The Pharmacist - Fall 2021 by UIC Retzky College of Pharmacy

FA LL 2021 | VO LU M E 44 | I S SU E 1

THE MAGAZINE OF THE UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS CHICAGO COLLEGE OF PHARMACY

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ITR: A Home Away from Home 12 Student Experiential Rotations 16 Beyond the PharmD 18 White Coat Ceremony 32

contents 02

Dean’s Letter

03 Events 04

College News

Student News

A Home Away from Home

Student Experiential Rotations

Beyond the PharmD

Change Agents

Important Step, Important Time: The New BSPS Program

Turning Knowlege into Profit at the DIG

Together Again: White Coat Ceremony

Alumni Profiles

Ask an Alumnus

Alumni News

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.

EDITORIAL CREDITS PUBLISHER Glen T. Schumock, PharmD, MBA, PhD Professor and Dean EDITORS Robert Hoff UIC Creative and Digital Services Ben Stickan Associate Dean of Advancement PROOFREADERS Lexi Betcher Deb Fox Chris Gummert Imani Watson CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Jessica Canlas Jacqueline Carey Sonya Collins Michael Dhar Sharon Parmet Daniel Smith Imani Watson PHOTOGR APHY Barry Donald Jim Young DESIGN Godfrey Carmona UIC Creative and Digital Services The Pharmacist 833 S. Wood St. (MC 874) Chicago, Illinois 60612 (312) 996-7240 pharmcommunications@uic.edu ©2021. All rights reserved.

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FROM THE DEAN

Together Again BY DEAN GLEN SCHUMOCK We are back! The beginning of the fall semester on August 23, 2021, marked a new start at the UIC College of Pharmacy. That was the day we resumed all our regular in-person classes. While it was naturally the first day on campus for our incoming P1s, that was also true in a way for our P2s, who started the PharmD program the previous year during the pandemic. The joy of being together again, or for the first time, has been palpable. The hallways are ringing with the sounds of student laughter and people connecting again. And while we are still wearing masks and following other precautions, being together again helps us see the light at the end of the tunnel.

Similar advances are occurring at the college in our educational programs. In this issue, you will learn about technology innovations to put more information in students’ hands as they chart their experiential rotations and career. The experiential education geographic areas map, developed at our Rockford campus by Megan Magnuson, links students with information about the 900 plus sites in Illinois and beyond where they can conduct introductory or advanced pharmacy practice experiences (IPPEs or APPEs).

As we transition back to the new normal, we do so with a fresh perspective. The pandemic has given us a renewed appreciation of the role we each play individually and collectively and how we work together to achieve a greater good. It has reminded us of the importance of our research, the role pharmacists play in people’s lives, and why educating the new generation of pharmacists, pharmaceutical scientists, and pharmacy leaders is such a critical mission.

Also included here is an article on our new Bachelor of Science in pharmaceutical sciences (BSPS) degree. Now fully approved and set to start in 2022, the BSPS will allow students to either track into the PharmD program (and reduce the time to degree by one year) or complete the bachelor’s and pursue careers in pharmaceutical sciences. This new program will be headed by Dr. Charles McPherson, the newly crowned assistant dean for pharmacy undergraduate education.

The accomplishments of our faculty, staff, students, and alumni towards our mission of education, research, and service are highlighted in this issue of The Pharmacist. You will read about the long and successful history of our Institute for Tuberculosis Research (ITR). From the discovery of Bacille CalmetteGuerin (Tice strain)—a vaccine for tuberculosis (now a leading treatment for bladder

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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cancer)—to the present-day work to identify new drugs for related infectious diseases, the research done at ITR has impacted the lives of millions of people.

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Also included here is an overview of the college’s graduate and post-PharmD training programs. These are among the largest and best programs among schools of pharmacy in the country. The graduates, like you, have distinguished themselves in their careers. Finally, this issue includes much on the service

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 Ben Stickan (bstickan@uic.edu). 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.

EVENTS

Continuing Education Opportunities mission of the college. In particular, we highlight the vital role of our Drug Information Group. Led by Dr. Michael Gabay, the DIG is an entrepreneurial engine of the College of Pharmacy that provides many soughtafter services to pharmacists, physicians, hospitals, pharmaceutical and insurance companies, and many other healthcare organizations. Together again, the faculty, staff, students, alumni, and partners are advancing the UIC College of Pharmacy mission. You are an essential part of that effort. We are thankful for your contribution, support, and engagement.

The University of Illinois Chicago College of Pharmacy Office of Continuing Education and Meeting Services (OCEMS) has released the following programs: P HARM ACY T ECHN IC IAN C E P ROG RAM S Twenty-two ACPE-approved pharmacy technician continuing

FIVE-POINT VISION

education programs. For more information, please visit go.uic.edu/PharmTechCE. P H A R M AC I ST C E P R O G R A M S Twenty-nine ACPE-approved pharmacist continuing education programs. For more information, please visit

Provide unparalleled pharmacy education and training

Advance the profession through leadership and advocacy

go.uic.edu/PharmacistCE.

Alumni Reunion Our annual Alumni Reunion has been on pause the last couple of Lead the nation in pharmaceutical research that impacts health

Foster a culture of excellence, collaboration, and inclusiveness

years due to the pandemic; however, we are cautiously optimistic for that to change. Please SAVE-THE-DATE for our 2022 Alumni Reunion Weekend on March 25–26, 2022. We will be honoring the past Golden Graduate Classes of 1970 and 1971 as well as

Be the epicenter of innovative pharmacy services

this year’s Golden Graduate Class of 1972. All alumni are welcome and it is certain to be memorable. More details to follow.

Our Digital Edition issuu.com/uicpharmacy

12th Annual Research Day— November 12, 2021 The UIC College of Pharmacy recognizes the significant challenges that COVID-19 has placed on the clinical, scientific, and educational communities. In accordance with state and university guidance, our Research Day will be a virtual one. Poster sessions, award ceremonies, and the keynote lecture will still be presented live/in real-time; however, they will be held online to maintain social distancing and minimize risk to our community. Join us at researchday.pharmacy.uic.edu.

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COLLEGE NEWS

Governor Pritzker presents HB 0135

Pritzker signs laws easing access to birth control, expanding telehealth services On July 22, 2021, GOVERNOR J.B. PRITZKER arrived at the University of Illinois Chicago’s College of Pharmacy to sign a law allowing pharmacists to assess and prescribe hormonal birth control to patients, a move Pritzker and champions of the bill called a “commonsense approach” to helping women get contraceptives from trusted sources.

HB 0135, the new law which takes effect on January 1, will expand access to oral contraceptives by allowing pharmacists to assess and prescribe those drugs. This important bill was, fittingly, signed at the college, where a majority of the pharmacists practicing in the state of Illinois have trained. Like the extraordinary role pharmacists and pharmacy students played in the response to the pandemic, this bill is another example of how pharmacists can be better utilized to serve the healthcare needs of the people of Illinois.

Dr. Danziger Named Distinguished Professor Dr. LARRY DANZIGER was recently named distinguished professor of pharmacy practice at the University of Illinois Chicago. It is a well-deserved honor that recognizes his long record of scholarship, creativity, and leadership.

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On the Move

BARRY WHITE recently assumed the role of College of Pharmacy chief IT officer, leading the college’s IT group for both campuses.

performance by a certified pharmacy technician within the state of Illinois.

National Institutes of Health for a one-year project titled “COVID19 ACTIV4c Post-Hospital Platform (ILLI-NET) and ACTIV4c PostDischarge Antithrombosis Study” (ACTIV4c). Drs. KERI KIM, SCOTT BENKEN, and LAUREN ANDREWS, received funding from the Global Coalition for Adaptive Research (GCAR) for a two-year project titled “COVID19 Randomized, Embedded, Multifactorial Adaptive Platform trial for Community-Acquired Pneumonia (REMAP-CAP).”

Dr. Sheila Allen Annexiea Buford

Dr. SHEILA ALLEN was appointed senior director of experiential education at the UIC College of Pharmacy.

Dr. Barry White

Promotions Dr. SANG HYUN CHO, promoted to the rank of research professor of medicinal chemistry, in the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences.

Alexandria “Lexi” Betcher

ALEXANDRIA (LEXI) BETCHER, MSW, is the newest member of the college’s Advancement and Alumni Relations team, joining on August 16 as associate director of development.

