SUMMER 2020 • Volume 42 • Issue 4
The Magazine of the UIC College of Pharmacy
A Pioneer in Specialty Pharmacy, UIC Keeps Leading
Beyond the Classroom Rockford Campus’s First Pharmacy Resident Pfizer Fellowship
CONTENTS
features 08 A Pioneer in Specialty Pharmacy, UIC Keeps Leading 14 Beyond the Classroom: Experiences That Fuel Professional Success
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22 Rockford Campus Set to Welcome First Pharmacy Resident 24 UIC Launches Postdoctoral Fellowship with Pfizer 26 Congratulations to Our Class of 2020
departments 02
Dean’s Letter
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Events
04
College News
06
Student News
20
Pharmacy Careers Q&A
28
Career Spotlight
30
Alumni Profiles
32
Ask an Alumnus
34
Alumni News
36
Obituaries
In September of 1868, our college published the first issue of a trade journal simply named The Pharmacist. The magazine you see before you is named in honor of that historic journal.
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EDITORIAL CREDITS PUBLISHER
Glen T. Schumock, PharmD, MBA, PhD Professor and Dean EDITORS
Robert Hoff UIC Creative and Digital Services Ben Stickan, MBA, CFRE Associate Dean of Advancement PROOFREADERS
Nate Downing Deb Fox Chris Gummert Imani Watson CONTRIBUTING WRITERS
Jessica Canlas Michael Dhar Daniel Smith PHOTOGRAPHY
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Barry Donald Kenneth Rhem DESIGN
Godfrey Carmona UIC Creative and Digital Services
The Pharmacist 833 South Wood Street (MC 874) Chicago, Illinois 60612 (312) 996-7240 pharmacy@uic.edu ©2020. All rights reserved.
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FROM THE DEAN
In the Midst of a Crisis: We Excel BY DEAN GLEN SCHUMOCK
In the span of a few months since our last magazine, the world has changed. The COVID-19 virus has disrupted lives in Illinois and around the globe, and each of us has been impacted personally and professionally. For those that have been sick or lost loved ones from the infection, our hearts go out to you. Yet, despite the many negative consequences of the pandemic, there are things to be grateful for. Like the way the UIC College of Pharmacy family banded together to address the challenges we faced—with creativity, humanity, courage—ensuring that we continued to fulfill our mission of education, research, and service. And the way we rediscovered how to connect to one another and even found new, and sometimes more effective, ways to do that. In fact, in the midst of this crisis, our faculty, staff, students, alumni, and partners excelled. We have communicated some of the examples of this in other forums. More will be published in future issues of The Pharmacist and other communications from the college. Please continue to send us your inspiring stories from the frontlines or behind the scenes. Most of us are looking forward to life returning to something close to normal. I know the Class of 2020 must be. The 202 PharmD, PhD, and master’s degree recipients in this class have the distinction of being the first since 1918 to graduate during a pandemic! You can see the complete list of our graduates in this issue of The Pharmacist.
transition from the classroom to career. Fortunately, they have great role models. Roles models like those from the Class of 1970—this year’s “Golden Graduates”—who were also recognized during our virtual graduation ceremony in May. Our new graduates can also look to Tara Berkson (PharmD ’13), Hina Choudhary (PharmD ’11), Dan Gratie (PharmD ’17), Nicole Joyce (PharmD ’14), Yee-Ming Lee (PharmD ’12), Samatha Keca Mathews (PharmD ’12), Ryan Pearson (PhD ’14), Rene (Williams) Rabaza (PharmD ’17), and Julia Ursan (PharmD ’13, MS ’15). Alumni whose early career success stories are chronicled in this issue. Perhaps some from the Class of 2020 will seek careers in the U.S. Public Health Service or in pharmacy administration. If they do, they will have great examples in Rear Admiral Gregory Dill (PharmD ’99) or William Pong (PharmD ’91). Dr. Dill is deputy director for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), the federal agency that provides healthcare coverage for more than 100 million people. Dr. Pong leads pharmacy operations for the 19 hospitals that are part of AMITA Health. Like so many of our alumni, both routinely give back to the college through their involvement and support for our students. You can read their stories in this issue. Another great example is the career of clinical associate professor JoAnn Stubbings—who recently retired from the college. Professor Stubbings led the UIC Specialty Pharmacy since 2007— one of seven ambulatory care pharmacies operated by the College of Pharmacy.
Like so many before them, the Class of 2020 is making the
Online pharmacy.uic.edu go.uic.edu/PharmFBChicago go.uic.edu/PharmFBRockford go.uic.edu/PharmTwitter go.uic.edu/PharmLinkedIn go.uic.edu/PharmInstagram go.uic.edu/PharmYouTube
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Our Digital Edition issuu.com/uicpharmacy
I hope this issue of The Pharmacist reminds you of the many great people that make the UIC College of Pharmacy what it is. Faculty, staff, students, alumni, and external partners who excel in a time of crisis. People dedicated to a mission of education, research, and service. It’s what makes us a top ten program in the country.
FIVE-POINT VISION
The University of Illinois at Chicago College of Pharmacy Office of Continuing Education and Meeting Services (OCEMS) has released the following programs: PH A R M ACY TECHNICI A N CE PROGR A M S 22 ACPE-approved pharmacy technician continuing education programs. For more information, please visit go.uic.edu/PharmTechCE. PH A R M ACIST CPE PROGR A M S 29 ACPE-approved pharmacist continuing education programs. For more information, please visit go.uic.edu/PharmacistCE.
Save the Date and Join Us on October 9 and 10 for Our Annual Alumni Reunion In the meantime, please consider nominating a classmate, colleague, or friend for our 2020 alumni awards, including our Rising Star, Jesse Stewart Service Award, and Alumnus of the Year.
Provide unparalleled pharmacy education and training
Advance the profession through leadership and advocacy
Lead the nation in pharmaceutical research that impacts health
Foster a culture of excellence, collaboration, and inclusiveness
Be the epicenter of innovative pharmacy services
Got News? Change jobs? Get a promotion? Publish a paper? Publish a book? Get married? Have a baby? We want to hear about it all! Now you can send your news directly to the magazine editor. We’ll do our best to fit it into our publications and/or social media! If you don’t see it in The Pharmacist, please go to go.uic.edu/PharmNews.
Please visit go.uic.edu/PharmAwardsNomination to nominate someone by August 1.
EVENTS
The headline article in this issue of The Pharmacist reviews the success of that effort. But JoAnn Stubbings’s contributions extended across both sides of Wood Street. As an adept lecturer in pharmacy courses, as a mentor of new or junior faculty and pharmacists, JoAnn created a pipeline of well-trained folks to follow in her footsteps—and will likely keep her busy in retirement.
UIC College of Pharmacy Continuing Education Programs
COLLEGE NEWS
Dr. Rob DiDomenico, associate professor and assistant head for faculty affairs and strategic initiatives, Department of Pharmacy Practice, became an appointed member of the research committee of the Board of Pharmacy Specialties.
Dr. Rebekah Hanson Anguiano
, clinical assistant professor, Department of Pharmacy Practice, was appointed to the Journal of Managed Care & Specialty Pharmacy editorial advisory board. Dr. Anguiano’s three-year term began at the conclusion of the Academy of Managed Care Pharmacy’s Spring Annual Meeting.
Dr. Richard Gemeinhart, professor
of pharmaceutics and director of graduate studies, Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, has been appointed as the UIC interim associate vice chancellor for research.
Dr. Mike Koronkowski, clinical
assistant professor, Department of Pharmacy Practice, was recently selected to serve as the college’s director of interprofessional education.
Dr. Kirsten Ohler, clinical associate
professor and PGY1 residency director, Department of Pharmacy Practice, participated in the annual St. Baldrick’s fundraiser. PGY1 pharmacy residents took turns shaving Dr. Ohler’s head, as they surpassed their fundraising goal of $5,000 for the fight against childhood cancers. Dr. Ohler and our PGY1s also won the “top team” prize for the most funds raised among the UI Health teams.
College Faculty Retiring During Our Spring 2020 Semester Dr. Julie Golembiewski, clinical associate professor, Department of Pharmacy Practice.
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Dr. Hayat Onyuksel, professor of pharmaceutics and bioengineering, Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences.
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JoAnn Stubbings, clinical associate professor, Departments of Pharmacy Practice and Pharmacy Systems, Outcomes, and Policy.
Dr. Charles Woodbury, Jr., associate professor emeritus, Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences.
UIC Faculty Help to Open Drive-Through Clinic
Dr. Burdette Receives UIC Researcher of the Year
UIC pharmacy faculty Drs. Erin Carson and Ammie Hodges, who are also clinicians in the anticoagulation clinic at SwedishAmerican Hospital in Rockford, have been working to meet the changing healthcare needs of patients while adhering to social distancing orders. Anticoagulation clinic patients who require routine lab monitoring and medication dose adjustments will now get those services from their car, rather than going into the hospital.
Dr. Joanna Burdette received the Distinguished Researcher of the Year Award in the Basic Life Sciences. The award recognizes the effort and commitment of “individuals who advance knowledge as well as inspire and promote continued excellence in research and scholarship at UIC.” Dr. Burdette is the associate dean for research and graduate programs. Her research “integrates imaging, drug discovery, and basic biology to try and understand how and where ovarian cancers originate.”
College Donates Hand Sanitizer to UIC Emergency Operations
Dr. Brad Bartels, clinical assistant professor, Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, recently started compounding hand sanitizer to meet the growing demand caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Dr. Bartels and Karol Sokolowski, a current PharmD/PhD candidate, have compounded over 21 gallons of hand sanitizer. The hand sanitizer was distributed across campus by the UIC Emergency Operations team.
Dr. Awe Receives History Makers Award Dr. Clara Okorie-Awe, associate dean for diversity and inclusion and clinical associate professor, Department of Pharmacy Systems, Outcomes, and Policy, received the UIC Chancellor's Committee on the Status of Blacks (CCSB) 2020 Black History Makers Award. The CCSB is an advisory body dedicated to promoting the academic, professional, cultural, and social welfare of the Black community at UIC.
Dr. Sanchez Awarded UIC Rising Star Award Dr. Laura Sanchez, assistant professor, Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, was received the Rising Star Researcher of the Year in the Basic Life Sciences Award. The awards “promote continued excellence at UIC.” The Rising Star must be within 10 years of their PhD with at least the last three years at UIC. Sanchez was also selected to the “40 Under 40” scientist list late last year for “utilizing cutting-edge mass spectrometry techniques to study the chemical language microbes and cells used to communicate with one another and their surroundings.”
