SPOKANE – WSU Pharmacy Professor Lawrence J. Cohen has been elected to the National Academies of Practice, a nonprofit professional organization that admits representatives from 10 different health professions for the purpose of advising public policy makers on health care issues.
Membership is limited to 150 professionals for each of the 10 academies, which are pharmacy, medicine, osteopathic medicine, podiatric medicine, veterinary medicine, psychology, nursing, social work, optometry and dentistry.
Cohen was installed at a recent membership meeting in Arlington, Va., where this year’s annual forum on public policy issues focused on promoting prevention and wellness.
“The NAP is interested in designing a better health care delivery system, and I’m very interested accomplishing this through an interprofessional approach,” Cohen said.
It is the interprofessional nature of the organization that sets it apart from others, and Cohen’s past work on interprofessional education and training and leadership activities with national professional organizations is likely what earned him membership in the group, he said.
NAP members may or may not individually advocate or lobby on behalf of any public policy, Cohen said, but they are called upon for opinions and advice when the organization is forming NAP position statements and policy recommendations.
Cohen is a board certified psychiatric pharmacist, a member of the American College of Clinical Pharmacy board of directors, and he recently completed service on the psychiatric pharmacy council of the Board of Pharmaceutical Specialties.
WSU professors Linda Garrelts-MachLean, pharmacotherapy, and Ruth Bindler, nursing, are also members of the National Academies of Practice.