Dave Zgarrick (BS ’88) is honored with AACP’s Distinguished Service Award for his impact on pharmacy education and leadership
By Katie Ginder-Vogel
For Dave Zgarrick (BS ’88), service to the profession has always been about people — the mentors who opened doors, colleagues who collaborated on educational initiatives, and students whose careers he helped shape.
That spirit of connection is what has propelled Zgarrick’s four-decade career in academic pharmacy and his service to the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy (AACP), including 12 years on the AACP board and six as treasurer.
It’s also why the AACP Board of Directors is honoring Zgarrick with the 2025 Distinguished Service Award, recognizing his exemplary leadership and deep commitment to the profession.
“I remain engaged in higher education, talking with folks at universities about pharmacy education, what’s going on in the profession of pharmacy, and how we prepare graduates for what that future is going to be.”
–David Zgarrick
“I feel very honored and very humbled,” Zgarrick says. “I’m very thankful to the many people who gave me opportunities and with whom I worked.”
Building through service
Zgarrick’s dedication to professional service traces back to his time at the University of Wisconsin–Madison School of Pharmacy. As a student, he was president of the School’s chapter of the American Pharmacists Association Academy of Student Pharmacists, where he advocated for the pharmacy profession at regional and national levels. His faculty mentors encouraged him to stay engaged in professional organizations.
At his first AACP meeting as a faculty member in 1994, former Professor Joe Wiederholt, one of Zgarrick’s mentors, nominated him for a leadership role in the AACP Social and Administrative Sciences section.
“I appreciated that somebody like Joe thought enough of me to give me that opportunity to sit at that table,” says Zgarrick.
From there, his academic career flourished. After earning his PhD at The Ohio State University, he joined the faculty of Midwestern University’s new pharmacy program, which helped him hone his skills as an academic administrator and leader.
“Teaching in that program, which emphasized developing faculty as educators, cultivated my passion for pharmacy management,” he says. “I was always thinking about what else I could create, help lead, or help accomplish.”
Zgarrick became vice chair of the large pharmacy department at Midwestern, then served as department chair at Drake University in Iowa before relocating to Boston, where he ultimately became dean of the Northeastern University School of Pharmacy.
“In my leadership roles, I’ve helped develop people, and I value seeing what the people I was able to support have done with their careers,” he says. “It’s very gratifying.”
Continuing to serve
His commitment to service extended nationally, through his 12 years on the AACP board.
“I’ve enjoyed providing the AACP board with institutional memory, sharing how we dealt with challenges over time and contributing to strategic planning,” Zgarrick says. “AACP has been fortunate to have Lee Vermeulen (MS ‘92) as CEO, and I enjoyed getting to know AACP board members and staff, looking at big picture topics like how the association was situated to deal with challenges.”
Now an emeritus professor at Northeastern, Zgarrick has settled in Maine with his wife, where he stays active in academia through consulting work with several universities, including Northeastern. He continues to teach, mentor, and support faculty, while also advising graduate students.
“I remain engaged in higher education, talking with folks at universities about pharmacy education, what’s going on in the profession of pharmacy, and how we prepare graduates for what that future is going to be,” Zgarrick says. “It will be different than my pathway over the last 30 to 40 years, and that’s good — change is good. When I graduated in the ‘80s, you could work for the same company for your whole career, but nobody really does that anymore. It’s a challenge for higher education to prepare people to reinvent themselves.”
Last year, he worked with a graduate student who was studying the impact of telehealth on drugs like Ozempic that have the potential to impact many people.
“It makes me feel good when people come to me for advice,” Zgarrick says. “And it’s gratifying when they continue to reach out to talk through things and get help.”
Reflecting on his career, he’s proud of how his pivot to leadership enabled him to leave a larger footprint on others’ careers and the profession more broadly.
“Realizing I could do things to help great researchers do even more impactful work and help great teachers excel meant a lot, and I’m happy AACP is recognizing that,” he says. “I’m fortunate I was able to do that for many people.”