Dr. IRINIA GAISINA, promoted to the rank of research associate professor, in the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences. Dr. BIRGIT JAKI, promoted to the rank of clinical professor, in the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences. Dr. BRIAN MURPHY, promoted to the rank of professor, in the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences.

Dr. Jennie Jarrett

Dr. JENNIE JARRETT (PI) and co-PI Karen Cotler (UIC Nursing) received an award over $1.8 million from the Department of Health and Human Services Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) for the program “UIC Integrated Substance Use Disorder (SUD) Training Program” to support substance use disorder education and training for nurse practitioners in primary care.

Dr. Scott Benken

Dr. STEPHANIE CRAWFORD was selected as a fellow for the 2021–2022 President’s Executive Leadership Program. This is a very selective group of faculty and administrators from throughout the University of Illinois System.

Dr. JENNIFER PHAM, promoted to the rank of clinical associate professor, in the Department of Pharmacy Practice. Dr. Charles McPherson

Dr. CHARLES MCPHERSON was appointed assistant dean for pharmacy undergraduate education effective August 16, 2021. He will be implementing our new bachelor’s in pharmaceutical sciences (BSPS) degree in the next year. The BSPS will help ensure a steady pipeline of students to our PharmD program and cut the time to degree (BS + PharmD) by one year.

Dr. CHRISTOPHER SCHRIEVER, promoted to the rank of clinical associate professor, in the Department of Pharmacy Practice.

Grants and Awards ANNEXIEA BUFORD, CPhT, quality improvement technician at the UI Health was recently honored with the ICHP Pharmacy Technician of the Year Award. This honor was established to identify and recognize exceptional

Dr. Stephanie Crawford Dr. Keri S. Kim

Dr. KERI S. KIM, received funding from the National Institutes of Health for two two-year projects, the first titled “COVID19 ACTIV-4a Inpatient Platform (ILLI-NET)” and the second “COVID19 ACTIV-4a Inpatient Antithrombosis Study” (ACTI 4a).” Drs. KERI S. KIM, CHARLES MCPHERSON, PEGGY CHOYE, received support from the

Dr. RUCHIK PATEL was featured on an episode of the Becker’s Hospital Review podcast. The episode, “Data in the Driver’s Seat—Insights from Specialty Pharmacy Leaders,” discusses the importance of data in health system specialty pharmacy and how pharmacies are working to tackle challenges involved in identifying, aggregating, and then reporting out the data.

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Advancing Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion The UIC College of Pharmacy has received the 2021 INNOVATION + INCLUSION LEADERSHIP AWARD from the Society for Diversity. The Society for Diversity is an organization that advocates for workplace inclusion, equity, and fairness for all. Ideal candidates for this award were leaders and organizations who have worked intentionally to advance equity, diversity, and inclusion with innovative or next-generation practices. UIC Pharmacy was the only college/university recognized this year.

INSIGHT Into Diversity Inspiring Programs in STEM Award Results The University of Illinois Chicago College of Pharmacy’s Urban Pathways Program has been named a recipient of INSIGHT Into Diversity magazine’s 2021 Inspiring Programs in STEM Award. INSIGHT recognizes the importance of increasing the number of people from underrepresented groups

entering STEM professions. This award is being presented as a tribute to the people and programs that encourage and inspire a new generation of people to consider careers in science, technology, engineering, and math and our work to make a significant difference through mentoring and teaching, research, and other efforts worthy of this national recognition.

ACS Division of Medicinal Chemistry Honors Dr. Judy Bolton Dr. JUDY BOLTON, distinguished professor and former head of the Department of Medicinal Chemistry, has been posthumously inducted into the American Chemical Society’s (ACS) Medicinal Chemistry Hall of Fame! ACS inductees are members of the division who have made outstanding contributions to medicinal chemistry through research, teaching, and/or division service. Throughout her career, Dr. Bolton won numerous awards, including UIC Woman of the Year in 2013 and the Founder’s Award from the American Chemical Society in 2018.

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Dr. Burdette Named Inaugural Mika Professor JOANNA BURDETTE, PhD, has a new title: Dr. Edward S. Mika and Mrs. Josephine E. Mika Professor of Pharmacognosy and Medicinal Chemistry. Dr. Burdette was feted with the inaugural endowed professorship at a virtual investiture ceremony on September 15. She becomes the seventh College of Pharmacy faculty member to receive such an honor. “I am extremely humbled to be named the first Dr. Edward S. Mika and Mrs. Josephine E. Mika Professor of Pharmacognosy and Medicinal Chemistry at UIC,” Burdette said. “Dr. Mika was one of the first pharmacognosy faculty hired at UIC, and he had a storied career researching the chemical composition, growth, and development of medicinal plants. I, like Dr. Mika, thoroughly enjoy my work with natural products.” Dr. Burdette, who also serves as associate dean for research and graduate programs in the College of Pharmacy, has developed three-dimensional models of the fallopian tube to define early events responsible for high-grade serous ovarian cancer formation. She is interested in using natural products for anticancer activity. Her research is funded by the American Cancer Society, the U.S. Department of Defense, the Ovarian Cancer Research Fund, and the National Institutes of Health’s National Cancer Institute. In her distinguished career, Burdette has been the recipient of the Liz Tilberis Scholar Award from the Ovarian Cancer Research Fund, was named a UIC Rising Star and UIC Researcher of the Year in Basic Life Sciences. She is also a coleader of the University of Illinois Cancer Center’s Tumor Biology Program and is a center affiliate at the Center for Biomolecular Sciences. As a renowned scientist whose research has spanned the fields of pharmacognosy, reproductive biology, medicinal chemistry and oncology, Burdette is an “ideal recipient of this professorship,” said Debra Tonetti, PhD, professor of pharmacology and interim head of the Department of Pharmaceutical Science.

“Dr. Burdette is an outstanding scientist,” Tonetti said. “She has extensively investigated botanical dietary supplements as alternatives to hormone replacement therapy and natural products as anticancer agents. Dr. Burdette is also a dedicated educator training the next generation of scientists and pharmacists. Our department and the college is fortunate to have Dr. Burdette as a member of our faculty and as a colleague.” Investing in a college’s academic program is important, but a professorship is especially so, both for the university and the individual supported by the gift, said College of Pharmacy dean Glen Schumock, PhD, MBA. “Endowed professorships are an investment in the mission and vision of the organization, and it is a source of support that will exist in perpetuity,” Schumock said. “Professorships are rare—we have but seven fully endowed in the College of Pharmacy. Becoming an endowed professor is one of the most noteworthy honors that a faculty member can achieve. It is a testament to our belief in the strong promise of further accomplishments. “We are truly honored to perform this investiture for Dr. Burdette and we are eternally grateful to the Mika family for their generous gift.”

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STUDENT NEWS

Two PGY1 Residents Named Walmart Scholars

PhD Candidate to Attend Yale Career Academy

Former PGY1 residents Drs. ALEX THORP and KENIL PATEL were named 2021 Walmart Scholars in partnership with the American Association of Clinical Pharmacists (AACP). The Walmart competitive scholarship program was designed to strengthen the recipient’s skills and commitment to a career in academic pharmacy through their participation at the AACP Annual Meeting.

AMANDA MALDONADO, a fourth year PhD candidate, is one of 16 young science leaders selected to attend the Yale Ciencia Academy for Career Development, a National Institutes of Health–funded fellowship program to assist promising Hispanic and Latinx scientists transition into research careers. Maldonado is a member of Dr. Joanna Burdette’s laboratory and was recently part of a NIH T32 grant to aid her research interests in natural products and women’s health.

Dr. Alex Thorp

Dr. Kenil Patel

P4 Student Pharmacist Recognized by the University P4 student pharmacist NILMARIE AYALA-FONTANEZ has been selected as the 2021 graduate student awardee of the Chancellor’s Committee on the Status of Latinos (CCSL) recognition awards. The CCSL is an advisory body dedicated to promoting the academic, professional, cultural, and social welfare of the Latino community.

Nilmarie Ayala-Fontanez

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SURF and Riback Fellows Finish Symposium The UIC Pharmacy Summer Undergraduate Research Fellows (SURF) and Riback Fellows put their research and public speaking skills on display at the annual Mini Symposium. Congratulations to ALEXANDRA CASTROVERDE for winning “Best SURF Poster” and JANE MIGLO for winning “Best Riback Poster” at the symposium.

