Martha P. Fankhauser MS Pharm, BCPP, FASHP, FAzPA

Ms. Fankhauser’s career in pharmacy began in Kansas, though it can probably be traced back to her father’s family-run pharmacy. From high school to college, she took an interest in psychology as well; as such, it was only natural that she would one day combine her family’s trade with her interest in how the mind works. She completed a BA in biology and a BS in pharmacy in 1974 and worked in both community and hospital settings after graduating. With the help of a friend (pharmacy is a small world!), a pharmacy director at a mental health facility in Charlotte, North Carolina, she joined the field of neuropsychiatric pharmacy as a clinical pharmacist in 1977.

For Ms. Fankhauser, patient education was the most rewarding part of the job, and she would later develop a medication education program for the in-patient setting. After attending a state psychiatric meeting in Athens, Georgia, she discovered that there were others pharmacists like her in the country—real, psychiatric pharmacists. “I vividly remember that experience because, prior to that, I didn’t know anybody else like me.” In those days, neuropsychiatric pharmacy was still in its infancy; the College of Psychiatric and Neurologic Pharmacy (CPNP) did not yet exist. She and her colleagues began holding a “special interest group” in psychiatry at ASHP annual meetings, which would later develop the board certification in psychiatric pharmacy (BCPP).