<h2><img height="22" border="0" width="176" alt="Feature Story" src="/news/img/featurestory.gif" /><br /><br /></h2> <h2><img height="145" border="0" width="532" alt="SIUE Pharmacy Assistant Professor Is National Award Recipient" src="/id0904f67a804d71e6" /></h2> <h2 class="caption">Pictured from left to right: SIUE School of Pharmacy Dean Philip Medon, Jessica Kerr, SIUE assistant professor of pharmacy practice, and Mark Luer, SIUE professor of pharmacy practice and chair of that department.</h2> <h2><br />SIUE Pharmacy Assistant Professor Is National Award Recipient</h2> <br />(EDWARDSVILLE, Ill.) Southern Illinois University Edwardsville Assistant Professor of Pharmacy Practice Jessica Kerr received the 2007 Distinguished Young Pharmacist Award recently during the Illinois Pharmacists Association’s (IPhA) awards conference in St. Charles. <p>To qualify for the award, candidates must be members of the state organization, licensed in Illinois and must have received an entry degree in pharmacy less than 10 years ago.</p> <p>The award “honors and up-and-coming pharmacist, an individual who shows tremendous commitment to the profession and his/her community, leadership potential, professional aspirations and involvement in community service,” according to a press release from the IPhA.</p> <p>Kerr, a Fairview Heights resident, is a 2001 graduate of the Saint Louis College of Pharmacy’s Doctor of Pharmacy program. She has been teaching at SIUE since 2005 and was recognized this year as the School’s Pharmacy Practice Faculty Member of the Year.</p> <p>“This award recognizes Dr. Kerr’s leadership role among pharmacists in the area of diabetes education and clinical pharmacy,” said SIUE School of Pharmacy Dean Philip Medon. “She is an excellent role model for our students through her hard work and interest in student education and patient care.</p> <p>“Her accomplishments are extensive and we are proud to have her as part of our team.”</p> <p>A member of the American Association of Diabetes Educators, the American Diabetes Association, the American College of Clinical Pharmacy and the American Association of College of Pharmacy, Kerr is very active in the community. She also is the student advisor to the student chapter of the American Pharmacists Association.</p> <p>Kerr is a clinical pharmacist at John Cochran Veterans Affairs Medical Clinic in St. Louis and the Veterans Affairs Medical Center Outpatient Clinic in Belleville, at which she provides geriatric and cardiovascular risk management services to U.S. veterans in Southern Illinois.</p>