Pharmacy Careers
Pharmacy Careers DYNAMIC The field of pharmacy is experiencing one of the most exciting transformations in recent history. Fueled by technology, innovation, and societal demands, PharmD graduates are doing more than just filling prescriptions.
DEDICATED Pharmacists are one of the most trusted health care providers. From hospital settings to community pharmacies, patients look to pharmacists as their first contact for everything from vaccinations to chronic and preventative health care.
DIVERSE It's not just traditional clinical settings in which PharmDs are making an impact. Meet some recent PharmD grads who are making their mark in formulating drugs, pharmacy advocacy, and more.
Pharmacy Advocate "ASHP is an association that represents pharmacists, pharmacy students, and pharmacy technicians that practice in acute and ambulatory care settings. As the Strategic Initiatives Associate, I help manage and lead a variety of collaborative, crossorganizational strategic activities in the areas of product, program, and business development. I'm also helping with special projects and initiatives, external stakeholder engagement, and some operational work, among other things."
Outpatient Pharmacist/Online Influencer James Delk’s official title is Outpatient Pharmacist, and as such, he consults with medical professionals, instructs patients on how to dispense and take their medications properly, and fill prescriptions orders. When Dr. Delk is not in the outpatient clinic, you’ll likely find him in his home studio producing fast-paced educational videos for his YouTube channel, The Fresh Pharmacist. With more than 20,000 subscribers, he partners with a number of health-related businesses that want to get their product or message in front of his young and digital-savvy audience.
"My official title is Product Strategy, Senior Advisor and today I serve as the lead consultant for all new generic product launches. Specifically, I work in supply chain. I'm in the pharmacy benefit management industry and really our focus at Express Scripts is on making healthcare more affordable, accessible, and simpler for payers, providers and, above all, our patients; with our main focus being lowering prescription costs for payers and patients."
Chelsea Sax, PharmD, '18
Bayli Larson, PharmD, '18 American Society of Health System Pharmacists
Managed Care Pharmacist
James Delk, PharmD, '12
Kaiser Permanente
Express Scripts
Compounding Pharmacist "We are a startup, so each day is very different. We're kind of a hybrid between your regular compounding pharmacy and a manufacturer. Essentially, I formulate drugs. I come up with new drug products and I do a lot of research and writing and just have a very interesting time doing it. It's a great career path. My favorite part has definitely been the drug development portion of it. It keeps you on your toes all the time. It's just something that I never thought I would actually be doing, but it's extremely fun and extremely rewarding."
Medical Science Liaison/Neurology "I did the two-year Neurology Fellowship at CU which prepared me for a Neurology Pharmacist position embedded into an outpatient neurology clinic. I had patients across the board; dealing with immune mediated neuropathy, MS or epilepsy, or a migraine. That exerience led to my position as a medical science liaison. Now I work with neurologists, physician assistants, and nurse practitioners. I get to teach them about MS medications and the newest data coming out from the American Academy of Neurology. So, instead of being at one clinic and seeing those patients, I get to touch patients at clinics all over the state of Colorado."
Dmitriy Gekker, PharmD '20
STAQ Pharma
Felecia Hart, PharmD, ‘15
Novartis
Nuclear Pharmacist "At this particular setting, we order medication doses from one of the companies outside of the city and they're calibrated for certain times of day based on when the patient comes in. My job is to make sure the patient's dose matches the drug written. I have to calibrate the dose to be a certain amount of radiation based on the time the patient arrives. I have to make sure they're getting just the right amount of radiation for the scan that’s about to happen. The drugs are specific to the organ they want to image. The radiation has a half-life of six hours, so you have to be precise on what the patient actually receives."
Corey Craig, PharmD,’18
New York-Presbyterian Hospital
Independent Pharmacist "I am the owner of Buena Vista Drug and Salida Pharmacy & Fountain. As an independent pharmacy owner, I have been able to quickly adapt and offer additional services needed in my community such as delivery, point of care testing, vaccines, oxygen concentrator rentals and much more. As part of a movement to change community pharmacy we have worked to implement additional education and care coordinate services such as Diabetes Self Management Education and hypertension monitoring and education. CU Pharmacy prepared me to be a pharmacist and business owner by offering a business management elective which included creating a business plan to open a pharmacy."
Lucas Smith, PharmD '14 Owner, Buena Vista Drug and Salida Pharmacy and Fountain
Pharmacy Consultant Jennifer Kobylarczyk, ’19, admits that she's always been interested in a lot of different pharmacy fields. So instead of being pidgeon-holed into just one area, she created her own pharmacy consultant career by combining her compounding experience with her love for veterinary pharmacy. "I've been finding my niche in naturopathic medicine and veterinary pharmacy. I do reports for patient cases, consulting projects for my company, and then I am also lucky enough to be a writer and a consultant for Plumb’s Veterinary Drugs, which is the biggest and most data-backed drug reference for veterinary drugs."
