BC Pharmacy Association members elected three representatives to the Board of Directors on April 16, 2018. Congratulations to two returning Board members, John Forster-Coull and Chris Waller, and new Board member Michael Huitema of Shoppers Drug Mart in Kamloops. Each begins their three-year term on Sept. 1, 2018.
John Forster-Coull
Owner/Manager, Victoria Compounding Pharmacy (Victoria)
John Forster-Coull joined the BCPhA Board of Directors in September 2015. Forster-Coull is a true Vancouver Island local, as he was born and raised on the island and is the owner/manager of the oldest pharmacy in Victoria, Victoria Compounding Pharmacy.
He completed both his undergraduate pharmacy degree (1988) and Doctor of Pharmacy degree (1995) at the University of British Columbia. He also completed a hospital residency at St. Paul’s Hospital.
Forster-Coull began his career as a clinical pharmacist at Royal Jubilee Hospital in Victoria, before heading back to UBC to complete his PharmD. After graduating, he returned to Victoria and worked in the intensive care units at both Royal Jubilee and Victoria General Hospital. In 2001 he joined Victoria Compounding Pharmacy as the pharmacy manager and in 2007 became the owner/manager.
While serving his first term as a BCPhA Board member he has acted as chair of the Medical Assistance in Dying (MAID) and e-Voting committees.
He also serves on the Board of Directors at uniPharm Wholesale Drugs Ltd. Outside of work hours, Forster-Coull can be found on the golf course or travelling somewhere fun with his wife, Jayne, and their two daughters.
Michael Huitema
Pharmacy Manager, Shoppers Drug Mart (Kamloops)
Michael Huitema graduated from the University of Alberta with a BSc in Pharmacy in 2007. As Huitema grew up with both parents owning various small businesses, he has been involved in small community business his whole life. Since graduating, he’s been living and practicing in the interior in Kamloops where he has been the associate-owner of Shoppers Drug Mart #277 for the past 10 years.
Huitema has been an active Certified Diabeties Educator for the past four years and has participated regularly in teaching students about diabetes as part of their foot care nurse certification. Huitema is particularly passionate about antibiotics and preventing antibiotic resistance. He enjoys giving lectures to student nurses at Thompson Rivers University about antibiotic medications and how to use them responsibly in the health-care setting. For the past 10 years he has also enjoyed being a practice educator in the Office of Experiential Education with the University of British Columbia.
Huitema has been involved in community by helping coordinate pharmacists’ response to help those displaced by wildfires and raising money for the local YWCA women’s shelter for the past eight years. In his spare time Huitema enjoys spending time with his wife and three children.
Chris Waller
Pharmacist Owner, Lakeside Medicine Centre (Kelowna)
Chris Waller joined the BCPhA Board of Directors in September 2015. He is the pharmacist/owner of Lakeside Medicine Centre Pharmacy in Kelowna.
Waller was born and raised in Kelowna and graduated from the University of British Columbia with a Bachelor of Science in Pharmacy in 1998.
He was brought up in the pharmacy industry and his father Ron Waller opened Lakeside Clinical Pharmacy (now called Lakeside Medicine Centre) in 1973. When he turned 16, Waller started working for his father doing deliveries, filling prescriptions and working in the home health-care department.
He enjoyed this work as it allowed him to interact with people and help solve their problems. Therefore, after some uncertainty during college, it seemed natural to return to the pharmacy industry. While Waller was a student he worked as an assistant at Lakeside Clinical Pharmacy and then later became a co-owner of the pharmacy with his father.
He is a member of the Professional Compounding Centers of America. Waller is particularly interested in the many aspects of compounding, HIV treatments and the new developments in Hepatitis C treatments.
A self-confessed fitness nut, he spends a lot of his spare time training for triathlons or marathons. As well as running and cycling, Waller also enjoys golf, downhill and cross-country skiing and working in his garden.