David Henry, associate professor and department of pharmacy practice chairman at Kansas University School of Pharmacy, earned the 2015 Hematology/Oncology Pharmacy Association Award of Excellence, KU announced this week.

The national award recognizes a member who has demonstrated outstanding leadership and significant, sustained contributions to the field.

Henry, a KU graduate, was among the first KU pharmacy students to complete clinical rotations in a hospital setting, and the first to accompany physicians as they visited patients to discuss their conditions and treatments, according to KU.

“Throughout the 1970s and 1980s, when very few pharmacists were routinely rounding with physicians and providing clinical pharmacy services, Dave was quietly blazing the trail for everyone else to follow,” Susannah Koontz of Koontz Oncology Consulting LLC said in KU’s announcement. She nominated Henry for the awards along with Casey Williams of Avera Health and Leigh Ann Scott of KU Medical Center.

In addition to other specialties, Henry has worked with the pediatric hematology/oncology team for the past 30 years and has been active more than 20 years in the Children’s Oncology Group, a national research group for the treatment of children with cancer.