Lavanza “Cheryl” Butler has retired from the California Board of Pharmacy, where she has been a member since 2013. 

“It has been the honor of a lifetime to serve Californians on the Board of Pharmacy,” said Lavanza “Cheryl” Butler. “My parents instilled in me Dr. Martin Luther King’s dream and the call to service at a young age and I’ve tried to honor that notion in my career as both a pharmacist and a union representative. I’ve had to work, teach, learn, advocate, negotiate, and fight for our workers, who are truly essential, for over 40 years, and through this position on the Board of Pharmacy, I was able to fight for all Californians and ensure they remain healthy when they pick up their prescriptions at their community pharmacy. I want to thank Governors Jerry Brown and Gavin Newsom for appointing me to this position and giving me the opportunity to serve the great state of California.”

Butler has been a pharmacist, vice president and union representative at United Food and Commercial Workers International Union, Local 770 since 2002. She was a head pharmacist for Rite Aid Pharmacy from 1980 to 2002. Butler is a member of the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union Professional Pharmacist Division Executive Board, California Pharmacists Association and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. Butler was appointed by Governor Jerry Brown to the California Board of Pharmacy in 2013 and reappointed to the Board by Governor Gavin Newsom in 2017. 

“Cheryl is a superwoman – she’s been on the frontlines fighting for the dignity of all working people for decades,” said John Grant, president, UFCW Local 770. “After facing racism in her career, she’s worked tirelessly to protect workers and all Californians through her position on the Board of Pharmacy, determined that every patient who goes to a pharmacist be treated with dignity and respect and receive the care they deserve. Congratulations to Cheryl on her retirement!”

UFCW has two member pharmacists representing YOU on the CA Board of Pharmacy! The Board of Pharmacy is tasked with protecting and promoting the health and safety of Californians by pursuing the highest quality of pharmacist’s care and the appropriate use of pharmaceuticals through education, communication, licensing, legislation, regulation, and enforcement. Through their positions, Seung Oh and Jessica Crowley work to ensure California’s pharmacists have safe workplaces, can prioritize taking care of their patients’ health and increasing Californians’ access to quality healthcare.

Meet Seung Oh

Seung Oh is a member of UFCW Local 135. Seung is from San Diego and graduated from The University of Arizona College of Pharmacy in 2013. He has been a pharmacist-in-charge at Vons Pharmacy in San Diego for five years. Seung also received a Master’s in Healthcare Leadership from the University of California, San Diego in 2019. His main passion is pharmacy advocacy, pharmacy innovation, and workflow efficiency. He has been involved in developing innovative apps and devices as well that will ideally improve patients’ access and quality to healthcare.

Seung currently serves as the President of the CA Board of Pharmacy.

Meet Jessica Crowley

Jessica Crowley is a member of UFCW 770. In 2014, Dr. Crowley received her Doctor of Pharmacy degree from the Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences (MCPHS). During her time at MCPHS, she received the Professor George Narinian Memorial Scholarship, the Student Achievement Award, the Alpha Collegiate Scholarship, and the Alpha Collegiate Leadership Award two years in a row. 

With over 12 years of pharmacy experience, Dr. Jessica Crowley has extensive experience in the profession working as a Pharmacist in Charge, Staff Pharmacist and Pharmacy Intern. She has devoted her career to advocating for safer working conditions for both pharmacists and pharmacy technicians in retail pharmacies while upholding the highest level of protection for the patients they serve. As a first generation, mixed Afro-Puerto Rican and White LGBTQ+ identifying individual, she took the initiative and leadership to develop continuing education curriculum on Cultural Competence and its Application in Pharmacy. She has also been a lead diversity and inclusion panelist at Lambda Kappa Sigma’s annual convention and MCPHS. 

UFCW has been listening to your health and safety concerns as pharmacy members who are on the frontlines of the COVID-19 pandemic at your worksites. We’ve heard you loudly and clearly and we are fighting to ensure you, your families, and your patients are protected. We have taken action to demand employers and the state take these immediate steps to keep you safe:

1. Right to employer provided personal protective equipment:

We demand employers provide personal protective equipment to pharmacists and pharmacy staff. Additionally, no employer may prohibit pharmacists or pharmacy staff from wearing personal protective equipment. Personal protective equipment includes – at a minimum – gloves, masks, and goggles. When N95 masks are available, pharmacists and pharmacy staff should receive priority in receiving those masks. Given the statewide shortage of N95 masks, other masks must be available for pharmacists and pharmacy staff if N95 are not available. Additionally, corporate retail pharmacy chains should be required to install plexiglass screens at pharmacy counters.