We are more committed than ever to keeping the cost of our life-changing education as low as possible. Support from alumni and friends provides a steady source of support for need-based scholarships during this health and economic crisis. Your generous support is critical, and we are continually humbled by your generosity. Just this year, David Aumiller, Dr. Stephanie Crawford; Dr. William (BS ’83) and Mrs. Denise Fitzsimmons; Dr. Kennetth Joseph; Friends of the late Dr. Alice Romie (PharmD ’94); and Dr. Audra (PharmD ’95) and Mr. Anthony Thomas (Gies CoB ’93) have generously endowed scholarships to support current and future students. Our thanks to these amazing student advocates!

T O D I S C U S S A L A S T I N G L E G A C Y T O B E N E F I T T H E N E X T G E N E R AT I O N O F P H A R M A C I S T S A N D S C I E N T I S T S , P L E A S E C O N TA C T A S S O C I AT E D E A N B E N S T I C K A N AT 312 . 6 3 9 . 9 0 6 9 . T O S E E M O R E O N D O N O R I M P A C T, P L E A S E V I S I T P H A R M A C Y. U I C . E D U /A L U M N I - A N D - G I V I N G /C A M P A I G N . FA L L 2 0 2 1

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Our New Student Services Center Has Opened B Y I M A N I WAT S O N

Over the summer, the UIC College of Pharmacy’s Chicago campus had a makeover! The Office of Academic Affairs and the Office of Advancement and Alumni Affairs received modernized upgrades to their facilities—including rising desks, glass doors, and builtin whiteboards in every office space. However, one of the most extensive upgrades was developing the new Student Services Center, which houses the Office of Student Affairs, Office of Diversity and Inclusion, and our new Bachelor of Science in pharmaceutical sciences degree program. The Student Services Center officially opened to students on Monday, August 30, 2021. The center is a 3,000-square-foot space comprising ten offices and multiple study areas that can accommodate about 30 students. According to Dr. Thomas TenHoeve III, associate dean of student affairs, the Student Services Center is “a new, safe, and welcoming student-centered space where students can study, collaborate, and have access to all of the services that they need in one location.” Collaboration spaces are crucial in pharmacy education as pharmacists often work within care teams. With the advent of the Student Services Center, faculty and staff will now be more easily accessible to assist with admissions, academic success, inclusivity, tutoring, scholarships, wellness, career services, and more. 10

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“The goal of the new Student Services Center is to provide the right support, in the right place, at the right time to help our students be successful,” concluded Dr. TenHoeve. The Student Services Center also contains a “Diversity Wall,” an open area on the wall within the collaboration space that reflects the diversity and inclusion values of the college. It even features an original painting by Myron Laban, PharmD ’18. The artwork depicts the essence of UIC College of Pharmacy through its different initiatives: research, service, and education. It also includes the College of Pharmacy building in Chicago, a sculpture emblematic of Rockford, and all the various activities at the college, such as research and clinical care. The bright colors, organic shapes, and shades of green represent Dr. Laban’s signature painting style. Dr. Clara Okorie-Awé, associate dean for diversity, equity, and inclusion, reflected on how she thinks the Student Services Center and the Diversity Wall will uplift students. “The Diversity Wall acknowledges and celebrates the college’s uniqueness and richness of our students, faculty, and staff. It sets the tone that everyone is welcome regardless of their social identities,” said Dr. Okorie-Awé. The recent enhancements to our facilities are an investment that will help us continue to provide quality education, opportunity, and mentorship to all of the student pharmacists we serve.

sponsors

Center for Clinical and Translational Science Office of Technology Management

INSTITUTE FOR TUBERCULOSIS RESEARCH HISTORY

1933

1930s–1940s

1947

Dr. Tice at Cook County Hospital sends young physician DR. SOL ROY ROSENTHAL (1903–1995) to Institute Pasteur to work with new Bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG) vaccine.

Rosenthal conducts CLINICAL TRIALS on BCG on the south side of Chicago to prove safety; noted suppression of leukemia and soft tissue tumors.

U.S. surgeon general announces LONG TERM BCG STUDY in Rosenthal’s lab. Research foundation set up.

Institute Pasteur, Paris

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Thomas Parran, U.S. Surgeon General (1936–1948)

A H O M E AWAY F R O M H O M E Dr. Scott Franzblau and his ITR team are like a family of researchers, and they wouldn’t have it any other way.

U S T PA S T A S TA N D A R D S E T O F S E C U R E hospitalstyle double doors on the north end of the UIC College of Pharmacy’s fourth floor lies a clean, white hallway that runs straight through the middle of the Institute for Tuberculosis Research (ITR). Several doors, many with small windows, line its walls, punctuated by scientific posters and large picture windows lending views into various spaces that researchers enter and exit, where platform shakers quietly agitate flasks and colleagues convene to discuss their work. While still in the midst of a global pandemic—ironically, the sandbox in which the institute plays—much of this 5,500 square feet of space is likely not as busy as it was before the quarantine of 2020. Still, behind many doors are a number of faces found.

And their eyes, betraying what is hidden beneath surgical masks, belong to smiling faces. Because, while the ITR is a lab, and a very serious one at that, where considerably grave and life-changing work is done, it is also a sort of home away from home. A familial place where discoveries, careers, and personal and professional relationships are born and thrive. And where some of the brightest minds in their fields gather to work on eradicating a relentless killer that has plagued humanity since ancient times, sickening 1.2 million children each year and claiming 3,836 lives around the globe each day, according to the TB Alliance.

At the helm of this great and humble vessel is Dr. Scott Franzblau, ITR director and Albert Schatz Professor of Medicinal Chemistry and Pharmacognosy. Originally from a small suburb of New York City on the other side of the Hudson River, Franzblau dreamed of living in open spaces, swearing never to reside east of the Rocky Mountains after spending his postgraduate years in Arizona and the Pacific Northwest. “I was an idealist,” he admits, almost ruefully. “I wanted to save the world. When I finished my PhD, I thought, ‘What are the most neglected infectious diseases in the world that nobody’s working on?’ My priority was to try to do something that would benefit humankind in the only area where I thought I had any competence, which was microbiology.” At the time, his directive led him to the National Hansen’s Disease (Leprosy) Program in Carville, Louisiana, where he spent 17 years seeking a cure for leprosy until the mid-1980s when a multidrug-resistant strain of TB began surfacing in the United States among immunocompromised HIV patients. Then he got a call from the NIH, which was aware that Franzblau had one of the few biosafety level-3 (BSL-3) labs in the nation at his facility, giving him the capability to work with TB. That kicked off a partnership that lasted

July 7, 1947

1950

1972

Illinois legislature establishes the INSTITUTE FOR TUBERCULOSIS RESEARCH responsible to the University of Illinois Board of Trustees.

Rosenthal develops TICE STRAIN of BCG.

Rosenthal retires, DR. RAY CRISPEN becomes director.

BCG Tice is a registered trademark of the University of Illinois College of Pharmacy, now UIC.

ITR LICENSED BY FDA for manufacture of BCG Tice.

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for the next decade, screening compounds against TB for the NIH. At the same time, his work with leprosy came to completion. “From there on, it was one-hundred percent TB. No looking back.”

This is a place where you can go from discovery at the bench to clinical trials without ever leaving the campus.

In 1999, when he received a letter from the associate dean of research at UIC College of Pharmacy seeking a new director for its Institute for Tuberculosis Research, Franzblau admits he had no intention of coming to Chicago. Still clinging to his designs on living in the great wide open, preferably on a coast, he was uninterested in being virtually landlocked in the Midwest. Encouraged by a colleague—a natural products chemist who incidentally had a postdoc in his lab named Guido Pauli—who claimed that UIC was “the mecca of pharmacognosy in the U.S.,” Franzblau made the trip. “The person who convinced me to stay was Larry Danziger,” he recalls. “He told me, ‘This is a place where you can go from discovery at the bench to clinical trials without ever leaving the campus. Everything you need is here.’ “That’s what I wanted. I wanted to do new drug discovery.” In the past 20-plus years since his arrival, Franzblau has successfully built his own drug discovery ensemble with players in the college from medicinal chemistry, natural products chemistry, microbiology, drug metabolism, pharmacokinetics, and toxicology, all focused on natural products-related drug discovery for TB. Indeed, the discovery of drugs—three compounds in development by the Global Alliance for TB Drug Development for which the ITR contributed IND-supporting data are either in or about to enter phase I trials—is among one of the major contributions Franzblau lists among the ITR’s accomplishments. Another is the development of a high-throughput compatible assays that can quickly determine if a compound is capable of killing TB. “We’ve been able to assist people throughout the world in testing their compounds against TB,” says Franzblau.

