ACPHS ALUMNI NEWS MAGAZINE | SUMMER 2018
FIGHTING THE RESISTANCE A look at what’s being done amid the ongoing concern of antibiotic resistance
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CONTENTS ALUMNI NEWS MAGAZINE | SUMMER 2018
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“…at least two million people in the U.S. become infected with antibioticresistant bacteria (ARBs) every year.” PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE
STUDENT SPOTLIGHT: Kayla Fantone
ALUMNI NEWS SUMMER 2018
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FIGHTING THE RESISTANCE A look at what’s being done amid the ongoing concern of antibiotic resistance.
MAGAZINE STAFF
Editor Megan Davis Writers John Backman Lauren Jesmer Photographer Kris Qua Design + Illustration Eden Loeffel
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Send story ideas, suggestions, letters, and comments to: ARRESTING THE TIDE OF OPIOIDS The fight to combat illegal distribution and abuse.
In Every Issue 05
CAMPUS NEWS
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FACULTY UPDATES
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ALUMNI NOTEBOOK
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CLASS NOTES
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FRIENDS WE’LL MISS
Alumni News ACPHS 106 New Scotland Ave Albany, NY 12208 518.694.7393 alumni@acphs.edu www.acphs.edu
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about the opioid epidemic sweeping the country. Rural towns and villages have been particularly hard hit by the epidemic which has destroyed the social fabric of many of these small communities.
WE READ ALMOST DAILY
Although the scope of the crisis has expanded dramatically in recent years, this is not a new problem. In one of this issue’s feature stories, we highlight the work of Debbie Komoroski ’78 (see page 19) who has been on the frontlines of the opioid battle for more than two decades. Komoroski has seen this problem building over the years and laments that “only now is it starting to get attention.”
FROM THE
As an institution focused on pharmacy and the health sciences, ACPHS has a responsibility to contribute to this effort. We have been actively engaged in programs to combat substance use and abuse for many years now, so we are well positioned to play a leadership role in combating the opioid epidemic.
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The opioid crisis is a daunting and complex problem that is not easily solved. In 2007, the College formed the Initiative for Substance Abuse Prevention (ISAP), a group comprised of students, faculty, and staff who identify and address issues of substance abuse at the College. The Committee has helped raise awareness by screening documentaries about addiction, hosting guest speaker panels on campus, and providing content for events such as Orientation and Substance Abuse Awareness Week.
ISAP has also administered an anonymous Substance Use Survey to ACPHS students for eight of the past nine years. These surveys provide insights that may surprise some. In the 2018 survey, for example, just 2% of our students self-reported that they used opiates not prescribed to them in the past year. This number has stayed fairly consistent throughout the past decade, ranging from 1.4% - 4%. As encouraging as these results are, we continue to be vigilant about this issue. In addition to prioritizing the health and safety of our students, we must also ensure that they have the knowledge and skills to deal with this epidemic as professionals. To this end, we are participating in a new Screening, Brief Intervention, and Referral to Treatment (SBIRT) program funded by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration. As part of this initiative, ACPHS pharmacy students, along with nursing students from Sage College and medical students from Albany Medical College, receive training in identification and intervention strategies for substance use disorders. This program is complemented by naloxone training which has been a required part of the Pharmacy Skills Lab sequence at ACPHS since 2016. Our student professional organizations have also been active in raising awareness of opioid abuse by giving presentations to their peers at other colleges. In addition, these organizations have sponsored medication takeback events that help remove opioids from the community and prevent unintended usage. Partnering with the Vermont Pharmacists Association, students on our Vermont Campus have contributed to this effort by advocating for the successful passage of the state’s 2016 Opioid Abuse Bill. Despite these efforts, we need to do much more. ACPHS recently joined a consortium of Capital Region schools, businesses, and organizations in an initiative sponsored by the Times Union called “Prescription for Progress: United Against Opioid Addiction.” We are
working with members of this consortium to aggressively seek local solutions to the opioid epidemic. The philosophy of this group is that we need to act locally and not wait for state and federal initiatives. ACPHS is proud to join in this effort. The opioid crisis is a daunting and complex problem that is not easily solved. We are working to be part of the solution through institutional commitment, faculty engagement, and student involvement. Our greatest contribution to this effort, however, will be the students we educate today as they will be part of tomorrow’s solution.
Greg Dewey, Ph.D President
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CAMPUS NEWS
The Beyond Practice Ready Campaign Ends on a High Note Thank you! The Beyond Practice Ready (BPR) campaign, which wrapped up in December, was a great success and we have our loyal donors to thank. In November 2015, President Dewey and the Office of Institutional Advancement kicked off the BPR campaign with the goal of launching two student operated pharmacies in medically underserved areas of the Capital District and building three active learning classrooms on the Albany campus. Because of the outpouring of generous support, the College exceeded its BPR campaign fundraising goal of $6 million, bringing in $6,109,867. Here’s what your support helped create. College Hometown Pharmacy was not only the first student operated pharmacy for ACPHS, but the first of its kind in New York State. Launched in March 2016, the pharmacy is located within Hometown Health Center, a full-service federally qualified health care clinic in Schenectady, NY. The pharmacy has enjoyed steady growth under the leadership of Pharmacy Manager Anna O’Neil ’95, who is supported by students from the Pharm.D. program. With both of the College’s pharmacies approved for all major Medicaid managed care plans and a growing list of services that include asthma treatment programs and telemedicine, the future continues to look bright. The expansion and development of pharmacy services at Hometown Health Center are being led by Dr. Jacqueline Cleary, Assistant Professor in the Department of Pharmacy Practice, who maintains a clinical practice site at the community health center. ACPHS students are assigned on IPPE and APPE rotations in both the pharmacy and with Dr. Cleary.
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College Parkside Pharmacy in the South End of Albany has been in operation since early 2017 and is supervised by Gus Barranca ‘79 (pictured above). Gus is also the Operations Manager for both pharmacies. The pharmacy is located in the Capital South Campus Center (CSCC) on Warren Street, less than a mile and a half from the college. The pharmacy is part of an emerging health care complex that will include the Collaboratory at 3 Lincoln Square (see page 8) and potentially a primary care clinic and CLIA lab in the CSCC. The active learning classrooms are designed to prepare graduates to learn practical skills and to adapt to changes in the workforce. The technology-enhanced classrooms hold less than 70 students each. Tables in the classrooms seat six to eight students for group projects. “The space allows us to move into new ways of teaching and to address the skill sets our students need to learn,” said President Dewey. Thank you for making these initiatives possible and for contributing to the campaign. Our students will now be Beyond Practice Ready when they enter the workforce and prepared to succeed in the ever-changing health care landscape. We could not have done it without you.
College Joins Opioid Coalition The College has joined a consortium of Capital Region businesses and organizations called “Prescription for Progress: United Against Opioid Addiction�; the group is committed to expanding understanding of the opioid epidemic and working toward potential solutions.
