Sign of a New Era

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veryone knows it takes years of struggle to become an overnight sensation, and Mary Munson Runge is no exception. She's been quietly making her way to the top for 30 years. On April 26 that perseverance and determination will have paid off when Mary Munson Runge ushers in a new era as APhA's 126th president. What's so unusual about Runge? She's only the first woman in APhA history to hold the office, that's all. Not only that, but she's also the first black and the first nonhospital employee pharmacist. Moreover, she is the first black woman to be elected president of any major professional health organization. To paraphrase the adman's jingle, she's come a long way-not only professionally, but also geographically, from the small Louisiana town where she grew up all the way to Oakland, where she has lived for more than half her life. Runge received her degree in pharmacy from Xavier University College of Pharmacy, New Orleans, in 1948, joined APhA, and moved west the next day. "Coming from a small town, I was very shy and retiring, if you can imagine that," she says. "I just changed gradually over the years. I can't say that there is anyone thing in my life that changed it. I realized that it was every pharmacist's duty to be active in a professional association and that things would never change if I didn't work hard, and that's how I got involved." Runge's sense of duty and involvement led her through the presidency of the local society of hospital pharmacists, then the state hospital pharmacist society, then the California Pharmacists Association, to become CPhA's Pharmacist of the Year in 1978, and finally to achieve national recognition as APhA president-elect.

Mary Munson Runge

Steps Up It's not really surpnsmg that Runge chose to make pharmacy her career. It's practically in her blood. "My father was a physician who owned a drugstore, so I grew up in a pharmacy. He died when I was 12, and the man who bought the pharmacy was expecting me to come back and work with him and manage it with the idea of taking it over." She chose to go into hospital pharmacy instead. "I worked in a hospital for 20 years-Contra Costa County Hospital for 15 years and a small community hospital part-time for five." She is even married to a pharmacist, and one of her stepdaughters is a practicing pharmacist. The other is a food scientist, which in the eyes of the FDA, at least, is a related profession. The missing link in this pharmaceutical chain is her own daughter, an 18-year-old sophomore at Loyola Marymount College in Los Angeles. She's not even thinking of going into pharmacy. Like many others who have succumbed to the lure of Hollywood, she is majoring in communicative arts and plans to produce and direct films.

Individual Freedom Runge didn't expect her daughter to follow in her footsteps, though. Her credo is individual freedom. As far as she's concerned, there isn't enough of it, especially for pharmacists. "We're being overlegislated to the detriment of the profession," she says. "I think that as a professional I should have the prerogative to practice the way I want to." What many

people have greeted as a step for.' ward-for instance, legislation in~ California requiring some form of patient consultation-she views as! government interference. "Pharmacists have been counseling since the year one," she insists. , Who is to blame for the mountain of mandates that is slowly taking? shape in California and other states? According to Runge, pharmacists themselves are at fault. "Pharmacists have brought some\ of these things on themselves by not doing them voluntarily. I understand; fully the reasons for all the mandates that are being legislated, and I think it's the fault of the profession."

'Look to the Future' Instead of dwelling on past mistakes, though, Runge feels that we) should look to the future. The des-~ tiny of American pharmacy depends' on the future pharmacists-the students. That's why Runge's last three' speeches have been to pharmacy schools. "I have tried very diligently to stress that if you don't perform prop-': erly, you'll be told how, and that it's important that you do it voluntarily.") She also feels that APhA's fate lies in the hands of the students. Pharmacists traditionally have been slow. to accept new ideas, she says. "Many policies that APhA has had' on the books for years caused quite a I furor at the time they were passed,' We forget to look to the future. We need to start looking. Hopefully, the students graduating today will ' change these things within the pro- , . fession." That change has already started to some extent. "Pharmacy is in a state of flux between where it was when I grad- " uated 30 years ago and what it will be ' ;n the future. Ph"mad,t, are mo~

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patient oriented now than product oriented-which is the way it should be-and I see more and more pharmacists going in to the clinical areas and fulfilling what I think we're very well qualified to do." Runge doesn't think that pharma~ists need to-or should-specialize In just one area. UThat's one of the good things about the profession," she explains. "If you don't want to spend all of your time in a preScription pharmacy, you can work in ~ hospital, for the government, lnd us t ry .... " She herself is a living illustration of that flexibility. After spending 20. ~rnerican Pharmacy VoI.NS19 , No . 4, Apr.1979/ 177

years in hospital pharmacy, she decided to pursue a more conventional career in community pharmacy. She had never been anxious to own a pharmacy, even when her father's was available; she was satisfied to be an employee.

