Valedictorian of Long Island University’s Arnold & Marie Schwartz College
of Pharmacy and Health Sciences to Pursue Research Career
Staten Islander will Graduate with Highest Honors and will Deliver Commencement Address
During May 15 Ceremonies

Brooklyn, N.Y. – On May 15, 2009, Staten Island resident, Krista Michele DeLissio, will graduate as valedictorian of Long Island University’s Arnold & Marie Schwartz College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences and will address an audience of more than 500 graduates, their families and their friends. “I’m walking on a cloud,” she exclaimed. “I am humbled, honored and very excited.” The highly accomplished 24-year-old has much to celebrate. She earned a grade-point average of 3.99, won a prestigious research fellowship in addition to numerous other awards and recently became engaged.

Ms. DeLissio owes some of her good fortune to the encouragement of her neighborhood pharmacist. Several years ago, unsure of what career path to take, she walked into the CVS pharmacy in Staten Island’s Great Kills section and asked to volunteer in order to learn more about the profession. Instead, the supervising pharmacist, Irene Reha, gave her a job and became her mentor. “She took me under her wing, educated me about all that pharmacists do and encouraged me to go to pharmacy school.”

Ms. DeLissio decided to transfer to the College of Pharmacy from Stony Brook University and enrolled in the third year of the six-year Pharm.D. program. She excelled in her studies and also was active in Campus organizations, serving as the historian of and as a peer tutor in the pharmacy honor society, Rho Chi, and as treasurer of the student chapter of the American Society of Consultant Pharmacists. In addition to being valedictorian and graduating summa cum laude, she also will receive the College Gold Medal; the Merck Award for outstanding performance in medical physiology, pathophysiology and biochemistry; and the Professor Shirley Kraus Research Award.

Ms. DeLissio plans on pursuing a career involving clinical drug trials and other pharmaceutical research. Once she graduates, she will work at TKL Research, Inc., in Rochelle Park, N.J. This opportunity is part of the two-year Rutgers Pharmaceutical Industry Fellowship she won. “I want to be at the beginning of the pharmaceutical spectrum where everything starts,” she asserted.

The 120th commencement ceremony will take place at 1:00 p.m. on the athletic field at Long Island University’s Brooklyn Campus. University President David J. Steinberg will confer 297 Master of Science degrees, 214 Pharm.D. degrees and three Ph.D. degrees. Dean David R. Taft will administer the traditional Oath of a Pharmacist to the graduating students.

Ms. DeLissio's mentor; her fiancé, Jon-Paul Weiss; her younger brother and sister; and her parents, Janice and Joseph, will all be on hand at the commencement ceremonies to watch her graduate and to hear her speak. “I’ve never seen anyone work as hard as Krista to earn these honors,” said her father, who is a columnist for the Staten Island Advance, the wine director at The River Café, a landmark restaurant in Brooklyn, and the author of “The River Café Wine Primer” (2001, Little, Brown). “As a father,” he added, “I’m pleased not only with her academic achievements but also with her morality. She really is a fine person. We are all very proud.”

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Posted: May 5, 2009