Symposium Highlights Teaching Innovations The Instructional Design Symposium held on May 10 highlighted the work of the 2017 Provost Technology Award winners as they shared the teaching methods and technologies used in projects funded by this program. The objective of the annual Symposium is to provide a forum for faculty to discuss their experiences with colleagues as part of the College's continuing efforts to leverage the latest insights in the areas of teaching and learning. The 2017 award winners were: Darren Grabe, Katie Cardone, Nicole Shakerley, Binshan Shi, and Eric Yager.
Provost's Honors Circle Welcomes New Students Eight new students were welcomed by President Dewey and Provost Patel into the Provost's Honors Circle during a ceremony held in April. The Class of 2021 members are: Matthias Caryofilles, Emina Krupic, Zachary Lanoue, Nicholas Nasta, Brinn Peck, Dani Schechter, Thomas Yarbrough, and Cadmus Yeo. The Provost's Honors Circle is a three-year interdisciplinary experience for honors students in the College's bachelor of science programs, comparable to pharmacy's Rho Chi Society. The goal of the program is to provide enrichment opportunities to high-achieving B.S. students who are intellectually curious, well-rounded, engaged with their community, globally-conscious, and exhibit leadership potential.
White Coat Ceremony Propels Students into Summer Rotations A total of 16 students - three members of the B.S. in Clinical Laboratory Sciences, eight members of the M.S. in Clinical Laboratory Sciences, and five members in the M.S. in Cytotechnology and Molecular Cytology - received their white coats in an end-of-year ceremony held at the Hilton Garden Inn. Similar to pharmacy and other health professions, these students are now applying what they have learned in the classroom on a series of clinical rotations at various hospitals and laboratories throughout the Northeast. Cytotechnology students will complete a 7-week rotation this summer and a 12-week rotation in the fall. CLS students will complete 6-8 rotations, each of which is 4-6 weeks in length.
Diversity Awards Promote Cultural Understanding The new Intercultural Diversity Fund was created with the goal of helping students develop the communication tools and cultural understanding needed to improve the health of diverse populations. Initiatives include, but are not limited to: (1) providing housing/travel stipends for students to complete APPE rotations in communities serving diverse populations and (2) providing training courses that embrace diversity and promote inclusion initiatives at the College. This year five Pharm.D. students received awards: Emily Gicewicz, Thomas O'Brien, Chukwuma Onumonu, Shaheedul Sami, and Md. Jasimuddin Shohan.
Student and Faculty Member Earn Top Poster Honors Associate Professor Joanna Schwartz and P4 student Ai Tran, both members of the Vermont Campus, received a first place poster award at the spring meeting of the Northern New England Clinical Oncology Society.
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Their research poster, titled “Potential herb-chemotherapy or radiation interactions in patients with cancer: A prospective study of the pharmacist and student-pharmacist run herbal assessment service at the University of Vermont (UVM) Cancer Center,” was voted best among the 37 abstracts accepted at the conference. Ai, who attended the meeting and co-presented with Dr. Schwartz, is now a resident at the Providence Medical Center in Seattle.
Alumni Return to Campus for Career Panel Four pharmacy professional organizations - IPhO, NCPA, AMCP, and SSHP - organized a “Knowledge in Action” Career Panel on March 29. The forum provided students with opportunities to gain insights from an array of leaders in the areas of managed care, specialty pharmacy, community pharmacy, and the pharmaceutical industry. Students who participated in the event were able to interact with each of the 14 pharmacists in attendance thanks to the “speed networking” format. A follow-up reception afforded additional time to continue the conversation. Support for the event was provided by the Office of Institutional Advancement.
Women Pharmacy Leaders Share Insights The Albany Campus chapter of the Student Society of Health-System Pharmacy (ASHP-SSHP) held its second annual Women in Pharmacy Leadership Forum on March 22 in collaboration with APhA-ASP and the Office of Institutional Advancement. Vickie Powell (left), Site Director of Pharmacy at New York-Presbyterian Hospital, was the keynote speaker. More than 70 students attended the event where they networked with, and received career advice from, Dr. Powell and 14 other
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women pharmacy leaders. Of the 15 women leaders at the event, 13 were alumni of the College - a fact which demonstrates both the success of our graduates and their commitment to helping the next generation of ACPHS students.
Research Institute Joins National Academy The College’s Pharmaceutical Research Institute, under the leadership of Executive Director Shaker Mousa, has been invited to join the National Academy of Inventors (NAI). The NAI was founded in 2010 to recognize and encourage inventors with patents issued from the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. As part of its mission, the NAI also seeks to (1) enhance the visibility of academic technology and innovation, (2) educate and mentor innovative students, and (3) translate the inventions of its members to benefit society. The diverse list of member institutions includes California Institute of Technology, Cleveland Clinic, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, Harvard University, Johns Hopkins University, and the Mayo Clinic.
Relay for Life Raises More Than $25K The Albany Campus’s annual Relay for Life event, raised more than $25,000 for the American Cancer Society. Money raised will help support groundbreaking cancer research, critical patient care services, education, and prevention initiatives. This year’s Relay featured more than 300 participants and 26 teams. Vermont Campus students held their Relay for Life in conjunction with the University of Vermont in December. The 14-person ACPHS team raised a total of $1,123, surpassing their goal of $1,000. The fundraising total was the 11th highest among the 28 registered teams.
The “Collaboratory” – ACPHS’s New Public Health Initiative On September 13, the College will host a grand opening event for The Collaboratory, located at 3 Lincoln Square in Albany. This “laboratory for collaboration” will operate in the South End, an ethnically diverse and medically underserved section of the city. The Collaboratory is a partnership with ACPHS, Trinity Alliance of the Capital Region, Albany Medical Center, Albany Damien Center and more community organizations to join in the near future. The services provided at the Collaboratory will complement those of College Parkside Pharmacy, a student operated pharmacy owned by the College that opened in 2017 and is housed in the nearby Capital South Campus Center. The first program to be managed out of the Collaboratory will be the Rapid Engagement and Advocacy for Community Health program or REACH. Led by Trinity Alliance of the Capital Region, REACH team members, which will soon
include ACPHS students and faculty, assist local residents with needs ranging from health education to transportation assistance. The Collaboratory will also contain classrooms and private counseling spaces (see diagram below) that will be used by ACPHS to host programs on topics of relevance to the community such as asthma management, smoking cessation, nutrtion, and medication literacy. The Collaboratory is one of the three fundraising initiatives that make up the College’s Innovation Fund. Thank you to all who continue to support the Innovation Fund and this important community project. Not only are you helping to deliver much needed health care to a medically underserved population, you are supporting our students and providing them with a unique and invaluable educational experience that will set them apart from graduates of other schools. Go to apchs.edu and follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram for addtional news and information about The Collaboratory, including highlights from the Grand Opening event.
