Academic Pharmacy Now: 2025 Issue 1 by AACP

The News Magazine of the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy

Academic Pharmacy

A Personal Touch

How does personality play a role in communication in the pharmacy sphere? 12

The News Magazine of the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy

Academic Pharmacy NOW

Pharmacists Help People Live Healthier, Better Lives.

1400 Crystal Drive, Suite 300 P Arlington, VA 22202 703-739-2330 P www.aacp.org

Founded in 1900, the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy is the national organization representing the interests of pharmacy education. AACP comprises all accredited colleges and schools of pharmacy, including more than 6,600 faculty, approximately 63,800 students enrolled in professional programs and 4,800 individuals pursuing graduate study.

Letters to the Editor

We welcome your comments. Please submit all letters to the editor to communications@aacp.org.

About Academic Pharmacy Now

Academic Pharmacy Now highlights the work of AACP member pharmacy schools and faculty. The magazine is published as a membership service.

Advertising

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CEO & Publisher Lee Vermeulen

Editorial Advisor Lynette R. Bradley-Baker

Editorial Director Maureen Thielemans

Managing Editor Jane E. Rooney

Editorial Assistant Kyle R. Bagin

Art Director

Tricia Gordon

Freelance Writer Joseph Cantlupe

Freelance Writer Emily Jacobs

Freelance Writer Athena Ponushis

campus connection

Expanding Education Access to First-Generation Students

A first-generation student pharmacist at the University of Colorado Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences helped create a high school outreach program for students like her. 5

community impact

UF Health Researchers Probe Benefits of Precision Medicine

An NIH grant is supporting a project to measure the feasibility of implementing strategies such as pharmacogenetic testing in the emergency room.

A Personal Touch

How does personality play a role in communication in the pharmacy sphere?

Supportive Spaces

AACP Interim Meeting kick-off speaker opens up about how her life experiences inspired her to become a passionate advocate for trauma-informed leadership.

February 15–17 | Houston, Texas

Dear Colleagues:

I hope the New Year is off to a productive start and you’re staying warm during these chilly winter months. AACP members and staff have been busy in January and February as we continue to navigate a rapidly changing healthcare landscape, particularly at the federal level. The challenges facing pharmacy education, practice and research have never been more pronounced. From cutting costs to staffing shortages to shifting policies, it’s clear that the need for reform and innovation is urgent. In this issue, we dive into more of these pressing issues, exploring the incredible work of our faculty, students and staff.

In the feature story, A Personal Touch, we shine a light on giving students an opportunity to highlight their strengths. A recent study on the impact of personality types on communication skills suggests that when student pharmacists understand how their personality traits impact communication, it can improve their interactions with patients.

Also in this issue, we feature Dr. Julio Duarte and Dr. Sophia Sheikh, associate professors at the University of Florida, who are leading important research in precision medicine. In UF Health Researchers Probe Benefits of Precision Medicine, you can learn more about their groundbreaking work on pharmacogenetic testing in the emergency room. It’s yet another example of how pharmacogenetics may transform patient care.

The 2025 Interim Meeting in Houston was a tremendous success and this issue of Academic Pharmacy Now gives readers a snapshot of one of the event’s invigorating sessions. Dr. Helen Sairany kicked things off by underscoring the importance of trauma-informed leadership in pharmacy education. In the profile piece Supportive Spaces, Dr. Sairany reveals how her personal experiences shaped her commitment to trauma research and the need for supportive environments within pharmacy schools. Her work advocates for a transformative shift in education, focusing on psychological safety, well-being, and cultivating a sense of community to create more inclusive and effective learning environments.

Looking toward the future, it’s essential that we remain focused on the critical roles that our members play in driving innovation, improving lives and shaping the workforce of tomorrow. Together, we can face the challenges head-on and work toward a healthcare system that truly serves everyone.

Sincerely,

Lee Vermeulen, B.S.Pharm., M.S., FCCP, FFIP CEO and Publisher

Expanding Education Access to First-Generation Students

A first-generation student pharmacist at the University of Colorado Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences helped create a high school outreach program for students like her.

