Karen M. Ryle, MS, RPh, Elected NABP President-elect at Association’s 108th Annual Meeting

Karen M. Ryle, MS, RPh, was elected to serve as the 2012-2013 president-elect of the National Association of Boards of Pharmacy^® (NABP^®) during the Association’s 108^th Annual Meeting, May 19-22, 2012, in Philadelphia, PA. Prior to the election, Ms Ryle served a one-year term as the NABP treasurer. Ms Ryle also served for four years, from 2006 to 2010, as an Executive Committee member representing District 1.

Ms Ryle is currently serving the second year of a five-year appointment as a member of the Massachusetts Board of Registration in Pharmacy. She also served as a member of the Massachusetts Board from 1998 to 2008, and during that time she served as chairperson of the Board’s Pharmacy Compounding Committee as well as on the Task Force on Pharmacy Technicians. Ms Ryle is an associate chief of pharmacy at Massachusetts General Hospital, and also serves as adjunct faculty and an advanced pharmacy practice preceptor at the Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences.

An active member of NABP, Ms Ryle has served on several Association committees including the Advisory Committee on Examinations, the Committee on Constitution and Bylaws, and the Committee on Law Enforcement/Legislation. She has also served as a member of numerous task forces including the Task Force to Review and Recommend Revisions to the Controlled Substances Act, the Task Force on Electronic Prescribing Software Standards and Data Storage, and the Task Force on Uniform Prescription Labeling Requirements. She also served as chair of the Task Force to Develop Recommendations to Best Reduce Medication Errors in Community Pharmacy Practice.

Recipient of the 2010 Massachusetts Health-System Pharmacists Humanitarian Award and the 2011 Partners in Excellence Award for Community Service in Health Care, Ms Ryle has been actively involved as a leader in local pharmacy associations and community health organizations. Most recently, she was a member of the board of directors for the Massachusetts Pharmacists Association from 2008 to 2010. She also served as a member of the Massachusetts Board of Medicine’s Patient Care Assessment Committee from 2006 to 2010.

As part of the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative, Ms Ryle volunteered to serve at the American Refugee Committee Tent Camp Clinic in Fond Parisien, Haiti, in May 2010. She returned to assist in Port Au Prince, Haiti, in August 2010 with a volunteer group coordinated through the University of Miami Global Institute. At home in Boston, MA, Ms Ryle has delivered lectures on medication safety to senior groups and has helped to coordinate a drug disposal event through the Charlestown Substance Abuse Coalition.

In 2003, Ms Ryle was appointed for a five-year term to the United States Department of Homeland Security. During this appointment, she served as a member of the National Pharmacist Response Team, and in November 2005 was deployed to Plaquemine’s Parish, LA, for two weeks in response to Hurricane Katrina. In 2011, she became a member of the Massachusetts Disaster Medical Assistance Team and is ready to be deployed in the event of a disaster.

Ms Ryle earned a bachelor of science degree in pharmacy and a master of science degree in drug regulatory affairs from Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences.

NABP is the independent, international, and impartial Association that assists its member boards and jurisdictions in developing, implementing, and enforcing uniform standards for the purpose of protecting the public health.