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HIGHLIGHTS
COMMENCEMENT 2018 ON MAY 12,
students, parents, faculty, staff, and friends of the College braved the chilly temperatures to celebrate the College's 138th Commencement at the Saratoga Performing Arts Center. The College awarded 51 bachelor's degrees, 25 master's degrees, and 224 Pharm.D. degrees to the members of the graduating class. Former New York State Medicaid Director, Jason Helgerson, was this year’s speaker; he discussed the importance of the roles that ACPHS graduates will play in the ever-changing landscape of health care. The student speakers were Liam McGuey from Albany and Ryan Guilaran from Vermont. McGuey reminded his classmates that every moment is precious, and Guilaran shared the great opportunities that the Vermont campus provided him and his classmates and how their journey will forever keep them connected. Congratulations to the Class of 2018 and welcome to our alumni community!
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“Kayla is one of the most motivated students I have mentored in my lab. She has all the attributes you would want in a researcher – passion, outstanding work ethic, and an incredibly positive attitude.” – DR. MEENAKSHI MALIK
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STUDENT SPOTLIGHT
A PASSION FOR THE PUZZLE Where we start is not always where we end up. When she began looking at colleges, Kayla Fantone knew her interests were in the sciences, so she initially declared as a physical therapy major at Clarkson University. Before long, she began to realize that it wasn’t the right path for her. An internship at the Trudeau Institute was the piece of the puzzle that helped Fantone find her passion. “I fell in love with research,” she said. “I fell in love with the complex nature of how you think about it. There is no defined approach; there could be a million possibilities.” By her second year, Fantone had switched her major to Biology and in her junior year decided she would continue on for her master’s. And once she made the choice, she went for it. “I was thorough,” she laughed. “I applied to 14 master’s programs, and I got into all of them.” During the process, she became aware of a difference between most of the programs she’d looked at and ACPHS. “You’d apply, then suddenly there would be the acceptance letter. Nothing in between. But with ACPHS, it felt like there was a greater sense of involvement with the process. When I had my interview, it really felt like they were engaged and interested in me as a person. I felt like there was a real honesty, and they really wanted to help.” It was a call with Meenakshi Malik, Ph.D., associate professor in the department of Basic and Clinical Sciences, that clinched her decision. "She saw that I had worked with her mentor at Trudeau and reached out to me,” Fantone recalled. “We connected on the phone and ended up having a two-hour conversation."
eventually enrolled in the master’s program in Molecular Biosciences at ACPHS where she was mentored by Dr. Malik. Fantone assisted Dr. Malik in her research of the bacterium Francisella tularensis (FT), a category A bioterror agent. This work served as the basis for Fantone’s master’s thesis, “Investigating the Mechanisms of Francisella tularensis and Signaling Cascades by Pattern Recognition Receptors in the Cytosol.” “Basically, FT suppresses your immune system. Most people who get it will die of septic shock. It uses certain genes to suppress the immune system so we’re looking at the specific genes that it uses,” Fantone said. “The end goal is a vaccine that is reliable.” The FT bacterium causes a disease called Tularemia, also known as Rabbit Fever. It is found more frequently among farmers than in the general public. However, it has been weaponized in other countries, a fact that has increased the urgency for this research. Fantone, who graduated in May, will begin a Ph.D. program in Infectious Diseases at the University of Georgia (UGA) this fall. She is the first student from the Molecular Biosciences program to pursue a Ph.D. “Kayla is one of the most motivated students I have mentored in my lab. She has all the attributes you would want in a researcher – passion, outstanding work ethic, and an incredibly positive attitude,” Dr. Malik said. Eventually, Fantone hopes to work for the National Institutes of Health or the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. She is interested in vaccine development and hopes that her experience at UGA will afford her the chance to explore the area. “It was a really supportive, close-knit program,” she said of her time as a Molecular Biosciences student at ACPHS. “I’m going to miss how close everyone was.”
It was the personal touch, being able to put a face to whom she would be spending the next two years with, that helped Fantone make her final decision. She
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F A C U LT Y S P O T L I G H T
Q&A: JENNIFER MATHEWS New Associate Dean for Vermont
publications and presentations because of my research and that was a direct result of the hands-on approach my mentor took.
Jennifer Mathews, MS, PhD, recently joined the College as the new Associate Dean for the Vermont Campus. In this role, Dr. Mathews will serve as the Senior Academic Officer and Administrative Officer of the campus. She will also have an appointment as Associate Professor in the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences. The Alumni News magazine sat down with Dr. Mathews to hear how her first couple months on the job have been and what her plans are for the future. You said the College’s smaller size and strong student focus was what drew you in, why was that? I did my undergraduate work at SUNY Potsdam and the smaller classes and campus allowed me to be involved in many leadership opportunities, to be an editor on the school newspaper and to really get to know my faculty. I did a Master’s Degree at the University of Northern Colorado and was in a small graduate department. I had several
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What were your first impressions of the College? Albany College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences has an excellent reputation. I was able to spend some time on both campuses when I first visited and my immediate impression was how welcoming everyone was. The College is doing great things and I am excited about being a part of the next phase of growth and development. I couldn’t have asked for a better place to be. How is your role as Associate Dean at ACPHS Vermont different than your last position at Stony Brook? The Associate Dean position at ACPHS is such a unique opportunity. This role has a broad set of responsibilities and allows me to do everything from curriculum and assessment to facilities management. I am excited about developing such a broad skill set. How have the first few weeks on the job been? The first few weeks have been busy as I get to know people both on- and off-campus. I am working to develop these relationships and to listen to ideas for continuing and advancing the program. What is the first big initiative or project you’d like to tackle? The first big initiative will be the transition to an accelerated program on the Vermont campus. Significant planning has already
occurred and that will continue for the next several months. Where do you hope to be in five years? It is my goal to establish myself as a valued and respected part of the ACPHS community who is seen as a passionate and innovative leader. I will continue my work at the national level advocating for pharmacy and representing ACPHS in the broader national conversations. What do you like to do outside of work? My husband, Austin and I love the snow, but probably not as much as our golden retriever Otis! We spend our time snow-shoeing and skiing in the winter. We kayak and hike in the summer and are looking forward to exploring Vermont. It’s been years since I traveled to Montreal last and am excited about doing a trip there this summer. What else can you tell readers about yourself? I have been married for almost 11 years and my husband, Austin, also has his PhD and is currently in an academic position. Otis, our golden retriever, is almost 13 years old and was a rescue from Alabama. Knowing how much he loves the snow, we’re not sure how he survived in the Alabama heat! His favorite thing in the summer is to swim, so there will be a lot of opportunity for that. We also have a 5-year-old cat, Luna, who rules the house.
