College of Pharmacy, May 16, 2013
Norrie A. Thomas received her B.S. in pharmacy (1976), M.S. in pharmacy administration (1980), and a Ph.D. in pharmacy administration (1983) in the College of Pharmacy at the University of Minnesota. She began her career as a staff pharmacist at the Mayo Clinic at St. Mary’s Hospital in Rochester, Minnesota. She is currently President and Managing Director of the Manchester Square Group (MSq), a healthcare consulting company with clients in the United States and Europe that specializes in managed-care pharmacy, patient-education programs and health-economics research. She is also the interim director of the Foundation of Managed Care Pharmacy. Dr. Thomas is described as a successful entrepreneur, having founded, launched, managed, and sold several pharmacy managed-care companies. She helped found one of the first pharmacy-benefit management companies, Clinical Pharmacy Advantage. She has held senior management positions at MedCenters Health Plans, Aetna, Clinical Pharmacy Advantage, McKesson, PCS, Eli Lilly, St. Jude Medical, Schering-Plough, and Magellan Health Services. Dr. Thomas has published several papers and books and has made numerous presentations on the managed care industry, information systems, quality assurance, and pharmacy. Dr. Thomas received the Steven G. Avery Award in 2009, which recognizes an individual for sustained, exemplary, and distinguished service to the profession of managed-care pharmacy. An ardent supporter and national advocate of the College of Pharmacy and its Center for Leading Healthcare Change (CLHC), not only has she provided financial support, but she has also contributed her expertise in the field of managed-care pharmacy through teaching in the Department of Pharmaceutical Care and Health Systems at the University of Minnesota.
Biographies are as-of time of award presentation.