By Jordan Kellerman

As a child in a north Denver suburb, Angelica Garcia did not realize that a healthcare career could be in her future. “I am first-generation, and I did not know anyone in the medical field,” she said. Garcia explained that her parents did not speak English, so she had to navigate the United States school system almost entirely by herself. Not that her family was not supportive, but language barriers and cultural differences made the process difficult. In high school, she was accepted into a summer pre-health program through the University of Colorado (CU) Anschutz Medical Campus. It was there that she was introduced to pharmacy.

Now a fourth-year pharmacy student, Garcia is on a mission to create space for students like her. One year ago, she approached Dr. Chandler Follett, pharmacy outreach specialist and clinical instructor at Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences (CU Pharmacy), with an idea. Garcia wanted to build a pharmacy high school outreach program unique to first-generation students. She wanted the program to address not only navigating a school system not built for them, but to understand their additional daily concerns—such as worry over a family member being deported, racial violence and living in a multi-generational household.

Credit: Dr. Chandler Follett/CU Pharmacy

Two CU Pharmacy students (left) explain drug interactions to a high school POP student.

Garcia wanted to build a pharmacy high school outreach program unique to first-generation students. She wanted the program to address not only navigating a school system not built for them, but to understand their additional daily concerns— such as worry over a family member being deported, racial violence and living in a multigenerational household.

Garcia strongly believes that these programs work and that introducing students to careers they never thought possible, such as pharmacy, will increase the number of people of color working in healthcare.

Follett was the person for the job. A dedicated hospital pharmacist and outreach coordinator, Follett works across Colorado to raise awareness about the pharmacy profession and its opportunities. She partners with institutions to create pharmacy pathway programs that collaboratively support students on their journey to pharmacy school, and she was excited to be part of this innovative initiative. “She listened to me, and she understood why this was so important,” Garcia said. “She said, ‘Okay, we need to do this, we can make it happen.’” They decided to name their project the Pharmacy Outreach Program, or POP, because it would be easy for high school students to remember and easy to say in many languages.

POP Comes to Life

Follett had the support of the CU Pharmacy administration, and she encouraged Garcia to recruit more student pharmacists to provide input and build POP. Next, Follett needed a liaison—someone respected in the Latino community and a powerful source of energy. That person would be responsible for building relationships with school systems, encouraging students to get excited about a healthcare career and be their biggest cheerleader.

Enter Julissa Soto. For over two decades, Soto has been a force for change, leading the charge for Latino immigrant equality, inclusion and health equity not just in Colorado but across the entire nation. From her roots in teen parent programs to her pivotal role on the Colorado Vaccine Equity Task Force and her advocacy for health equity at the American Diabetes Association, Soto has relentlessly pioneered programs aimed at empowering marginalized communities.

Credit:

Dr. Chandler Follett/CU Pharmacy

High school students work through a compounding activity to understand how everyday items, such as inhalers and lip balm, are created.

Soto, the perfect collaborator for POP, immediately set to work. Within months she and Follett had seven metro high schools on board, 14 student pharmacists to run the outreach and a curriculum built. “The program has two pharmacy students assigned to each school, and will include four visits over the next year,” Follett explained. “Lectures are taught by CU Pharmacy students. Each visit will last 90 minutes and feature a unique lecture and activity.”

Program Launch

Last fall, the pilot POP launched in three districts (Denver Public Schools, Cherry Creek School District and Jefferson County Public Schools). By the team’s estimate, hundreds of high school students will be introduced to the field of pharmacy, its diverse career opportunities and pharmacists’ important role as first-line providers.

“It’s an honor to work with such talented students,” said Soto. “We must build curriculums that our students can identify with, including cultural validation, into pharmacy education. We will take the field of pharmacy and the students a step closer to being at home.” For Garcia, seeing her idea come to fruition is exciting. “Initiating POP, with the help of Dr. Follett and Julissa Soto, is my way of paving the path for others, showing that with determination and support, we can create opportunities where none existed before.” P

Reprinted with permission from the University of Colorado Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences.

