Phi Lambda Sigma Pharmacy Leadership Society

UHCOP's Upsilon Earns National Chapter of Year Title, Outgoing President Wins National Election

March 29 — UH College of Pharmacy's Upsilon Chapter of the Phi Lambda Sigma Pharmacy Leadership Society brought home the National Chapter of the Year Award – its second national title in less than five years – from the PLS Annual Meeting March 24 in Seattle, Wash.

The award was presented for the chapter's activities during the 2017-18 year, which included multiple workshops and presentations focused on such topics as public speaking, financial planning/management, curricula vitae (CV) development and review, mock interviews and officer candidacy preparation.

The chapter also hosted a leaders' retreat for representatives from each of the college's 17 student organizations as well as several other events and activities aimed at helping member and non-member pharmacy students identify and develop their strengths, weaknesses and skills in leadership, communication and team-building.

"I think a big part of why we had such a successful year was the fact that we had such dedicated members and a dynamic leadership team in which we all knew each other's strengths and weaknesses," said Pharm.D. candidate Sara Mirjamali, who served as 2017-18 chapter president and 2018-19 Region 4 Liaison at the national level. "Most of our officers have been leaders in other organizations, so we were able to take what we learned from those experiences and see how we could be a resource to students without duplicating or being in competition with what other organizations were doing.

"I also give a lot of credit to our chapter secretary, Anna Cantwell, who put her heart and soul into putting together an awesome annual report that I think impressed the judges."

In addition to the chapter award, outgoing 2018-19 UHCOP Chapter President Briana Reyna was elected National Speaker of the House of PLS. As a member of the Executive Committee, Reyna will preside over and develop the meeting agenda for the PLS House of Delegates – the organization's voting body comprising designated members of constituent chapters and other members of the Executive Committee. The PLS annual meeting, including the House of Delegates convention, is typically held in conjunction with the annual meeting of the American Pharmacists Association.

"I'm eager to start working with the Executive Committee and regional liaisons to build upon communication between chapters and the national office, especially in our use of social media and the website," Reyna said. "During my presidency, I was always very interested in learning about the activities, projects and practices of other chapters.  My goal is to promote the power of networking between chapters and provide a platform to share ideas building a strong foundation for chapters to grow."

Established as a national organization in 1968, Phi Lambda Sigma promotes the development of leadership qualities, especially among pharmacy students, across organizational and fraternal lines. Chartered by UHCOP in 1988, the Upsilon Chapter of PLS has a record of success: It previously won the national title in 2015 and five UHCOP alumni have served as national president of the organization.