2. Halt the administration of vaccines in pharmacies not related to COVID-19:

We demand employers immediately halt the administration of non-COVID-19 related vaccines in pharmacies. Pharmacists have shared stories of administering vaccines in close proximity to ill patients without proper personal protective equipment and without proper sanitary measures. Pharmacists should not be required to administer vaccines until protective measures are put in place at grocery-retail pharmacies and then only COVID-19 related vaccines should be administered.

3. Implement social distancing guidelines:

Social distancing guidelines recommend six feet of distancing between people. This should be implemented within all pharmacies in California. Visible floor markers must be implemented to place patients six feet from the pharmacy counter and six feet between patients waiting in line.

4. Proper sanitation of work areas and hand washing opportunities:

Pharmacists and pharmacy staff must be afforded the opportunity to wash their hands every 30 minutes. Health officials recommend hand washing as the best way to limit the transfer of the virus. Furthermore, employers should be responsible for providing pharmacy staff the necessary sanitation equipment. This includes products like sanitizer and disinfecting wipes; the employer must also provide a sanitation crew that is responsible for sanitizing the pharmacy and pharmacy working surfaces throughout the day. Pharmacy staff should be afforded the time in their daily duties to disinfect pharmacy surfaces after interacting with a patient. 

5. Adequate staffing:

Pharmacists continue to share that they are working alone during this crisis. Pharmacists should be receiving adequate assistance throughout this crisis to be able to perform their pharmacy duties and to perform these duties safely.  At a minimum, pharmacists should have one other pharmacy staff to assist the pharmacist at all times during their shift.

6. Consistent health and safety guidelines for all retail-grocery pharmacies:

The state must release consistent health and safety standards for grocery-retail pharmacies to ensure consistent implementation and enforcement of COVID-19 safety measures for all pharmacies in California.  While some pharmacists have seen some safety measures implemented in their stores, there is no consistency across regions or corporations. In order to ensure all pharmacists and pharmacy staff are protected and safe to continue their essential work keeping the public healthy, the state must provide consistent guidelines and enforcement. Additionally, if corporate pharmacies are not implementing safety standards, they must face penalties or fines.

Keeping our pharmacists and pharmacy staff safe and health is of utmost importance during this crisis.

If there are any additional recommendations that you feel are urgent to take to protect your health and safety, please email [email protected].

AMENDED Notice of Meeting and Agenda
Amended as to Call-In Information Only

Teleconference Public Board Meeting March 27, 2020 AMENDED Notice of Meeting and Agenda Amended as to Call-In Information Only Teleconference Public Board Meeting March 27, 2020

DATE & TIME: Friday, March 27, 2020, at 2:00 p.m.

NOTE: Pursuant to the provisions of Governor Gavin Newsom’s Executive Order N-25-20, dated March 12, 2020, neither a public location nor teleconference locations are provided.

Click Link To View Flyer

Prescription Drug Abuse and Preventing Drug Diversion — What a Pharmacist Needs to Know

Joint Training by  the California State Board of Pharmacy  and the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration

• CLICK HERE TO REGISTER
  

UFCW Local 324 – Second Floor Auditorium
8530 Stanton Avenue
Buena Park, CA
September 22, 2018
9:00am – 6:00pm

**** PLEASE MENTION IF YOU ARE A UFCW MEMBER WHEN YOU SIGN UP, AS LUNCH WILL BE PROVIDED. ****

UFCW testifies re: supermarket pharmacists working alone.

Watch Senate hearing: https://youtu.be/Grt_HPPFTt8.

This is the first step to having our voices heard .

Free online “corresponding responsibility” CE course

Pharmacists play a key role in fighting the opioid epidemic, as they are usually the last health care professionals to see patients with prescriptions for controlled substances. To provide California pharmacists with continuing education to help pharmacists more responsibly dispense controlled substances, the California Health Care Foundation has funded this course.

The link to this course is: http://www.californiapharmacistsopioidsafetytraining.com