Dr. Federle Selected as AAM Fellow Dr. Michael Federle, professor of medicinal chemistry and pharmacognosy, Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, and director of the Center for Biomolecular Sciences, was elected to fellowship in the American Academy of Microbiology (AAM). The academy recognizes excellence, originality, service, and leadership in the microbial sciences. AAM fellows are elected annually through a highly selective, peer-review process, based on their history of scientific achievement and innovations that have advanced microbiology.
New Center Codirectors Appointed Simon Pickard, professor, and Dan Touchette, associate professor, Department of Pharmacy Systems, Outcomes, and Policy, have been appointed codirectors of the UIC Center for Pharmacoepidemiology and Pharmacoeconomic Research (CPR). Drs. Pickard and Touchette are both very experienced experts in the field and well-suited to lead the center.
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STUDENT NEWS
Student Wins U.S. Steel Scholarship Urban Health Program (UHP) Student Leadership and Maggie Brabec, P1, was awarded the U.S. Steel Scholarship. The scholarship is given to a first-year Achievement Awards student who possesses “a combination of academic excellence and leadership.” Maggie was nominated by Drs. Marlowe Djuric-Kachlic and Tara Driscoll.
Student Wins MLK Scholarship De’Lashawn Fisher, P3, was one of five professional students to receive the UIC Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Scholarship. The Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Scholarship program was established at UIC in 1985 to recognize underrepresented students who have demonstrated high academic achievement and have shown a commitment to civil rights and social justice through community service. As he accepted the scholarship, he spoke highly of his experience as a student pharmacist on the Rockford campus.
Congratulations to P4 student pharmacists Uyi Osaghae and Travis Lester for receiving the Urban Health Program (UHP) Student Leadership and Achievement Awards. Uyi received the UHP Achievement Award for her outstanding contribution to the program, and Travis received the UHP Leadership Award for his dedicated leadership within UHP.
UIC College of Pharmacy 68th Annual Doctor of Pharmacy Honors Convocation Virtual Celebration On Friday, April 17, we proudly celebrated the scholastic achievements of our PharmD students at the college’s 68th Annual Doctor of Pharmacy Honors Convocation. The Honors Convocation is one of the college’s most important and memorable events and is attended each year by students, parents, faculty, and donors. Obviously, this year was different. Although we couldn’t gather in-person for this event, we met virtually
and celebrated the excellence of our pharmacy students, who were presented $165,650 in scholarships and awards! Congratulations again to our scholarship and award recipients and our deepest thanks to our alumni, donors, professional associations, and corporate partners, who generously support our students. YOU ARE UIC!
To view the virtual ceremony, please visit go.uic.edu/HonorsConvocation.
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Knopp Earns Best Presentation
Annual Albert Ebert Lecture
Department of Pharmaceutical Science PhD candidate Rachel Knopp was recently awarded the Best Trainee Oral Presentation at the Chicago NeuroVascular Meeting for her research presentation, “Nonselective CalpainCathepsin Inhibition Attenuates BBB-Dysfunction in an Oxidative-Stress Based TBI Model.” Rachel works in the Greg Thatcher lab.
Dr. Suzanne Soliman (PharmD ’04) presented the 48th Annual Albert Ebert Lecture on April 24. She spoke on “The Power of Social Media to Advance the Practice of Pharmacy.”
Class of 2020 Awards
Dr. Laura Meyer-Junco
Dr. Marlowe Djuric Kachlic
U I C G O L D E N A P P L E AWA R D Selected by the graduating class to recognize the single most outstanding teacher over their entire course of study.
Dr. Laura Meyer-Junco, Clinical Assistant Professor P R EC E P TO R O F T H E Y E A R Also selected by the graduating class, a preceptor is a professional who serves as both a role model and a mentor to students during the experiential components of the curriculum.
UIC Faculty Preceptor of the Year: Dr. Marlowe Djuric Kachlic (PharmD ’05), Clinical Assistant Professor UIC External Preceptor of the Year: Dr. Michael Poulsen (PharmD ’06), Genoa Healthcare, Rockford C H A N C E L LO R ’ S ST U D E N T S E RV I C E A N D L E A D E R S H I P AWA R D S We are proud to announce that thirteen PharmD and graduate students from the college received the Chancellor’s Student Service and Leadership Awards. The Chancellor’s Student Service and Leadership Awards honor students who have dedicated a significant amount of time, effort, and creativity to one or more campus- or community-based service projects.
College of Pharmacy recipients included: Crissel Marie Arban Reham Awad Sun Choi Shukri Ideis Bokyung Kim Carter McCormick Nadia Nabulsi Mirielle Nauman Robert Schultz Elaine Trinh Kavya Vaitla Connie Yan Ashwini Zolekar
Dr. Michael Poulsen
Reham Awad
E U G E RT H A B AT E S M E M O R I A L AWA R D Reham Awad (P3) was also one of four UIC students to receive the Eugertha Bates Memorial Award, an award presented to those that have demonstrated a significant level of caring, dedication, and selfless commitment to others. T H E A N N UA L R H O CH I I N I T I AT I O N C E R E M O N Y WAS HELD ON APRIL 23 Congratulations to all of the new members of the Rho Chi Honor Society who were inducted into the UIC Phi Chapter recently. R O C K F O R D P4 C L A S S AWA R D S Selected by our Rockford pharmacy students.
Rockford Preceptor of the Year: Dr. Marianne Pop, Clinical Assistant Professor Rockford Interdisciplinary Champion: Cindi Schaefer, Director of Student Affairs P H I L A M B DA S I G M A ( P L S ) H O STS A L E A D E R S H I P LU N C H EO N The April event served to recognize certificate recipients of the PLS Leadership & Professional Development Series, as well as the Student Organization of the Year, Student Leader of the Year, and P1 Student Leader of the Year awards. Congratulations to all!
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A PIONEER IN SPECIALTY PHARMACY, UIC KEEPS LEADING 8 T H E P H A R M A C I ST
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UIC’s Specialty Pharmacy carries on Stubbings’s national leadership.
hen Professor JoAnn Stubbings retired this year, she left behind a UIC Specialty Pharmacy Services (SPS) program that had bloomed in size and importance. Stubbings retired March 1 after serving as associate director of SPS, among many other roles. Dr. Matt Rim, from the University of Utah, succeeded her in May. SPS started at UIC in 2007 “with one patient, one prescription, and one parttime pharmacist,” a UIC report said. Today, the department boasts 23 team members, national leadership and prominence, and a pioneering integrated-healthcare model. Housed in one of the seven ambulatory care pharmacies operated by the UIC College of Pharmacy, SPS has been very successful, said Dr. Glen Schumock, dean of the college. JoAnn Stubbings (second from left) with original SPS employee group: (left to right) Elba Sertuche, Rebekah Anguiano, Nehrin Khamo
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ACCREDITED
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“As a group, [the ambulatory care pharmacies] provide an important service to a largely underserved population,” he said. “Specialty pharmacy has been key to the overall growth of these efforts and performs well financially— supporting other functions.”
Schumock agreed. “JoAnn Stubbings has been a trailblazer in the specialty pharmacy arena—especially in the health-system environment,” he said. “She is a national expert and leader and has brought very positive attention to UIC and what we do here.”
Dr. Sandra Durley, senior associate director of Ambulatory Pharmacy Services, attributed much of SPS’s success to the stewardship of Stubbings and her leadership team. “I think a lot of it has to do with the focused leadership identifying that SPS is an opportunity for our department to grow,” Durley said.
That national recognition reached new heights two years ago, when Stubbings became executive committee chair of the newly created Section of Specialty Pharmacy Practitioners at the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists (ASHP), one of the nation’s largest pharmacy professional organizations.
A DRIVING FORCE
A GROWING FIELD
In particular, Durley credited Stubbings with pushing SPS’s success. “JoAnn has been a driving force behind our specialty pharmacy services,” Durley said. “JoAnn took the leadership role in developing workflow processes and business plans and recruiting and developing the staff . . . to make sure that we were able to provide the best possible services.”
Specialty pharmacy, at its core, consists of the pharmaceutical care of patients with complex, chronic, and rare conditions, often involving high-cost medications. UIC’s SPS program treats patients who have cancer, immune disorders, and more, and has grown to include a call center, a mail-order department for prescription fulfillment, a patient-access center, and an oral-oncology center.
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As an academic medical center, we have access to the patient’s electronic health record. We have direct access to the patient and the provider. So, we’re very well suited to provide a higher level of care. — DR. SANDRA DURLEY
Over the last decade, Durley said, use of specialty pharmacy medications has escalated and account for a significant share of overall drug spending. A 2018 IQVIA study found that specialty medications constituted just 2.2% of dispensed prescriptions but nearly 40% of spending, projected to grow to 50% by 2020, Pharmacy Times reported. “And it’s projected that by 2023, it will be even more,” Durley said. Seeing such potential in the area, Durley, Stubbings, and others at UIC wanted to bring specialty services to the college early on. They traveled to Minnesota in 2007 to learn from some of the leaders at the time—the Mayo Clinic and Fairview Pharmacy. Since then, UIC’s SPS program has grown to be a leader in its own right, pioneering an integrated model of specialty pharmacy. This system links SPS to provider clinics via clinical pharmacists embedded in those centers. The setup gives SPS unique access to patients, providers, and electronic health records, streamlining the process of getting specialty medications approved, paid for, and in patients’ hands. “Our pharmacy staff works with physician providers as well as the clinical pharmacy pharmacists . . . to increase the capture of the number of specialty pharmacy prescriptions that were filled in our pharmacies,” Durley said. SPS staff members then take on various insurance issues, working to process prior approvals, get doctors the information they need, and ensure that patients are eligible to receive treatment. UIC also leverages its integrated
model to help overcome insurance companies’ frequent preference for outside specialty pharmacies, Durley said. Embedded clinical pharmacists work with SPS staff to capture as many specialty pharmacy prescriptions as possible, so UIC can offer patients better service by providing in-house, integrated knowledge. “As an academic medical center, we have access to the patient’s electronic health record. We have direct access to the patient and the provider,” Durley said. “So, we’re very well suited to provide a higher level of care.”
