2023 TPA Conference & Expo: Charting Our Course!

Hundreds of pharmacists, student pharmacists, and technicians from across the state gathered July 28–30 at the 2023 TPA Conference & Expo in Houston to meet face-to-face with their pharmacy peers to chart our course for the future!

Educational sessions covered topics ranging from legislative advocacy and regulatory updates to pharmacy well-being and generating alternative revenue sources. In addition to the opportunity to receive up to 14 hours of continuing education, attendees heard firsthand from State Representative Four Price, who championed pharmacy’s top legislative priority this session.

Following Rep. Price’s address on Saturday, outgoing President Carter High administered the oath of office to Jay Bueche, who was sworn in as the 2023–2024 President of the Texas Pharmacy Association.

Texas student pharmacists competed in a number of events to earn bragging rights for their school. The team from the University of Houston College of Pharmacy won the Student Pharmacist Self-Care Competition, a “Jeopardy”-style game testing students’ knowledge of OTC medications. Haley Brusen (University of Houston), Andrew Adams (University of North Texas) and Nadia Higgins (University of the Incarnate Word) won first, second, and third place respectively at the Patient Counseling Competition. For the second year in a row, the University of North Texas HSC College of Pharmacy was awarded the coveted TPA-Academy of Student Pharmacists (ASP) Cup, recognizing a year-round competition that focuses on advocacy, community outreach, and unifying pharmacy.

TPA’s Awards Dinner celebrated the best among us, honoring 10 award winners and 21 Texas Pharmacy Foundation scholarship recipients. The expo hall afforded attendees the opportunity to meet with representatives from more than 60 vendors, as well as to support TPA’s PharmPAC with a picture at its photo booth and the Texas Pharmacy Foundation which held a silent auction and raffle.

The Texas Pharmacy Association's House of Delegates—the voice of the membership—met on Saturday. Speaker of the House Jason Davis presided over the meeting that included dozens of certified delegates representing local pharmacy associations, pharmacy schools, the TPA Board of Directors, Independent Pharmacy Academy, councils, and past presidents. The House approved two resolutions: one concerning pharmacist prescriptive authority for HIV PrEP and PEP, and another to align the Association’s position statement for vaccination authority with its legislative priority language.

Mark your calendar to join us next year for the 2024 TPA Conference & Expo, July 26–28 near Dallas in Allen, Texas!