Department of Consumer Affairs Board of Pharmacy

Board Members

Board of Pharmacy Board Members
Board Members from left to right:

Back Row: Tim Dazé, Stan Goldenberg, Ken Schell, Bob Graul

Front Row: Rob Swart, Ruth Conroy, Bill Powers, Susan Ravnan, Hank Hough, Clarence Hiura (former member)

Missing from picture: Jim Burgard, Stanley Weisser, Shirley Wheat, and Andrea Zinder

William Powers, Public Member, President
Image of Bill Powers

Mr. Powers, of Sacramento, presently serves as board president and is also a board member of both the California Alliance for Retired Americans and the Housing Assistance Council. Additionally, he is a past-president of the Rural California Housing Corporation. Mr. Powers donates his time to these organizations.

Mr. Powers was appointed to the board in June 2000 by the Senate Rules Committee and reappointed on June 9, 2004. His term will expire on June 1, 2008.

Ruth M. Conroy, PharmD, Vice President
Image of Ruth M. Conroy, Pharm. D., Treasurer

Dr. Conroy, a graduate of the University of the Pacific School of Pharmacy, was a pharmacy manager at Walgreens from 1985 to 1996. Since then, she has been a pharmacy supervisor at Walgreens in San Francisco. Dr. Conroy serves as an associate professor of Clinical Pharmacy at the University of California, San Francisco, and has served in the same capacity at the University of the Pacific. She has served as a board member of the San Francisco Immunization Coalition and Pharmacy Systems Project. Dr. Conroy is a past-president of the Pharmacists Society of San Francisco and a member of the American Pharmacists Association and the California Pharmacists Association. Dr. Conroy was honored in September 2005 as the Pharmacy Access Partner of the Month by the Pharmacy Access Partnership.

Dr. Conroy was appointed to the board by Governor Gray Davis in July 2003. Her term will expire on June 1, 2007.

D. Timothy Dazé, Public Member, Treasurer
Image of Tim Daze

Mr. Dazé, of Woodland Hills, currently serves the City of Los Angeles Airport Division as a deputy city attorney. In the California Supreme Court, he successfully defended the city’s roadway beautification project on access routes to and from Los Angeles International Airport. His win was instrumental in the protection of governmental beautification projects throughout California. Mr. Dazé also has more than 25 years of private practice civil litigation and transactional experience including service as vice president and general counsel to Burbank Aeronautical Corporation. He served as Judge Pro Tem in Los Angeles Superior Court and on the Board of Directors for two private nonprofit organizations, Activities for Retarded Children and Rose Vista, and also served on the alumni board of directors for Loyola Marymount University.

Mr. Dazé was appointed to the board by Governor Schwarzenegger on August 17, 2006. His term will expire on June 1, 2008.

James P. Burgard, Public Member
Image of Stanley Wm. Goldenberg, B.S., R. Ph., F.A.S.C.P.

James Burgard is a registered Professional Engineer who holds five contractors licenses in California. His is a recognized name in clean room design technology, and from 1963 to 1970, Mr. Burgard was responsible for the cleanliness and sterility of all NASA space capsules. He designed and managed construction of clean rooms for the Lunar Receiving Laboratory at Houston, Texas, and the ultra clean medical facilities the NASA Ames Research Center and helped design the first mechanically sterile operating room for the medical facility at the University of New Mexico. Along with his involvement in clean room technology, Mr. Burgard designed and managed construction of semiconductor plants in Palo Alto, California, Singapore, and Seoul, South Korea. He also designed a $15 million semiconductor plant for 3M Company in Wisconsin

He was Vice President and Director of Plant Operation for Seagate Magnetics, a position he assumed in 1987. In July of 1990, Jim’s extensive background in consulting, engineering, and facilities and project management led him to established a consulting service, Environetics Engineering, working with companies on highly technical issues—hazardous waste handling, reduction of air pollution, hazardous waste compliance, and solid waste reduction and system remediation.

