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First Pharmacist to Receive This Honor

First Pharmacist to be Awarded This Incredible Honor

Pharmacotherapy Chair Message:

Dave Young has been recognized by the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation’s Mary M Kontos Care Champion Award for 2021. This is the highest recognition that the CF Foundation bestows on a non-physician. He is receiving this award because he pioneered the idea of Pharmacy Support at a CF Center. The U of U was the first in the world to have such support and the only center in the world for many years. Now, Dave’s ideas about providing great pharmacy support to care teams and patients are spreading around the world, largely through his advocacy efforts.

Dave is the first pharmacist to be awarded this incredible honor. He will be formally recognized at the annual Cystic Fibrosis Foundation Conference this September. The Mary M. Kontos Care Champion Award honors Mary Kontos, who passed away in 2012 at age 60. A pediatric nurse practitioner and program coordinator at the Cystic Fibrosis Center at the Women and Children's Hospital of Buffalo (New York), Kontos was deeply committed to the mission of the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation and played key roles in the Foundation's efforts to advance quality improvement locally and nationally.

This recognition is so well deserved! Many of you know that my Son, Joe, has CF. This has allowed our family to witness Dave in action. We are so grateful for Dave’s dedication to improving the care of CF patients. I know that he provides the same high quality, empathetic care to every patient he interacts with. Please join me in congratulating Dave on receiving this awesome recognition.

Dan Witt, PharmD, FCCP, BCPS

Pharmacotherapy Department Chair

Assistant Dean of Clinical Affairs

Dave Young headshot