Chandler

Angelica Garcia visits a neighborhood market to purchase supplies for the program.

UF Health Researchers Probe Benefits of Precision Medicine

An NIH grant is supporting a project to measure the feasibility of implementing strategies such as pharmacogenetic testing in the emergency room.

By Joseph A. Cantlupe

Dr. Julio Duarte, an associate professor at the University of Florida College of Pharmacy, is a firm believer that effectively zeroing in on individual genetic profiles can unleash significant improvement in overall healthcare for patients. And he’s got pain on his mind. Duarte specializes in the field of pharmacotherapy and translational research. In those areas, Duarte focuses on precision medicine, which specifies disease treatment and prevention strategies to individual patients.

Duarte and his colleague Dr. Sophia Sheikh, an associate professor of emergency medicine at UF College of Medicine in Jacksonville, have received a five-year, $3.4 million grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to identify patient populations for whom precision medicine techniques may improve clinical outcomes and reduce healthcare costs. To evaluate possible health and economic impacts, there is probably no better place than the emergency department. Patients often seek evaluation at EDs for proper diagnosis and treatment and may suffer pain, for instance, that can range from mild discomfort to life-threatening conditions. “It’s a place where we think precision medicine could have a really big impact,” he noted. “If we could get the right drug the first time we should reduce return visits, and since this is such a high-cost healthcare environment, we could potentially also save a lot of money.”

A Genetic Link?

Patients go to the emergency room in part because of the availability and convenience, depending on their geographic location. But because it is so big and specialized, it is much more expensive to run. And there are those patients who are considered super users who visit the emergency room repeatedly and impact an outsized portion of healthcare resources. Many more are visiting with pain as a significant reason.

Emergency department visits have increased in the U.S. in recent years, from 12.5 million in 2012 to 14.3 million in 2022, according to the Journal of the American Medical Association Network. Findings from NIH indicate that among patients who visit the emergency department, anywhere from 49 percent to 78 percent cite pain as the reason.

“We’re looking at a number of potential drug interactions that could impact a person’s reasons for coming back to the emergency department,” Sheikh said in a university statement. “Maybe they’re not achieving the results they should be with a particular medication. Could there be a genetic reason for why they’re not able to metabolize a certain medication? This may be just one piece of the puzzle, but I think it’s an important piece that hasn’t really been delved into.”

Medication impacts each person differently. “Not everyone responds to medications the same—two people who seemingly might be the same age, the same sex, the same size— prescribed the exact same drug and same dose but they may have different responses,” Duarte pointed out. “There are a lot of reasons for this, but one big reason depends on the patient’s genetics. There are lots of enzymes in our body that are responsible for metabolizing these drugs and then clearing them out from the body. If you have any genetic variance that affect this, you are going to respond very differently, and that makes things more complicated at the drug’s site of action.”

As they carry out the study, Duarte and Shiekh will expand a computer-based decision support that exists within the electronic health record system at UF Health. The system will alert clinicians when patients may be at an increased risk of side effects from medication based on their genetics.

For those needing to receive care outside of UF Health, patients will be provided with a card containing a QR code, which clinicians can scan to view personalized drug recommendations for that patient. “It’s like a credit card with your results printed on a card,” Duarte said. “You can simply scan the QR code and it will take you to a website that provides recommendations based off of your patients’ results, allowing dissemination outside of your health system.”

A randomized clinical trial of patients with and without pharmacogenetic testing will determine if the testing is truly reducing emergency room visits. A costeffective analysis will show the potential economic value of a precision medicine approach. “The average ED visit is over $5,000, and our hypothesis is that pharmacogenetic testing would be either cost neutral or cost saving because these tests would be only a few hundred dollars,” Duarte added, “and the results are good for a

“It’s a place where we think precision medicine could have a really big impact. If we could get the right drug the first time we should reduce return visits, and since this is such a high-cost healthcare environment, we could potentially also save a lot of money.”