Mr. Burgard’s background also includes 38 years in the Naval Air Reserve. He was involved with a transport squadron at NAS Alameda, and served in the Desert Shield/Desert Storm Southwest Asia Campaign. As a decorated officer, he retired with honors from the Naval service in November of 1991.

A brief career in politics included three years as city councilman in Monte Sereno, CA, and as mayor for 1½ years, and he was elected to the Fremont Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors in January 1989. He also served as the Project Engineering Manager for the American Red Cross Water Restoration Project as a result of the Loma Prieta earthquake.

A Fremont resident from 1964 to 1971, Jim is a charter member and past master of the Gemini Masonic Lodge and a member of Mt. Moriah Masonic Lodge in Los Gatos. He and his wife Helen, live in Monte Sereno. They have three daughters and six grandchildren. His hectic schedule prevents anything more that weekend vacations, but those are often spent hiking in Yosemite. “A perfect way to escape for me,” says Jim, and his wife Helen, a talented artist, can select her next landscape to paint.
Stanley Wm. Goldenberg, BS, RPh, FASCP
Image of Stanley Wm. Goldenberg, B.S., R. Ph., F.A.S.C.P.

Mr. Goldenberg graduated from the University of Arizona College of Pharmacy in 1968. He is currently an independent consultant pharmacist. He is a co-founder and current co-chairman of the Long Term Care Management Council and chairman of the National Advisory Board of the University of Arizona College of Pharmacy. He was past chairman and CEO of Commerce Pharmacy, a closed-door institutional pharmacy.

Mr. Goldenberg was appointed to the board by Governor Gray Davis in June 2001, and reappointed by Governor Schwarzenegger on April 1, 2005. His term will expire on June 1, 2008.

Robert "Bob" Graul, BSc, MBA
Image of Bob Graul

Mr. Graul lives in Carlsbad and currently serves as president and manager of Rancho Santa Fe Pharmacy. Mr. Graul earned a BSc in Pharmacy from the Philadelphia College of Pharmacy and Science in 1969, and an MBA from National University in 1995. He previously served as Inpatient Pharmacy Supervisor at the Veterans Administration Medical Center in La Jolla, and as staff pharmacist for University City Pharmacy and Nautilus Pharmacy.

The San Diego County Pharmacists Association named Mr. Graul as Pharmacist of the Year in 2005, and the California Pharmacists Association named him Innovative Pharmacist in 2007. He implemented the Medication Therapy Management (MTM) program in his practice, and supports pharmacists as a crucial member of a patient’s healthcare team.

Mr. Graul was appointed to the board by Governor Schwarzenegger on February 1, 2007. His appointment fills the community pharmacist board member position, and his term will expire on June 1, 2008.

Henry A. "Hank" Hough, Public Member
Henry A. "Hank" Hough, Public Member

Hank Hough retired from the US Army as a lieutenant colonel in July 1974 after enlisted service in the US Navy. In between periods of military service, Mr. Hough received a BS degree in Economics and a General Secondary Teaching Credential from the University of San Francisco. He was a junior high and high school teacher in Portola Valley and San Francisco. He was active in the California National Guard and returned to the US Army after being recalled in 1956.

His military assignment included work in Japan; Fort Lewis (Tacoma) and Camp Hanford (Richland), Washington; Fort Bliss (El Paso), Texas; Germany where he was commander of Nike Hercules battery in the front lines of the cold war; Fort Totten, New York (within New York City) where he was responsible for evaluating the effectiveness of 50 Nike Hercules anti-aircraft missile sites in the northeastern U.S.; Vietnam where he served as District Senior Advisor during Tet 1968 and was awarded the Purple Heart; the US Army Command and General Staff College, Fort Leavenworth, Kansas; Nuclear Employment Officer, United Nations Command/US Forces, Korea; and other general staff assignments.