A UNIQUE ARRANGEMENT Amanda Engle to Teach Pharmacy and Medical Students We are pleased to welcome Amanda Engle, PharmD, BCPS, who joined ACPHS in late February as an Assistant Professor. Previously a clinical pharmacist at Bassett Medical Center in Cooperstown, NY, she will fulfill a unique role with the College. Engle will have a shared faculty position, splitting her classes between ACPHS and Albany Medical College and teaching students from both schools while on direct patient rounds. “It’s a unique arrangement. I believe it’s the only position in the country designated in this way,” Engle says. “The inter-professional component is a big part of what drew me to this role. It’s new, and I love to develop new programs. It’s an open book right now.” In addition to her role as a clinical pharmacist at Bassett, Engle was an adjunct faculty member at several schools in New York and Pennsylvania. She was also a clinical assistant professor at Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons, which has a satellite medical school at Bassett. “It’s different teaching pharmacy students versus medical students,” Engle explainsed. “Pharmacy students are taught to approach each case from a medication-centric evaluation. Medical students are taught to primarily look from a diagnosis standpoint.” In collaboration with other ACPHS faculty, Engle is working to build a new class, Critical Concepts and Pain Management, which would be an elective for pharmacy students in their third professional year. She hopes to eventually integrate medical students into the class as well. She will start teaching direct patient care this summer and in the classroom in the fall. “My last position was full-time direct patient care, and I made as much time for teaching as I could. I love working with the students, the two-way street of developing a long-term mentorship with them,” she says. “I learn from them, too. And it’s gratifying to watch them grow and achieve.”
“The inter-professional component is a big part of what drew me to this role. It’s new, and I love to develop new programs. It’s an open book right now.”
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Antimicrobial stewardship, like world peace, is one of those ideas that sounds wonderful until you realize how hard it is to make happen. At its most basic, ACPHS Professor Tom Lodise defines the term antimicrobial stewardship as “delivering the right antibiotic at the right dose for the right patient at the right time.” Yet that simple mandate is fraught with issues. How can anyone know the “right” drug and dosage in, for instance, a patient with a bloodstream infection who has unstable renal function? What if it takes several days to determine the right antibiotic for a given patient, when she needs it now? How can anyone create effective antibiotic guidelines even for a single hospital, let alone the world? Some ACPHS faculty and alumni spend their careers asking these questions—and their research is helping fuel progress against the hydra-headed problem of antimicrobial resistance. MORE BUGS, FEWER DRUGS
According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), at least two million people in the U.S. become infected with antibiotic-resistant bacteria (ARBs) every year. Over-prescription of antibiotics, widespread use in agriculture, and lack of hygiene are among the prime contributors to the spread of antibiotic resistance, says the World Health Organization. So is a substantial shift in the marketplace. “The return on investment for the manufacture of antibiotics is not good,” said Lodise, “so the big pharmaceutical companies have left the market.” As a result, the number of new antibiotics approved in the U.S. declined from 16 in 1983-1987 to just two in 2008-2011, according to the European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and
Associations. While the numbers have seen an uptick in recent years—with 12 new drugs approved in 20132018 due to streamlined FDA procedures—the structural problem remains serious. With antibiotic resistance rising and few drugs in the pipeline, it’s no wonder that England’s chief medical officer, Sally Davies, said last year that “the world is facing an antibiotic apocalypse.” It’s precisely the apocalypse that antimicrobial stewardship aims to thwart. A MODEL FOR EXCLUDED PATIENTS
Often the most complex patients present the stiffest challenge to delivering “the right antibiotic.” That’s because little is known about what works with these patients—a curious by-product of the clinical trials that usher antibiotics to market in the first place. “In Phase 3 clinical trials, participants need to be as uniform as possible in certain traits,” Lodise explained. “So people on dialysis, severely immunosuppressed patients, children, patients with renal impairment, and patients with extremes of age and weight are often underrepresented or excluded. That means there’s no data on how those populations respond. Ironically, those are the patients you think about in terms of new antibiotics, because they often have serious infections that are resistant to the old antibiotics.” That irony provides the impetus for Lodise’s research, much of which uses available pre-clinical, clinical, and pharmacokinetic data to estimate the effects of x antibiotic on y population. But research alone cannot improve patient care unless the knowledge is transferable. To this end, he employs cutting-edge mathematical modeling techniques to design “personalized” patient care strategies that improve outcomes, reduce the likelihood
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“In hospitals we use antibiotics with very limited data. This increases the chances that we might use the wrong antibiotic at times, enabling the disease-causing organism to develop resistance.” - Alla Paskovaty ’98
of drug-induced toxicities, and minimize the emergence of antibiotic resistant infections. As an added benefit, this work also results in reduced health care costs for patient populations often underrepresented in Phase III clinical trials. Among other benefits, the knowledge generated by Lodise’s research enables doctors to get proper treatment to the patient faster. This addresses another major issue in antibiotic use: too often, patients receive “delayed appropriate therapy” (DAT)—which, as Lodise’s own research indicates, can lead to negative outcomes. “In many cases, the first 24 to 48 hours are critical for patients who present with serious infections—but by the time cultures and susceptibility studies are completed, it could be three to five days,” he explained. “The preliminary cultures give a basic idea of the patient’s pathogen and what to prescribe, but if we know the antibiotic and dosage a patient needs when they reach the hospital, we can administer it right away and possibly save their life.” Lodise’s models have added substantially to the knowledge of “last resort” antibiotics and the microbes that are building resistance to them. Some years ago, he led an NIH-funded study on vancomycin dosing in MRSA patients, which came to a surprising conclusion: the existing dosing guidelines were doing more harm than good. As part of the same project, he defined the optimal pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic exposure for vancomycin, revealing which exposures can minimize toxicity. Recently Lodise has turned his attention to the latest scourge: CRE (carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae). The NIH tasked him, as a principal investigator for the Antibiotic Resistance Leadership Group, with developing a novel combination of two available beta-lactams that would be CRE-resistant. Ultimately, Lodise sees a compelling public health component to his research. “Our work, in effect, promotes judicious antibiotic use, avoidance of drug toxicity, and reduction of delays in antibiotic administration,” he said. “All of these go hand in hand with prudent antimicrobial stewardship.” PIONEERING STEWARDSHIP IN NEW YORK
You could say that Lodise is conducting his research to address massive gaps in data. Alla Paskovaty ’98 is fighting the same battle but in a different way: co-founding one of New York City’s first antimicrobial stewardship programs.
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“In hospitals we use antibiotics with very limited data,” she said in describing the challenge. “This increases the chances that we might use the wrong antibiotic at times, enabling the disease-causing organism to develop resistance. So the limited data is a significant problem.” Paskovaty saw the problem early in her 16 years at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, where she served as an infectious disease specialist. “As a clinician, I got to see firsthand how resistant these organisms can be in immunocompromised people,” she remembered. “It is very stressful emotionally to see the effects. You always want to do the best by your patients.” This firsthand experience led her eventually to launch Memorial Sloan Kettering’s Antibiotic Management Program with Susan Seo, MD, an infectious disease physician. According to the center’s website, the program “strives to ensure the optimal selection, dose, and duration of antimicrobials for effective treatment or prevention of infection while minimizing side effects and risk for subsequent resistance.” As part of that work, Paskovaty and her colleagues engaged in reviews and audits of antibiotics, antibiotic screenings, formulary reviews, and management of drug shortages. Clinician education was a major part of her effort. “I like to say we took the program from infancy to college age,” she said. Today Paskovaty is a medical scientist for Achaogen, which specializes in the discovery, development, and commercialization of antibiotics for multi-drug-resistant, gram-negative infections. Her role as liaison with health care providers and leaders aligns with her continued commitment to education on topics related to antimicrobial stewardship. And what of the future for that stewardship? Several recent initiatives are attempting to address the topic on a broader scale: the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO) antimicrobial stewardship standard, which took effect at the beginning of 2017, and the National Action Plan for Combating Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria, launched by the Obama administration in 2015, to name two. Even so, Paskovaty sees a great deal of room for antimicrobial stewardship to grow.
