Dr. Lanita S. White joined the Community Health Centers of Arkansas (CHCA), Inc. as Chief Executive Officer in 2022. CHCA is the state’s Primary Care Association supporting Arkansas’s Federally Qualified Health Centers/Community Health Centers. The community health centers under her purview make up the largest primary care group in the state, caring for over a quarter of a million Arkansans. Dr. White previously served at the University of Arkansas for Medical
Sciences (UAMS)College of Pharmacy as Assistant Dean for Student Affairs and Associate Professor in the Department of Pharmacy Practice in Little Rock, Arkansas. Immediately before assuming the position of Assistant Dean, she was the inaugural Director of the UAMS 12th Street Health and Wellness Clinic.
She graduated from Xavier University of Louisiana in New Orleans in 2006 with a PharmD degree. After graduation, Dr. White completed a PGY1 Pharmacy Practice Residency and a PGY2 Ambulatory Care Specialty Residency at the Central Arkansas Veterans Healthcare System (CAVHS) in Little Rock. She served as the full-time clinical pharmacist in the Diabetes and Endocrinology Clinic at the VA and Clinical Assistant Professor at the UAMS College of Pharmacy from July 2008 to July 2012.
Dr. White is a member of the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists (ASHP), a board member of the Arkansas Pharmacists Association, a board member of the National Pharmaceutical Association, and a Past President of the Arkansas Association of Health-System Pharmacists (AAHP). She is the Immediate Past President of the Arkansas Medical, Dental, and Pharmaceutical Association (AMDPA). AMDPA is the state’s only interprofessional medical organization serving physicians, dentists, pharmacists, and other terminal degree medical professionals.
In 2013, Dr. White was invited for induction into the Rho Chi National Honor Society. In 2014, she was awarded the Chancellors Award for Diversity and Inclusion and, in 2015, was recognized as a UAMS Phenomenal Woman. In 2016, she was a finalist for the Arkansas Business Health Care Heroes Award in Innovation. She was awarded the Dr. Joycelyn Elders Living Legend Award by the Arkansas Medical, Dental, and Pharmaceutical Association (AMDPA). She became the first pharmacist and female to serve as President of the National Student-Run Free Clinics Faculty Association, a national interprofessional faculty association. She was awarded the 2017–2018 UAMS Chancellor’s Award for Society and Health Education Excellence, the highest award given at the university. She was appointed in 2018 by the Governor of Arkansas to the State Employees Health and Life Insurance State Board.
Dr. White’s research interests include social determinants of health and health literacy and the impact on overall health and wellness and how interprofessional education and collaboration can improve patient outcomes. She also has a deep interest in diverse healthcare workforce pipeline creation and sustainability.