From 1974 to 1977, Mr. Hough worked for Amtrak in Washington D.C. where he was Manager, Quality Assurance and thereafter on Air Defense Command and Control contracts for the Saudi Arabian government with the Vinnell Corporation, Litton, Boeing and Westinghouse. He lived and worked throughout Saudi Arabia, for more than nine years.

Mr. Hough returned California after an absence of 46 years in 2002, and is now Senior Issues Director of the National Tax Limitation Committee. He is also a docent at the California State Railroad Museum.

Mr. Hough was appointed to the board by Governor Schwarzenegger on July 19, 2006. His term will expire on June 1, 2008.

Susan L. Ravnan, PharmD
Susan L. Ravnan, Pharm. D.

Dr. Ravnan obtained her Doctorate of Pharmacy degree from the University of the Pacific, School of Pharmacy in Stockton, California in 1994. She completed a clinical pharmacy practice residency at University Medical Center in Tucson, Arizona in 1995.

Dr. Ravnan has several years experience in clinical pharmacy practice and academic pharmacy. Her clinical pharmacy practice experience has focused in Critical Care, Internal Medicine, HIV, Cardiology, and Medication Therapy Management. Academically, she served on the faculty at University of the Pacific, Thomas J. Long School of Pharmacy and Health Science as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Pharmacy Practice and Advanced Pharmacy Practice Experience Coordinator from 1998‑2004, and as Associate Professor in the same department from 2004-2007. Currently, Dr. Ravnan is Assistant Dean of Student Affairs and Admissions and Associate Professor in Pharmacy Practice at California Northstate College of Pharmacy.

Her research interests are focused in cardiology and renal therapeutics and she has published papers both in pharmacy and medical journals on those topics. She has served on the editorial advisory board for the California Journal of Health-System Pharmacy and as a manuscript reviewer for Annals of Pharmacotherapy. She has also has given presentations statewide and nationally to professionals as well as the general public.

Dr. Ravnan’s contribution to the profession of pharmacy has included service on the San Joaquin Public Health Advisory Board, SCR 49 Medication Errors Panel, CPhA Emergency Preparedness Task Force, and the California Society of Health-System Pharmacists Government Affairs and Advisory Committee. Professionally, she is recognized as a Fellow with the California Society of Health-System Pharmacists.

Governor Schwarzenegger appointed Dr. Ravnan to the board on June 30, 2006. Her term will expire on June 1, 2009.
Kenneth H. Schell, PharmD
Kenneth H. Schell, Pharm. D., Vice President

Dr. Schell currently resides in San Diego. He graduated from the University of California, San Diego, with a B.A in biology and obtained his Doctor of Pharmacy degree from the University of California, San Francisco. After graduation, Dr. Schell successfully completed a residency in pharmacy practice at the UC San Diego Medical Center. Dr. Schell became a registered pharmacist in California in 1984 and began his career with the Children's Hospital in San Diego in 1985, as a staff pharmacist.

In 1990, Dr. Schell was promoted to staff clinical pharmacist and took the role of critical care pharmacist. In 1997, Dr. Schell took a position as clinical manager with Owen Healthcare, Inc. in their Scripps Health Hospitals account. In 1999, he accepted the position of clinical operations manager at Kaiser Permanente, San Diego. In September of 2004, Dr. Schell moved to the Kaiser Permanente National Program Offices to serve as Senior Manager in the National Compliance, Ethics and Integrity Office. In June of 2007, Dr. Schell accepted a position with the Sharp Community Medical Group in San Diego as Director of Pharmacy Benefits Administration. Currently, Dr. Schell is the Vice President of Quality Assurance and Compliance with Prescription Solutions/A United Health Group Company in Irvine.

Dr. Schell is active in professional pharmacy societies, serving on the Board of Directors and presidential officer in San Diego of the California Society of Health-System Pharmacists, who recognized him as Pharmacist of the Year in 2002. Nationally, Dr. Schell has been elected as a California delegate to the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists House of Delegates and served on several ASHP committees. Dr. Schell has served as a member of the California Drug Utilization Review Board since 2001.