“If we know the antibiotic and dosage a patient needs when they reach the hospital, we can administer it right away and possibly save their life.”
- Professor Tom Lodise
“Even today, most guidelines for antimicrobial stewardship are very individualized to institutions,” she noted. “It makes sense to take the next step and address this from a larger perspective.”
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I N D U S T R Y U P DAT E
ARRESTING THE TIDE OF
PIOIDS Every day, more than 115 people in the United States die after overdosing on opioids. The misuse of, and addiction to, opioids—including prescription pain relievers, heroin, and synthetic opioids such as fentanyl—is a national epidemic that affects public health as well as social and economic welfare. The Alumni News magazine sat down with alumna Debbie Komoroski ’78 who has more than 25 years of professional experience combatting this issue to hear her perspective.
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“I’ve talked to kids who have los lost kids, brothers who have los about this—and we’re not doing YOU’VE READ THE CDC STATISTICS.
Overdose deaths from opioids in 2016: 42,000. Number of opioid prescriptions in the same year: 214 million. Annual cost of the epidemic: $78.5 billion.
buprenorphine, a partial opioid agonist used to wean people away from opioid abuse, has its downside “When addicts can’t get their go-to drugs, they’ll buy ‘bupe’ to tide them over until their next fix.”
If those don’t shock you, this will.
The most frightening variation on the opioid theme, however, is fentanyl.
In two years during the late 1990s—long before most people were paying attention to opioids—Dr. William Massie of New Haven, Connecticut, prescribed more than 600,000 dosage units of Vicodin, Oxycontin, Percocet, and similar drugs. “At certain times of the day, you could drive by and see a line of 30-50 people outside his office, waiting to get in,” said Debbie Komoroski ‘78. Massie’s illegal trade went south thanks to the efforts of Komoroski, an agent with the State of Connecticut Drug Control Division for 15 years, and an expert team from local police departments, the DEA, and the FBI. The operation is said to be the first ever to result in arrests on multiple levels: street-level distributors, state drug kingpins, and pharmacists as well as Massie and his secretary. It’s a great story with a happy ending. Unfortunately, the overall problem has gotten much worse. Since Massie was plying his trade, deaths from prescription opioids have more than quadrupled, according to the CDC. So has the amount of opioid prescriptions in the U.S. While prescriptions have declined since the peak year, 2012—from 255 million to 214 million in 2016—there is a long way to go. Opioid use has taken newer and deadlier forms of late, according to Komoroski. “Many prescription drug deaths involve a mix of opioids and benzodiazepines,” she said. “Both suppress respiratory and cardiac rate, which makes for a very dangerous combination.” Even
21 ALUMNI NEWS SUMMER 2018
“Fentanyl is up to 100 times more potent than morphine,” said Komoroski. “Now there’s carfentanil, which is 10,000 times more potent. It’s used as an elephant tranquilizer. Synthetic fentanyl is much cheaper than heroin, so suppliers can make more money by cutting heroin with fentanyl.” The resulting addictions are not only deadly, but heartbreaking to see in person. “After a presentation, I once had a heroin user approach me and say, ‘My friend died from fentanyl—so that must be great stuff. Where can I get it?’” Komoroski’s first exposure to opioid abuse came early in her career, when she worked in retail pharmacy. “We had a fair number of people come in with forged prescriptions, too-early prescriptions, doctor shopping,” she recalled. “I developed the ability to identify patients with problems. But instead of turning them away, I’d pull them aside, explain why they might have a problem, provide resources for help.” She recommends that strategy in her frequent educational sessions with pharmacists (and just about any other group she can reach). She’s been educating people about the crisis since the mid-1980s, when as a new drug control agent she had to convince law enforcement agencies of the urgency of the problem. Pharmacist education is a big part of her current work as a compliance manager with H. D. Smith, a national
st mothers, mothers who have st sisters. We can do something g enough.” - DEBBIE KOMOROSKI ’78 wholesaler for independent pharmacies. When the dispensing records from a particular pharmacy raise red flags, she pays a visit to the pharmacist. And she’s always quick to assume good intent.
nating efforts to combat the crisis. Such communication may also raise awareness among the surprising number of doctors who don’t always understand the dangers in the drugs they prescribe.
“Maybe they haven’t been educated in identifying drug-seeking behavior, or in noticing overprescriptions,” she said. “We go talk to them about the warning signs, the law, the pharmacist’s responsibility, and how they can fulfill it. After that, I pull up the dispensing records, and they’re surprised by all the red flags. It can be hard for them to see this when they’re so busy day to day.”
For Komoroski, this last point is as personal as it gets. Her son had a close brush with opioids while attending graduate school in Chicago.
In addition to education, physician monitoring programs (PMPs) have proved to be a major weapon in pharmacists’ fight against opioid abuse. These electronic databases provide patient histories of controlled substance use directly to providers and prescribers. States like New York now require providers to check PMPs before prescribing opioids. “Every state should make this mandatory,” Komoroski said. “Fortunately most pharmacists see the value in PMPs; they can not only identify questionable behaviors but see larger trends in their own prescribing.”
“He was walking to school one day when he fell and broke his arm,” Komoroski recounted. “The ER sent him to an orthopedist, who prescribed him something. I asked him, ‘What did they prescribe you?’ He didn’t know. I said, ‘Go get the bottle.’ It turns out they gave him hydrocodone—10 milligrams, one hundred and twenty pills. I told him to throw them away.” Not everyone is fortunate enough to receive such advice. It’s for those people that Komoroski keeps on fighting. “I’ve talked to kids who’ve lost mothers, mothers who’ve lost kids, brothers who’ve lost sisters,” she said. “We can do something about this—and we’re not doing enough. Only now is it starting to get attention.”
