Alumnus Pharmacist Award

Ahmad Honored with College's Top Alumni Award for Advocacy Outreach, Organizational Leadership

October 20 — The University of Houston College of Pharmacy has bestowed its top alumni honor—the 2025 Alumnus Pharmacist of the Year Award—to Shawn Ahmad, Pharm.D. ('18), R.Ph., pharmacist at Stone Gate Pharmacy in San Antonio and president of the UH Pharmacy Alumni Association.

Ahmad has distinguished himself through a variety of volunteer and professional service activities throughout his career as well as during his time at UHCOP. While pursuing his Pharm.D. degree at the college, Ahmad was appointed education chair and later elected president of the Student Leadership Group (now the Academy of Student Pharmacists) at the Texas Pharmacy Association (TPA).

Among his collegiate activities in TPA included an advanced pharmacy practice experiential rotation in association management with TPA and undertaking a leadership role in the creation of the still-active Student Pharmacist Advocacy and Relations (SPARx) Program, which provides guidance to students on effective legislative outreach and advocacy. In recognition of his efforts, Ahmad was honored with the TPA Distinguished Student Pharmacist Award and the college's UHCOP Advocacy Award in 2018.

The following year, he was appointed as the new practitioner director on the Texas Pharmacy Foundation Board of Trustees in 2019 and currently serves as treasurer. In addition, Ahmad has served on the the TPF Scholarship Committee since 2020.

As a member of the Bexar County COVID-19 community response coalition, he served on the front lines conducting drive-through covid testing in the early phase of the pandemic, then with immunizations when the vaccine became available. For his efforts, he received citations of appreciation from the mayor of San Antonio and the County Judge of Bexar County.

Within TPA, Ahmad has been active in numerous capacities, including serving since 2019 on its house of delegates and councils for association affairs, financial affairs and public policy, as well as on the 2022 awards committee. In 2023, Ahmad was elected to the TPA Board of Directors for the 2024-27 term and was honored with the organization's Distinguished Young Pharmacist Award.

Ahmad has remained highly engaged with the college since graduating, including serving as the 2021 White Coat Ceremony keynote speaker and as current president of the revived UH Pharmacy Alumni Association (PAA). In the latter role, Ahmad and his fellow officers have held presentations to incoming and current students on the importance of a strong alumni network and advocacy. In addition, the association hosted a highly successful reunion in July that drew dozens of alumni and family members from UHCOP classes from the 1980s and up.