A LWAY S A P I O N E E R UIC’s program brings a number of other advantages. To better compete with larger specialty pharmacies that are aligned with insurance providers, SPS proactively sought two significant accreditations: from the Utilization Review Accreditation Commission (URAC), starting in 2015, and the Accreditation Commission for Health Care (ACHC), starting in 2016, with recent reaccreditation from both organizations. SPS was one of the first health-system specialty pharmacies in the country to earn such dual accreditation. “We proactively sought accreditation and made sure that we were . . . qualified and able to provide those services . . . [securing] the same accreditation that the larger specialty services pharmacies have,” Durley said. UIC’s SPS program also enables UI Health’s participation as a covered entity in the 340B Drug Pricing Program, with the UIC pharmacies serving as contract pharmacies for the
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SPS at UIC has an expansive future. Not only has Stubbings’s successor, Rim, collaborated on research with UIC, but he’s also stepping into her national leadership position with ASHP. hospital. A portion of the 340B savings is used to support clinical pharmacy services in many outpatient clinics at UI Health, Durley said. “Pharmacists in these areas provide services that increase medication adherence and result in improved clinical outcomes for our patients,” she said. In addition to pioneering an integrated specialty pharmacy system, SPS created a unique workflow-management software application to pair with it, developed by former SPS student and information systems pharmacist Dr. Sherif Abdou. Under Stubbings’s leadership, SPS also excelled in specialty pharmacy publication and research, Durley said, with “over 100 publications and presentations at national pharmacy and specialty pharmacy journals and meetings.” That includes a study last year in the ASHP’s journal on prescription drug spending, on which Schumock, Stubbings, and her successor, Rim, collaborated. SPS’s commitment to communication extends to student education, as well. The department hires pharmacy students, hosts academic and experiential rotations, and provides independent study and research opportunities. That makes a big difference both for pharmacy students and the future of the field as a whole, Schumock said, again crediting Stubbings. “Her development of students and mentorship of new or junior faculty and pharmacists has created a pipeline of well-trained folks to follow in her footsteps—whether at UIC or across the country,” he said. “Her influence and legacy are immeasurable.”
FUTURE SPS at UIC has an expansive future. Not only has Stubbings’s successor, Rim, collaborated on research with UIC, but he’s also stepping into her national leadership position at ASHP. Rim, who served as
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manager of the pharmacy ambulatory clinical care center at the University of Utah, shared his expertise with UIC last year, at Stubbings’s invitation. “The people working at UIC, I was always impressed. . . . They really care about their patients,” Rim said. “That’s what made me decide to move to Chicago.” And Rim will lead UIC’s SPS program into a promising future for the field as a whole, Schumock said. “These drugs . . . represent the fastest-growing medication category,” he said. “The fact that we have an established and highly successful specialty pharmacy positions us well to take advantage of these market trends.”
UIC ranked
No.1 in Illinois and No.7 in the nation
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by U.S. News & World Report
because of you. The most recent U.S. News and World Report’s rankings of Best Pharmacy Schools, released March 17, placed the UIC College of Pharmacy at No.1 in the state of Illinois and the No. 7 in the nation.* UIC’s peer assessment score was only half a point below the top-ranked school nationally. What makes the UIC College of Pharmacy great is not the rankings. The rankings are just the by-product of the hard work, commitment, and dedication of our truly excellent students, faculty and staff, alumni, and partners.
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It is because of the amazing students who roam our halls—bright and eager to learn. They come from across the United States and around the world to be part of this college. They are the future leaders of the profession
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and the next generation of scientists and innovators. They are UIC. It is because of the world-class faculty, researchers, and
staff who are driven to change the face of pharmacy and healthcare. They NO 4
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provide unparalleled pharmacy education and training, conduct ground-breaking research and discovery, and develop and implement cutting-edge pharmacy services. They are UIC.
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It is because of the alumni and partners that support the college. Over 10,000 strong, they are leaders in their organizations—community pharmacies, hospitals, pharmaceutical companies, government agencies, and so many
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more—here, across the United States, and around the world. They are UIC.
Thank you to everyone that is part of the UIC College of Pharmacy.
Together we are UIC. #UICPROUD
* See the complete rankings at usnews.com/best-graduate-schools/top-health-schools/pharmacy-rankings, which are measured by a peer assessment score based on a survey of peer institutions.
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How a rich array of outUIC pharmacy At the UIC College of Pharmacy, some of students’ most empowering and enriching lessons happen beyond the classroom’s doors. Complementing one of the nation’s topranked pharmacy training programs, a diverse assortment of out-of-classroom experiences help students broaden their knowledge base and explore the ever-expanding range of professional opportunities available to capable and motivated pharmacy graduates. “From pharmacy practice experiences that begin in year one to the summer internships, fellowships, and research opportunities our students can pursue, the experiential rotations we’re able to offer our students help them
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B Y D A N I E L P. S M I T H
-of-classroom experiences for students fuels professional success. understand the wide scope of professional Or they might work shifts in one of the opportunities available to pharmacists and
college’s seven on-campus pharmacies.
reinforce the relevancy of their classroom
A living lab for clinical pharmacy practice,
training,” UIC College of Pharmacy dean
the college-run pharmacies advance
Glen Schumock says.
new models of cutting-edge care and
As a volunteer or through independent study, for instance, students might join
demonstrate how pharmacists can practice at the top of their license.
internationally known research programs
“The magnitude of external opportunities
that advance pharmaceutical science,
our students have available to them is truly
clinical care, and outcomes.
special and a real point of differentiation
Or they might leverage a network of 10,000 alumni and the college’s farreaching relationships with industry and healthcare partners to pursue
for UIC,” Schumock says. “It’s a key reason why our alumni progress faster in their careers and become leaders in their respective professional areas.”
career-driving summer internships
Seven UIC alumni detail the out-of-
and access some 900 clerkship sites
classroom experiences that have
spanning different practice areas, clinical
informed, inspired and accelerated
specialties, and geography, including
their professional pursuits.
international venues.
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Dan Gratie PharmD ’17
Hina Choudhary PharmD ’11
CURRENT POSITION
Value Strategy Manager at AESARA THE EXTERNAL OPPORTUNITY
In the summer of 2016, Dr. Gratie worked in the lab of Dr. Edith Nutescu (PharmD ’94), a notable force in the field of outcomes research, as a Riback Fellow, an intensive, summer-long research training fellowship for PharmD students interested in a biomedical sciences research career. Over 10 weeks, Gratie shepherded a research project from beginning to end, addressing issues such as funding, planning, and protocols while coordinating efforts with clinical pharmacists and residents to study the impact of pharmacogenomic dosing. THE BENEFIT
Gratie calls the Riback Fellowship a dynamic experience that empowered him to examine inputs and outputs—to assess potential hurdles and think forward—so that he could produce a digestible message capable of informing practice and advancing patient care. “I found myself always asking, ‘What’s the takeaway message?’ and that forced me to dig into what really matters and see the bigger picture,” says Gratie, who began working in Nutescu’s lab as a first-year PharmD student. The experience also granted him intimate access to one of the globe’s premier outcomes-research academic departments and highlighted the intricate relationship between clinical work and outcomes. “I learned the importance of communicating why something’s important and why others should care, and that’s proven immensely valuable in my career,” Gratie says.
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CURRENT POSITION
Global Medical and Scientific Affairs at L’Oreal THE EXTERNAL OPPORTUNITY
Following her P2 year, Dr. Choudhary enjoyed a summer internship at a healthcare branding agency, where she tackled various projects for the firm’s medical affairs team, such as running literature searches, creating scientific reports, and conducting in-depth scientific reviews to ensure medical accuracy. The internship helped Choudhary understand the critical role pharmaceutical and scientific knowledge play in reviewing marketing collateral and educating crossfunctional teams. THE BENEFIT
The summer internship sharpened Choudhary’s interest in the corporate sector of pharmacy, nudging her into that world before helping her land a coveted position at L'Oreal. “There weren’t a whole lot of experiences of that sort a decade ago, so to be able to have gained some exposure in healthcare branding and also medical affairs truly gave leverage to my chosen career path,” says Choudhary, who also spent time during her PharmD studies working alongside Dr. Clara Okorie-Awe, a clinical associate professor in the Department of Pharmacy Systems, Outcomes, and Policy, on research pertaining to HIV transmission in newborns through unwanted pregnancies among young African women.
Samantha Keca Mathews PharmD ’12
Rene (Williams) Rabaza PharmD ’17
CURRENT POSITION
CVS Pharmacy Manager in Gardena, California THE EXTERNAL OPPORTUNITY
After hearing pharmacist and Casa de Salud founder Kerrylyn Rodriguez speak about her medical outreach program during an American Pharmacists Association chapter meeting, Dr. Mathews signed up for a Casa de Salud volunteer trip in summer 2009. Over eight days, Mathews and other health-professions students set up seven clinics along neglected stretches of the Amazon in Peru. She staffed a makeshift pharmacy, answered patient questions, and checked blood pressure, among other tasks. Upon her return, Mathews prepared a poster presentation with fellow UIC students detailing the health disparities they identified during their experience abroad. THE BENEFIT
The volunteer trip put Mathews’s work—and life— into perspective and has fostered ongoing reflection. “It’s easy to become burnt out or disengaged in the community pharmacy world today with its countless metrics and constantly changing priorities, but that trip continues to inspire me to show up as the best version of myself every day at work and to help the people who need it most,” says Mathews. Others have noticed Mathews’s enthusiastic and dedicated efforts. In 2016, CVS awarded Mathews its coveted Area Paragon Award, an honor recognizing CVS Health staffers who deliver exemplary direct care to patients and customers.
CURRENT POSITION
Manager of Regulatory Affairs, U.S. Advertising & Promotion at AbbVie THE EXTERNAL OPPORTUNITY
As a P4, Dr. Rabaza completed an industry rotation inside a pharmaceutical company’s clinical supply chain department. While Rabaza learned about effective planning and management of clinical supplies across global clinical trials, the rotation also allowed her to discover potential career paths she might consider and to build relationships with other UIC PharmD alumni. In addition, the rotation introduced Rabaza to the Healthcare Businesswomen’s Association (HBA), an organization dedicated to the advancement of women in healthcare. THE BENEFIT
Rabaza’s industry rotation afforded her a firsthand look at the corporate environment, helping her better understand the potential reach enterprise-level efforts could have on patient lives around the globe. That has given Rabaza heightened confidence when discussing industry issues and impact as well as an enhanced business acumen she carries into her daily work at AbbVie. “Say ‘YES’ to unique opportunities and continue to leverage those experiences throughout your career,” says Rabaza, who served a stint as president of the Student National Pharmaceutical Association while at UIC and continues to lean on her UIC ties and involvement with HBA to expand her collegial network and drive her professional pursuits.