—Dr. Julio Duarte

lifetime.” They intend to start recruiting for a trial early this year. He said that the data this project gathers will inform future clinical implementation effects and larger, multisite clinical trials, ultimately leading to a better understanding of the benefits of personalized drug therapy and other precision medicine techniques in the ED.

The University of Florida has been studying precision health medicine from multiple angles since 2011, the university said. It has partnered with the UF College of Pharmacy to create the new annual Precision Health Initiative Pilot Grant opportunity. The idea is to encourage groundbreaking clinical and translational research. These competitive awards provide one year of support for researchers at the University of Florida and Florida State University.

Duarte said the university is also involved in a pilot program involving pharmacogenetics and cancer care. “It’s not widespread yet but we’re hoping that oncologists find value in pharmacogenetic testing that could predict adverse drug effects, and it could be expanded,” he said. “Patients will send genetic samples for testing and help oncologists decide what medication to use.”

The FDA, which has guidelines for pharmacogenetic testing and houses a genomics office, “has been a strong proponent for pharmacogenetics,” Duarte added. “There are certain circumstances where they’ll ask companies to provide that information as part of new drug applications. They are mostly in cases where the FDA feels there is a reasonable

risk that there is going to be a pharmacokinetic or pharmacodynamic interaction.”

Sheikh said that “this multidisciplinary research spanning two UF Health campuses serves as a powerful example of the positive impact of collaboration. This project shows how we can work together to try to improve healthcare for our patients, finding answers or solutions to some of the problems facing our healthcare system. This collaborative approach leads to great things for the University of Florida and for the people we serve.”

Duarte said that while the research is promising, it is not without obstacles. One of the problems is that insurance companies and Medicare are reluctant to pay in precision medicine scenarios. “There’s no real appetite for widespread implementation of pharmacogenetic testing because payers don’t want to pay for it,” Duarte said. “We think the best way to start implementation is to identify the groups that are most likely to benefit. Hopefully payers will see the benefit and then it can expand from there. Pharmacogenetics is not this sort of panacea that’s going to help you predict the response for every patient, but it’s another piece of information you can use to do a better job selecting the right drug for your patient.” P

Joseph A. Cantlupe is a freelance writer based in Washington, D.C.

A Personal Touch

How does personality play a role in communication in the pharmacy sphere? Extroverts are good at initiating conversation, but introverts tend to be empathetic, which leads to connection.

By Athena Ponushis

Pharmacists have been called to take care of people. And with that calling comes complicated conversations. Healthcare and medications present various complexities. A little self-awareness may help pharmacists leverage their strengths to connect with patients and build trust.

community impact

A recent study on the impact of personality types on communication skills, conducted across four colleges of pharmacy, suggests that communicating well with other people might start by connecting with yourself.

Personality tests can reveal who we are, or who we think we are, showing us the character traits that we possess. The results of these assessments can be applied in practical ways. By taking personality tests, student pharmacists can see their strengths and their blind spots, helping them identify where they need more coaching so they can improve communication with patients and peers.

“By fostering a learning environment where students can discover these traits, we are helping them see how they fit into the profession and how they are going to help take care of patients,” said Dr. Stephanie Hunziker, director of skills and simulation, and clinical associate professor of pharmacy practice, at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville (SIUE) School of Pharmacy “We are empowering them, in turn, to become more confident with their communication skills by creating an environment that allows them to discover their strengths.”

Giving students the opportunity to highlight their strengths can help teachers work with them on any challenges they may have. “We often think about what we can’t do, rather than what we can do, but we can leverage what we can do to address the areas we want to develop,” said Dr. Lucio Volino, clinical professor

and director of assessment at the Ernest Mario School of Pharmacy, Rutgers University, who also manages clinical services at Barnabas Health Retail Pharmacies— RWJBarnabas Health.

Volino guides students through strength-finding exercises when they do not see their own strengths, showing them how to improve in areas where they may not feel as confident. If a student wants to enhance their communication skills, he asks them to think: Am I an achiever? Am I empathetic? How can I use that in moments when I am feeling nervous or stressed out? “It’s really thinking about communication as a method to not only communicate with other people, but also to help yourself figure out, ‘How can I get the message I want to the people around me so I can succeed and deliver what is needed?’”