'United Nations' Her search for a job took her to an old friend, Syl Flowers-ulike the birds and the bees, he always says." Flowers had a leased operation in a large department store and was looking for someone to work parttime. For Runge it was an ideal arrangement: the hours were good (10

a.m. to 6:00 p.m., Monday through Friday), the location was good (downtown Oakland), and the working conditions were excellent. The pharmacy, called The Apothecary, deals only in prescription and related GTC items. Runge works there two days a week, and Flowers fills in the other three. He doesn't mind taking over when APhA duties call her away from her job, and he has no trouble coping when she phones from Chicago to .say that she's snowed in. uI have been there through all my activities on both the state and the national level, and instead of being

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upset by my election, he's very pleased, very happy, and very proud." One characteristic that makes Flowers rare among employers is his affirmative action hiring policy: he owns two other prescription pharmacies in the Oakland/San Francisco area, both managed by women. They are given complete latitude in establishing professional practices. "'We do patient counseling, we have patient profiles, and we do all the things people are talking about making mandatory," says Rungeand, she points out, they were doing them long before people started talking about it. In addition to being all female, The Apothecary staff is multiracial. "'We call ourselves the United Nations," Runge laughs. "We have black, white, Oriental, and Chicano among the pharmacists and the clerks." And to complete this microcosm, the pharmacy is in an area near an American Indian relocation center-whence they receive some of their patients. On Women and Minorities In this era of "liberation" for both women and minorities, Runge doesn't feel that either group should be entitled to any favored treatment. "I would say that woman power, if you want to call it that, has to be earned," she says. "We can't do it by trying to cash in on the fact that we're female. I believe in equal pay

'Woman power has to be earned. We can't do it by trying to cash in on the fact that we're female.' for equal work, but I think we have to perform equally, too." Scarcely a revolutionary notion, but one that many people, including women and minorities, would do well to heed. It all boils down to the old theme of individual freedom. With a little encouragement from the APhA establishment, minority groups will find that joining the pharmacy profession is not at all difficult. What kind of encouragement can APhA provide? "For one thing," answers Runge, "'a task force on women will be named to concentrate on what the Association needs to do in addressing problems that are unique to women." One problem Runge feels women entering the work force have to face is their so-called lack of professional organizational experience. In reality, many have comparable experience in other areas. Runge herself, for example, learned parliamentary procedures by serving on her local PT A: All officers were required to take a course on the subject. "I figured if I could keep order at those meetings, I could do any-

thing," she says, betraying her iron hand. ~ Some of the other issues the task force will consider are: • Discrimination in hiring, salaries, and promotion; • The dual role of women as wives and mothers/professionals; • Participation of women in professional organizations at the local" state, and national levels. Runge is optimistic about APhA's chances for success. "I don't think \ there will have to be a great effort," she says. "I think it's a matter of those in the Association making them aware that they are welcome"-as she was made aware more than 30 years ago . . Of course, she'll have to persuade · women to agree with her-to chal- ; lenge some of the old inbred taboos. To Runge, self-confidence is the es- I sential ingredient in the formula for success. "Once you feel secure within yourself that you're your own person, you go out and do things. I think many women just need someone to say to them, 'Hey, you're equal. Act like it.'" As APhA's first woman president, Runge has definite ideas about women and pharmacy. "The role of women is expanding 1 in the profession because of the in- ' creased enrollment," she says. "Women were about one tenth of . one percent of the profession when I graduated in 1948. Now the overall percentage of women enrolled in , schools of pharmacy is 32%-in some schools it's even as high as ' 50%."

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Some skeptics still think these fig- ; ures are meaningless. After all, they observe knowingly, women in all professions are still leaving the ~ work force to raise families. But . " Runge doesn't agree. "If you look a t the total picture of . women in this country," she says, "more and more mothers are pursuing careers and working, whereas at one time a woman was looked at differently if she even expressed the desire to have a career or a life of her own. Women have shown their independence in all areas." For women and for pharmacy, it's definitely the sign of a new era. , -]SW , I

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