Deborah Hunt Simonson is vice president - chief pharmacy officer of System Pharmacy Service Line at Ochsner Health New Orleans, Louisiana. She is responsible for the strategic vision, long-term planning, direction, and overall accountability for pharmacy services across the system.
Simonson began her career with the United States Public Health Service. She joined Ochsner in 1981 and has built the pharmacy program to include clinical services, education/academics, research, retail services, specialty pharmacy, outpatient and home infusion, refill center, medication access, charitable pharmacy, patient assistance, and pharmacogenomics. Ambulatory pharmacy services, population management, transitions of care, informatics, regulatory compliance, medication safety, logistics, and digital medicine support are also essential components of the system’s pharmacy services.
Following Hurricane Katrina, Simonson played a key role in integrating newly acquired hospitals into the Ochsner system, ensuring that pharmacy services and pharmacist care were provided throughout the expanded system. She continued to integrate hospitals as Ochsner Health grew from one hospital to operating 46 hospitals and 370 health and urgent care centers in the Gulf South. She is widely recognized as an expert in emergency preparedness and has given numerous presentations on maintaining pharmacy services and key roles for pharmacy leaders in disaster scenarios. This expertise was instrumental in her leadership for Ochsner in the response by Ochsner Health and the pharmacy during the COVID-19 pandemic in both patient care and advocacy efforts at the state and national level.
Active in state and national pharmacy associations, Simonson is a member of the ASHP Pharmacy Executive Leadership Alliance Advisory Panel and is a member and chair of the Vizient Executive Pharmacy Council. A past president of the Southeastern Louisiana Society of Health-System Pharmacists, she also served on the board of directors of the Louisiana Society of Health-System Pharmacists (LSHP) and was a member of the Louisiana Board of Pharmacy.
Simonson was a part of the inaugural cohort to receive the ASHP Certified Pharmacy Executive Leader credential. She is the recipient of many awards, including the ASHP Executive Vice President’s Award for Courageous Service, the LSHP Tommy Himel Memorial Award, the Vizient Vision Award for Excellence in Executive Leadership, and one of City Business’s 2015 Women of the Year.
She earned her Bachelor of Science degree in pharmacy at Auburn University in Auburn, Alabama, and her Doctor of Pharmacy degree from Xavier University of Louisiana.