Pharmacists aren’t the only ones who benefit from Komoroski’s knowledge. She speaks annually to students at Temple University School of Pharmacy. “They’re eager to learn about the epidemic before they get out in the world,” she said. She also presents regularly to members of the law enforcement community, including FBI agents and insurance fraud investigators. She has even taken part in a Massachusetts effort to define best practices for pharmacies in dealing with opioids. In all of this, she stresses the importance of networking and communication in staying up to date and coordi-
SUMMER 2018 ALUMNI NEWS 22
ALUMNI NOTEBOOK
DYLAN CLARK
Serving Others Through Public Health From a young age, Dylan Clark knew he wanted to help people. His father and grandfather were both volunteer firefighters and when he turned 16, Clark followed in their footsteps. After graduating from ACPHS in 2013 with a degree in Health and Human Sciences (which has since evolved into the B.S. in Public Health), Clark worked as an EMT in his hometown of Old Forge, N.Y. “Helping people has always been a big part of my life. I don’t like seeing people suffer,” he said. “In a small community, you know everyone. When you see someone going through a hardship, you can reach out and positively impact them. I’ve seen my friends and family dealing with the aftermath of a fatality, and it was gratifying to be able to comfort them.” Now Clark focuses on helping people in a different way. As a Fatalities Investigator for the New York State Department of Health, his attention is on working to improve health and safety in workplaces across the state. The program, the Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries (CFOI), began in 1992. Since that time, it has been adopted as the authoritative count for work related deaths in the United States. “On a day to day basis, I’m working with data obtained from OSHA reports, police reports, autopsy reports, and multiple other federal and state reports. We look at records of what happened, how it happened, and the kind of job they were performing,” Clark said. “We’re trying to get a picture across the spectrum of workers
23 ALUMNI NEWS SUMMER 2018
and the hazards they face at work. So, I talk to medical examiners, coroners, EMTs, hospitals, the National Transportation Safety Board, and the state police.” Once the data has been collected, it is dispersed to other New York State agencies, which use the information to design programs and materials for distribution aimed at preventing workplace injuries or fatalities, such as car accidents. Their data related to transportation was one of the factors that helped to implement the New York State Move Over Law. The law requires drivers to slow down and move over when approaching vehicles like fire trucks, ambulances, police vehicles, construction and maintenance vehicles, and tow trucks. "As an investigator for the CFOI, Dylan's strong investigative skills, passion, and commitment to his job have been essential and valuable assets needed to perform thorough active surveillance and follow-up efforts," said Dylan's supervisor. "These attributes have helped New York to have one of the most complete and accurate occupational fatality records of any state in the country."
MARILYN GREEN The concentration on health and safety was what drew Clark to the position. It was his previous experience as a volunteer firefighter and EMT, as well as the internship he did with the Schenectady County Health Department in his senior year that made him such a good fit. Wendy Parker, Ph.D., Director of the ACPHS Public Health Program, and before that, the Health and Human Sciences program, said, "When Dylan was a student at ACPHS, he knew he wanted to work in health or health care. His internship helped him quickly focus his interests on public health and led him to his current position. The skills he is learning, combined with his drive to always improve and gain additional insights, will lead him to a long and successful career in public health." Clark is dedicated to his work, because he knows it serves a larger purpose. Though it cannot prevent new incidents, his work helps to safeguard others in the future. “There is always something new. It’s unfortunate, but people have accidents every day. Some people are lucky and only have minor injuries, but some are fatal,” Clark said. “I just want to keep trying to find solutions to these types of incidents.” Outside of work, Clark says he loves baseball and is a huge Red Sox fan.
Persistent Pharmacist Grows a Free Clinic in Retirement Marilyn Green ‘57 has stories. Every one of them sums up how she’s spent her retirement. Take the woman who needed a tooth pulled. “She called our clinic, though we didn’t have a dentist at the time,” said Green, who served 15 years as executive director of Helping Hand Clinic in Sanford, North Carolina. “One dentist told her he’d charge $300. Her total income was $800 a month, so she couldn’t afford that. I called up a dentist and asked, ‘Would you do the extraction for free?’ He said yes, and he did it. “That motivated me to go to the state dentists’ association and ask them for a board member. Now we have 19 dentists—even a few oral surgeons.” Ask and you shall receive. Green practiced this simple maxim again and again to build up the clinic, which facilitates the provision of health care for North Carolinians in need. Today, she estimates that Helping Hand—with an annual budget of $200,000— provides $3.5 million in free medical services, largely through all the providers who’ve said yes to Green over the years. The clinic was fraying at the edges when Green started volunteering. “The
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physicians who’d started the clinic were getting burned out. It was open once a week, and the little pharmacy only had a few samples—a week’s supply at the most. Some of our patients were breaking their pills in half to make them last. I said to the doctors, ‘We should look into the pharmaceutical companies’ assistance programs.’ They said, ‘Good idea. You do that.’” Thus empowered, Green not only made arrangements with the pharmaceutical makers but changed the structure of the practice. Instead of donating a certain number of clinic hours, each doctor was assigned five patients to see at least twice a year. The new schedule relieved the burden on the physicians and gave the patients continuity of care. More doctors were inspired to volunteer their services. “Once we did that, the patients received excellent care,” she said. “The doctors would sometimes spend 30 to 45 minutes with each patient. We never had a problem with a shortage of physicians again.” Green had found her strategy, and she ran with it. She asked LabCorp to provide free diagnostics. She called the administrator of a local hospital and said, “If we could get free MRIs and ultrasounds, it would be good.” In many cases, Helping Hand expanded into a new service because of a single request. “A man came into the clinic once and said, ‘If I had a pair of glasses, I could get such-andsuch a job next week,’” Green said. “I called an optometrist and asked about free glasses. Later I went to the state Services for the Blind and asked them to provide services. Now we have an optometrist who donated all her equipment and comes down to the clinic once a month to see patients.” As Green sees it, pharmacists are perfectly equipped to grow clinics like Helping Hand.
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“Medications are such a barrier because they’re expensive,” she explained. “If you can provide patients with medications, it able-izes them for other services. They’ll start to say, ‘Hey, I need glasses too.’ ‘Hey, I need a dentist.’” Helping Hand’s services have borne fruit in unexpected ways. Green remembered an alcoholic man with diabetes who visited the clinic one day. The clinic helped him stabilize, his life went on to a remarkable turnaround, and he rewrote his will to leave $50,000 to the clinic. After graduating from Albany College of Pharmacy, Green worked part-time in pharmacies across New York at a time when most pharmacists were men. “Every little town had a one-man drugstore, open nine to nine, and the pharmacist would need relief for his lunch hours or evenings,” she remembered. “I would take my kids with me and work two or three hours.” Once her children were old enough, Green went to work full-time at the Wayne County Nursing Home, where she stayed for 25 years. For retirement, she and her husband found a place right on a Sanford golf course and were ready for a leisurely lifestyle. It didn’t quite work out that way. “When I retired, I did not think for one minute that I’d do something like this,” she said. “But they asked me, and I told them yes.” After 15 years of service, Green retired from the clinic this past November. She would love nothing more than to see an ACPHS alumna or alumnus take over as executive director at Helping Hand. “We all hate to be sick, but when we’re sick and can’t pay for treatment, it’s miserable,” she said. “This can be so fulfilling for retired pharmacists. After all, every one of us got into this profession to help people, and the need is always there.”
