Samford University pharmacy student Vinicia Lynn Thomas Cortez of Gadsden has been selected by the American Pharmaceutical Association Academy of Students of Pharmacy (APhA-ASP) to receive its national Student Leadership Award for 2001.
Selection is based on academic and leadership achievements. Cortez will receive a $500 scholarship and travel expenses to the APhA national meeting in San Francisco, Calif., in March.
Cortez, a third-year student at Samford's McWhorter School of Pharmacy, will receive a Doctor of Pharmacy degree in 2002.
Cortez is a member of the APhA-ASP's national committee on publications and was a national delegate to the March 2000 national meeting. She currently serves as coordinator of the Region III mid-year meeting which will be in Birmingham next fall.
At Samford, she has been president of the campus chapter of American Pharmaceutical Association and secretary of Phi Lambda Sigma pharmacy leadership honor society. She is president of the Samford chapter of the Alabama Society of Health Systems Pharmacists.