She also won the Private and Corporate Sector Award and the Business Innovation Award at the 20th Telstra ACT Business Women’s Awards.

A long-held interest in wound management and her identification of local healthcare service needs led Ms Kourtis to introduce a medical compression garment clinic within the pharmacy that she has managed since 2013.

Encouraged by the head of Calvary Hospital’s Lymphoedema Services, Ms Kourtis undertook appropriate training to deliver an alternative to the long waiting times for patients needing lymphoedema (swelling in the arms and legs) garments fitted at the local public clinic and at other healthcare providers.

In its first year of opening, the Charnwood pharmacy’s clinic has improved the health outcomes for more than 550 patients with circulation problems and diabetes from as far away as Cooma, Bega and Gundagai. It has also increased the pharmacy’s front-of-shop profit.

Ms Kourtis, the only pharmacist in the ACT region to have allied health referral rights, and her team were recognised by being named the Pharmacy Guild of Australia’s 2014 pharmacy of the year.

Throughout her career, Ms Kourtis has taken on mentoring roles, lecturing, tutoring and examining students on behalf of the Pharmaceutical Society of Australia, Pharmacy Board of Australia and universities.

Other 2014 winners include Jan Mason, deputy secretary, Business, Procurement and Asset Management at the Department of Finance and currently chair of the steering committee for the Medibank sale, who was named the Community and Government Award winner.

Tammy Garratt, of TG’s Hair Studio in Fyshwick, took out the Business Owner Award while Jennifer Wyborn, an employment and industrial relations lawyer at Clayton Utz, won the Young Business Women’s Award.

The ACT winners proceed to the national finals in Melbourne on November 26.