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Julia Ursan
PharmD ’13, MS Pharmacy Systems, Outcomes, and Policy ’15
Tara Berkson PharmD ’13
CURRENT POSITION
Clinical Analytics Consultant at OptumRx THE EXTERNAL OPPORTUNITY
Dr. Ursan undertook several research projects with the highly regarded Center for Pharmacoepidemiology and Pharmacoeconomic Research (CPR) during her P3 and P4 years. She helped produce a survey for rural hospital inpatient pharmacies and participated in the development of health decision models as well as various publications. THE BENEFIT
Working with the CPR, Ursan began to realize the significant role pharmacy outcomes research would play in healthcare’s future. This ignited her interest in an outcomes-based career, while simultaneously providing her the necessary skills to pursue a pharmacoeconomics fellowship after pharmacy school. “The experience with the CPR allowed me to conduct independent scholarly research that advanced knowledge about the value of pharmaceuticals,” says Ursan, adding that a P4 clerkship at AbbVie analyzing research for biologics also helped her understand health economic claims and elements of health economic promotion. Those UIC-powered experiences now guide Ursan’s work as a health economics advisor, providing strategic analytic insights for governments, health plans, and commercial clients.
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Regional Clinical Pharmacy Director at Credena HealthProvidence St. Joseph Health in Portland, Oregon THE EXTERNAL OPPORTUNITY
From a Riback Fellowship to an internship at the Department of Medical Education at UIC’s College of Medicine, Dr. Berkson enjoyed a number of valuable out-of-classroom experiences during her UIC years, though a rotation at the specialty pharmacy with clinical associate professor JoAnn Stubbings proved especially insightful. Providing direct patient care, Berkson gained a deeper knowledge of various specialty pharmacy disease states and participated in different specialty pharmacy collaboratives and meetings. THE BENEFIT
Berkson often reflects on how Stubbings and her specialty pharmacy colleagues “tackled challenges and celebrated successes” as well as the “wealth of opportunities” she enjoyed as a UIC student. Currently charged to provide support and leadership to clinical programs at Providence’s outpatient, community, and specialty pharmacies across eight states, Berkson says her colleagues laugh when she recalls the stress she felt upon submitting her first prior authorization request during her specialty pharmacy rotation or her excitement at completing her first refill assessment for Gilenya—a new and novel therapy for multiple sclerosis at that time. “I observed a new pharmacy service in its infancy,” says Berkson, who has transferred that knowledge to her current role growing pharmacy services at Providence.
Nicole Joyce PharmD ’14
CURRENT POSITION
Lieutenant, U.S. Public Health Service (USPHS) THE EXTERNAL OPPORTUNITY
As a student at the college’s Rockford campus, Dr. Joyce participated in the Rural Pharmacy Education (RPHARM) program, an interprofessional program that prepares students to provide pharmacy services in rural communities. THE BENEFIT
The RPHARM program’s interdisciplinary format prepared Joyce to function on diverse healthcare teams and, perhaps most notably, sparked her passion for tending to underserved populations. In the summer between her second and third years at UIC, she completed an externship with USPHS’s Indian Health Services (IHS). Serving the Ho-Chunk Indian population in Baraboo, Wisconsin, Joyce fell in love with the clinical opportunities IHS offered, which led her to pursue additional opportunities with IHS and, later, to become a commissioned USPHS officer. Now under a broad collaborative practice agreement, Joyce is catering to another underserved population—inmates—as a full-time clinical pharmacist at an Oregon prison. “Working with underserved populations means working at the very top of your license because there’s simply not enough providers,” she says. “I find this extremely fulfilling and my services impactful, as many in the inmate population have never had much access to healthcare.”
D AY O THE T N I N A T L P INVES D N A
e Col leg o g a c i t Ch inois a l l I f the o ed by ersit y n v i e n h t U g Th e t re n ual ly s s. n i t n o friend is c d n y c a a i rm mn o f Ph a ted alu a c i d e you’l l rd e u p o o f h o we sit y goals, n g e n e ro w o r fit on you l bene l i t c w e t l f a re if t th As you r re d g e f e d a etime. f r i l e r d i u s o on er y a l so c ge af t e l l o c the
We can provide you the language to include the University of Illinois Foundation for the benefit of the college in your will or living trust; and also custom language for a beneficiary designation via a retirement plan, whole-life insurance policy, or payable on death (POD)/transferable on death (TOD) account or to further designate your bequest in a way that is meaningful to you. Please contact director of gift planning Jason James Shuba, JD, for more information on how to invest in the future at the UIC College of Pharmacy. Office of Gift Planning and Trust Services 2525 University Hall, MC 002 | 601 S. Morgan St. Chicago, Illinois 60607 312.413.3394 | shuba@uif.uillinois.edu
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P H A R M A CY S C H O O L Q & A R E P R I N T E D F R O M D E C . 1 0 , 2 0 1 9 , P H A R M A C Y C A R E E R S ®
University of Illinois at Chicago College of Pharmacy LO C AT I O N
C H I CAG O A N D R O C K F O R D, I L L I N O I S
F O U N D E D 1859 P H A R M D C L A S S S I Z E
2 0 0 ( 1 6 0 ST U D E NT S AT T H E C H I CAG O CA M P U S , 40 ST U D E NT S AT R O C K F O R D )
The University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) College of Pharmacy is one of the oldest pharmacy schools in the country and is consistently ranked in the national top 10. With a top research ranking and a clinical faculty that is one of the largest in the country, the college has some of the longest-standing and most sought-after residency, fellowship, and graduate programs (PhD and MS) in the country. Located in one of the world’s most vibrant cities, Chicago, with an accompanying campus in Rockford, the UIC College of Pharmacy is among the most diverse and inclusive pharmacy schools in the country. The incoming class of 2023 includes 23% underrepresented minority students and is 68% multilingual, with 36 languages spoken. In fact, diversity has long been a strength of the college, which has won several Insights Into Diversity awards. UIC College of Pharmacy PharmD graduates have high North American Pharmacist Licensure Examination pass rates, receive broad placement in a multitude of careers and fields, and are well prepared to practice at the top of their fields. Graduates obtain impressive fellowship and residency placements (the college ranked in the top 10 for the number of postgraduate year 1 residency placements for the class of 2019) and enjoy rewarding careers in community, hospital, government, and other industry settings. In an interview with Pharmacy Careers®, Glen T. Schumock, PharmD, PhD, MBA, a professor and the dean of the UIC College of Pharmacy, provided insight into what makes the school a pillar of pharmacy education.
Q
What is unique about your school?
The UIC College of Pharmacy is unique in the opportunities that it provides students by seamlessly integrating its educational programs with cutting-edge practice and research experiences. The school has among the most diverse student bodies in the country and the lowest student-to-faculty ratio, which affords our students experiences not found elsewhere. The proximity to the University of Illinois Hospital & Health Sciences System—a health system clinical enterprise that includes seven health sciences colleges—and the pharmacies operated by the college provide a rich interprofessional environment that informs our teaching, research, and patient care missions. A
Top-ranked research programs also give students opportunities to be involved in the discovery of new drugs, outcomes of medication use, and ways of optimizing care. These hallmarks have long positioned the school in the top 10 nationally.
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What makes your school's curriculum innovative?
The UIC College of Pharmacy curriculum combines state-of-the-science didactic content with practiceleading real-world experience. From faculty who are international experts in their fields, students receive the most contemporary education across a new and highly integrated curriculum. A
We have, and continue to adapt, classrooms and educational facilities that position our students for academic success. Newly renovated simulation spaces, on both our Chicago and Rockford campuses, enhance our curriculum and student outcomes. For example, the recently completed Herbert and Carol Retzky Simulation Center is a 5000-square-foot, state-ofthe-art facility that provides a safe space where our students bridge classroom learning with application in practice before they embark on their experiential learning rotations. These simulated experiences, which incorporate information technology, help students build confidence in their skills and enhance their education in experiential settings.
Students at UIC receive extraordinary experiential education that is enabled by the largest and most comprehensive pharmacy practice faculty in the nation. Our faculty includes practitioners in essentially every clinical specialty, bolstered by area preceptors in more than 900 diverse pharmacy practice sites. Our students receive unparalleled access to leaders in health care and exposure to best practices that bring real-world knowledge to the classroom, often only moments after caring for patients in one of our seven ambulatory care pharmacies or at the hospital. Q What real-world opportunities are available to your students?
Our two campuses are situated in major urban environments with easy access to our academic medical center, other major health care facilities, corporations, biopharmaceutical companies, and hundreds of community pharmacies. This proximity offers students diverse opportunities throughout all four years of the program. Students practice in a spectrum of both traditional and alternative settings, including introductory pharmacy practice experiences that start in the first year, advanced pharmacy practice experiences, summer internships, work experiences, and other onsite activities. These are life-changing opportunities that empower our students and elucidate the many varied paths available post graduation. A
Our students also benefit from the opportunities and access available via one of the largest, most diverse alumni networks in the country. With graduates in leadership positions across the world, our 10,000 alumni serve as mentors to students and as a resource for student employment after graduation. Together with the reputation of the quality of education, this sets our students apart in a crowded employment landscape. Q What are many of your students doing outside the classroom during school?
Pharmacy students at UIC have endless opportunities to further their education through activities outside the classroom by participation in student organizations; professional development via our Pharmacy Learning, Advising, Mentoring, and Engagement for Students (PhLAMES) program; research projects; and work and many other opportunities. A
The college has 22 registered student organizations, including student governance and honor societies, as well as service, social, professional, and cultural and religious organizations. Each of these groups conducts a variety of community service and other activities and creates opportunities for students to serve in leadership positions, make friends, and contribute extramurally. All UIC pharmacy students participate in the PhLAMES program, which provides longitudinal professional and character development via network-based mentoring and cocurricular activities. Professional development activities include health promotion and education, advocacy for the pharmacy profession, leadership and career development, and community service. Many students also participate in research projects during the pharmacy program. Opportunities are plentiful and focus on laboratory-based, clinical, or health services and outcomes investigations. Additionally, most students gain practical experience by working part-time during their tenure in pharmacy school. Whether they work in our on-campus hospital or at ambulatory care pharmacies, local hospitals or pharmacies, or other health care facilities or companies, the experience is invaluable. Q
How does your school train students for the future?
