UB Pharmacy Alumni Recognized for Professional Excellence and Service

Ronald Evens, BS ’69, PharmD, is the recipient of the 2025 Willis G. Gregory Memorial Award, the most prestigious honor conferred by the University at Buffalo School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, recognizing an alumnus who exemplifies service, integrity and excellence in the pharmacy profession.

After earning his PharmD and completing a clinical practice residency at the University of Kentucky, Evens built a distinguished career across academia, industry and biotechnology. He held faculty and leadership roles at the University of Texas and the University of Tennessee before transitioning to industry research at Bristol-Myers Co.

Beginning in 1989, Evens played a formative role in the biotechnology sector, including 13 years at Amgen, where he led professional services and organizational growth. For the past 25 years, he has served as president of M.A.P.S. for Biotech, advising companies on medical affairs operations and product launches.

He has maintained a long-standing commitment to academic scholarship, serving for 20 years as an adjunct research professor of biotechnology at Tufts University School of Medicine, Center for the Study of Drug Development. He also held adjunct clinical professor appointments at the colleges of pharmacy at the University of Florida and the University of the Pacific. His scholarly record includes 123 publications across biotechnology and multiple therapeutic areas.

His commitment to pharmacy education includes the establishment of the Evens Family Scholarship at UB SPPS and support for research programs through the American College of Clinical Pharmacists.

Alfonse Muto Jr. PharmD ’08, is the recipient of the 2025 Orville C. Baxter Memorial Professional Practice Award, one of UB SPPS’s highest alumni honors, recognizing an outstanding practicing pharmacist committed to professional excellence and patient care.

Following graduation, Muto joined Pine Pharmacy in Williamsville, founded by his father, Alfonse Muto Sr., a previous Baxter Award recipient. As a compounding pharmacist, he helped expand the business into Pine Pharmaceuticals, an FDA-registered 503B outsourcing facility now recognized as one of the industry’s largest and most trusted providers of customized and ready-to-use medications. A 2021 expansion added a 50,000-square-foot facility and significantly increased manufacturing capacity and workforce, including many UB SPPS alumni.

Muto has served on the board of directors for the Pharmacists’ Association of Western New York and chaired the IV, Nuclear and Compounding Academy of the Pharmacists Society of the State of New York. His leadership has earned national recognition, including the 2012 National Alliance of State Pharmacy Associations Excellence in Innovation Award.

Muto will be recognized during the UB SPPS Graduation Awards Ceremony in May 2026.

Karen Daly, BS ’80, was named a 2025 Distinguished Alumni Award recipient by the University at Buffalo Alumni Association, one of the university’s highest alumni honors.

After beginning her career as a registered pharmacist, Daly earned her MD through a Navy Health Professions Scholarship and served for 30 years in the U.S. Navy Medical Corps, including deployments aboard the hospital ship Comfort following the Sept. 11 attacks. She retired as a Navy captain in 2014 and later continued her service as a civilian psychiatrist before retiring from clinical practice in 2025.

UB SPPS congratulates Daly on this university-wide recognition and celebrates her extraordinary record of service and leadership.