also have excellent interpersonal skills. The most influential people were not necessarily the ones with the most technical skills, but those who could combine good technical skills with superior interpersonal communication skills to effectively influence others around them.
Who has inspired you in your career?
Leaders who are innovative, positive, optimistic, and who can inspire others, even when confronted with major challenges.
Dr. Lalonde has been a member of ASCPT since 1987.
