Striker Lecture 2025: History of Pharmacy Education in the Queen City

The University of Cincinnati College of Pharmacy’s 175th anniversary was featured in the 2025 Cecil B. Striker annual lecture series on October 14th. The lecture series is an annual program of the Henry R. Winkler Center for the History of the Health Professions. Esteemed pharmacy historian, Dennis B. Worthen gave a standing ovation lecture entitled Pharmacy Education In The Queen City: 1850—2025Pharmacy Education in the Queen City: 1850-2025 – UC Libraries MediaSpace. Worthen traced the origins of pharmacy education in Cincinnati, beginning with Peter Smith’s Indian Doctor Dispensatory (1810), the first medical book published in Ohio, through today’s College of Pharmacy, which boasts PharmD joint degrees, online master’s and interdisciplinary degrees, graduates from the United States and over 23 countries. Worthen’s narrative of the 175th anniversary of the College of Pharmacy is honored with a year-long exhibition in the Stanley Lucas Boardroom, Health Sciences Library.

cecil striker annual lecture invite

Dennis B. Worthen, Ph.D., served as an adjunct professor at the University of Cincinnati College of Pharmacy where he taught the history of pharmacy courses from 1999-2017. He was also affiliated with the Lloyd Library and Museum in Cincinnati, OH as executive director and then the Lloyd Scholar from 1999 to 2013. He retired from Procter & Gamble Health Care as the director of pharmacy affairs in 1999. Dr. Worthen completed his undergraduate education at the University of Michigan and received his graduate degrees from Case Western Reserve University.

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UC Graduate a notable leader in the United States anti-smoking movement

Ahron Leichtman (February 21, 1943 – October 12, 2018) was a national and regional leader in the quest to ban public smoking in the United States. He graduated in 1964 from the University of Cincinnati, with a Bachelor of Arts in political science, and earned a creative writing certificate from the University of California, Los Angeles in 1971.

During the 1980s and 1990s he founded multiple organizations to carry out anti-smoking initiatives. He established and led Citizens Against Tobacco Smoke (CATS), which was later renamed Citizens for a Tobacco-Free Society (CATS). Leichtman organized a coalition of over 90 nonsmoker’s rights, anti-smoking and environmental health groups to provide tireless grassroots support for the national campaign to ban airline smoking.

He created the Smoke-free Skies Campaign that led to the ban of smoking on all U.S. airline flights. Leichtman developed promotional materials to encourage the news media to cover the health, safety, legal and economic issues involved with airline smoking. He participated in numerous television network, nationally syndicated and radio interview programs about airline smoking, serving as the primary advocate for a total smoking ban on commercial airline flights.

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