Knowing Your Strengths

Hunziker has always been fascinated by personality types and how they impact professionalism and work life. She has also been passionate about teaching effective communication. “It’s important to know as a pharmacist, healthcare professional and really just in life, but particularly when taking care of patients, that effective communication is essential, especially when we are educating people about the appropriate way to take their medications,” she said.

Hunziker’s interests in personality types and effective communication aligned when she was grouped with Volino and two other researchers—Dr. Mary Klein of Texas

“It’s important to know as a pharmacist, healthcare professional and really just in life, but particularly when taking care of patients, that effective communication is essential, especially when we are educating people about the appropriate way to take their medications.”

—Dr. Stephanie Hunziker

“How do you identify those individuals around you and how can you work with them, rather than just focusing only on you. It means thinking about others and how you can work together to highlight strengths and create a well-balanced team.”

—Dr. Lucio Volino

Tech University and Dr. Mariette Sourial of Palm Beach Atlantic University—in a brainstorming breakout room during an AACP Laboratory Instructors SIG researchfocused webinar. They realized that they all teach and assess communication in some capacity within their programs and decided to collaborate on a project—a look at the impact of student personality types on communication skills during patient interactions.

“When we started talking about it, we were thinking, there are different types of learners in our schools. Do they perform differently based on the way they communicate, how they approach situations, or their personality?” Volino said. “Are they introverted? Are they extroverted? Does that make them a better communicator? Does it impact their assessments? That led us down the path of, ‘Wow, I’d be really curious to see if there’s actually any correlation.’”

Hunziker and her co-researchers had 50 third-year student pharmacists among four colleges and schools of pharmacy complete a self-assessment survey surrounding their perception of their communication skills, including the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator. The MyersBriggs test gives each self-seeker four codes of personality, out of 16 possibilities, that stand for introvert or extrovert, intuitive or sensory, thinking or feeling, judging or perceiving. Take the ENTP, for example, an inspiring visionary who has brilliant ideas, but may not always finish them. Or the INFJ, the conscientious creative who champions others. They then compared different personality types with how students actually performed on a high-stakes, communication-based assessment of patient counseling.

“What was interesting,” Hunziker said of the results she and her team gathered, “was that a question on the survey asked students if they felt their personality traits affect their ability to communicate with patients, and 92 percent said yes. I thought it was pretty insightful that they understand that piece.” Students had an opportunity to note any factors of why or how personality traits can impact communication. The most common responses were empathy, confidence, interpersonal connection and personality type. Empathy and interpersonal connection were most often noted as the traits that impact patient communication in students who have the Myers-Briggs feeling subtype. And for students with extrovert personality types, confidence in initiating patient communication was the most common factor noted, which was not surprising.

The study confirmed for Volino what he would like his students to know: “Just because you are not an extrovert doesn’t mean you can’t be a good healthcare provider and deliver information to patients,” he said. “Sixty-four percent of our subtype was introverted, but when you look at the general population of the United States, it’s about 50/50 extrovert and introvert. We have students who have feeling as a top area, which could be good for patient care because they can offer empathy and will want to understand what patients are going through.”

Such revelations contradict stereotypes. Some students accept the generalization that extroverts are good with people, so extroverts will make good pharmacists who can communicate effectively. In many cases that may be true, but the study results reveal that introverts can do it, too. “I think this gives confidence to those students

to say, You know what? You can do this. We have many people out there who are introverts and they are communicating and providing care, and they are doing very well at it,” Volino said.

