The Rho Chi Society Robert L. Boblitt Lecture Series

Sponsored by The Rho Chi Society UH Beta Omicron Chapter and UH College of Pharmacy, the Robert L. Boblitt Lecture Series is held in the fall of each academic year. During the lecture, UH Rho Chi members present the chapter’s Teaching Excellence Award and Honorable Mention plaques to the outstanding faculty members from the college’s two academic departments. In addition, professional pharmacy students with the highest grade point average from the first- and second-year classes are recognized for their academic achievement.

The 2012 Rho Chi Society Robert Boblitt Lecture will be noon to 1 p.m. Monday, Sept. 10, in Krost Hall at the UH Law Center.

The 2012 Boblitt Lecturer is Ms. Lourdes M. Cuéllar, M.S., R.Ph., FASHP, who will present "The Next Generation of Pharmacy Leaders: Creating Your Leadership Legacy."

About Lourdes M. Cuéllar

Lourdes M. Cuéllar, M.S., R.Ph., FASHP

Lourdes M. Cuéllar currently serves as Administrative Director of Pharmacy, Clinical Support Services and the Outpatient Medical Clinic at TIRR Memorial Hermann in the Texas Medical Center in Houston. She is responsible for the leadership and management of Pharmacy, and administratively responsible for the clinical services departments and outpatient medical clinic practices, including pharmacist managed clinics at TIRR.

Ms. Cuéllar received both her B.S. Pharmacy and M.S. in Pharmacy Administration from the University of Houston.

She is a past-president of the Texas Society of Health-System Pharmacists and the Gulf Coast Society of Health-System Pharmacists, and past-president and chair of the TSHP Research & Education Foundation. She has served at the national level on ASHP councils and task forces, as well as on the ASHP Foundation Board of Directors. She is currently serving as the pharmacist representative on the National Quality Forum’s Steering Committee on Health Disparities and Cultural Competency. She also serves on the Texas Statewide Health Coordinating Council by appointment from Gov. Rick Perry.

Ms. Cuéllar is an adjunct Clinical Professor of Pharmacy Practice and Administration at UH College of Pharmacy and at the University of the Incarnate Word Feik School of Pharmacy. She serves as a preceptor for students at four of the six colleges of pharmacy in Texas and for Memorial Hermann Health System’s combined M.S./Residency program in conjunction with UHCOP. She is also coeditor with Diane Ginsburg of the ASHP Preceptor’s Handbook for Pharmacists.

Her professional interests are in the areas of pharmacy practice management, mentoring pharmacy students and residents, leadership development, health care policy, alleviation of health disparities, and health literacy and cultural compentence.

She is also recognized as a Fellow of the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists and of the ASHP/Cardinal Health/University of Boston Leadership Institute. Ms. Cuéllar is the recipient of several awards and honors, including Pharmacist of the Year by the Association of Black Health-System Pharmacists, UHCOP Hospital Preceptor of Year (1994) and being named one of UH College of Pharmacy’s “50 Outstanding Alumni” during the college’s 50th anniversary celebrations in 1997. She also served a five-year term as Chair of the UHCOP Dean’s Advisory Council.

About Robert L. Boblitt

Robert “Bob” Boblitt, Ph.D., joined the college’s faculty in 1953, shortly after the college’s founding. He served as assistant and associate dean from 1971 unti his retirement
in 1987.

After receiving a baccalaureate in pharmacy from Ohio Northern University in 1948, Dr. Boblitt completed his Ph.D.   in medicinal chemistry from the University of Minnesota in 1953. His honors included membership in Phi Eta Sigma, Rho Chi, Sigma Xi and the   Samuel Melendy Fellowship. He also was the recipient of the University of Houston Teaching Excellence Award in 1972.

Boblitt was an extraordinary teacher, a practicing pharmacist and a friend for students. Those who sat in his classroom during the 33 years he taught will always remember how fast he could draw chemical structures and the way in which he skillfully drew structures with one and erased them with the other. He could never have too much information or structures on the chalkboard.

About Rho Chi Society

The Rho Chi Society, pharmacy’s academic honor society established in 1922, encourages and recognizes excellence in intellectual achievement and fosters fellowship among its members. Further, the Society encourages high standards of conduct and character, and advocates critical inquiry in all aspects of pharmacy. Membership is by invitation and based on high academic achievement in the professional curriculum. The UH Beta Omicron chapter of Rho Chi was founded in 1958.

Past Lecturers

Diane Ginsburg, 2011
Judith Jacobi, 2010
John D. Grabenstein, 2009
Cynthia L. Raehl, 2008
Cynthia Brennan, 2007
Bruce Berger, 2006
Traci Metting, 2005
Mustafa Lokhandwala, 2004
Lucinda Maine, 2003
Karen Rascati, 2002
Victoria Roche, 2001