The ITR is also in the throes of a research project with the TB Alliance to produce new clinical-stage drug candidates for treating TB. The five-year effort is funded by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases– supported Centers of Excellence for Translational Research (CETR). ITR is one of three partners with TB Alliance, the primary recipient of the grant. As part of the project, the ITR is receiving up to $9 million in funding to investigate promising natural compounds and their effect against TB and to evaluate the treatment potential of compounds developed by researchers from Harvard University and Johns Hopkins University, the other key partners on the project. “We discovered a class of compounds that hit a new molecular target in TB,” says Franzblau. “But what’s interesting is that the original compounds we found that led us to this target are natural products.” The original compounds Franzblau refers to aren’t exactly new discoveries but more like an upcycle of the previously tested material. “Twenty years ago, people stopped screening big microbial libraries that were built by pharmaceutical companies . . . who fermented thousands of microbes looking for new antibiotics,” says Franzblau. In the past, testing compounds against TB was unpopular. It was dangerous to work with and grew slowly compared to other bacterial pathogens, he explains. He believes that some of these compounds may have been overlooked simply because they weren’t tested against TB. “My thinking was, probably a lot of things [may have] only killed TB and nothing else, so, not seeing activity against E. coli or Staphylococcus or Bacillus, they said, ‘Let’s get rid of that,’ which is typically what happens in these big screening programs. So we thought it would be prudent to try to get these big microbial collections and screen directly against virulent microbial TB.”

INSTITUTE FOR TUBERCULOSIS RESEARCH HISTORY

1986 DR. MICHAEL GROVES , head of the College of Pharmacy Department of Pharmaceutics, assumes role of ITR director.

BCG vaccine gains OFFICIAL APPROVAL for bladder cancer. UIC licenses Tice BCG trademark to Organon.

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ORGANON PAYS ROYALTY to be used for TB and BCG research.

ITR moves to SCIENCE & ENGINEERING BUILDING on east campus.

“We realized there was a lot left on the table to be discovered.” Thanks to Sang Hyun Cho, research associate professor of medicinal chemistry and associate director of the ITR, who came across an intact, living library of microbes at Myongji University in South Korea, the ITR has been able to screen more than 200,000 actinomycete fermentation extracts. “After about 65,000, we got our first hit,” recalls Franzblau. Ecumicin, named after the collection in which it was found—the Extract Collection of Useful Microorganisms (ECUM)—has shown activity in TBinfected mice and is currently the subject of efforts to improve oral bioavailability. “This project is moving along really well,” he says. “We’re really excited. We’ve ended up with two different related classes of compounds that hit the molecular target.” Five years ago, the ITR expanded their work to include other infectious agents, including Borrelia burgdorferi, which causes Lyme disease; ESKAPE gram-negative and gram-positive bacteria that are troublesome because of their drug resistance; and nontuberculous mycobacteria (NTM), which are related to TB but are arguably more difficult to treat because of their resistance to most types of antibiotics. Their work currently focuses on two nontuberculosis mycobacteria, Mycobacterium avium and Mycobacterium abcessus, which cause opportunistic infections, particularly in patients with cystic fibrosis. Franzblau says they have now added a third NTM, Mycobacterium ulcerans, the culprit behind Buruli ulcer, a disease geographically restricted to equatorial regions that causes severe skin ulcerations. The ITR has also begun building their own microbial library from what Franzblau believes are unexplored sources: activated sludge from wastewater treatment

plants—an idea he came up with sitting in a microbial ecology course as an undergrad at Rutgers—and the surfaces and habitats of birds, an idea contributed by Jonathan Bisson, a research assistant professor in the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences who oversees the isolation and identification of active compounds from these new sources. “M. avium was originally isolated from birds, so there may also be bacteria that might keep them in check [on birds].” Franzblau believes the ITR’s success, before all else, is due to its “high quality, dedicated personnel at every level. “After 20 years at UIC, I am still impressed by the competence and dedication of more than 90 percent of all of those we have hired over this time.” For many ITR employees, the feeling is mutual. “The strive for excellence starts from Scott,” says research professor Larry Klein, “and carries through to the many diverse colleagues, access to state-of-theart equipment, and the open research and learning environment adopted by Scott.” P3 Jeffrey Yoshihara has worked as a graduate research assistant at ITR since his P1 year. He values having learned about the arduous process of bringing a drug to market. “The work I have done is a mere snapshot of the bigger picture of drug discovery against TB, and it makes me feel as if I am fighting for something bigger than myself.” Mallique Qader, a postdoctoral research associate, considers the training he’s received while “being a part of the ITR family” as “priceless . . . both rewarding and eye-opening.” “I wish, for as long as I can, to be involved in this research,” says senior research scientist Farah Movahed Zadeh. “Doing this work is to love life, and it makes life itself full of meaning.”

1999

2000

ITR moves to Chicago Technology Park to WORK WITH MYCOPHARMA .

DR. SCOTT FRANZBLAU hired as ITR director.

Mycopharma goes out of business.

Focus changed to TB DRUG DISCOVERY.

MERCK ACQUIRES LICENSE for Tice BCG.

LABS RENOVATED on 4th floor of the College of Phamacy building. Dr. Scott Franzblau

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STU DE NT S’ N E X T E X PE RI E

J U ST AN I NTE R ACT

With UIC Pharmacy’s experiential education offerings, students get the chance to put classroom knowledge into practice at more than 900 sites in Illinois and beyond. In 2021, students gained access to a unique new tool to make finding their ideal rotations as easy as clicking an information-rich digital map.

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The project, an “experiential education geographic areas map” useable at both campuses, arose from the initiative of Megan Magnuson, senior class coordinator at Rockford. Magnuson realized the need for the map directly from student comments. “I would oftentimes sit in the back of the classroom, and I would listen to students say they wish they could know about this specific thing, about this specific preceptor, or they want to know what they’re going to be learning at this specific rotation,” Magnuson said. Drawing on those informal observations to conduct a survey, Magnuson learned that students wanted to know about a site’s objectives, how to be successful at a site, and what a typical day at a rotation looked like. Students

NTI AL ROTATI ON S

BY MICHAEL DHAR

TI V E M AP C LIC K AWAY also wanted background information on site preceptors’ education, training, experience, and publications.

hover over a site to reveal more information. The map was first made available to students in January 2021.

As for how to best present that information, Magnuson drew inspiration from a piece of old-school technology in the office of Dr. Allison Schriever, director of experiential education at Rockford. “She has this giant map of Illinois with a bunch of pins of different sites,” Magnuson said. “I thought it would be super neat to have something electronic, something all of us could access and refer to . . . and something that’s helpful for the students.”

“It really sets us apart because it gives our students the unique experience of being able to see all of our sites, all our preceptors, all this information at once,” Magnuson said. The project additionally gives concrete evidence of the value UIC places on student suggestions, said Schriever. “It illustrates to our student body that we’re listening and when they give us feedback, we really do take it to heart.”

To digitize that wall hanging, Magnuson worked with Marissa King, senior associate director for budget and finance for UIC Pharmacy, who has a knack for building dashboards. In completing the massive project, Magnuson combed through reports from UIC’s administration program, eValue, gleaning information about groupings of site locations by region and matching sites to preceptors and other information. She refined that information by using Google Maps to group sites within an hour distance of one another, making it easier for students to find workable spots.

Overall, the map shows off the wealth of experiential offerings at UIC, said Dr. Sheila Allen, director of experiential education at Chicago. “This has been a great add-in to our program . . . [providing] the opportunity for students to be able to see the depth and variety of sites throughout our state, throughout the country, and internationally.”

The resulting map presents a compendium of information on UIC introductory and advanced pharmacy practice experiences (IPPEs and APPEs). Users can search rotations by Illinois region, as well as nationally and internationally. They can also filter by IPPE or APPE or specific rotation or pharmacy practice week, or they can

Magnuson, Schriever, and King’s work may eventually influence how other colleges present their offerings, too, when they present their work at the annual user conference of eValue parent company MedHub. “I think it was wonderful that they were able to present what they created,” said Allen. “You never know: this might be something that another college might benefit from adapting.”

