Brittany Sanders Named 2025 NCPA Willard B. Simmons Independent Pharmacist of the Year

NEW ORLEANS, La. (Oct. 19, 2025) – The National Community Pharmacists Association is pleased to announce that Brittany Sanders, of the Pharmacy at Wellington in Little Rock, Ark., is the winner of the 2025 NCPA Willard B. Simmons Independent Pharmacist of the Year Award. The award, which is sponsored this year by CPA, was presented as part of NCPA’s Annual Convention, being held Oct. 18-21 in New Orleans. 

The annual award is given to a pharmacist who exhibits exemplary professional leadership, service to community, and commitment to independent pharmacy. It is named in honor of Willard B. Simmons, a former executive secretary of NCPA (then known as the National Association of Retail Druggists) and a longtime trustee of the NCPA Foundation.

Sanders received her PharmD from the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences College of Pharmacy in 2005. She spent the next 10 years working in various capacities for a chain pharmacy before leaving to open the Pharmacy at Wellington in 2015 with her business partners. The pharmacy has since been recognized as Best Pharmacy on multiple platforms and was honored by the Arkansas Governor’s Office as the largest community pharmacy COVID-19 immunization site in the state in 2021.

Sanders serves as a preceptor for the UAMS College of Pharmacy and is a member of the UAMS College of Pharmacy Admissions Committee. She is an Arkansas CPESN® Luminary and, for the past several years, has served on the board of the Arkansas Pharmacists Association, including as president during the recent legislative session critical to pharmacy in the state.

Her dedication to advancing the profession, independent pharmacy and her community has been recognized with honors, including as UAMS College of Pharmacy Outstanding Preceptor (2024 and 2025), Little Rock Soirée’s Class of 2024 Women to Watch, and the Arkansas Pharmacists Association Pharmacist of the Year Award (2020).