Name: Barbara Kashiwabara
Age: 43
Position: Director of pharmaceutical services, Kaiser Permanente
First job: Babysitting in Honolulu
Hobby: Family time

"My No. 1 goal is to place our pharmacies directly involved in managing the prescription," Kashiwabara said. "The pharmacist can make recommendations to the doctor, can educate (the patient) about side effects, how to store the medication and give a call back to see if it is working."

She replaces Ronald Okamura who moved to the new position of automa-tion/pharmacy benefits manager. He will work on automating prescription refills.

Kashiwabara joined Kaiser in 1987 after working for eight years at the Little Company of Mary Hospital in Torrance, Calif.

She earned her bachelor's degree in microbiology from the University of Hawaii and her doctor of pharmacy degree from the University of Southern California School of Pharmacy.