Introverts in the study also scored slightly higher than extroverts on how they performed during the patient counseling assessment. Faculty used a global communication rubric to formally assess students at each institution, rating different categories of their overall communication: verbal expression; mechanics and content; nonverbal communication; interactions with the patient; and organization and logic of their encounter. The results were blinded. Overall, the introverted personality subtypes performed on average at least one point higher (maximum score of 15 points on the rubric) than those with extroverted personality subtypes. “So, that kind

of supports the conclusion we made about the introvert subtype potentially performing a little bit better with patient communication,” said Hunziker, acknowledging that further investigation into these attributes would be needed to fully apprise student pharmacist communication skills.

Hunziker believes that knowing personality types helps shape the learning experience for students. “Everyone has different learning styles and different needs. Personality type can contribute to that,” she said. “As educators, being aware of those things is really helpful to tailor the teaching experience.”

Understanding personality types also helps students learn about themselves and their peers to see how they can complement each other in a pharmacy setting. Dur-

ing rotations, Volino has his students identify their five main strengths, then recognize the strengths of their partners. “Part of that is figuring out who you are working with and how they work. How do you identify those individuals around you and how can you work with them, rather than just focusing only on you,” Volino said. “It means thinking about others and how you can work together to highlight strengths and create a wellbalanced team.”

Thinking more broadly, Volino pointed out that awareness of personality traits can reach beyond education to practice, as learners begin to observe the different backgrounds that they may encounter with their patients. Students need to learn how to interact with different audiences to prepare for the range of experiences they will have as pharmacists. “Patients don’t come in only

having high blood pressure. They present with multiple chronic conditions such as high blood pressure, diabetes, high cholesterol. Sometimes, English is a second language. They may have a belief in herbal remedies versus prescription medications, or there are certain therapies they may not believe in, let’s say, vaccines,” Volino said. “So, how do you interact with people who not only have different ways to communicate, but also different beliefs behind that? That’s where professional identity formation comes into play for us and for our students, in that they are not only learning who they are as pharmacists, but also how they fit into the bigger picture of healthcare and communicating with other providers and with patients.” P

Athena Ponushis is a freelance writer based in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida.

New PharmCAS

Infographic: Building the Future of Pharmacy

The Building the Future of Pharmacy infographic was created using data from the 2023–2024 (previous) admissions cycle and includes statistics about accepted applicants along with callout boxes to aid in making the graphic more inclusive and not discourage potential applicants. Find the graphic on the PharmCAS website at www.pharmcas.org or email cas@aacp.org for a printable version.

58 semester hours (average) of prerequisite courses needed to start in a pharmacy program

About Accepted Applicants*

Acceptance Rate

12,206 Applicants

Each applicant applies to an average of 3 programs

10,541 Accepted Applicants

86% acceptance rate

Self-Identification

Pharmacy Technician Work Experience

on PharmCAS applicant data from the 2023–2024 cycle. Admissions requirements vary across Pharm.D. programs. www.pharmcas.org

Order Your Custom AACP Apparel

AACP is pleased to collaborate with Lands’ End Business, allowing members to purchase top-quality apparel featuring an embroidered AACP logo. Select from two logo versions and personalize placement on a range of garments. Order now and represent AACP in style.

https://business.landsend.com/store/aacp/

puzzle.

Pharmacy technician experience isn’t required for pharmacy school, but it can be valuable on your path to a Pharm.D.

pharmacy schools do not require a bachelor’s degree for admission.

Ready to Refocus and Recharge Your Career?

Applications to join the third cohort of AACP’s Mid-Career Recharge Program opened Feb. 3rd. This 12-month, longitudinal hybrid program will help faculty and staff develop a plan to thrive in the next stage of their career and leave feeling refocused and recharged. Applications are due March 17

Program Highlights:

P In-person Recharge Retreat with time to invest in yourself to reflect on where you have been and where you want to go in your career (held June 4–June 7, 2025, at the University of Pittsburgh campus)

P Individual and group coaching sessions by professional coaches that are members of the Academy

P Synergy groups for networking, external peer-mentoring, goal-setting, discussions, accountability, and support

P Fun activities such as an escape room, team dinner, and art therapy are included at the In-Person Retreat for networking, team-building, and well-being

P Skill building for the unique needs of mid-career faculty and staff will include topics such as time/ productivity, job crafting, crucial conversations, imposter syndrome, stress recovery, and more