A The faculty prides itself on providing our graduates with the clinical foundation to practice anywhere and at the top of their licenses. We stress lifelong and continuous learning so that our graduates remain competent and innovative throughout their careers in whatever practice setting they select. Our incredibly deep faculty bench enables our students to receive concentrated coaching and mentoring from our faculty that further develops intellectual curiosity and interest. Our curriculum has been thoughtfully designed to prepare these future pharmacists—through simulated activities and realworld practice environments—to analyze, communicate, think critically, and problem-solve. The professional development and intrapersonal skills afforded by the program will serve our graduates throughout their long careers and lives. Ultimately, we believe these efforts will create the next generation of pharmacists and pharmaceutical scientists who will lead the profession to improve human health.
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dd a postgraduate residency to the ongoing maturation of the UIC College of Pharmacy’s Rockford regional campus.
“We’re confident our PGY1 residents will leave us well positioned for a PGY2 residency or prepared to be independent practitioners,” Hays says.
Since the Rockford campus’s founding in 2010, the campus has consistently expanded its academic offerings, faculty roster, and community partnerships. With the launch of the campus’s first postgraduate residency this summer, the campus now celebrates yet another important step in its lively development.
Beyond preparing capable pharmacists for their next career steps, residency program director Dr. Chris Schriever (PharmD ’99, RES ’00, FEL ’02) sees additional benefits to the program’s debut. He believes the presence of a postgraduate residency heightens the credibility of the Rockford campus and will drive faculty development in practice, leadership, and management. Yet more, it lays the foundation for additional postgraduate training opportunities in Rockford.
“Our first PGY1 residency program represents the exciting growth of our Rockford campus and shows we’re eager to offer the high-quality advanced training opportunities needed in our profession and so valued at the UIC College of Pharmacy,” says Dr. Kevin Rynn (PharmD, RES ’93, FEL ’94), Rockford’s vice dean and an ardent champion of postgraduate training. Leveraging affiliations with local hospitals, community health partners, and ambulatory care sites in both urban and rural settings across northern Illinois, the one-year PGY1 residency carries a decidedly ambulatory-based flavor. Residents will complete six required rotations in areas such as psychiatry, internal medicine, drug information, and family medicine in addition to five elective rotations aligned with their professional interests and career goals. Residency program coordinator Dr. Annette Hays (PharmD ’16) says the PGY1 program, which includes exposure to numerous teaching opportunities and research experiences, was thoughtfully designed to develop clinical pharmacists prepared to offer medication-related care on multidisciplinary teams.
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“There’s so much good that can come from this, and that’s why we’re excited to have this PGY1 program in place,” Schriever says. For a first-time residency program, Schriever and Hays say they were “exceptionally pleased” with the size and diversity of the applicant pool, which included prospects from multiple states in addition to those affiliated with UIC. “We received more applicants than we ever envisioned,” Hays says, adding that she and Schriever sought “an independent, fast thinker” eager to learn and lead. “We looked for someone we felt could leave this residency and put their mark on the profession.” On March 13, Rockford was matched with Dr. Alex Thorp. A recent graduate of the Medical College of Wisconsin, where he was a member of that institution’s first graduating class in pharmacy,
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UIC’s long history offering advanced clinical training opportunities opens doors For more than four decades, the UIC College of Pharmacy has been training postgraduate pharmacists through a diverse collection of residencies and clinical research fellowships designed to spur professional success. The college hosts PGY1 residencies in traditional pharmacy
N
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practice as well as first-year residencies for international students and those interested in community pharmacy. In addition, the college offers PGY2 residencies in 10 specialized areas, including pediatrics, critical care, oncology, and emergency medicine, as well as postgraduate research fellowships in areas such as infectious
E
diseases, pharmacoeconomics, and academia and family medicine.
R
Led by recognized experts who regularly publish and speak on their research and practice specialties, UIC’s assorted postgraduate
E
“Our programs enable trainees to see different professional paths
F
research areas that ignite discovery and advance careers.
F
training programs expose pharmacists to innovative practice and
they can take, many they might not have even known existed, and
I
Drs. Annette Hays, Chris Schriever, and Kevin Rynn
Kirsten Ohler, director of the college’s PGY1 residency program.
D
to learn from some of the very best minds in the field,” says Dr.
Yet, UIC provides its dozens of postgraduate trainees a vibrant
Thorp is undaunted by being the Rockford campus’s resident trailblazer.
In investigating different PGY1 opportunities, Thorp says the Rockford residency intrigued him with its interprofessional nature as well as its diverse rotations. “I didn’t see this variety elsewhere, and it’s something I thought would be beneficial to me in the long term,” says Thorp, who hopes his PGY1 experience in Rockford propels him into a PGY2 position and, eventually, professional work on interdisciplinary healthcare teams as well as a faculty position in academia. “I enter this residency confident it will put me in a position to succeed.”
residents, for instance, routinely interact with and learn from clinical
A
“Being the first is something I feel comfortable with, and especially so at UIC given what I’ve learned about the program and the people I’ve met,” says the Milwaukee-area native, who will begin his residency on July 1.
learning community. Ohler’s class of PGY1 pharmacy practice faculty, PGY2 residents, and fellows from various specialties. “It creates a dynamic environment in which everyone is challenging each other to learn and answer the next great questions,” Ohler says, adding that UIC’s strong postgraduate training record enhances students’ marketplace credibility. “People know UIC trains good residents and fellows and that’s something our trainees capitalize on when they leave UIC and embark on their careers.”
Dr. Kirsten Ohler
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The inaugural in health On the day UIC College of Pharmacy student Kent Hanson learned he had landed the college’s inaugural health economics and outcomes research (HEOR) fellowship with Pfizer, he couldn’t contain his excitement. In the lobby of the College of Pharmacy building on Wood Street that December day, Hanson wildly pumped his fists in celebration of the news delivered by Dr. Simon Pickard, a professor in the college’s Department of Pharmacy Systems, Outcomes, and Policy (PSOP). “Look on the lobby camera and that’s what you’ll see,” says an unembarrassed Hanson, who earned his PharmD degree in 2020. “This will enable me to grow in an area I’m passionate about and one I believe informs patient care.”
E XPANDING INDUSTRY REL ATIONSHIPS Pfizer is now the third company—and the first outside of the Chicago area—to invest in a HEOR postdoctoral fellowship with UIC and its prominent Center for Pharmacoepidemiology and Pharmacoeconomic Research (CPR). “Our HEOR team was looking for motivated individuals with strong technical training, and I was really impressed with the talent pool that UIC was able to attract,” says Debanjali Mitra, senior director of HEOR-Breast Cancer at New York–based Pfizer. “Industry experience at Pfizer combined with a strong curriculum and mentorship during the PhD program should provide Kent with a solid start to his career in HEOR.” As with existing HEOR fellowships at AbbVie and Takeda, Hanson and future Pfizer fellows will spend the opening year of their two-year fellowship at UIC working with CPR faculty while taking courses in biostatistics, research design, pharmacoeconomics,
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fellowship represents UIC’s third such program economics and outcomes research. and grant writing. In year two, fellows will venture to a Pfizer corporate site in New York to tackle real-world projects alongside professional colleagues and broaden their skill sets in outcomes research methodologies, study designs, and problem-solving approaches.
says the PhD is increasingly becoming the benchmark, which heightens the appeal of UIC’s program for those eager to develop the specialized skills necessary to generate and disseminate information about how well innovative pharmaceuticals work and their value.
Along the way, fellows will deepen their ties to the pharmacy profession by pursuing publication in peer-reviewed venues, attending professional and scientific conferences, and teaching PharmD students in the classroom setting.
“The PhD is not for the faint of heart. It takes persistence and grit, but for the students willing to invest in themselves, it pays off in the long run,” Pickard says.
“Market access, demonstrating value, and patientcentered outcomes—these are all increasingly important to decision makers in healthcare,” says Pickard, the CPR’s assistant director. “With industry partners like Pfizer willing to invest alongside the resources and faculty talent we have at CPR to support these fellowship programs, we’re positioning our HEOR fellows to become leaders in this high-growth area.” Dr. Ernest Law, PhD ’18, an HEOR researcher with Pfizer since 2018, helped spark the connections between UIC and Pfizer that ultimately ignited the fellowship. “When we considered setting up an HEOR fellowship, we realized very few institutions in the country could offer the breadth and depth of research training we wanted our fellow to obtain. UIC offers formal and experiential training in so many research methods and design,” Law says. “UIC’s reputation, coupled with my trust in the PSOP faculty, made it an easy choice.”
A DISTINC TIVE LE ARNING OPPORTUNIT Y UIC’s HEOR fellowships are particularly unique in that the programs allow fellows to pursue their PhD in conjunction with their fellowship, benefiting from mentorship and peer support. While pharmacists could once enter the HEOR and market access ranks with a master’s degree, Pickard
That’s certainly the hope of Hanson, who is excited by the potential professional opportunities the Pfizer fellowship and his PhD work might someday unlock for him in industry, academia, or consulting. “I believe this sets me on a great path with many possibilities,” Hanson beams. Throughout his PharmD studies, Hanson’s interest in outcomes research consistently accelerated, spurred by research opportunities with PSOP faculty members Todd Lee and Dan Touchette as well as conversations with current HEOR fellows, PhD students, and UIC faculty members. “The more I got exposed to outcomes research, the more I knew it was the field I wanted to pursue,” says Hanson, a central Illinois native. “To me, outcomes research opens the door to do so much important work.” He’s now excited to spend the next year expanding his outcomes research toolkit before joining Pfizer, one of the nation’s most robust pharmaceutical enterprises. “I’m ready to be a sponge and learn everything I can,” Hanson says. “I learned so much from my time with PSOP, but there’s so much more I still don’t know. I’m ready to hit the ground running and do some meaningful work.”
