Rita Winn is a Director of Lovell Drugs Ltd. where she was the previous General Manager and COO for over 22 years prior to her retirement. In her role at Lovell Drugs, Rita is always enthusiastic to pilot new technologies, products and programs to help advance the role of the community Pharmacist and to share this information with others.

Rita is also the President and owner of WINN-RX LTD, a consulting company focused on strategic planning, professional programming, and training and development.  Rita graduated from University of Toronto in 1981 with her B.Sc. Pharmacy and has over 40 years of community pharmacy and retail experience.

Rita’s accomplishments include Board member of CACDS since 1998 as well as past Chair of the Board of CACDS. Rita is presently the Chair of the Neighbourhood Pharmacies Association of Canada Board. Rita was an editor of the Pharmacy Management in Canada textbook published by the Canadian Foundation for Pharmacy as well as an author of several chapters.  This project involved laying the groundwork for the textbook, developing the content, writing and editing as well as finding many experts in pharmacy to author a chapter in the textbook.

Rita is also involved with many pharmacy organizations such as OPA (member since 1982), PDPA, CPhA member, mentor in the IPG program, and other charitable groups. Rita is an avid promoter concerning the value of the role of the Pharmacist in the healthcare system and a supporter of community pharmacy. Rita was the recipient of the 2018 OPA “Lifetime Achievement Award”. In 2020, Rita was awarded the prestigious “Pillar of Pharmacy Award” by the Canadian Foundation for Pharmacy. Rita has been a tireless advocate for the pharmacy profession for over 30 years.

Rita continues to speak at conferences and has presented at the CAPDM, ACES, CFP, and Pharmacy U conferences. She has been a regular presenter on pharmacy business, workflow and Human Resource topics at OPA annual Conferences. When not busy working, Rita can be found either traveling, golfing or just enjoying the outdoors.