Madame CEO, Mr. President-elect, Mr. Vice-President, President DeJames, distinguished guests, and most importantly, my beloved professional family, my colleagues in pharmacy, Good morning.
For the 148th time, our Association has renewed itself. Filled with hope, mindful of our challenges, we start again. I stand here today as our presiding officer, not by my own talents and abilities, but on the backs of the great stewards of our collective history. Those past presidents, have led us on nearly a century and a half of faithful service. It is their leadership, their mentorship, and their knowledge, that I stand here today humbled by the opportunity to continue in its service.
While all the past presidents have shined a guiding light in my preparation to lead, I want to pay tribute to my most immediate predecessor. The Hon. John DeJames has served this association in a multitude of roles. From the Foundation Board, to his service on the PPA Board and most recently, its president, John has been preparing me to assume the role of presidency. We owe him a deep debt of appreciation for his service. In that light, could you please join me in saluting PPA’s immediate past president, the Honorable John DeJames.
In the 6-7 weeks that I’ve held this post, I’ve been asked what it takes to perform this role effectively. Without hesitation, I tell them you have to have 2 things to be a good president. One, is a good team to join you on this journey. To that end, I know we have a collective great team made up of our officers, Board members, committee chairs, and the staff of PPA.
The second thing you must absolutely need to be the best possible president one can be, is a patient spouse. This role is an all encumbering job. You spend many evenings reviewing and responding to emails. You spend some of your off days on the road to support the work of the profession. I cannot be your chief steward without having someone to pick up some of those things that you normally do. For 18, coming up on 19 years, I’ve been absolutely blessed to have that one who allows me to run around this state to stand up for pharmacy. For that, I want to thank my First Lady, now, PPA’s First Lady, my wife Kimi Tillman for her steadfast love and unwavering support.
I also want to thank my family who has joined us here today. My parents and sisters are in attendance. They have always be my number one cheerleaders. I thank them for taking the 2 and half hour journey up here to show their support. I also need to pay tribute to my daughter, Isabella. She has given as much of a sacrifice as my wife because she’s a senior in high school. That means she actually was forced to give me all the big “you-can’t-miss-this-daddy” moments roughly 5 months ago so I could get them on my schedule. I am appreciative of your sacrifice. Don’t worry, while your mother is number 1 in my heart, you’re definitely 1a.
I also need to thank you colleagues at Penn State Health. I know my favorite intern, Hayleigh Monroe, is in attendance today. Please enjoy your favorite intern status now, because that status will change once you graduate to favorite resident in a couple of months. In all seriousness, when you surround yourself with quality people, you get quality results. I’m very fortunate to have those quality people as peers.
As we look forward towards the rest of 2026, we have a unique place in the healthcare space. We sit at a crossroads due to influences outside our control. While that can be challenging, I see this as great opportunity for us moving forward.
Everywhere I travel, I have seen the lay person confront me about how difficult it is to get his/her prescription filled. This isn’t unique to me. We have all had to have those conversations with loved ones, neighbors, and friends. We know that the conversations have come from years of us being the victims of nefarious entities who don’t want to properly compensate us for our services.
That is why the number one objective during 2026 is to increase patient access to the pharmacist. I have challenge our people and our like minded allies to think outside of the box to make sure that we increase the access to the pharmacist. With that objective in mind, we have a group working on using the rural health transformation dollars coming to Pennsylvania, and partnering with our allies in the Department of Health to bring much needed pharmacy services to our fellow citizens in the 48 rural communities in Pennsylvania.
Our second objective is one born out our collective professional history. 143 men and women have held this post prior to me. Many of them are what I consider mentors. We know that this is a relay race. We take our turn, running the best lap that we can, then hand that baton off to then next generation. But we are nothing if not for that next generation ready, able, and willing to lead. This includes both our students and new practitioners. Well, to me they are the future. Thus, I’ve decided to take the executive step in renaming them to Generation “Next”. It is up to us to make sure they are ready. In that light, I’ve asked Matthew Rozic and Yenok Adnesue to take the lead in co-chairing a committee with the charge of building PPA’s first statewide mentorship program, with the goal of having it up and running by summer. They have been working at breakneck speed, and I thank them for helping bring my vision to fruition.
Finally, PPA, being the commonwealth’s largest pharmacy association representing ALL sections of pharmacy, has received a bit of a stigma for just representing a few. This myth is no better represented than me sitting here representing all of us. I’m a health system pharmacist since the turn of the century. However, I’m here to support all pharmacists in all sections. There are other pharmacy organizations in Pennsylvania representing sections of pharmacy. At the end of the day, the continued fragmentation of pharmacy does not allow us to do better for the patients and communities we serve. Thus, it is the goal of this administration to bring the whole pharmacy community together. I want to thank members of PARD, PSHP, and PACDS for joining us at this conference. I look forward to having collective dialogue to make sure we all work together to achieve common goals.
I will conclude with this. I’m thankful that we have the opportunity to once again come together. I see PPA as, President DeJames has defined us, our professional family. It’s always good to be with your family. It’s good to reaffirm bonds that tie us together. The family collectively can achieve more that any one of can do. I fully understand the challenges that are before us. Yet I’m confident that our best days are yet to come. We will overcome the challenges, and we’ll do it together. God bless you all, and may God continue to bless our profession and the people of Pennsylvania. Thank you.
Darryle Tillman, RPh
PPA President 2026
February 21, 2026
