PHARMACIST, TEACHER, COMMUNITY BUILDER: MEL BARON

Pharmacist, Teacher, Community Builder

MEL BARON RETIRES AFTER SIX-DECADE CAREER

A pharmacy innovator and honored educator, Melvin Baron, PharmD, MPA, retired in June 2021 after a remarkable 60-year career. He made significant contributions to the profession of pharmacy, reduced barriers to healthcare for underserved communities, and guided the careers of countless students and faculty members.

Following completion of his PharmD training at the USC School of Pharmacy in 1957, Baron established Shield Healthcare, a community pharmacy that he developed into an innovative home healthcare center providing infusion therapy, ostomy care, durable medical equipment, and respiratory and incontinence care. The company is now a national chain that provides home health services that Baron foresaw as an unmet patient need.

Baron joined the faculty part time in 1981 and became a full-time clinical faculty member in 1990. He directed the first-level externship program, which he helped create. He co-directed the pioneering PharmD/MBA Program and taught clerkships in Pharmacy Administration and Health Care Needs of Special Populations.

“Mel Baron didn’t believe in business as usual when it came to pharmacy,” Dean Vassilios Papadopoulos says. “He found new ways to reach vulnerable patients, took unique approaches to preparing students for their future careers, and was an invaluable leader and colleague at the school and across the profession.”

Champion of the Underserved

Baron launched the school’s Health Literacy Program to improve health equity Mel Baron didn’t believe in business as usual when it came to pharmacy. He found new ways to reach vulnerable patients, took unique approaches to preparing students for their future careers, and was an invaluable leader and colleague at the school and across the profession.”

Dean Vassilios Papadopoulos

among low-literacy Latino populations. Since its launch in 2000, the program has produced multiple fotonovelas and audio-visual novellas to explain complex health conditions and the need for care and screenings. These projects have garnered national attention, with thousands distributed to individuals in need.

In recognition of his accomplishments, Baron was named a fellow of the California Pharmacists Association (CPhA), American Pharmacists Association and American College of Apothecaries. In 2008, he earned CPhA’s Pharmacist of the Year honor and in 2021 was inducted into its Hall of Fame. He and several colleagues received the 2007 Pinnacle Award of the American Pharmacists Association and the 2009 Transformative Community Service Award of the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy. In 2011, Baron earned a Pinnacle Award for individual achievement.

The USC Mel and Lorraine Baron Endowed Scholarship Fund is accepting donations to honor Baron. He remains a member of the school’s Board of Councilors.

If you’d like to make a donation to the USC Mel and Lorraine Baron Endowed Scholarship Fund, contact Cheryl Stanovich at stanovic@usc.edu.