The Daniel K. InouyeCollege of Pharmacy

Outstanding DKICP preceptors and faculty honored in year-end event

May 14, 2020

From left: Bonnie Bennett, Pharm.D., BCPS, CDE, and Alan Shih, Pharm.D., BCPS.

The end-of-year award ceremony for the Daniel K. Inouye College of Pharmacy went online recently. There weren’t any handshakes but there were plenty of cheers for the Preceptors of the Year and teaching award winners.

The Preceptor of the Year award is given to a professional pharmacist who does an exceptional job of mentoring pharmacy students. This year’s recipient is Bonnie Bennett, Pharm.D., BCPS, CDE, at Tripler Army Medical Center in Honolulu, where she has been precepting DKICP students since 2017. She obtained her doctor of pharmacy from the University of Wisconsin in 2007 and completed her residency and worked five years at Froedtert Hospital, a teaching hospital in Milwaukee, Wis. She came to Hawaiʻi in 2012 and worked at Hilo Medical Center and Makalapa Navy Clinic before moving to Tripler in 2016.

“Along with 13 years of experience as a practicing pharmacist, Dr. Bennett is also a certified diabetes care and education specialist. One of her passions is motivating patients to improve their health by learning self-care skills to effectively manage their chronic diseases,” says DKICP Dean Carolyn Ma. “She is very good at what she does and very caring with her patients. She encourages students to think outside the box and to work hard to learn as much as possible during their rotation.”

The 2020 Faculty Preceptor of the Year is Allen Shih, Pharm.D., BCPS and assistant specialist in the department of Pharmacy Practice at DKICP. After receiving his doctor of pharmacy from the University of Utah, Dr. Shih did his residency at Multicare Good Samaritan Hospital in Puyallup, Wash. When he joined DKICP in 2014 he brought with him more than seven years of practice experience in emergency medicine and critical care.

“Dr. Shih is very patient and does an amazing job of guiding students through their thought processes,” says Dean Ma. “He creates a great learning environment for students and keeps them engaged by using real-life applications and his humor. His rotations are among the students’ favorites.”

Each pharmacy class also elects their favorite teachers of the year. This year’s Student Choice Awards for Teaching went to:

See more news from 2020.