Locally, Dr. Schell is involved in training pharmacists at several schools of pharmacy. He has lectured at the UCSD and Loma Linda Schools of Pharmacy and serves as a mentor for student pharmacists at the Thomas Long School of Pharmacy at the University of the Pacific and at his Undergraduate alma mater, UC San Diego. He is an assistant clinical professor at the UCSF School of Pharmacy, UCSD Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences and Western University of Health Sciences School of Pharmacy. Dr. Schell enjoys spending time with his family and when time permits, playing softball.

Dr. Schell was appointed to the board by Governor Gray Davis in July 2003, and reappointed by Governor Schwarzenegger in June 2006. His term will expire on June 1, 2010.

Robert E. Swart , PharmD
Robert E. Swart , Pharm. D.

Dr. Swart has served as the director of pharmacy operations for Safeway, Inc., since 2005. Previously, Dr. Swart was regional manager of pharmacy operations, pharmacy area supervisor, pharmacy manager and a pharmacist for Longs Drugs from 1994 to 2005.

Dr. Swart was appointed to the board by Governor Schwarzenegger on July 18, 2006. His term will expire on June 1, 2009.

Stanley C. Weisser, R.Ph.
Image of Clarence Hiura, Pharm. D.

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger appointed Stanley C. Weisser, R.Ph., to the Board of Pharmacy on November 1, 2007. Mr. Weisser graduated from the University of Connecticut School of Pharmacy in 1963 and became a licensed pharmacist in California that same year. 

After opening his first pharmacy in 1969, his business, Network Pharmaceuticals, Inc., eventually grew into a chain of 30 pharmacies located in Southern California and Las Vegas, Nevada. Stan retired in 2000 as CEO and president of NPI.

One of his pharmacies dispensed prescriptions to over 1,000 patients in convalescent homes and over 8,000 inmates in correctional facilities in San Bernardino and Riverside counties. The other pharmacies were located in medical buildings.

Mr. Weisser is presently an associate professor of Pharmacotherapy and Outcomes Science at the Loma Linda University School of Pharmacy, and a member of the California Pharmacists Association.

Stan is very active in many San Bernardino County philanthropic activities as well as civic, cultural, and educational programs. Among them are Redlands Community Foundation, FEMA sponsored Emergency Food and Shelter Program, Redlands Unified School District Oversight Committee, San Bernardino County Schools Reorganization Committee, Redlands Theatre Festival, and Grove Charter School for which he was the founding member and five-year chairman of the board.

He has been on the executive committee of the board of the Redlands Community Hospital for over 25 years and was elected chairman for five of those years. Additionally, he is a trustee on the University of Redlands Board of Trustees, serving as chairman of the finance committee and a member of its executive committee.
Andrea Zinder, Public Member
Image of Andrea Zinder, Public Member

Andrea Zinder has had a distinguished career in government service, consumer advocacy and protection, labor relations and as a trustee of various health, welfare, benefit and pension funds with combined assets in excess of five billion dollars. She is a graduate of Cornell University School of Industrial and Labor Relations and served three years as a field agent of the National Labor Relations Board in Los Angeles. For more than 20 years she has represented pharmacists, technicians and other health-care workers who are members of the United Food and Commercial Workers Union, negotiating collective bargaining agreements, serving on UFCW executive boards and as a liaison to the UFCW Professional Division. Ms. Zinder is the secretary treasurer of UFCW Local 324, which is headquartered in Buena Park, California.

Ms. Zinder was appointed to the board by Speaker of the Assembly Antonio R. Villaraigosa in May 1999, reappointed by Speaker Robert Hertzberg in June 2000, and reappointed by Speaker Fabian Nunez in December 2004. Her term will expire on June 1, 2008.