PHIL O’NEILL
From Pharmacist to CEO: Alumnus Looks Back on Six Decades of Success One snowy morning in 1956, a Troy teenager took the bus to Albany College of Pharmacy and learned the lesson of his life. The occasion: an admissions interview with Dean Francis O’Brien. “I didn’t even know what a dean was,” recalled Phil O’Neill ’59. “During the interview, the dean had many interruptions. He’d take a phone call and then start walking around the room—as far as the telephone cord would let him—to look up something for the caller. He never failed to answer the caller’s question. “That’s when I learned: I don’t have to know the answer. I have to know where to find the answer.” O’Neill has excelled at finding answers during a long and varied career: as pharmacist, entrepreneur, sales representative, and most recently president and CEO of a skin and wound care company. The pharmacist career came first. After graduating from ACP and passing his Vermont licensing exam, O’Neill drove to Bennington and “stopped in every pharmacy looking for a job.” As an intern in Troy, NY, he simultaneously worked as a pharmacist in Bennington as well as studied for (and passed) his New York exam. “I thought I’d be in Bennington for two or three years,” O’Neill said. “And here I am still.” Ten years into his career, O’Neill, along with pharmacist Edward Molloy ’62, opened a local landmark –The Pharmacy—in 1969. That was only the beginning.
The year prior to opening The Pharmacy, O’Neill and Molloy founded the Surgical Center of Vermont, which specialized in medical supplies. Starting with an office and a single telephone line, the business grew to span six states before being sold to O’Neill’s oldest son in 1991. In the years that followed, his business partner of more than 35 years retired. Meanwhile, recognizing the changes in health care, in 2007 O’Neill opened Extended Care Pharmacy in Bennington as well as The Pharmacy – Northshire and Equinox Compounding Pharmacy in Manchester. Quite the accomplishment for someone who, as a boy, found the profession shrouded in mystery. “In my generation, we would get the prescription from a physician and bring it to the druggist— that’s what pharmacists were called back then. The druggist disappeared into the back,” O’Neill said. “When he was done, he would wrap it up in brown paper like a present and hand it to you with very little information about the medication. It was a great unknown.” In between his pharmacy work and medical supplies, O’Neill found time to serve as president, then executive secretary of the Vermont Pharmacists Association for over 16 years. His advocacy for the organization resulted in one of his life’s great victories: The bill that opened the door to the passage of the Vermont Generic Drug Legislation. This legislature rewarded O’Neill’s efforts
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by appointing him to the committee that would design the formulary for the new law. He became chair of that committee and served that role for more than 10 years. “The bill had been pending for nine years, and they gave us five months to develop the formulary,” said O’Neill. “But we did it.” They did it so well that, according to O’Neill, the chair of the Federal Trade Commission recommended the formulary as a template for other states to follow. Even with all these achievements, the soft-spoken O’Neill was not ready to rest on his laurels. In 1994 he began a long association with Swiss-American, a Dallas based developer of skin, sun and wound care products. For nearly 20 years he traveled the contiguous 48 states selling Swiss-American’s Elta brand products to hospitals, nursing homes, physician’s offices and medical supply houses. All the work paid off. The company’s facilities grew from 5,500 square feet to 134,000. O’Neill became president of Swiss-American in 2004, and CEO in 2014. Today, when many people have long since retired, O’Neill shows few signs of slowing down. He just led Swiss-American through the strategic sale of the EltaMD product line. And while spending much of his time in Texas, he still oversees the Vermont pharmacies that are the foundation of his legacy. “I’m involved with them on a daily basis,” he said. “I may not know every prescription that crosses the counter, but I know enough to manage the big picture.”
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BROOKE SPANGLER
Winning Big on “The Wall” “I thought it was a prank call.” That was Brooke Spangler’s initial reaction when she received a phone call that would change the lives of both her and her father. A 2016 Pharm.D. graduate of the ACPHS Vermont Campus, Spangler had recently moved to Virginia for her job. Relaxing at home one night, she came across a new gameshow on NBC called “The Wall.” On a whim, she checked the show’s website and discovered that they were still accepting applications for contestants. “I wrote about my dad and me. He was a single dad, working two jobs who still made time for us,” she recalled. “What I really wanted was the chance to give something back to him and show him just how much I really appreciated everything that he did for us.” And Spangler got that opportunity. The call she initially thought was a prank, was real and after several rounds of interviews, she and her father were selected to appear on “The Wall.” The show, which is executive produced by NBA superstar LeBron James, is a trivia game with more than $12 million on the line each game. Spangler and her father won $1.4 million, which is the highest amount of money ever paid out by the show. “I still kind of pinch myself. Being out there was intense; I’ve never been that nervous in my life,” Spangler said. “The audience was huge. It was like graduation seeing all the people there.” The episode was filmed nine months before it aired this past February. During that time, Spangler and her father, Kirk, were not allowed to speak about the outcome of the show.
“It was super hard keeping that secret! It’s such a relief to be able to talk about it now,” she said. “My dad got the worst of it. Angelica, NY, is a really small community and everyone knew the episode had taken place because the show came out to film background on us.” Since the show aired, Spangler says not much has changed for her. She was able to pay off some school loans and was even recognized by a couple of pharmacy customers. “But it wasn’t about me. It’s always been my dream to give back to my dad. He got me to where I am in life. Now he’s able to do things for himself.”
thanks to you, we exceeded our $400,000 innovation fund goal! Thank you for supporting the College’s 2017-18 Innovation Fund and for impacting our students and future generations of health care professionals. Because of the generous contributions of our alumni and friends, the Innovation Fund generated $473,212.09! The Innovation Fund is the College’s annual giving program that restarts every July 1. When you give to the Innovation Fund, you are supporting student research, the Collaboratory, and residencies and fellowships for our students. The Collaboratory – see page 8 for details – will open this fall in Albany’s South End neighbor-
hood. Its mission is to provide the medically underserved population of that area with valuble health information and services. We look forward to your continued support of the Innovation Fund this academic year. Watch for stories from our grateful students and generous alumni across our Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram channels. If you would like to share your story about why you give back to ACPHS, please contact Megan Davis in the Office of Institutional Advancement at megan.davis@ acphs.edu or (518) 694-7131.
SUMMER 2018 ALUMNI NEWS 28
REUNION WEEKEND 2018
29 ALUMNI NEWS SUMMER 2018
for generations of alumni during Reunion Weekend 2018. Close to 200 people attended the June 1 – 3 festivities to reconnect with classmates and celebrate their cherished college experiences.
ACPHS BECAME HOME ONCE AGAIN
Highlights included the Friends of Noah Sorenson and Mario Zeolla golf tournament, Casino Night at the Rivers Casino, campus tours and dinner and dancing at the Albany Capital Center. Alums enjoyed socializing and reminiscing at cocktail receptions, the special anniversary brunch and the barbecue. Browse our Reunion Weekend photo galleries on acphs.edu/reunion, where images can be downloaded and shared. Thank you to all who celebrated with us. We can’t wait for next year!
