Dr. Phil Ayers Takes the Helm of ASPEN’s 2023–2024 Board of Directors

ASPEN is pleased to announce that Phil Ayers, PharmD, BCNSP, FMSHP, FASHP, is succeeding Ryan T. Hurt, MD, PhD, as ASPEN’s 47th president.
 
Dr. Ayers is chief, clinical pharmacy services and clinical specialist, nutrition support at Mississippi Baptist Medical Center in Jackson. He also serves as clinical associate professor at the University of Mississippi School of Pharmacy.
 
He received a B.S. in pharmacy from the University of Mississippi and his doctorate in pharmacy from the University of Mississippi School of Pharmacy. Dr. Ayers joined Baptist Health Systems as a staff pharmacist in 1987 and began its first multidisciplinary nutrition support service in 1993. Five years later, he was named chief of clinical pharmacy services.
 
Dr. Ayers joined the faculty of the University of Mississippi School of Pharmacy in 1997, where he teaches and precepts doctor of pharmacy students and pharmacy residents in nutrition support and critical care.
 
“Dr. Ayers is a passionate educator who, in addition to guiding doctoral students from eight universities on applying theory to practice, gives countless hours to ASPEN’s education programs,” said ASPEN Chief Executive Officer Wanda Johnson, CMP, CAE, FACEHP. “He has twice been named the University of Mississippi’s Advanced Pharmacy Practice Preceptor of the Year, and in 2011, Dr. Ayers received the ASPEN Excellence in Nutrition Support Education Award.”
 
“I want to reach out to all ASPEN disciplines and ensure that they continue to have and take advantage of the nutrition education ASPEN provides,” said Dr. Ayers. “Quality education and opportunities for nutrition research to advance patient care are two of the tools I will use in my goal to grow membership.”
 
Dr. Ayers has been an active leader of ASPEN initiatives since 1999, serving as a reviewer on interdisciplinary task forces, the chair of committees focused on self-assessment and parenteral nutrition safety, and as a member of the Informatics Committee and Clinical Nutrition Week Program Committee (now Annual Conference Program Planning Committee). He has served on the board in various positions since 2011.
 
In recognition of his service and leadership, Dr. Ayers received the ASPEN Stanley Serlick Award for Parenteral Nutrition Safety in 2016.
 
Dr. Hurt, ASPEN’s immediate past president, commented, “In working as a coeditor with Dr. Ayers on the third edition of the ASPEN Parenteral Nutrition Handbook, I saw the depth of his commitment as an advocate for the provision of safe and efficacious nutrition for all patients. He is an expert on interdisciplinary guidance and knows how to convey the importance of being nimble in finding solutions to problems and emerging situations.”
 
Dr. Ayers is a member of the United States Pharmacopeia (USP) Compounding Committee and chair of its Parenteral Nutrition Subcommittee. In 2021, he was on USP’s COVID-19 Vaccine Handling Expert Panel and its Drug Supply Chain Resiliency Model Expert Panel. He also served as Chair of the Nutrition Support Council for the Board of Pharmacy Specialties.
 
Dr. Ayers held leadership positions with numerous state organizations, including the Mississippi Society for Parenteral and Enteral Nutrition, the Mississippi Society of Health-System Pharmacists, the Mississippi Pharmacists Association, and the Mississippi College of Clinical Pharmacy.
 
A sought-after speaker and lecturer, Dr. Ayers has given presentations across the United States on topics ranging from parenteral nutrition fundamentals and safety to electronic health records and drug shortages.
 
In recognition of his dedicated and expansive work, he was named a fellow by the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists and the Mississippi Society of Health-System Pharmacists.
 
“Dr. Ayers has been a champion in advancing the safe practice of nutrition support, especially parenteral nutrition,” said ASPEN’s 43rd president Lingtak-Neander Chan, PharmD, BCNSP. “He is a strong consensus builder who excels in bringing people from different organizations and disciplines together. Dr. Ayers also deeply understands the challenges we face in healthcare and nutrition education, and I know that under his leadership, ASPEN will continue to meet those challenges head-on.”