P Participation and certification in Crucial Conversations for Mastering Dialogue training course (12hour curriculum)

P Optional (meeting attendance is encouraged but not required as part of this program): In-person networking events at AACP Annual and Interim meetings

Learn more: www.aacp.org/mid-career-recharge

Short Survey About Non-Pharmacist Employees

The AACP Learning Management System (LMS) work group is conducting a survey to assess the educational needs of non-pharmacist employees at colleges and schools of pharmacy. The survey seeks input from both non-pharmacist faculty and staff, as well as their supervisors, to help shape relevant professional development content. Recommendations for subject matter experts are also welcome. Responses are due by March 5: www.aacp.org/form/aacp-lms-survey

Call for Abstracts: NAS Future of Pharmacy Poster Session

The National Academies invites you to submit an abstract for the poster session taking place in-person on May 29 as part of the Workshop on Innovations in Pharmacy Training and Practice To Advance Patient Care: www.nationalacademies.org/event/44193_03-2025_innovations-in-pharmacy-training-and-practice-toadvance-patient-care-a-workshop

The hybrid public workshop will be held on May 29 and 30 to consider educational and other strategies to diversify the pharmacy workforce and explore the future of pharmacy for improving the health and wellbeing of society and its health care workforce. The deadline to submit is March 10: https://survey.alchemer.com/s3/8156025/Abstract-Submission-Future-of-Pharmacy-Poster-Session

Supportive Spaces

AACP Interim Meeting kick-off speaker opens up about how her life experiences inspired her to become a passionate advocate for trauma-informed leadership.

By Jane E. Rooney

For Dr. Helen Sairany, the decision to focus her research on trauma was intensely personal. As a young child growing up in conflict-ridden Iraq, she experienced a harrowing incident when she picked up a grenade, mistaking it for a toy. Fortunately, U.S. troops driving by convinced her to trade it for some candy. But that experience, combined with a period of displacement and then arriving in a new country as a refugee, created lasting trauma that did not surface for many years. It wasn’t until she graduated from pharmacy school in 2010 and worked overseas for Doctors Without Borders that some painful memories began to surface.

“I was treating so many little girls like my own seven-yearold self. The pain would wash over me every day and I would wake up screaming and I didn’t know what to do with myself. I was reliving some of the terror I went through,” Sairany explained. After returning to the United States, she was diagnosed with complex PTSD. The recognition that a childhood trauma could affect her so profoundly as an adult led her to pursue research and advocacy work around trauma-informed leadership. Her keynote presentation “Transforming Campus Culture: TraumaInformed Strategies for Empow-

ering Learners” kicks off this month’s Interim Meeting in Houston. She will discuss how adjustments can be made to higher education to support student well-being and academic success.

The core definition of trauma, Sairany explained, is experiencing something that is too much too fast too soon. “What takes precedence is survival. That becomes the number one priority—it’s the body’s alarm system. That is the past. But the body’s alarm system doesn’t have a memory so you continue to relive it. The body keeps the score so that’s why people with PTSD have nightmares. They are reliving tragic events of past.” So what does this mean in the context of leadership and pharmacy education? Whereas individuals with PTSD experience flashbacks, she said, leaders have what she calls flash forward.

“It’s the terror surrounding issues that are about to happen. Researchers from the University of Colorado realized that these highlight the same part of the amygdala [as PTSD flashbacks]. When you are terrified about the board, or admission rates are low, or worries about what if the institution doesn’t get accredited….it triggers the same part of the alarm system,” she said. “You don’t feel psychologically safe. The difference is working from an elevated emotion versus a limited emotion. With limited emotion, things keep adding up and it feels like too much. You become less giving, less innovative, less secure because you are so overwhelmed. Someone who is doing something they love and have a supportive staff—that’s elevated emotion. Ninety-nine percent of leaders, especially academic CEOs, are working from limited emotion. Pharmacy is going through a lot right now.”

