Alex Spanenberg is a fourth-year PharmD candidate and third-year MBA candidate at the Butler University College of Pharmacy & Health Sciences.
Greetings! It is my utmost pleasure and honor to serve as your 2023–2024 APhA–ASP speaker of the house.
Pharmacy runs deep in my family, with my great-great grandfather establishing an independent pharmacy in the late 1800s and my mother serving as a pharmacy manager for a large community pharmacy chain. My roots are in central Indiana, where I have resided all my life. Growing up just north of Indianapolis in the city of Carmel, I chose to attend pharmacy school at my father’s alma mater, Butler University, which was a mere 30-minute drive away.
It was during my involvement in the Indiana Pharmacy Association's legislative and regulatory council and my APhA–ASP Chapter’s policy committee that I first became interested in pharmacy policy and advocacy. Witnessing the impact we can have on patients and our profession through policy and advocacy was a revelation. After my first year of pharmacy school, I was privileged to be elected as the president-elect/president of the Indiana Pharmacy Association’s Academy of Student Pharmacists.
Apart from serving as the 2023–2024 APhA–ASP Speaker of the House, my most significant accomplishment during pharmacy school was donating stem cells. I joined a bone marrow registry during my first year of college, and over a year ago I was matched to a patient with acute myeloid leukemia, which led to my stem cell donation.
In my free time, I enjoy volunteering with the scouting program as an adult leader, especially since I’m an Eagle Scout. You’ll also find me spending time with family and friends and traveling—Marco Island, FL, and Disney World in Orlando, FL, are some of my favorite places to go!
Five questions for Alex
1. What show are you currently binging?
It’s too hard to pick just one, so here’s two of them: Billions and Suits.
2. What is your most-used phone app?
LinkedIn
3. If you could live in any state, which would you pick and why?
Indiana. I love the Midwest!
4. What actor or actress would you want to play you in the movie about your life and why?
Tom Cruise. He has great acting ability and having him as the lead would attract more viewers.
5. You can only eat one food again for the rest of your life. What is it?
Sandwich #4 from Jimmy John’s, the “Turkey Tom.”