DeFabian Johnson
Leadership
Tricia Britton
Innovation & Technology
Chelsea Palmer
Patient Care & Medication Access
Erika Anderson
Compounding
Verender Brown
Education & Training
James Barnes
Community Pharmacy
Diana Broome
Health-System Pharmacy
Thank you so much to everyone who voted!
Congratulations to seven pharmacy technicians, one in each award category, chosen from 21 finalists and announced live on World Pharmacy Technician Day, October 20, 2026.
The winners
By Category
Leadership
DeFabian Johnson
Kadena Pharmacy Flight Chief, CPhT
U.S. Air Force (Kadena Air Base)
USA
Selected during a leadership vacancy to direct the Pacific region’s largest outpatient pharmacy — a role traditionally held by a senior commissioned officer — DeFabian manages a $2.7M budget and a team serving more than 65,000 patients across 13 installations, all while operating with a 50% staffing deficit. Under his servant leadership, his team generated $900K in procurement savings, secured $1.42M in novel therapies for 239 high-acuity patients, and averted 534 prescribing errors through an overhaul of 2,000 drug files. He was named Senior Enlisted Leader of the Quarter.
Innovation & Technology
Tricia Britton
Central Pharmacy Services Manager, CPhT
Paul’s Pharmacy
USA
Tricia rose from clerk to technician to manager in roughly four years and was chosen to operationalize two major technology initiatives: a centralized call center and a data-entry automation bot. She carried both from planning through testing, rollout across three retail pharmacies, and six-month performance review. The results speak for themselves: medication-synchronization rates rose from about 20% to over 50%, average call wait times dropped from roughly 3 minutes to 1.7, and data-entry errors fell an estimated 80%.
Patient Care & Medication Access
Chelsea Palmer
Pharmacy Technician Coordinator, CPhT-Adv, CSPT
Munson Healthcare — Cowell Family Cancer Center
Michigan, USA
Chelsea spearheaded Michigan’s first oral cancer drug repository, redistributing donated, unused anticancer medications to patients free of charge. Since 2021 the program has received nearly 300 donations totaling over $7M in medications; her site alone has dispensed 173 prescriptions worth over $2.8M at no cost to patients. The repository puts patients on lifesaving therapy days to weeks sooner and bridges dangerous gaps during insurance delays. She is a published author on the program (Journal of Hematology Oncology Pharmacy, 2025) — a rarity for a technician.
Compounding
Erika Anderson
Compounding (System Manager), CPhT, CSPT, BCSCPT
CommonSpirit Health
Washington, USA
For nearly two decades, Erika has been at the forefront of safe and compliant pharmaceutical compounding. Beginning as a Lead IV Technician in 2005, she went on to serve as Region Manager of Pharmacy Compounding across two states before being promoted in 2024 to System Manager of Pharmacy Compounding for CommonSpirit Health’s 142 hospitals — where she now develops policy and oversees the health system’s 503B Outsourcing Program.
Education & Training
Verender Brown
Pharmacy Technician Educator / ASHP Program Director, BS, CPhT, RPhT, cMTM
Osceola Technical College
Florida, USA
Few have shaped Florida’s pharmacy-technician workforce like Verender. As ASHP Program Director she has guided more than 100 students to national certification, and through the Florida DOE curriculum-review committee she made MTM and Beers Criteria permanent parts of the state curriculum. Her legislative advocacy helped drive SB 1360 (mandatory technician education) and HB 1209 (preserving technician immunization authority). She was the first technician appointed to Florida’s Advisory Council on Pharmacy Practice, and her honors include the 2015 national Next-Generation Pharmacist Technician of the Year.
Community Pharmacy
James Barnes
Pharmacy Technician, CPhT
Avita Pharmacy
Texas, USA
An Army veteran who served seven and a half years as a Signal Collector Analyst, James brings the same discipline and care to his work at Avita Pharmacy, part of the largest independent nationwide provider of pharmacy solutions for Ryan White HIV/AIDS Program grantees and community health centers. Known for his problem-solving and compassion, he works to ensure marginalized patients receive dignified care and access to affordable medications, guided by the Army values of loyalty, duty, respect, and selfless service.
Health-System Pharmacy
Diana Broome
Program Director, Pharmacy Technician Advancement, MEd, CPhT, PhTR
Harris Health System (Houston)
Texas, USA
A 28-year pharmacy technician with over 20 years in higher education, Diana has directly educated, trained, or mentored more than 1,600 pharmacy technician students and professionals — including nearly 800 through a sterile compounding certification program she developed. She has served as a PTCB Item Writer on the national exam development committee and as an accreditation site surveyor, and much of her impact lives on in the degree pathways and statewide curricula she built. Today, she leads Harris Health’s School of Pharmacy Technician Advancement, preparing technicians for practice across two inpatient hospitals and 15 ambulatory pharmacies — including Ben Taub, a Level I trauma center.
Our Sponsors & Partners
We’re proud to recognize the organizations supporting and celebrating pharmacy technicians.
Founding Sponsors
The I.M.P.A.C.T. Awards are made possible by organizations committed to advancing the pharmacy technician profession.
Media Partners
Thank you to every finalist, nominator, and voter
Twenty-one finalists from hospitals, independent pharmacies, government health services, and training programs around the world made this year’s awards possible.
NPTA I.M.P.A.C.T. Awards 2026