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College of Pharmacy graduate programs prepare— and consistently evolve—to help students succeed in a wide range of clinical and research positions. WHILE THE TRADITIONAL PHARMD remains the most frequently issued degree at the UIC College of Pharmacy, and the newly launched Bachelor of Science in pharmaceutical sciences might be the current topic du jour, graduate programs remain an important, core pillar of the college. Across three different academic departments— Pharmaceutical Sciences; Pharmacy Practice; and Pharmacy Systems, Outcomes, and Policy (PSOP)—the UIC College of Pharmacy offers a diverse array of graduate opportunities designed to meet market forces and create industry-ready researchers and clinicians. And with an enterprising spirit and responsive mindset, the college continues to evolve and adapt its graduate programs to ensure relevant training that propels students into difference-making positions, elevates scientific research, and drives patient care.

The current state of graduate programs The Department of Pharmacy Practice hosts more than 30 postgraduate trainees spread across several programs. In addition to directing the college’s flagship PGY1 residency program, Pharmacy Practice oversees PGY2 specialty residencies in areas such as ambulatory care, critical care, drug information, and emergency medicine as well as fellowships covering areas such as infectious diseases, critical care, and academic/family medicine. While the residencies largely focus on clinical care, the fellowships prioritize research training. “As a department and a college, this mix of residencies and fellowships allows us to stay at the top of the pyramid in training future professional leaders, both in clinical practice and applied research,” says Dr. Edith Nutescu, head of the Department of Pharmacy Practice. In PSOP, the PhD program offers four distinct areas of concentration: health economics and outcomes research, pharmacoepidemiology and drug safety, pharmaceutical policy, and pharmacy education. About 25 students are in the sought-after program, which

sees its alumni land careers in industry, managed care, nonprofits, and academia. The Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, meanwhile, admitted the first students into its new PhD program last fall. The new structure allows students to take courses across five different concentrations: chemistry and drug discovery; pharmacognosy; molecular mechanisms and therapeutics; pharmaceutics and drug delivery; and, finally, forensics. While each concentration maintains its own required courses, all students must complete program-specific courses, such as teaching and research presentation, scientific ethics, and biostatistics. In the department’s former PhD programs, students pursued a doctorate degree in one of three fields—medicinal chemistry, pharmacognosy, or biopharmaceutical sciences. Under the new, more encompassing “umbrella program,” one of the nation’s few such academic efforts, students gain heightened training across disciplines, which enables them to discover different scientific areas and stretch their knowledge base. “This new arrangement allows students to expand the breadth of their knowledge,” says Dr. Terry Moore, director of graduate studies. “It’s a change that reflects the students’ desires to gain varied training as well as the professional world’s growing need for professionals with multidisciplinary skills and knowledge.” Moore adds that Pharmaceutical Sciences faculty are actively developing new curricula to prepare students for a demanding industry environment that requires interdisciplinary research experiences and communication skills. Next spring, for example, Pharmaceutical Sciences professor Brian Murphy will teach a first-time course in scientific writing and storytelling. Department faculty also continue finetuning the syllabus for a required first-year course in drug discovery and development that will expose students to many aspects of pharmaceutical sciences.

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We’re keeping any eye on how the healthcare world is evolving and aligning our programs accordingly

Future-focused programs Such evolution, of course, is a hallmark of the UIC College of Pharmacy, which claims a long-standing record of innovation and pioneering action. The college has never held much interest in the status quo, and so it goes with its graduate programs as well. In recent years, Pharmacy Practice has added new PGY2 residences in pharmacogenomics and personalized medicine and expanded their criticalcare and ambulatory-care residency programs. The department also unveiled its fellowships in the areas of critical care and infectious diseases pharmacotherapy as well as academic/family medicine pharmacy. “We’re keeping any eye on how the healthcare world is evolving and aligning our programs accordingly, so that we have highly trained researchers and clinicians ready to step in and contribute,” Nutescu says.

To that point, UIC teamed with NorthShore University HealthSystem to launch the nation’s first dual-site pharmacogenomics-personalized medicine residency this summer. Nutescu says that collaborative PGY2 residency serves as a fitting example of the department’s willingness to create innovative training programs that nurture the next generation. “We’ve consistently lagged as a nation when it comes to personalized medicine and bringing science to bedside, but the pharmacogenomics residency allows us to step up and bring this to pharmacy and our patients in an exciting way,” Nutescu says. To better reflect the work of graduate students in its department, PSOP is transforming its PhD in pharmacy into a PhD in pharmacy systems, outcomes, and policy, according to department head Todd Lee.

GR ADUATE PROGRAM

DR. SKYLAR CARLSON At UIC, Carlson completed her PhD in pharmacognosy from the Department of Medicinal Chemistry and Pharmacognosy (now the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences) in 2015. In addition to extensive, interdisciplinary-flavored research in natural products, one of UIC’s most notable specialties, she also took courses to prepare for a career in higher education preparation.

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Today, Carlson is an assistant professor of chemistry at the University of the Pacific in Stockton, California. In addition to teaching responsibilities, Carlson also runs an active research program mentoring graduate students. Her research lab combines natural products chemistry, interdisciplinary biology, and chemical ecology. Focusing on the roles that molecules play in nature, the lab searches for biologically active natural products from bacteria, cyanobacteria, sponges, and algae. “There’s no question UIC helped me land on my feet,” she says. “I not only gained a big-picture, rigorous view of translational research, but also learned how to teach students a diversity of topics and prepare them to work in industry.”

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a team evaluating the most effective use of medications across the organization at a population health level.

DR. CONOR HANRAHAN At UIC, Hanrahan took advantage of the online master’s degree program in comparative effectiveness research (MS CER) while working at Utah-based Intermountain Healthcare, an integrated delivery system with 24 hospitals and over 200 clinics across three states. He earned his MS CER in 2020. Today, Hanrahan remains at Intermountain, where he is the director of medication policy, outcomes, and stewardship for Pharmacy Services. He leads

“With the MS CER program, I learned how to go beyond what the FDA approved and to look at real-world data to assess outcomes of one agent versus others,” Hanrahan says. “With drug costs rising, this knowledge is critical to using our financial resources judiciously and ensuring patients get the best medication therapy.”

DR. BRIANNA MCQUADE At UIC, McQuade was an academic/family medicine pharmacy fellow from 2018 to 2020. Prior to her fellowship, McQuade worked as a medical science liaison at Pfizer, where her interest in blending clinical practice and research blossomed. She calls her UIC fellowship the “ideal training program.”

“This will make it more relevant to the skills and knowledge our students are developing, so the area of focus is more clearly understood,” Lee says. PSOP is also shifting to more online content, an evolution that began prepandemic but accelerated as education and training moved into the virtual world due to COVID-19 mandated shutdowns and stay-at-home orders. More online content, Lee says, allows students greater flexibility in how they structure their day. “And more flexibility to their day opens the door to getting more hands-on research experience, especially earlier in the program,” Lee says. The college and PSOP, of course, have openly embraced technology to dispense knowledge and advance careers. In addition to PSOP’s long-standing online certificate program in pharmacoepidemiology, PSOP also offers an online master’s degree in comparative

effectiveness research (MS CER). Designed to be a flexible degree program for working professionals seeking upward professional movement, the MS CER program trains students to develop, conduct, and analyze CER studies to drive improved health outcomes. “As we look for the most effective strategies to prevent, diagnose, treat, and monitor health conditions in real-world settings, there is more and more demand for people with the ability to study drug effectiveness,” Lee says. With the worlds of pharmacy and healthcare evolving at a rapid pace, Nutescu says the college will continue to adapt its graduate programs to meet patient and marketplace needs. “We will lead, add new areas, and expand where there is high demand,” she says. “That type of education and service is so central to our mission and so vital to stronger patient care and research.”

ALUMNI IN ACTION DR. RACHEL HARRINGTON At UIC, Harrington earned a PhD focused on pharmacoepidemiology and health policy from the Department of Pharmacy Systems, Outcomes, and Policy in 2019.

Today, McQuade is a clinical assistant professor in the Department of Pharmacy Practice at UIC. In the classroom, McQuade teaches an elective course on mindfulness, a topic related to her fellowship research, while her clinical work at the UIC-operated Mile Square Health Center in Chicago includes working alongside other health professionals to combat substance use disorder. “There’s a direct line from my fellowship to the work I’m doing today, and I’m not where I am without the fellowship experience,” McQuade says.