Revisiting the System

Sairany believes that to provide trauma-informed care, pharmacy schools need to focus on changing the curriculum so students gain an appreciation for psychological

safety. The current system creates an overwhelming workload and sets up unrealistic metrics and demands. The goal is to create working environments that allow people to feel safe bringing their whole human selves to the table. “When you feel like you can show up and you’re not going to be reprimanded because you have a flaw. We all have flaws. The metrics are just not possible,” she noted. Building supportive campus environments that empower learners means taking a new approach to the curriculum.

“ADHD rates among American children are at an all-time high, largely driven by the immense stress parents face due to societal demands and workforce pressures,” she continued. “When parents are stressed, their children often absorb that anxiety, leading to behavioral issues that educators are left to manage. The real question is: How do we cope in such an environment? With one in two Americans experiencing anxiety or depression, should we be medicating half the population, or is it time to critically examine the hustle culture that’s disrupting everyone’s nervous system?”

Sairany explained that all anxiety arises from feelings of separation. Some schools are beginning to shift their approach to discipline. Rather than resorting to suspension or detention, they are encouraging students to engage in meditation. This simple yet profound change has resulted in a 15 percent reduction in performance issues. “Approaching students with compassion is essential. Why not offer them the attunement and sense of

February 15–17 | Houston, Texas

MARRIOTT HOUSTON BY THE GALLERIA

“Approaching students with compassion is essential. Why not offer them the attunement and sense of community they so desperately need? Schools must embrace this approach.”

—Dr. Helen Sairany

community they so desperately need?” she said. “Schools must embrace this approach. Students are struggling. Many enter pharmacy schools already deprived of parental attachment, attunement and a sense of community—without the warmth of a place they can truly call home. These challenges require support, and ultimately, the burden falls on the faculty.”

Colleges of pharmacy excel at addressing symptoms and providing education on pharmacology, but, according to Sairany, what is often missing is a focus on the human ele -

ment. “Deans will tell you the curriculum is already packed and that they can’t add anything more,” she said. “But if you don’t understand people, you don’t understand business, and you don’t understand pharmacy. The curriculum fails to adequately prepare us for the human factor. It’s crucial to understand trauma and what makes people feel safe. Pharmacy school needs to be an environment that fosters a true sense of belonging.” P

Jane E. Rooney is managing editor of Academic Pharmacy Now.

AACP Annual Meeting

July 19–22, 2025

Chicago

5 Call for Poster Abstracts at the 2025 Annual Meeting

2025 Call for Poster Abstracts is now open for submissions for AACP individual members and member institutions. Please visit the Pharmacy Education 2025 Submission Information Page for submission instructions of the different poster categories and due dates. For any poster inquiries, please email Nidhi Gandhi-Patel

Call for Poster Abstract Reviewers

The Call for Poster Abstracts for the 2025 Annual Meeting is now OPEN. If you would like to serve as a poster abstract reviewer, you must be an active member of AACP. The poster abstract review period will take place March 12–Apr. 4. To sign-up, please use the email address associated with your AACP member account and submit the form by Feb. 26

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AACP

Catch Up on 2024 Content You May Have Missed

AACP’s learning management system, Learn, is continuously updated with new professional development opportunities exclusively for members.

Check Out What’s New in AACP Learn:

P 2025 Artificial Intelligence Institute Recording

Couldn’t attend the 2025 Artificial Intelligence Institute in January? Check out this and content from past meetings, including the 2024 How to Teach Medical Billing Basics: A Hands-On Workshop, the 2024 Student Success Institute in October, and the 2024 Teachers’ Seminar.

P The Latest Installment of the Microlearning Miniseries

Good Pedagogy: Three Ways to Use AI in Pharmacy Education, Parts One and Two are now available to watch.

P Don’t Forget About Certificate Programs and Webinars

Continuing education certificate programs, The Certificate in Leadership Excellence for Academic Pharmacy and Choose Your Own Adventure: A Reflective Journey in Personal and Professional Development, each feature an in-depth learning experience with on-demand content using video and other online learning techniques. (fee applies)