me on a great path with many possibilities.” —KENT HANSON
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Congratulations to the Class of 2020! You are UIC. Congratulations to the UIC College of Pharmacy graduating class of 2020. Though we were not able to hold an in-person Commencement ceremony, which we hope to do in the future, we did celebrate virtually. We honored 202 graduates who successfully completed the requirements for their Doctor of Pharmacy, Master of Science, and/or Doctor of Philosophy degree. Among the graduates were three PharmD validictorians (Haley Fox, Natalia Kapusciak, and Hannah Roppo), numerous students recognized for leadership and service, and graduates from both the Chicago and Rockford campuses. The Class of 2020 is a stellar group. We know this because they were thoroughly tested during their time at UIC. Not just in the traditional sense—by their faculty—but in the more important tests that life presents. They have the distinction of being the first class since 1918 to graduate during a pandemic! They rose to this unprecedented challenge with poise and confidence. They will do the same throughout their careers as the next generation of leaders of the profession of pharmacy and pharmaceutical sciences. The Class of 2020 has exceptional role models. As in previous years, our graduation ceremony, though virtual, included a tribute to our Golden Graduates—the alumni celebrating their 50th anniversary. This year we honored the class of 1970 (noted on page 36) for their long commitment to the profession of pharmacy, their service as role models to our new graduates, and their everlasting support for the UIC College of Pharmacy. They are examples for all of us. As the Class of 2020 departs, they received some excellent words of wisdom and advice from our virtual keynote speaker, Dr. Rina Shah (PharmD ’05). Dr. Shah holds one of the top executive positions at Walgreens— vice president of specialty and retail pharmacy. In that role, she has responsibility for over 9,000 Walgreen’s pharmacies across the country. A first-generation American, a Chicagoan, and a member of a family of pharmacists—Dr. Shah’s optimism for the profession, her leadership, and her commitment is what we look for in all of our graduates. The Class of 2020 attended one of the very best colleges of pharmacy in the world. They are ready to conquer the world of pharmacy. While they do, we hope they will stay connected. If we have learned anything in the past few months, it is how important it is to stay connected. Stay connected to your roots, to your family and loved ones, and to the College of Pharmacy. We are proud to proclaim the Class of 2020 to be alumni of the UIC College of Pharmacy. Like all of our 10,000 alumni, our exceptional faculty, our Golden Graduates, and our gradation ceremony speaker, Dr. Rina Shah, the Class of 2020 is UIC!
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PHARMD
Sophia Gilardone
Phuong Dung Luong
Frank Scillufo
Alyshia Accardi
Danerra Grahn
Adela Lupas
Ahlam Shaabneh
Amina Ahmad
PHD AND MS IN: PHARMACY SYSTEMS OUTCOMES AND POLICY
Dylan Grillaert
Katrina Marquez
Zaheera Shabbir
Ali Alobaidi
Zeba Ahmad
Anna Haltman
Victoria Marshall
Gary Shah
Alemseged Asfaw
Mohammed Alchaar
Kent Hanson
Magdalena Mastalerz
Anisa Shalabi
Deval Gor
Lissette Alvarado Garcia
Holland Harmon
Annita Mathew
Fatima Shareef
Jenny Guadamuz
Mehul Amin
Jenna Hashimoto
Taylor McDonald
Zahra Siddiqui
Conor Hanrahan
John Aranonu
Craig Hernandez
Shannon Menard
Sundip Singh
Ruixuan Jiang
Rudina Atieh
Ian Hesch
Iryna Mialik
Samantha Socco
Haridarshan Patel
Eric Baehr
Ryan Hill
Neil Kenneth Miran
Olasunbo Sorunke
Christopher Saffore
Ioana Balta
Emily Hiroi
Matthew Molaei
Hasmik Sotelo
Robert Schultz
Edian Banuelos
Jaime Holden
Zachary Moldwin
Kevin Su
Katherine Harrigan Zhang
Natasha Barrow
Hanna Hwang
Nita Mukand
Jakub Swiatek
Jifang Zhou
Whitney Bennett
Sue Jackson
Michaela Murphy
Lana Taha
Katherine Berry
Kelsey Johnson
Kyle Mysiewicz
Taha Taha
Emily Beskar
Cassidy Joy-Saini
Maryam Naveed
Chuxian Tang
PHD AND MS IN MEDICINAL CHEMISTRY AND PHARMACOGNOSY
Hannah Brennan
Patrycja Kadzielawa
Rian Neuzil
Aaron Then
Nikolay Aleksashin
Ryan Broda
Natalia Kapusciak
Tam Nguyen
Sarette Tilton
Alanna Condren
Kasey Brown
Agnieszka Karpa
Serge Njigeh
Darius Tumminello
Brian David
Aya Cabanban
Angelica Karpinski
Henry Okoroike
Kavya Vaitla
Loruhama Delgado-Rivera
Dam Hee Chae
Farah Khan
Bright Okoye
Nevena Varagic
Maryam Elfeki
John Chan
Stephanie Khin
Timothy Ortman
Loan Vi
Tanja Florin
Simon Chen
Brandon Klein
Uy Osaghae
Emily Viehl
Melissa Galey
Courtney Chmieleski
Joanna Kozien
Sandra Oyibo
May Marne Virtudazo
Cynthia Grim
Michelle Cho
Joanna Kuczak
Mi Rae Park
Sandra Walko
Brian Guo
Paul Cichon
Victoria Kulbokas
Yeonhee Park
Amanda Walsh
Caitlin Howell
Kathrine Rose Co
Malgorzata Labedz
Deval Patel
Antoinette White
Ammar Jastaniah
Alicia Cobbold
Kiran Ladhani
Shivani Patel
Tiera Williams
Rachel Knopp
Meagan Conrath
Michael Lam
Vishal Patel
Brenna Wing
Obinna Mbachu
Jenna Crosby
Denise Lamm
Tamara Polus
Krystian Wojdyla
Vanessa Nepomuceno
Hannah Dalogdog
Kirsten Larson
Andrew Posen
Matthew Wong
Peter Sullivan
Richard Daniel
Sajeel Latif
Lauren Pratt
Tiffany Wu
Taha Taha
Sanket Dholaria
Amy Lawando
Hali Ramirez
Zhaoju Wu
Katherine Zink
Mare Chris Domingo
Edwin Le
Samona Rawal
Baker Yaseen
Ishmael Duagbor
Steven Le
Dayna Redini
Devin Yates
Pia Mae Fiel
Don Lee
Patricia Rodriguez
Eric Yi
PHD AND MS IN BIOPHARMACEUTICAL SCIENCES OR FORENSICS
Sydney Fistler
Michelle Lee
Hannah Roppo
Di Zhang
Sungjoon Cho
Haley Fox
Jeremy Lerner
Aleksandrina Ruseva
Bing Zhao
Deanna-Kaye Daley
Justyna Fydrych
Travis Lester
Jenna Louise Sapasap
Waymond Zhou
Karina Esparza
Yan Gao
Paulina Lewkowski
Adam Sassila
William Zhou
Lucy Freitag
Madeline Gault
Cindy Li
Muslim Sayed
Nicole Groshon
Victoria Gavaghan
Wei Li
Philip Schorsch
Emily Nakamoto
Wendy Li
Nilanjana Sadhu Rachel Sandquist
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CAREER SPOTLIGHT
Gregory Dill, PharmD ’99, MPH Rear Admiral, U.S. Public Health Service and Deputy Office Director, Innovation and Financial Management, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services BY JESSICA CANLAS
Dr. Greg Dill has found his calling. This wasn’t exactly something he’d anticipated on an ordinary evening while working behind the pharmacy counter at one of the now-defunct Dominick’s grocery store locations in 2008. Nor had he expected his subsequent path to lead him, not indirectly, to his current position as a deputy director for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), the federal agency that provides healthcare coverage for more than 100 million people. However, like many such extraordinary adventures, Dill began his journey from a fairly ordinary starting point. And without any particular destination. In fact, when Dill, a native of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, graduated from high school, he admits that he joined the armed forces because he didn’t know what career path he wanted to pursue. And college wasn’t in his budget. “You’d be amazed where poverty takes you,” he jokes. In Dill’s case, it took him to the U.S. Army, where he served as a medic “in an armor battalion, of all places,” he reminisces. This curious placement ended up becoming his entrée into the healthcare space. Afterward, Dill went onto earn his associate’s degree in engineering and a bachelor’s in business and economics from Lafayette College in Easton, Pennsylvania. Because of his prior enlistment, Dill graduated with a commitment to return to the Army and was assigned, yet again, to an armor battalion. This time, he was given an administrative post managing more than 30 healthcare professionals. And, although he never saw any overseas deployments, Dill took the opportunity to observe and experience a variety of disciplines in the domestic healthcare arena. “I realized I didn’t want to be a physician,” he recalls, “But I liked the science of drugs and the application of drugs, so pharmacy became attractive.” So, after he’d fulfilled his commitment to the Army, Dill, who’d met his wife by this time, relocated to Chicago. He earned his PharmD at UIC in 1999 and then went to work for Searle, which was later taken over by Upjohn, which, eventually, merged with Pfizer. It was 2003, and Dill found himself at a crossroads. “The day we were told that we were closing down, another pharmacist asked me what I was going to do,” Dill says. “I’d just lost my job. I told him I didn’t know what I was
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going to do.” His friend recommended, based on Dill’s prior military service, that he consider applying for the U.S. Public Health Service. Following that sage advice, he did and ended up with a posting at the Food and Drug Administration, one of eight operating divisions of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services that is designated as part of the Public Health Service. As a commissioned corps officer, not only did Dill hold a full-time federal agency position; his military training proved critical while also serving part-time in the Public Health Service, which occasionally required him to don his uniform for short-term deployments to areas requiring emergency medical support. He recalls a memorable instance in rural Florida following a hurricane disaster. “We came in and worked so people could go home and be with their families,” he says. “It was hard, working that night shift. You’d get on about ten at night and then leave at eight in the morning when people were walking in the door and the sun was rising. I remember doing aminoglycoside for a newborn, and there was this protocol the hospital was following, but I was so nervous, I triple-checked that thing four or five times and even had the nurse look at it too.” It was during his time at the FDA, while reading a pharmacy industry publication, that Dill had a eureka moment. The same year he’d been laid off, the Bush administration
passed the Medicare Modernization Act, which would make the prescription drug benefit known as Medicare Part D available in 2006. “I was reading about this massive legislation that, for the very first time,” Dill recalls, “was going to give millions of people drug coverage. Medicare was going to be enrolling 25 million people for this by the end of 2005. “How could they not need pharmacists?” Dill saw an opportunity and landed a meeting with the Chicago CMS administrator. “I’ll never forget it. It was the Wednesday before Thanksgiving in 2005, and the gentleman said, ‘We haven’t historically hired pharmacists. I don’t know what we’d do with one.’ I said, ‘You have no idea. You’re about to roll out the biggest prescription drug benefit in the world.’” Three weeks later, just before taking his holiday leave, Dill got a call back asking him how soon he could start. He began at CMS two weeks later in January 2005, focusing mainly on implementing the prescription drug benefit and working in outreach and education. Eventually, he was asked to consider a position that would take him to CMS headquarters in Baltimore to write policy. Dill, with more than a little trepidation, agreed to a four-month stint. “Lo and behold, I liked it,” he remembers. “I wrote and rewrote every day. I read the law, read what people were suggesting about it. After a while, your anxiety decreases, and you get to a point where you sort of know what you’re talking about.” At the time, Dill had still been working part-time as a night-shift pharmacist at Dominick’s. He recalls how their fax machine would print out all their directives during his shift. “One night, I was sitting there, and out of the fax machine came a memo about vaccine administration. A memo I wrote came out of that fax machine at 7:45 at night! ” As he progressed through his career at CMS, Dill also earned his master’s in public health. Then he found himself at a turning point—pursue the path of becoming a technical expert or delve into leadership. He opted for the latter and started on his path to deputy director with a position as an associate regional administrator for Medicare fee-for-service operations in the Chicago area. He was later promoted to regional administrator, then served as acting consortium administrator. Today, he holds the deputy director post at a new arm of the CMS, the Office of Program Operations and Local Engagement Innovation and Financial Management, which was just instituted in November 2019. Dill’s office represents the front face of CMS across the nation by leading the administration of the Medicare fee-for-service program at the regional level, which serves more than 57
million beneficiaries and supports more than 1.6 million healthcare providers, physicians, and practitioners through oversight of Medicare administrative contractors, accountable care organizations, and CMS’s innovation models and ensures the Medicare program’s fiscal integrity. According to Dill, his office is “fully focused on transforming how we pay for and support healthcare delivery in the U.S.” The innovative vision for CMS, he explains, is to reframe the traditional fee-for-service system—paying claims—into a more value-based model. So far, one of the ways they’ve begun to move in this direction is by implementing advanced alternative payment models, in which primary care organizations are allocated funds— prior to providing actual services—to direct as they see fit for their population. “We recognize that primary care is changing,” Dill says. “Wellness doesn’t necessarily need an office visit.” Since physicians are better acquainted with their own populations, Dill explains, they know best how to steward the funds they are given to provide the highest level of care to their communities at the lowest cost. Healthcare providers can be incentivized and rewarded for prioritizing quality of care over quantity of visits. At the moment, approximately 30% of Medicare payments are based on some sort of value-based attribute. Dill wants to drive that statistic up to 50% within the next five years. “Why? Because if we are asking people to change, we need to change our structure and approach to fit a payment system based on value. And it’s not just structure; it’s about the people we hire, the processes we implement, the quality of our data analysis. Can we use automation and digital tools to better support a beneficiary population that is becoming more technically savvy and expects to be able to do everything through their phones? “We have to keep up.” In his own life and career, Dill himself has set an example of living out that exact sentiment. But he admits it wasn’t an easy path. “My life has not been some giant trajectory of success. I’ve been laid off. I’ve been turned down for jobs I really wanted. That CMS guy turned me down at first. I’ve had my failures along the way—and some painful ones.” Yet Dill is adamant that today’s pharmacists, particularly those who are willing to think a little bit differently, have “unlimited” opportunities available to them. “But, like anyone, you’re going to fail. Then you’re going to have to get back up, try again, and just keep trying. “You have to remember where you want to go. If you’re stuck in the here and now, you won’t go anywhere.”