Today, Harrington is a research scientist in performance measurement for the National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA), a Washington, D.C.– based nonprofit dedicated to developing objective, valid, and reliable healthcare measurement standards. She credits her PhD

work with providing her a strong foundation in methods, data, and the ability to collaborate with those from other disciplines. “Everything I did at UIC was grounded in application,” Harrington says. “The broad foundation of knowledge I received has enabled me to translate this expertise effectively into a number of areas, working alongside other professionals to achieve results,” Harrington says.

DR. DANIELLE TOMPKINS At UIC, Tompkins followed her PGY1 pharmacy residency with a PGY2 specialty residency in critical care running from 2017 to 2018. “UIC is one of the most wellknown, well-established pharmacy schools in the country, so I was thrilled to match there not once, but twice,” she says. Today, Tompkins balances teaching and clinical work as

a clinical assistant professor at Rutgers University in New Jersey. Outside of the classroom, she spends much of her time in the surgical/neurological intensive care unit at Hackensack University Medical Center. “My training at UIC laid a strong foundation for pharmacy practice, and I was able to get rich experience training at the top of my license,” Tompkins says. “Several great mentors at UIC also showed me the lessons I needed to impart to my students so they could then have the strongest possible impact on patient care.”

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Change Agents BY JESSICA CANLAS

Mother knows best. Christina Berberich, PHARMD ’12, MPH ’12, has made it her job to care for mothers.

Berberich admits that her [UIC] education revealed a unique world of possibility for PharmDs, both clinical and nonclinical.

Though her title—head of regulatory and policy affairs—may not sound particularly nurturing or parent focused, the heart of her role undoubtedly is. Berberich is part of the leadership team for Bobbie™, the only female-founded and mom-led organic infant formula company in the United States. As a seasoned healthcare professional with a background in dietetics, pharmacy, and public health, she had witnessed a sorely widening gap in the infant formula industry that was not serving mothers as well as it could. “To me, [this is] about so much more than a job,” she says. “It’s about really giving parents different options. The formulas out there . . . are great products. But at the same time, these are the same products that have been on the market for generations. Having a brand that connects with parents in a real sort of way—that’s what was really missing in this space.” Optimal nutrition for humans, both big and small, is not new in Berberich’s professional wheelhouse. A Mankato, Minnesota, native, Berberich earned her BSc in dietetics from St. Catherine’s University in St. Paul. The program offered her a convergence of interests—cooking,

nutrition, and science. Berberich admits she wasn’t sure what career might emerge from her pursuit, but when she began working with mothers and children at a WIC clinic in Chicago, her path came into view. “I realized that I love working with patients,” she recalls. “I wanted to expand what I was doing in healthcare. That’s why I started looking down other avenues.” Berberich’s search led her to the UIC College of Pharmacy. With “an open mind to nontraditional careers,” Berberich admits that her education revealed a unique world of possibility for PharmDs, both clinical and nonclinical. While there, for example, she did clerkships at both the Food and Drug Administration and the health and wellness advertising firm AbelsonTaylor. “One of the things I really enjoyed about my time at UIC was being exposed to a lot of different parts of pharmacy. I think that’s such a valuable thing for students—just even knowing something exists.” After two years in pharmacy school, Berberich decided she needed to continue her exploration. Fueled by the drive for a big-picture investigation into the industry’s understanding and solving larger-reaching health problems, she concurrently pursued her MPH, also at UIC. “There’s an interesting thing that happens in pharmacy school,” she explains. “It’s almost like you develop a superpower to be able to do all of this stuff. You get in this headspace where you’re driving to be the best that you can, and I felt that I needed to do something more, something bigger.” Berberich recalls enjoying the juxtaposition of science and data during the day and debating ethical publichealth policy in the evening. “It made so many things in pharmacy school matter. Understanding how we can impact health at a higher level is really empowering.” Eventually, she arrived at a eureka moment with a preceptor who’d authored a book on drug and food interaction that helped further focus her career and pushed her to delve deeper into the impact that drugs and nutrition can have on patients. Near graduation, Berberich connected with the VP of regulatory affairs for Abbott Nutrition, also a UIC Pharmacy alumnus. With her background, she smoothly transitioned into a role as a senior regulatory affairs

Dr. Christina Berberich

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specialist at Abbott, working with infant formula, medical foods, and dietary supplements. In 2015, Berberich relocated to San Francisco and moved into a medical science liaison post in Abbott’s R&D group. She realized that she enjoyed working in compliance and “helping the business be better,” so, two years later, she took the opportunity to join Olly, a dietary supplement and nutrition startup, as a regulatory scientist. “It was an amazing experience working for a startup,” she says. “I was able to build the regulatory program for Olly. It felt almost like being back in school again; I was learning so much.” Three years later, Berberich was approached by Bobbie, yet another startup. She had been interested in returning to infant formula for some time, but that world is a small one, composed of, before Bobbie, only four other companies in the United States. Another piece to consider was the FDA recall Bobbie was hit with after its initial 2019 launch (see fortune.com /2021/01/04/disrupt-infant-formula-Bobbie-fda -recall/). So it was a risk. But Berberich discovered that Bobbie was different from other infant formula companies.

“When I met with [the cofounders], we just started talking about the issues of breastfeeding and formula feeding and what it takes to be a mom, especially when you’re trying to work, advance your career, and make a difference in the world. It’s a lot to deal with.” Berberich, now herself a mom, connected deeply with the company’s vision of not only putting out a quality product but also eradicating the stigma against formula-feeding moms. She had the unique experience at WIC of witnessing the struggles mothers face when determining how best to feed their infants. On the other side of the coin, she was thoroughly acquainted with the complexities of infant formula manufacturing and bringing that product to market. According to Berberich, since Bobbie’s relaunch in January, the business has expanded quickly, and the company has received positive feedback. “I imagined that this would be a lot of work but superrewarding.” “I was totally right.” Watch Christina Berberich tell her family’s own story of feeding their newborn son at hiBobbie.com.

Small Acts of Caring When Christina Berberich, PHARMD ’12, MPH ’12, isn’t helping things run smoothly at Bobbie or spending time with her family, she volunteers as commissioner and chair of the County of Santa Cruz Integrated Community Health Centers Commission. The commission oversees several Federally Qualified Health Centers, which aim to meet the needs of underserved areas. In Santa Cruz County, which boasts a sizeable homeless population, this proves to be a big job. “We are advocates for the homeless in the sense of their healthcare,” Berberich says.

“Unsheltered people who go to the clinic likely have a lot of other things going on, so we try to do anything we can to provide wraparound care—mental health, substance abuse, routine vaccinations. If you don’t treat somebody and actually try to make them healthy, they’ll end up in the ER.” One of Berberich’s strategies with the commission is overcoming barriers that patients may encounter when visiting a clinic by meeting them directly in their own environments, such as tent communities.

Although she acknowledges that caring for the homeless is a complex issue, Berberich believes that helping others is a simple task. She recalls an experience from working in a WIC clinic with a mother and her three young children. “She’s talking to me, holding her baby, and her two-year-old son is all over her, poking at the baby. She tells me that this happens a lot and that she’s worried that he might need some help. I could see where she was coming from. I found a referral for her to have him evaluated.”

Three months later, she again saw the mother, who expressed her gratitude and explained that her son did have an issue but had since begun therapy, and their family situation had improved. “You don’t have to move mountains for people. Something so simple as providing a tiny piece of advice, a supportive message, can make a difference in somebody’s life. It can happen anywhere, and it can be a huge opportunity.”

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Being the change. Five years ago, Kathy Pham, PharmD, RES ’04, took a leap of faith.

