Leslie Hendeles, PharmD, to receive Yaffe Award

Leslie Hendeles, PharmD, has been named the recipient of the 6th Annual Sumner J. Yaffe Lifetime Achievement Award in Pediatric Pharmacology and Therapeutics. The award will be presented this September during the 16th Annual Meeting of the Pediatric Pharmacy Advocacy Group in Portsmouth Virginia. Each year, this peer-nominated award is presented to an individual who has made outstanding and sustained contributions to the improvement of children’s health through practice or research in the field of pediatric pharmacology and therapeutics. Past recipients of the award have included Drs. Sumner Yaffe, Miles Weinberger, William E. Evans, George H. McCracken, and Cheston Berlin.           

Dr. Hendeles completed the Doctor of Pharmacy degree at the University of Southern California in 1969. His early career included time as a clinical pharmacist at Memorial Hospital Medical Center of Long Beach, California, and as an Assistant Professor of Clinical Pharmacy at the University of Georgia. In 1972, he moved to the University of Iowa College of Pharmacy, where he also practiced as a Clinical Pharmacist in a pediatric allergy clinic. In 1980, Dr. Hendeles relocated to The University of Florida where he is currently a Professor in the College of Pharmacy and in the Department of Pediatrics. Dr. Hendeles teaches and advises physicians on drug therapy in the Pediatric Pulmonary Clinic at the University of Florida.

Dr. Hendeles’ career is a testament to his devotion to the pharmacotherapy of children with asthma. Among his current research interests are the improvement of adherence to asthma medications and delivery of inhaled drugs to young children. During his career, he has published well over 200 papers or book chapters and has served on the Editorial Advisory Boards of Drug Intelligence and Clinical Pharmacy, Pharmacotherapy, and the Journal of Pediatric Pharmacology and Therapeutics. He is a well-known lecturer and mentor for pediatric pharmacy research fellows and trainees.

Over the years he has served as a consultant to FDA’s Pulmonary Division, served on the Coordinating Committee of NIH’s Asthma Education Program, and was a member of CDC’s Expert Panel on Asthma Guidelines for Emergency Medical Services.

Included among his many awards are the American Society of Hospital Pharmacists Research and Education Foundation Award for an Outstanding Contribution to the Literature of Research in Hospital Pharmacy, the American College of Clinical Pharmacy Russell R. Miller Award for sustained and outstanding contribution to the literature of clinical pharmacy, the American College of Clinical Pharmacy Therapeutic Frontiers Lecture Award, and the American Pharmaceutical Association Research Achievement Award in Pharmaceutical Sciences. In 1983, he was selected as the University of Southern California, School of Pharmacy’s Outstanding Alumnus.

To learn more about the Yaffe Award, click here.