Denis Kitayama

The Happy PharmD

Denis has spent 43 years as a pharmacist, preceptor, teacher, and mentor.

In the early part of his career, he was a Clinical Pharmacy Coordinator and Director of Pharmacy at a medical center in Orange County, California.  He served as a preceptor for pharmacy students on his inpatient medicine rotation for 15 years and established a PGY2 ambulatory care pharmacy residency program.

Denis led a team of clinical decision-support pharmacists supporting Kaiser Permanente’s Epic electronic health record for nearly 20 years. He was the residency program coordinator and preceptor for the PGY2 Pharmacy Informatics Residency Program. He is a guest lecturer in pharmacy informatics and holds adjunct faculty positions at multiple schools of pharmacy. Over the last 23 years, he has helped dozens of undergraduate students achieve their goal of becoming a pharmacist as part of UC Irvine’s mentor programs.

Denis enjoys traveling, trying different foods, listening to classic rock, and spending time with his wife and dog.