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URI Pharmacy Dean Kerry LaPlante Wins Providence Business News’ 2024 Leaders of the Year Award – Rhody Today
KINGSTON, RI — July 10, 2024 — University of Rhode Island College of Pharmacy Dean Kerry LaPlante has been named a 2024 PBN Leaders and Achievers Award recipient by Providence Business News, the publication announced this week. The annual program recognizes honorees with a longstanding commitment to the Rhode Island business community and a sustained demonstration of leadership of others, community service and mentorship.
LaPlante will be recognized at an event on Aug. 25 along with other notable recipients for “his leadership, accomplishments and long-standing commitment to the business community.” Among the sectors the honorees represent are health care, education, nonprofits, financial services, hospitality, legal, military and technology.
“Dean LaPlante’s longstanding commitment to the pharmacy community, exemplary leadership, and unwavering dedication to mentorship and community service truly set her apart,” the PBN award reads. “Her passion for the future of pharmacy and her tireless support of student success continue to inspire and shape the next generation of leaders in the field. We are incredibly proud to celebrate her remarkable accomplishments and continued impact.”
LaPlante is the latest URI representative to receive the award in recent years, following Provost and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs Barbara Wolfe and URI Research Foundation Executive Director Christian Cowan. who were both honored last year. LaPlante’s predecessor, former pharmacy dean Paul Larrat, was recognized in 2019.
“I am incredibly honored to receive the 2024 PBN Leaders and Achievers Award,” said LaPlante. “This recognition is a testament to the collective efforts of our College of Pharmacy community. Our commitment to putting the patient first, whether through nationally recognized research or the incredible, caring pharmacists we train, drives us forward. I am proud to be part of such a dedicated team, and together we will continue to inspire and shape the future of pharmacy through leadership, mentorship and community service.”
LaPlante — a licensed clinical pharmacist and internationally recognized expert on antibiotic use, antimicrobial resistance and health policy implementation — was named the school’s eighth dean in January, when Larrat returned to the faculty after serving in the role for more than a decade.
In his more than six months at the helm, LaPlante has overseen a continued expansion of the school’s educational offerings and research prowess. The American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy recently ranked URI in the top 10 percent of the nation for research funding among all pharmacy schools, with more than $21 million in funding over the past year. LaPlante oversaw the establishment of a research center in Providence in partnership with the Veterans Administration Medical Center and helped lead the school through a comprehensive review process that resulted in an extension of its full accreditation through 2032.
Throughout her clinical and scientific career, LaPlante has published more than 140 peer-reviewed research articles and has received ongoing funding from more than 30 successfully awarded research grants—totaling more than $21 million—as a principal investigator or co-investigator from the National Institutes of Health, the Department of Veterans Affairs, and pharmaceutical industry research divisions.
Her primary research expertise is in infectious diseases, specifically the treatment and prevention of multidrug-resistant bacteria, including methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and related infections. The overall goal of her research and clinical work is to improve community health, with a focus on the patient, she said.
LaPlante joined URI in 2004 as an associate professor of pharmacy, becoming a full professor in 2015. She was named chief of pharmacy practice in 2020 and has played a major role in expanding and enhancing the school’s research program, which leads all New England pharmacy schools in research funding.