Cathy Worrall wins PLS-P&G National Leadership Award

For many years, Cathy Worrall has helped make the MUSC College of Pharmacy a major player in Phi Lambda Sigma (PLS), the pharmacy leadership society.

The chapter has won national recognition, MUSC pharmacy students have been elected to national offices, MUSC alumni have been recognized as PLS national alumni of the year, and awareness of the college’s outstanding people and program has been elevated.

Worrall was recently named the winner of the 2021 Phi Lambda Sigma-Procter & Gamble National Leadership Award. The award is given annually to one recipient who has exemplified leadership qualities in support of the pharmacy profession, particularly servant leadership in education, association work, community service, professional practice or mentoring.

“Her time, effort, and encouragement have resulted in many MUSC pharmacy family members receiving PLS honors through the years,” said Philip Hall, dean of the MUSC College of Pharmacy. “It is wonderful that she now receives this most well-deserved honor.”

In a letter announcing the winner, the 2020-2021 Awards Committee Chairperson Michael Mueller, president-elect of PLS, wrote:

“This award is the highest recognition provided by our society and your selection places you in the company of many of pharmacy’s great leaders.”

Worrall is the associate dean for admissions & student affairs and professor of clinical pharmacy and outcome sciences at MUSC. Formerly a critical care registered nurse, she earned her Pharm.D. at the University of Florida, then completed a residency in critical care and nutrition support therapeutics at the University of Tennessee – Memphis.

As a critical care clinical pharmacy specialist at the Mayo Medical Center in Rochester, Minnesota, she started Mayo’s Critical Care Pharmacy Residency Program. After coming to MUSC as a specialist in burn, trauma and nutrition support, she transitioned to the College of Pharmacy 11 years ago. Her current research interests include the scholarship of teaching and learning, specifically in the areas of student pharmacist personal and professional development.

She has served in numerous leadership roles in organizations like the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy, American Pharmacists Association (APhA), PLS, and Rho Chi. An APhA fellow, she is a past recipient of APhA’s Distinguished Achievement Award in Hospital/Institutional Practice and the South Carolina Pharmacy Association’s Kenneth Couch Distinguished Mentor Award.