Category: Newsletter

Message from the Board
By: SPA Executive Vice President Steven Webbenhurst

Shorter days are just one sign that fall is here. For many of us, that means the end of some of the summer activities we enjoy. But don’t fear, Spokane Pharmacy Association has lots in store to keep you busy.

We have a private trivia night on Wednesday, October 22nd at 6pm at Humble Abode Brewery (926 W. Sprague Ave). Come alone or bring friends for a fun night of trivia and beer. Visit our website to sign up.

We continue to offer great monthly continuing education. Watch for emails about the next topic. You can attend virtually or in person (note that the location has changed due to shortened hours at the public library).

Want to get more involved in the pharmacy community? It’s that time of year that we are looking for interested pharmacists and technicians to be on our board. You can have great impact without a major time commitment. Click here to apply and get more information.

We are already planning our 2026 annual awards banquet and meeting. You’ll soon see a save-the-date message so you can make plans to attend!

Our current communications director is moving on and we are looking for a replacement (who will be trained by our current person). This is a PAID position and oversees our website, handles sending emails/texts, and much more. The position is just a few hours per month. Send a message to us at info@spokanepharmacy.org for more information or to apply.

I hope to see you at one of our upcoming events!

And here is a warm-up trivia question. Which one Canadian province lies directly north of Washington state?

Message from the Board
By: SPA Executive Vice President Steven Webbenhurst

With the 4th of July behind us, it will only be a short time until schools are back in session and many of us adjust our schedules. Change is everywhere! As pharmacists, technicians and students, we are constantly adjusting to change. For some of our colleagues at Rite-Aid, their professional lives are changing. They may be about to shift to becoming CVS employees or might be seeking employment elsewhere.

The Spokane Pharmacy Association is always changing too. I like the term “adapting” because that implies taking in the needs of our members and changing to provide for them (you).

In the last couple of years, our Continuing Education committee has really raised the bar for themselves, in quantity, in quality and in methods of attending our CE’s (live or virtual). We’ve had great programs with interesting topics and speakers, and that will continue this fall.

We have social/networking programs which are great for meeting new professionals as well as spending time with your pharmacy friends and colleagues. Trivia, bowling, hatchet throwing are examples of our recent events.

We’ve also started planning for next spring’s annual meeting and awards banquet. I think everyone can agree these are wonderful events.

Maybe you want to help make a change. Have you thought about becoming a board member? Applications will go out this fall. It’s a wonderful way to be active in our profession!

If you’re not currently a member, why not join today and have access to all that SPA offers? Or encourage a coworker or friend to join with you? That would be a positive change!

Hope to see you at an event soon!

Hello fellow members of Spokane Pharmacy Association! My name is Elizabeth Satterwhite and I’m the president of SPA for 2025. I’m honored to be the president of this organization at a time where we are experiencing growth in our membership, largely thanks to the efforts of our incredible board members. We have five new board members this year, and I’d like to tell you a bit about each of them. I also asked each of them to share a fun fact about themselves.

• Nathan Ramsbacher is a professor at WSU, and in this role splits his time between teaching and seeing patients at MultiCare Rockwood in the Valley. His area of expertise is in the management of diabetes. Nathan can speak some French.
• Janice Poe graduated from WSU in 2022 where she developed a love for serving the community through working at Rite Aid. Janice is an avid animal lover with 3 horses, 2 sheep, 2 dogs and several cats at her 10-acre property in Newman Lake.
• James Hendrix-Ward has been on the SPA board in the past and is a Pharmacy Operations Manager at NEW Health. James used to operate nuclear power reactors!
• Josh Ecksteen is a pharmacy technician at Deaconess, and before becoming a pharmacy technician got an automotive technology degree at SCC. He is fluent in Afrikaans, which is a language spoken in several countries in Africa.
• Maggie Byrd is a clinical pharmacist with Providence Medical Group. She went to pharmacy school at the University of Montana and stays very busy with her four children and being involved in the local community.

In January and February our board members met and had productive and fun meetings. Did you know that SPA has been an organization since 1921? All that time, the goal of SPA has been to support pharmacists, pharmacy technicians and students through education and advocacy. We support the education of all our members by having eight continuing education events per year, all of which are accredited for both pharmacists and pharmacy technicians. Our Pharmacy Technician Day (once yearly in October) offers technicians an easy and fun way to complete CE including required topics. We also believe that sometimes the best relationships are born out of a non-professional setting – that’s why we have social events several times a year that allow members to network and have a good time. Last but not least, our Annual Meeting is an event where our members come together for a fun evening, and we recognize those who positively impact our community every day.

Now that it’s 2025, it’s hard to believe that we’re a quarter of the way through the 21st century. With how much turbulence there has been in our world over the past few years, I think a lot of us are sometimes apprehensive about the future. I’m a big Star Trek fan, and one of my favorite Star Trek movies is ‘The Undiscovered Country’. In that movie, Captain Kirk says: “Your father called the future ‘the undiscovered country’. People can be very frightened of change.” This has always resonated with me – why are we so averse to change? Is it a superficial aversion – laziness, stubbornness? Or is it a deeper, subconscious product of human evolution? This is something I have been focusing on personally, and I have been learning that change is actually one of the things that feels like it gives my life the most meaning. I would like to encourage you as a member of our incredible pharmacy community to embrace change. The world around us is constantly changing, and healthcare is no exception. The Hippocratic Oath includes the following phrases – ‘I will accept the responsibility to improve my professional knowledge, expertise, and self-awareness’, and ‘I will embrace and advocate changes that improve patient care’. Let’s make 2025 a year of positive change, however that looks to you. I hope that SPA will continue to be a part of your professional life and be a resource that you can use to bring about positive change in 2025 and beyond.