Jennifer Kobylarczyk, ’19
Avant Pharm Care
Clinical Pharmacist "I am currently a clinical pharmacist for Valley-Wide Health Systems. I work in 5 different outpatient clinics providing ambulatory care services including anticoagulation, diabetes management/education, and comprehensive medication reviews. I also support our primary care providers with medication recommendations, consults, and a myriad of other day to day operations both administrative and clinical. CU Pharmacy presented me with a very diverse educational experience and allowed exposure to a vast array of potential jobs for pharmacists. This helped guide me and find my calling in ambulatory care. Once there, the school provided me with a solid clinical knowledge to flourish in the clinical setting."
David Gurule, PharmD,’19
Valley-wide Health Systems
Business Intelligence Developer "I do reporting and data analytics for the Analytics Department at Children's Hospital. A lot of my work involves getting report requests from lab managers, doctors, nurses, and others in the hospital. I fulfill those requests, whether it's just putting a report into Epic (software) for their use or establishing something like a Tableau dashboard so they can constantly reference on their team. My pharmacy background has helped in understanding lab values and terminology. I've done reports on COVID, flu, and RSV, so having that clinical background as a base helped transitioning into this role and understanding what they're trying to convey."
Clinical Strategist Health care is undergoing radical transformation. As a Clinical Strategist, Sandra Leal is helping to bring about change that improves access to care and patient outcomes. Her position leads innovations in behavioral health, chronic disease management, clinical trials, virtual care and health equity. She utilizes data, analytics, and even artificial intelligence to enhance health care efficiencies and improvements.
Oncology Radiotherapy Specialist "I was a nuclear pharmacist for about 11 years and started to realize that I really got satisfaction out of solving problems and answering questions to which others didn’t have the answers. Now, as a Nuclear Oncology Radiotherapy Specialist, I provide support including teachings, trainings, and expertise to clinicians who use nuclear oncology products. I also help with marketing, distribution, licensing, and logistics. I cover eight states and support three sales consultants as a technical specialist."
Sandra Leal, PharmD ’99 Przemek Lott, PharmD ’19, Children's Hospital of Colorado
VP of Innovation & Clinical Strategy CVS/Aetna
Andrew Maurer, PharmD '10
Bayer Pharmaceuticals
Pharmacy Informatics Combining his love for pharmacy and computer technology, Dean works as an informatics support specialist on a cloud-based software program that provides electronic health records (EHR) training and patient-case simulation for pharmacy students. It uses the company’s MedWise software platform to identify accumulative multi-drug interactions to help manage patients’ medication regimens. "I’ve been able to use my PharmD degree to create clinical content for NiaRx. My degree allows me to understand pharmacy schools’ needs, the needs of pharmacists and pharmacy students and to express their technology needs to our development team.”
Dean Marucci, PharmD, '18
Tabula Rasa HealthCare
Medical Science Director Sierra's pharmacy career path began at a CU Pharmacy Career Fair where she applied, as was accepted, to the the Rutgers Pharmaceutical Industry Fellowship Program where she worked at Genentech to provide scientific support for a drug in latestage clinical development. That experience laid the groundwork for her current position as a Medical Science Director in neurological rare diseases at Genentech. As part of her current role with the company, she is required to have deep therapeutic knowledge of Huntington’s Disease (HD). Her responsibilities include driving medical strategy, providing scientific and clinical support, leading scientific exchange and working directly with patients and family members affected by HD.
Sierra Hennon, PharmD, '16
Genentech
Personalized Medicine "During my time at CU I was given the opportunity to learn about personalized medicine and before graduation I was able to open up my own compounding facility where I can make personalized medication for patients. My interest started in chemistry, so compounding was a perfect fit for me. I get to make medications from scratch, from raw chemicals to produce dosage forms for patients. CU Pharmacy has an incredible alumni network and this provided me with mentors to help me suceed to where I am today."
Adam McHenry, PharmD,’17 Owner Sky Ridge Compounding
The Journey Starts Here Although their career paths are different, all of the featured PharmD graduates started their journey here - at the Univeristy of Colorado Skaggs School of Pharmacy on the world-class Anschutz Medical Campus.
Check out the School and campus for yourself with our virtual 360 tour above.
https://pharmacy.cuanschutz.edu/careers