The award, presented at URI Pharmacy’s Seminar By the Sea, honors ethics and excellence in healthcare

The University of Rhode Island College of Pharmacy presented alumnus Tom Davis with the Dr. Norman A. Campbell Award for Ethics and Excellence in Healthcare, honoring his “profound dedication” to the pharmacy profession and society as a whole.

Davis, a 1991 graduate from URI, is vice president of Pharmacy Professional Services for CVS, where he is responsible for the patient safety, quality assurance, professional practice standards and clinical support for the company’s retail division. He also leads professional practices for Omnicare, CVS Health’s Long-term Care pharmacy business.

Before his 20 years at CVS, Davis worked for Brooks Pharmacy, and as chief of the Compliance and Regulatory Section for the Rhode Island Division of Drug Control. He has also served on the Rhode Island Board of Pharmacy, and in 2015 was appointed to the Rhode Island Opioid Overdose Prevention Taskforce, showing the commitment to quality and ethics the Campbell Award recognizes, according to Dr. Norm Campbell, professor emeritus at URI for whom the award is named.

“He has been really committed to the law and ethics throughout his career,” Campbell said. “He is absolutely deserving. He has maintained an interest in doing the right thing, which is something in the corporate world that isn’t always easy to do.”

URI Pharmacy Dean Paul Larrat presented Davis – whom he called a “role model” for other pharmacists – with the award during the college’s annual Seminar By the Sea continuing education conference in Newport March 15.

“When Dean Larrat called me about the award, I thought, ‘That’s nice; he wants me to nominate someone,'” Davis said after receiving the award. “Then he told me I was the one who’d been chosen. I’m very humbled and very honored because this is Dr. Campbell’s namesake. He’s been not only a professor but a friend and mentor, and for that I’ll always be grateful. I can’t tell you how much this means.”