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CLASS NOTES STAY CONNECTED! We want to hear about how you’re doing and what you’ve been up to since graduation. Keep the College, your fellow classmates, and friends in the know by sharing your stories, milestones, and accomplishments with us. We look forward to hearing from you! Phone 518.694.7393 Email alumni@acphs.edu Social Media ACPHS has a number of social media and online resources to keep you connected to the College and fellow alumni. Check them out today! Facebook @acphsofficial Twitter @ACPHSAlumni Linkedin linkedin.com/ groups/1913669
1967
After more than 20 years with Rite Aid and more than 50 years in pharmacy, Ed Stevens retired in April 2018. Other alumni who celebrated this milestone with Stevens were Bob Single '69, Lou Ann Obernesser '82, Dave Flashover '69, Nick Rebmann '08, Ed Stevens '67, Deb Dempsey '96, Mark Zlotnick '05, Bob Battaglia '85, and Lou Frantale '85.
1971
In May 2017 Bernard Graham was honored to deliver the commencement address to the Wilkes University graduating class of 2017. In October, Dr. Graham was named the 2017 Distinguished Alumnus of the School of Health Sciences of Purdue University where he earned his M.S. and Ph.D. Ronald O. Dievendorf received the Father Joseph F. Girzone Crystal Pillar of the Community Award from the The Foundation for Montgomery County Office for the Aging. The award was established in 2000 as a community expression of appreciation for outstanding and exemplary service.
1975
After 20 years with Kinney Drugs Steven Berkowitz retired in 2018. Before that he worked at Tri-R Drugs until they were purchased by Kinney. He was at the same location for 42 years.
1979
Since retiring from Eli Lilly in 2017, Brian Carroll has been working as a volunteer firefighter. He is also a member of the Fire/ Rescue team for NASCAR and Indy 500 events.
1981
Five years ago, Bill Irwin sold his pharmacies. Now, he works as a Pharmacy Consulting Broker at Schectman & Co. LLC.
1983 1986
A pharmacist at Rome Memorial Hospital, Laura Lonergan has earned board certification as a geriatric pharmacist from the Board of Pharmacy Specialties.
1988 31 ALUMNI NEWS SUMMER 2018
Jeffrey Haas has joined Greene Medical Arts Pharmacy as Staff Pharmacist.
Chris Del Vecchio has been named President of MVP Health Care.
1997
Mōtus, derived from the Latin word meaning a movement is the name of Robert Petronio’s new restaurant located in Utica, NY. The restaurant focuses on local, sustainable, handcrafted food and beverage. Petronio’s son, Vincent, a graduate of the Culinary Institute of America, is the chef and part owner.
2005 2008
Al Austin retired from full time at Price Chopper in the summer of 2017.
In 2017, Seth DePasquale launched a website and podcast, Pharmacy Inspection, to discuss topics related to compounding pharmacy with a goal of helping increase compliance and quality. Their Twitter handle is @ PharmacyInspect. In January 2018, Michael Nashat was announced at TerrAscend’s new President & CEO. Nashat is a cofounder of the company and previously served as COO. A March article on CBC/ Radio Canada detailed how the number of people using catastrophic drug coverage has tripled in in Ontario. Mina Tadrous, a research associate with the Ontario Drug Policy Research Network, said, "We found that government spending for the catastrophic drug program in Ontario rose 840 per cent from 2000 to 2016. More importantly, there was a threefold increase in the number of people who are relying on this program." Nick Rebmann joined Hudson Headwaters Health Care Network, a nonprofit health system of 17 community health centers in upstate New York, as vice president of health-center performance.
2009
After completing her residency in urology at Albany Medical Center, Alexandra Rehfuss is now a Pediatric Urology Fellow at Nationwide Children’s Hospital.
2011
Neil and Danielle (Reed) Tierson welcomed their second child Solon Everett Tierson on July 11, 2018.
This July, Brandon Mair-Wren became a member of the board and Medical Advisor for the Canadian Spondylitis Association.
2012
Laura Stachnik married Michael Leonard in May 2018.
Michael D’Alessandro was recently named Manufacturing Supervisor at Celgene in Albany, NY.
2014
Stephen Ziter joined the National Community Oncology Dispensing Association, Inc. (NCODA), a grassroots, not-for-profit organization, founded to strengthen community oncology practices with dispensing services. In October 2017, Nathanael Crachi joined SOFIEBIO, a nuclear drug manufacturer, as a pharmacist.
2016
Zeb Fortune and Sarah Hoffman got engaged at ACPHS in their senior year. Over the summer of 2017, they returned to take their engagement pictures. Hoffman said, “I am grateful every day for the choice we both made and the memories that we have had at ACPHS.” The happy couple tied the knot on June 9, 2018.
2017
Congratulations to Ally Mason and Dave Bombard ’12 on their engagement.
Lisa Scudder joined Nixon Peabody LLP as a patent specialist.
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FRIENDS WE’LL MISS
1948 Myron Bach August 21, 2017 1950 Elizabeth S. (France) Fancher January 2, 2018 1951 Peter E. Robinson January 10, 2018 Helen F. (Farrell) Scott April 27, 2018 1952 Esten Coan February 2, 2018
Angela DeThomas November 27, 2017 Francis M. Steed January 10, 2018 1954 Eleanor S. (Sager) Williams January 11, 2018 1955 Salvatore J. Lanzafame October 24, 2017 1956 Elmer P. VanDenburgh November 5, 2017
Daniel M. Behan April 22, 2018
1957 Elsie L. (Weber) Mulrooney February 10, 2017
1953 Chester G. Kulp April 17, 2017
1958 Robert C. Shockley January 3, 2017
33 ALUMNI NEWS SUMMER 2018
1959 Moncrief Francis March 1, 2018
1973 Faith M. Gibson December 4, 2017
1960 William H. Depew February 10, 2018
Bruce E. Benishake March 28, 2018
1961 Edward J. Kerr November 17, 2017 1963 Francis O’Hearn March 13, 2018 1965 James Evans December 16, 2017 Stephen T. Godlewski March 1, 2018 1967 Sharon (Bailey) Miller January 24, 2018
1975 William C. Koch May 21, 2018 1980 Susan W. Robinson November 15, 2017
Planned Giving Can Save You Money Don Charles ‘67 used his IRA to make a tax-free donation to the College, and you can too. When it came time to talk about charitable giving, Don’s accountant encouraged him to use the charitable IRA rollover option. According to Forbes, this technique wasn’t changed under President Donald Trump’s new tax law, but with the changes to itemized deductions it’s more important now than ever before.
“The government does not tax you when you transfer money directly from your IRA to charity,” Don explained. “And by doing this, I’m saving about 15% in taxes. It’s a nice way to pay it forward and help today’s students while at the same time reducing your tax load. This is a benefit and it’s a very good idea.” Contact the Office of Institutional Advancement to get started on your charitable donation today! institutionaladvancement@acphs.edu | (518) 694-7393
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ALBANY COLLEGE OF PHARMACY AND HEALTH SCIENCES 106 New Scotland Ave Albany NY 12208
INSIDE 11
From Physical Therapy to a PhD
19 Halting the Opioid Crisis 23 Alumni Notebook: Where Are They Now? 1 ALUMNI NEWS SUMMER 2018
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