At UIC, I felt like a decision maker. I had the ability to spread my wings, to figure out what I knew and didn’t know on my own

At that time, she had been working as a clinical pharmacist in a specialty that she loved for more than a decade and decided to transition from practice to policy. “Someone saw something in me that I didn’t see in myself,” she explains. Pham, who hails from the Washington, D.C. area, had spent three years in what could be called the longest job interview of her life. An active volunteer, Pham had been involved in a number of professional organizations on both local and national levels, including the Washington Metropolitan Society of Health-System Pharmacists, the Pediatric Pharmacy Association, and the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists. In 2014, she was appointed to the FDA’s Center for Drug Evaluation and Research Pharmacy Compounding Advisory Committee as an expert in pediatric pharmacy. “I was one of only a few pharmacy voices on the committee,” Pham recalls. “This was like a seat at the big kids’ table, a real policy-facing opportunity.” For the next three years, she sat next to the director of public healthcare programs at the Pew Charitable Trusts, learning and interacting on the committee. At just about the time of her renewal, this individual approached Pham about an opportunity to join the expanding team at Pew’s Drug Safety Project—an endeavor focused on ensuring trustworthy manufacturing and distribution systems, particularly in the area of pharmaceutical compounding. At first, she was hesitant about leaving clinical practice earlier than she’d expected. “A lot of colleagues talked me into making this jump,” she says. “All of them were saying that I was made for this, but I hadn’t seen what everyone else around me saw—my ability to think big picture and communicate in a broader-facing way.”

Dr. Kathy Pham

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One thing Pham had known about herself was that she’d always wanted to pursue a career in healthcare, which was a path her Vietnamese immigrant parents had encouraged. A preference for chemistry over biology led her to pharmacy school at Rutgers Univeristy, where she earned her PharmD with high honors and

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left with an interest in both solid-organ transplant and pediatrics. Pham chose UIC for her residency because it gave her the opportunity to try out both—and because “if you learn by doing, you go to UIC.” “At UIC, I felt like a decision maker. I had the ability to spread my wings, to figure out what I knew and didn’t know on my own.” Pham eventually chose pediatrics because she noticed that fewer of her fellow clinicians in training were comfortable in pediatric pharmacy. “It felt like I was serving more of a need.” After residency, Pham went on to hone her practice and was working at the Children’s National Medical Center in Washington, D.C., as a NICU clinical pharmacy specialist and director of pharmacy residency programs when the opportunity at Pew presented itself. Barely one year after joining Pew as senior officer of the Drug Safety Project, Pham came across the opportunity to, as she says, “speak in [her] natural voice again.” “ACCP gave me the opportunity to represent my peers.” Today, she does just that as director of policy and professional affairs at the American College of Clinical Pharmacy, where she advocates for a healthcare system with what she calls a “quadruple aim”: improving population health, enhancing the patient experience, reducing costs, and improving the work life of healthcare providers. Pham says her desire to make a broader impact, which prompted her to make the move to full-time advocacy work, developed organically on her professional journey. “The advice I would give to pharmacy students and pharmacists is to be inspired by what they see in practice and be involved in professional pharmacy organizations that align with their interests. Take advantage of leadership opportunities. Be patient while building visibility and credibility as an expert that might help to inform broader interprofessional work. Advocacy starts with how we represent the profession every day at the practice level, with our patients and in our communities. “I let my career evolve from the opportunities along the way, whether I sought them out or not. Some aligned with my goals and interests, and some pushed me out of my comfort zone, but I learned and grew from all of them. “Every opportunity is a chance to set yourself apart from your peers.”

Recap: Great Lakes Pharmacovigilance and Drug Safety Forum Held October 1 On October 1, the college’s Department of Pharmacy Systems, Outcomes, and Policy hosted a Great Lakes Pharmacovigilance and Drug Safety Forum. The event brought together nationally recognized and regional experts from government, industry, and academia to discuss current initiatives to enhance the collection, signal detection, assessment, monitoring, and the prevention of adverse effects of pharmaceutical and medical products. Our profound thanks to Drs. Andrew Bate, David Carrell, Susan Gruber, Fabio Lievano, Helen Petousis-Harris, Florian Schödel, John Seeger, Linda Scarazzini, and Katrine Wallace for delivering and sharing a great wealth of knowledge. Nearly 500 attended, but if you missed the event, many of the presentations may be found on our college’s YouTube featured playlists. A SPECIAL THANKS TO OUR EVENT SPONSORS

Dr. Todd Lee

Dr. Katrine Wallace

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UIC COLLEGE OF PHARMACY OF SCIENCE IN PHARMACEUT Blending a desire to further enhance the appeal of UIC to potential undergraduates and PharmD students alongside a devout aim to arm students with highly sought-after knowledge and skills, UIC College of Pharmacy leadership recently announced the launch of a Bachelor of Science in pharmaceutical sciences (BSPS) degree program.

WITH THE NEW

UIC’s BSPS program will be the first of its kind in Illinois and only the 25th such program in the United States.

OUR IMPORTANT

“The four-year BSPS prepares students for careers in the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries, government regulatory agencies, graduate research programs, or professional health programs while also offering them a fast track to UIC’s PharmD program,” says College of Pharmacy associate dean for academic affairs Dr. Kristen Goliak, who designed the BSPS program proposal alongside Dr. Thomas TenHoeve, the college’s associate dean for student affairs. O N E P R O G R A M , T W O PAT H W AY S

A four-year, nonlicensure undergraduate bachelor’s degree, the Chicago-based BSPS program will welcome its first students in the fall 2022 semester. Admission to the program, whether existing UIC undergraduates or transfer students from other institutions, will be based on grade point average and completion of at least 54 credit hours of college-level course work, including required courses.

BSPS PROGRAM, WE WILL BE ABLE TO EXPOUND ON

WORK PREPARING THE NEXT GENERATION OF PROFESSIONALS FOR A REWARDING CAREER IN PHARMACY, INDUSTRY, AND RESEARCH. D R. C H A R L E S M C P H E R S O N

The new program will feature two pathways. The BSPS Pathway will prepare students for employment in the pharmaceutical, biomedical, or healthcare fields or for graduate or professional school by combining

S B S P S B S P S B S P S B S P S B S P S B S P S B S P S B S P S B S P S B S P S B S P S B S P S B S P S B S P S B S P S B S P S B S P S B S P S B S P S B S P S B S P S B S P S B S P S B S P S B

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INTRODUCES NEW BACHELOR ICAL SCIENCES DEGREE PROGR AM PharmD prerequisite course work with undergraduate research and typical first-year PharmD program classes, such as integrated physiology, pharmaceutics, drug information, and biomedicinal chemistry. “This program will serve as a valuable feeder program for professional schools such as medicine and dentistry and other graduate programs, such as a PhD in pharmaceutical sciences,” TenHoeve says. The BSPS/PharmD Pathway, meanwhile, positions students to earn their BSPS and PharmD degrees in seven years instead of the traditional eight since the fourth year of the BSPS program overlaps with the PharmD program’s opening year. “The BSPS/PharmD Pathway offers an option for students to save one year of time and tuition and achieve both degrees, which is an important opportunity for students in our current economy,” says JoAnn Stubbings, a clinical associate professor emerita in the Department of Pharmacy Practice who played a central role in formulating the BSPS program proposal alongside Goliak and TenHoeve. The program is projected to enroll 25 third-year students next fall and grow to 50 enrolled third-year students upon full implementation. Leaders expect 80 percent of the enrolled students to be in the BSPS/ PharmD Pathway. DELIVERING IN-DEMAND SKILLS AND KNOWLEDGE

With an aging population; heightened use of pharmaceuticals and biologics; the rapid pace of new drug and biologic approvals; and the complexity of advanced treatments, such as therapies, biologics, and vaccines, there is swelling demand among the

pharmaceutical, biomedical, and healthcare industries for students trained in the pharmaceutical sciences. In July 2020, in fact, the college surveyed potential employers and alumni to assess the level of interest and support regarding the potential creation of a BSPS degree program at UIC, including the employment prospects of such alumni. The results showed widespread interest in such an effort from a leading college of pharmacy and research institution. Focused on relevancy and applied science, the BSPS program will provide students with techniques they can apply in pharmaceutical science laboratories, deep understanding of the mechanisms of drug action and drug delivery, and valuable knowledge on the process of drug research and development. Students will also be trained to analyze contemporary issues related to pharmaceuticals and the practice of pharmacy in the United States. “These varied learning objectives will help students apply their knowledge into a biomedical and pharmacotherapeutic framework and pursue a diverse array of career opportunities,” Goliak says. Dr. Charles McPherson, assistant dean for pharmacy undergraduate education, who is now tasked to oversee the BSPS program in the college’s Office of Student Affairs, calls the introduction of a BSPS degree “an important step at an important time.” “With the new BSPS program, we will be able to expound on our important work preparing the next generation of professionals for a rewarding career in pharmacy, industry, and research,” McPherson says.

