Staff

William M. Ellis, MS, RPh was named Executive Director of BPS in 2011. From 1997-2011, Mr. Ellis served as CEO and Executive Director of the American Pharmacists Association (APhA) Foundation. He was the Executive Vice President for the Pennsylvania Society of Health-Systems Pharmacists from 1986-1997.

Mr. Ellis also served as the elected Chair of the Council on Credentialing in Pharmacy (CCP) from 2012-2015; CCP provides leadership, guidance, public information, and coordination for the profession of pharmacy’s credentialing programs. In 2014, he was appointed a commissioner to the National Commission for Certifying Agencies (NCCA) and was elected as the 2016 Chairman. The NCCA helps to ensure the health, welfare, and safety of the public through the accreditation of a variety of individual certification programs that assess professional competency. The NCCA is an administratively independent resource recognized as the authority on accreditation standards for professional certification programs.

After receiving his pharmacy degree from the Philadelphia College of Pharmacy (PCP), where he served as the chair of the College’s Board of Visitors. Mr. Ellis completed an executive residency with the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists in 1986 and earned his Master of Science degree in health education from Saint Joseph’s University in Philadelphia in 1994.

Brian Lawson, PharmD, assumed the role of Associate Executive Director in 2021 after having joined BPS nine years previously as Director, Professional Affairs. He leads the Professional Affairs, Communications, and Engagement (PACE) team that is responsible for monitoring the professional pharmacy landscape in the U.S. and around the globe and developing collaborative relationships within the healthcare community to promote the value of BPS board certification. Lawson was named the University of North Carolina Eshelman School of Pharmacy inaugural Global Executive in Residence in 2019 and the Institute for Credentialing Excellence (I.C.E.) Next Gen Professional Award recipient in 2021. He was appointed an Administrative Commissioner to the National Commission for Certifying Agencies (NCCA) in 2023.

Prior to BPS, he was the Associate Director, Governance for APhA with responsibilities related to the activities of the Board of Trustees, the House of Delegates, policy development, profession-wide awards, and Board elections. Lawson earned his Doctor of Pharmacy degree from West Virginia University (WVU) in 2008 and was subsequently named the first Knowlton Center Executive Resident in Association Management and Leadership at the APhA Foundation.

Lawson is a former president of the WVU School of Pharmacy Alumni Association and received the Margaret Buchanan Cole Young Alumni Award from the WVU Alumni Association in 2018 for outstanding service and mentorship. He remains active with WVU through his appointment as an adjunct assistant professor and service on the School’s Leadership Council as well as the Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Committee.