Donald Letendre

Letendre serves as dean and professor of the University of Iowa College of Pharmacy and chairman of the board, UI Pharmaceuticals (UIP), an FDA-registered drug manufacturing enterprise. After completion of his doctorate in pharmacy and clinical residency at the University of Kentucky, he served as assistant director and assistant professor of pharmacy at the University of Kansas Medical Center; spent nearly two decades on the senior staff of the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists (ASHP) serving, for much of that time, as director of accreditation services; and, was dean and professor, University of Rhode Island College of Pharmacy and executive secretary of the Rhode Island State Crime Laboratory Commission immediately prior to assuming his responsibilities at Iowa.

As a clinical practitioner, clinical scientist, educator, association staff member, and now academic administrator, Letendre has been at the vanguard of change in healthcare throughout his career. He has been privileged to serve countless students and postgraduate residents. Letendre actively led the development and implementation of standards that have helped influence the implementation of safe medication-distribution and -use practices as well as direct patient care services in hundreds of hospitals and health-systems throughout North America. Moreover, his efforts helped shape pharmacy residency and technician training programs worldwide.

The eldest of eight children, son of a fifth-generation cabinet maker, first-generation college student, husband to his high school sweetheart, father of four, and grandfather of seven, Letendre is a native of Acushnet, Massachusetts. Among his many awards and special citations, Letendre was bestowed ‘Honorary’ residency graduate status by New York’s Montefiore Medical Center and the University of Wisconsin Hospital and Clinics. He was the recipient of the University of Kentucky’s prestigious Paul F. Parker Lecture Award (1998), received the Massachusetts College of Pharmacy’s Outstanding Alumni Achievement Award (1999), was awarded the American Pharmacists Association Academy of Student Pharmacists Outstanding Dean Award (2020), and also was named to the University of Kentucky College of Pharmacy Hall of Distinguished Alumni (2020).