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ALUMNI PROFILE
Yee-Ming Lee Explores the World—and the New World of Pharmacogenomics DR.
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Yee-Ming Lee explores uncharted ground in pharmacogenomics. L
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From Singapore to Australia, then Chicago to Colorado, Dr. Yee Ming Lee (PharmD ’12, RES ’13, RES ’14) has studied and worked across the globe. Her biggest step into the unknown, however, may have come in exploring the “uncharted ground” of pharmacogenomics.
“Some people still think pharmacogenomics is science fiction.” DR. YEE-MING LEE
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Now an assistant professor at the University of Colorado, Lee works with a large multidisciplinary team to implement personalized medicine across UCHealth. That work means constantly learning about new developments, while educating herself and others on how to translate pharmacogenomics to clinical practice. “Some people still think pharmacogenomics is science fiction,” Lee said. “But I say, ‘No, the train has left the station!’” Many institutions are adopting pharmacogenomics, she added, making it “a very exciting field” for pharmacists. The field, at its core, is the use of “an individual’s genetic profile to help one choose the right drug and the right dose, instead of applying a one-size-fits-all approach,” Lee said.
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The University of Colorado expanded into the new field at an opportune time for Lee. UC created a faculty position for the clinical implementation of pharmacogenomics just as Lee was finishing her post-UIC residency and fellowship training in the field. Good timing has been a theme for Lee. Just as she was finishing her PGY1 residency at UIC, the college launched a pharmacogenomics PGY2 program. Dr. Janet Engle, then head of the Department of Pharmacy Practice, offered Lee the opportunity to be the college’s first pharmacogenomics resident. Lee subsequently completed a clinical pharmacology and pharmacogenomics fellowship at the University of Chicago. “It was kind of serendipitous,” Lee said. “When I came into it . . . I didn’t have someone to role-model it for me. It was uncharted ground, and I’m very grateful to have entered it.” A Singapore native, Lee took the long journey to her specialty, completing her undergraduate pharmacy education and a master’s in pharmaceutical sciences in Australia before practicing as a hospital pharmacist in Singapore. The move to Chicago came after Lee met UIC’s globe-trotting Dr. Alan Lau and applied to the college’s PharmD program. Lee said she’s extremely thankful for the “very strong clinical foundation [UIC] provided in my career.”
Ryan Pearson Sees Early Research Success Merging Pharmacy and Engineering
Now an assistant professor at the University of Maryland Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Pearson runs a lab investigating immunomodulatory biomaterials. Before coming to Maryland, though, Pearson worked on immune tolerance at the University of Michigan as a postdoc and as a scientist at Cour Pharmaceuticals. There, he helped develop a nanoparticle platform for treating celiac disease, TIMP-GLIA, which has successfully passed Phase I and II trials. “There’s not that many people that are at such an early stage in their career like myself that have had the chance to develop something on the bench and see it all the way into patients,” he said. “And I think that’s really exciting.” The mix of skills that launched Pearson into such early research success came from the unique background he gained at UIC. Pearson earned his bachelor’s in chemical engineering from UIC in 2008, before going on to the PhD program in the College of Pharmacy. His drive to marry engineering with health research came from both aptitude and personal inspiration, he said.
“In 2009, my mother passed away due to breast cancer,” he said. “And seeing firsthand the toll that conventional chemotherapy took on her inspired me to pursue new ways to apply engineering strategies to create improved cancer therapies.”
“There’s not that many people that are at such an early stage in their career like myself that have had the chance to develop something on the bench and see it all the way into patients.”
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Dr. Ryan Pearson completed a PhD in biopharmaceutical sciences at UIC in 2014 and became a principal investigator just two years ago. But he’s already seen his work produce results for patients, a rare privilege so early in a career, Pearson said.
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Pearson launches research career with multidisciplinary UIC background.
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DR. RYAN PEARSON
Pearson said he credits a lot of his success in research to his advisor at UIC, Dr. Seungpyo Hong, now at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, who had a similar engineering-meets-pharmacy background. “His ability to foster collaborations gave us many chances to work on a variety of projects,” Pearson said. “His leadership and scientific drive were really impactful for me.” At his lab now, Pearson draws on that foundation to push an “elegance-insimplicity approach,” he said. “We’re trying to develop unique approaches using simple biomaterials and leverage their inherent properties to offset many of the immunological disorders that afflict patients today.”
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ALUMNI NEWS
Ask an Alumnus William Pong, PharmD ’91, MBA System Director Pharmacy Operations AMITA Health Dr. William Pong, PharmD, MBA, is the system director of pharmacy at AMITA Health System. He received his PharmD from the University of Illinois at Chicago and his MBA from Olivet Nazarene University. Pong is responsible for leading pharmacy operations for the 19 hospitals across AMITA Health as well as advancing and supporting system initiatives, including outpatient oncology pharmacies, ambulatory services, retail pharmacies, 340B program strategy and compliance, pharmacy fiscal budget improvement and business development, specialty pharmacy, and more. In the 28 years of his pharmacy career, Pong has practiced in a variety of hospital settings, including community, academic, single-site, multisite, and health systems. He has held several nonprofit and for-profit leadership positions, including clinical, operations, and administration. Before joining AMITA Health, his most recent roles include administrative director of pharmacy for Loyola University Health System, system director of pharmacy services for Wheaton Franciscan Health Care, and regional director of pharmacy for Vanguard Health System. Pong is a mission-focused leader with a history of producing sustainable results working with highperformance teams to implement key strategies that focus on patients, colleagues, and the organization. His experience covers a wide span of pharmacy practice, including operations, clinical, informatics, regulatory, finance, quality, strategy, business development, and leadership. In addition, Pong has been a preceptor for hundreds of pharmacy students, serving as an adjunct professor for various colleges of pharmacy, including UIC, Midwestern University, Purdue University, and Drake University.
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Q A
As a pharmacist, how can I best prepare to adapt to the inevitable changes ahead in the next 20 years?
Understanding the dynamics and forces that continue impacting the changes in the healthcare climate, such as focusing on population health, access to care delivery, and efforts in reducing the overall cost of care, are important for adapting to inevitable changes ahead. I believe the vision to see what lies ahead in five, ten, or twenty years is critical to how we plan today for a changing tomorrow. As practitioners, we need to stay flexible and open-minded and strategically position ourselves and the profession to address the unmet needs facing patient care and the healthcare delivery system.
Q A
What are you working on right now, and what have you learned from it?
Aside from the traditional hospital acute care pharmacy operations, such as cost containment, regulations, formulary, etc., I am working to help advance pharmacy practice and position my health system for success in future clinical practice and financial stewardship. This includes preventative medicine, ambulatory services, specialty pharmacy, revenue cycle, practice models, residency programs, and more. Of course, this is all happening while we are learning to function as a system across all the AMITA pharmacies. What I have learned is that pharmacy has become a very dynamic field, and we, as a profession, must be ready to advance as the healthcare system evolves. In addition, there are opportunities for standardization, optimization, and sharing best practices.
Q A
How does your pharmacy degree inform your leadership style?
Trained as a pharmacist, I am naturally detail oriented, clinical, and evidence based, etc. I believe these characteristics tend to translate my leadership style to a more clinical approach and scientific perspective. From my years of experience, whether it is a clinical or management role, my pharmacy degree has positioned me as the expert in my field serendipitously. Whether I like it or not, physicians and leaders look to me for guidance within the organization and often look upon me as the drug expert or most knowledgeable in pharmacy practice. What I have learned over the years is that the professionalism of pharmacy and creditability earned influenced my leadership style, and it was a high-quality foundation to build from. However, my leadership style has evolved with additional experience and mentorship. To be an effective leader, I learned to listen, support, motivate, care, and build relationships.
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Given your many career moves, how do you prepare for a new role? What do you enjoy most about your work?
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Change comes with every new landscape we enter. Some key elements are to understand the organization’s culture and goals and to align your service line to them. I also think it is important to know the stakeholders, set clear expectations, build relationships, and stay humble and hungry. What I enjoy most about my work is the variety, fast pace, teaching, problemsolving, and forward-thinking aspects of the field. Also, planning and deploying solutions to improve patient care and access and being in the position to change care delivery, promote pharmacy practice, and the profession for the future.
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What was the most important thing you learned while in pharmacy school? Who has influenced your career?
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I would say staying focused, multitasking, collaboration, and time management were some of the important elements I learned in pharmacy school. And of course, study, study, and study! I also learned not to be afraid to select a rotation that is your weakest subject. It was a great learning opportunity to strengthen my knowledge, and it turned out to be a wonderful rotation. There are quite a few people that have influenced my career, but specifically, the pharmacy director at my first job in pharmacy as a pharmacy technician, the CEO at my first job as a pharmacy director, and my first boss at the academic medical center impacted my career the most. They challenged and motivated me to do better; they believed in me and allowed me to grow and the opportunity to learn.
Q A
What do you love about pharmacy? Management?
I love pharmacy because it is dynamic, relevant, progressive, scientific, academic, and more. There are so many facets involving patient care and research that touch so many patients and at different points of care. It is a field that continues to advance, improving patient care and outcomes. From my experience, management is a great pairing with the pharmacy as it expands our horizons into nonclinical dimensions. Management allows us to focus on leadership, business operations, regulatory, informatics, finance, and revenue cycle. I feel it allows me to balance both the clinical and operations aspect of pharmacy and helps me see healthcare holistically.
Q A
Do you have advice for our current student pharmacists?
Take every opportunity to explore the different practices that pharmacy has to offer because you might land in an area that you never thought you would have. Everyone knows it is important to set goals and determine our career path. I believe it is critical to stay abreast of changes in healthcare, understand the future needs for pharmacist roles, and strategically position yourself to support these changes. It is not how fast you skate but rather knowing where the puck is going to be.
Q A
What does it mean to you to be an alumnus of the UIC College of Pharmacy?
I am extremely proud to be a graduate and alumnus of UIC College of Pharmacy. It has been a top ten pharmacy school in the country for decades and continues to provide high-quality education. To me, it has been a privilege to have the opportunity to attend and train here. It is a rigorous program that offers a solid foundation that prepared me well for a career in pharmacy. I applied to only one pharmacy school, and I am happy that it was UIC.
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What motivates you to support the college?
I am grateful for the opportunity and training at UIC. As a proud alumnus, I want to not only promote the college but help continue its legacy of educational excellence and preparing future UIC pharmacists. I had a great experience at UIC and felt the school prepared me well for the boards, clinical practice, and a career. As part of giving back, I want to leverage my experience to educate and inspire the next generation of pharmacists about the growth, changes, and opportunities in the future.
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ALUMNI NEWS
Ali Alobaidi, PharmD ’18, MS ’20, was promoted to manager, Global Health Economics and Outcomes Research-Neuroscience at AbbVie.
Robin Marles, PhD ’88, was recently reappointed as chair of the USP’s Expert Committee on Botanical Dietary Supplements.
Sharon Ayd, PhD ’97, MBA, was recently appointed to the Ohio State University’s Comprehensive Cancer Center, Drug Development Institute (DDI) Scientific Advisory Board. DDI was founded to address the translational development gap that exists between discoveries made in the research lab and the conversion of those discoveries to innovative drug therapies for patients.
Jennifer (Zacher) Martin, PharmD ’04, started a new position as deputy chief consultant, pharmacy benefits management services, at the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.
Kevin Chang, PharmD ’16, was promoted to lead clinical pharmacist for the surgical-trauma ICU at Loyola Medicine.
Syed Munawer, PharmD ’16, started a new position as manager, oncology medical communications, at Astellas Pharma US.
Tommy Chiampas, PharmD ’11, recently ended his tenure as a clinical assistant professor at the UIC College of Pharmacy to begin a new position as a medical scientist with Gilead Sciences where he will focus on liver diseases for the Chicago region.
Jordan Ordonez, PharmD ’17, recently completed his Master of Public Health (MPH) degree in health policy and administration.
William Chirchirillo, BS ’65, has retired as a registered pharmacist from Walgreens after 20 years of service.
Dr. Debra Goff
Debra Goff, BS ’80, PharmD ’82, an associate professor of pharmacy practice and science at the Ohio State University College of Pharmacy, was recently appointed to the World Health Organization (WHO) Antimicrobial Stewardship Program. She will serve as one of 25 global experts to help institute antimicrobial stewardship plans in low- and middle-income countries. Dr. Goff has an extensive background with antimicrobial stewardship training programs in South Africa and other nations.
Albert Mei, PharmD ’17, started a new position as clinical account executive at Express Scripts.
Kavita Singh Vazirani, PharmD ’07, started a new position as principal consultant at Opus Regulatory. Andrea TenBarge, PharmD ’12, started a new position as an advisor for next generation customer engagement planning and operations at Eli Lilly and Company. Sophie Wimberley, PharmD ’98, was promoted to senior director of global field medical oncology at Alkermes. Vladimir Yurukov, PharmD ’18, was named the P2 Teacher of the Year at California Health Sciences University (CHSU).
Radhika (Mehta) Gomez, PharmD ’15, started a new position as medical promotional review scientist at Bristol-Myers Squibb. Les Kazmierczak, BS ’77, started a new position as facility administrator/pharmacy director at Northwest Indiana 24/7 ER and Hospital. Myron Laban, PharmD ’18, a pharmacist at Walgreens, was interviewed by WTTW for his artwork and murals with messaging that promotes mental health awareness. Antonett Madriaga, PharmD ’13, started a new position as an associate scientist at Jansen Pharmaceuticals focusing on their infectious disease and vaccines therapeutic areas.
Dr. Myron Laban
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Maya Campara, PharmD ’06, and Vladimir Urbin welcomed their first child, Alexander Urbin, on November 5, 2019, weighing in at 7 lbs 12 oz and measuring 20 inches. Cassandra (Clement) Davis, PharmD ’12, and husband, McKenney “Mac,” welcomed their son, McKenney “Kenney” Davis, who joined us on February 21, 2020, at 6:42 p.m., weighing in at 7 pounds and measuring 21 inches. Kavita Singh Vazirani, PharmD ’07, and her husband, Roshan Vazirani, welcomed their first child, daughter Riya Maya, who was born on March 19, 2019. Taha Taha, PharmD ’15, PhD ’20, and wife, Lana Taha, PharmD ’20, welcomed their first child, daughter Natalia Maryam Taha, who was born April 27, 2020, at 7 pounds, one ounce and 19 inches long. Brittany (Allen) Tefft, PharmD ’10, and husband, Brandon, welcomed their third child, Carter, who was born in February. Scott and Priya Wirth, both PharmD ’07, welcomed their fourth child, daughter Amara Pearl, who was born on April 6.
Alexander Urbin
Neil Schroeder, PharmD ’16, is now engaged to Michelle Falesch.
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Class of 1970 Golden Graduates 50th Anniversary
Dr. Ron Koch
Mike Harris, Pat Carroll, and Richard Wartick
We are delighted to recognize the Class of 1970 alumni Golden Graduates! We customarily host a group of Golden Graduates at Commencement each year, followed by a luncheon and tour of the college—we all look forward to hosting them when social gathering is again permissible and Commencement is rescheduled. Stay tuned! Robert L. Shapiro
Arthur Helfat, BS ’67, MD, a resident of Laguna Beach, California, passed away February 20, 2020.
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Joe Gloudeman
Thomas Towers, BS ’74, PharmD ’94, a resident of Chicago, passed away July 7, 2019.
P H A R M A CY.U I C . E D U
Matthew Wojtaszek, Jr., BS ’74, a resident of Mount Prospect, Illinois, passed away January 10, 2020.
Frank Zielinski, BS ’53, a resident of Rockford, passed away on January 12, 2019.
Frank was parent to three pharmacists, his children Kathleen Zielinski Cerutti (BS '76) and Steven Zielinski (BS '77) are fellow alumni. Two of his grandchildren are also pharmacists, and another is presently in pharmacy school.
WE BELIEVE in the power of education and its ability to change the world. OV E R O N E H U N D R E D S I X T Y Y E A R S AG O, the UIC College of Pharmacy was established. The college has been known by many names, and it has been located on several streets in Chicago during its storied history. From our humble beginnings in rented space in downtown Chicago to our current campuses on Wood Street in Chicago and Parkview Avenue in Rockford, WE have continued our teaching, research, and public service with vigor, staying at the forefront of an ever-changing world. D U R I N G O U R LO N G H I S TO RY, WE have inspired and supported the next generation of pharmacists and pharmaceutical scientists through the Civil War, the Great Chicago Fire, countless snow storms, a second fire at the college, and now COVID-19. WE are prepared to further adapt and innovate, leading the pharmacy world forward. W I T H A S T R O N G F O U N DAT I O N to build upon and an amazing network of alumni and friends, there is no limit to what WE can accomplish together.
IGNITE the success of future generations at
giving.pharmacy.uic.edu. And, let US imagine the next 160 years!
COLLEGE OF PHARMACY UIC College of Pharmacy 833 S. Wood St. (MC 874) Chicago, Illinois 60612
Understanding how to best serve patients to maintain a healthy community is one of the hallmarks of the practice of pharmacy. But understanding a community in order to maintain healthier patients—that’s what investigators in the Department of Pharmacy Systems, Outcomes, and Policy do best. We work toward influencing population-level health, looking closely at what clinicians and lawmakers can do to help you live your best life, and we use that knowledge to influence healthcare policy and legislation that can impact millions. At the UIC College of Pharmacy, our cause is to save and improve lives through compassionate healthcare practices. Our effect is creating a healthcare climate that makes our world worth living in. To learn more about how you can invest in or partner with the Department of Pharmacy Systems, Outcomes, and Policy, please contact Ben Stickan at 312-639-9069 or bstickan@uic.edu.