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Partnerships That Make a Difference The UIC College of Pharmacy and AbbVie have long partnered to deliver essential outcomes concerning research collaborations. That partnership runs deep as our educational mission provides a steady pipeline for the future talent they need to create, discover, and deliver new ways to improve people’s health. Our pipeline collaborations on everything from internships to experiential rotations to fellowships to job-ready hires have long provided AbbVie with a talented, diverse pool of qualified professionals that is second to none. A recent AbbVie career panel was held on Wednesday, October 6, during Pharmacy Month. The program highlights our long-term, mutually beneficial, and highly integrated partnership with this crucial area partner— THANK YOU for your extended support, AbbVie! Thank you to our AbbVie guests–Joy Jackson-Guilford, MS, PhD, director, Pipeline Partnerships—Equality, Diversity & Inclusion (who served as the panel moderator) and Nahome Fisseha, PharmD ’14, scientific director, Neuroscience Clinical Development; Yash Jalundhwala, MS ’10, PhD ’16, director, Global Market Access and Pricing, Neuroscience; Rene Rabaza, PharmD ’17, senior manager, Regulatory Affairs U.S. Advertising & Promotion; Chris Saffore, PharmD ’16, PhD ’19, associate director, Global HEOR Strategy Lead—RINVOQ Psoriatic Arthritis/ Axial Spondyloarthritis; and Susanna Sit, PharmD ’01, director, Safety Data Sciences, who spoke on our Pharmaceutical Industry Career Panel.

Yash Jalundhwala, MS ’10, PhD ’16

Rene Rabaza, PharmD ’17

Joy Jackson-Guilford, MS, PhD

Susanna Sit, PharmD ’01

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Nahome Fisseha, PharmD ’14

Christopher Saffore, PharmD ’16, PhD ’19

What Does It Mean To Be Essential? When the long-awaited coronavirus [COVID-19] vaccines arrived, our licensed pharmacy interns, staff, and faculty were eager to vaccinate as many people as possible in the state of Illinois. For nearly 11 months, our team has been offering the vaccine at UI Health, on our UIC campuses in Chicago and Rockford, and in the community in partnership with UIC Nursing, UIC Medicine, and the Chicago Department of Public Health.

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Our COVID-19 Rapid Response Team (CRRT) has been conducting testing in high-risk congregate settings, as well as providing education on vaccines to decrease hesitancy. “We find that day-of outreach also increases vaccination rates. For example, an additional 10% of residents at one site agreed to be vaccinated after they received additional day-of education,” said Dr. Sarah Michienzi, Clinical Assistant Professor of Pharmacy Practice and CRRT team member. We are grateful for the life-saving work of our pharmacy vaccination team and volunteers, especially through the recent COVID-19 Delta variant surge. College of Nursing students having a little fun after providing COVID-19 vaccines at a Chicago back to school event.

College of Nursing lead Rebecca Singer and College of Pharmacy lead Sarah Michienzi at a Disney-themed event for LGBTQ Chicagoans.

P4 PharmD student drawing up COVID-19 vaccine on the fly for an outdoor vaccine event in Garfield Park.

College of Medicine student at a COVID-19 vaccine special event for a free laundry day.

Members of our multidisciplinary team taking a break from giving COVID-19 vaccines to pose for a picture at a back to school event in Englewood.

Chancellor Michael Amiridis and Dean Glen Schumock thank the staff and volunteers at the Credit Union 1 vaccination site.

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Turning Knowledge into Profit at the DIG BY JESSICA CANLAS

When it comes to clientele, UIC’s Drug Information Group (DIG) can do some serious name-dropping.

a fee-for-service business unit, on the path to begin generating revenue for the college.

Takeda Pharmaceuticals, the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists, Abelson Taylor—these are just a few of approximately 30 active contracts the DIG holds with healthcare companies and organizations to provide services ranging from formulary reviews to database development and training programs for sales representatives and medical-science liaisons.

One of its newer, less traditional relationships is with the BlueCross BlueShield Association, which sends the DIG about 25 evidence reviews a month to update. Topics range from drug therapies to genetic tests and surgical procedures.

“The setup we have at UIC is extremely unique,” says Michael Gabay, clinical professor and director of the Drug Information Group.” Very few [colleges of pharmacy] have a drug information center at all. Many have shut down over the last decades when funding mechanisms dried up.” Gabay joined UIC in 1998, when the unit consisted of only himself and three other full-time faculty. Today, the DIG includes more than 50 full-time and adjunct staff. What set the DIG apart—and allowed it to thrive— was a change to its practice model in 1997 when it was required to become self-supporting. The following year, the DIG contracted with its first major, long-term client, Cardinal Health—a relationship that continues to this day—providing drug information services for approximately 200 hospital pharmacies and setting the DIG, as

“We search the literature, update guidelines, and work with their physicians to enhance existing documents and determine if there’s any impact on policies that they implement for their [health insurance] plans that fall under BlueCross BlueShield,” Gabay explains. Another notable, and perhaps most extensive, interagency agreement the DIG holds is with the Illinois Department of Healthcare and Family Services, more commonly known as Illinois Medicaid. For the last 15 years or so, the DIG has collaborated with the state on numerous and various aspects of the organization’s pharmacy service, starting out by preparing therapeutic class reviews to help determine which drugs to include on their formulary. Several years down the road, the DIG took on a new role with Illinois Medicaid when the State of Illinois passed new legislation requiring patients taking more than four prescriptions a month to undergo an automatic review. The DIG was tasked with examining patient medical records to ensure those multiple medications were necessary.

[Drug information] addresses health issues more on a population level rather than on an individual patient level. In 2019, the DIG went in yet another direction with Illinois Medicaid, prompted by a new state law requiring the establishment of an evidence-based, noncommercial educational program for Medicaid prescribers consisting of a web-based curriculum and academic educator outreach. This endeavor is known as Illinois ADVANCE, which stands for “Academic Detailing Visits and New Evidence CEnter.”

care to our Medicaid patients, so our relationship with [Illinois Medicaid] is critical, because we serve as a gateway to other resources throughout the university.”

“Think of a pharmacy rep from a drug company calling on a doctor, trying to promote a product,” explains Mary Moody, BS ’79. “Academic detailing is the same concept, but we’re doing it with accurate, noncommerical, unbiased information.”

“As the State of Illinois’s public university, it makes sense for Medicaid to partner with us to make use of the great resources that we have to improve the outcomes of our Medicaid recipients,” says Moody. “It’s a great opportunity to show the expertise that we have at the university and to utilize that resource appropriately.”

In developing this new role for pharmacists, the DIG’s academic detailing program has grown to become the largest in the nation. In its collaboration with Illinois Medicaid, UIC pharmacists travel throughout the state to conduct one-on-one appointments that currently focus on two conditions: opioid overdose and diabetes. “These are two clinical situations that have a huge impact on Medicaid, so we’re working to try to improve prescribing and reduce negative outcomes.” says Moody, who oversees the DIG’s relationship with Illinois Medicaid. Moody, who was one of the three existing staff members at the DIG when Gabay came on board, has practiced in drug information for more than 40 years— more than half of which she’s spent at UIC. In addition to academic detailing, which also provides prescribers with continuing medical education credits, Illinois ADVANCE offers online educational programs for physicians to enhance the material covered in the visits. Today, as a result of the DIG’s efforts, Illinois Medicaid’s relationship with the university has expanded to include other units, like the College of Medicine, which is an integral partner in Illinois Doc Assist, which engages child psychiatrists at the university to provide phone consultations to prescribers who care for Medicaid patients. “It is housed within the College of Medicine,” Moody says, “but the College of Pharmacy serves as a resource to help the agency look for ways to, again, get better

In fact, the university’s Office of Medicaid Innovation, with which Moody works closely, is a system-wide unit that was established to investigate synergies between the University of Illinois and Illinois Medicaid to improve care.

Of course, as an academic unit, the DIG also engages in instruction, including a residency program first conceived in 1987 but recently revamped to focus on what Gabay calls nontraditional drug information practice. “Now we focus more on what the resident is interested in making of it rather than traditional drug information practice” he says. As a result, residents can spend time in industry, managed care, academia, and medication use policy or safety. Moody, who admits to having a passion for drug information practice, was not expecting her career to take a turn with such a significant impact on public policy. “I wouldn’t have picked it, but I love it,” she says. “I like thinking about the ways that we can improve the quality of care for our underrepresented populations, and our Medicaid population is often at risk for a lot of chronic diseases, so if there are ways that we can improve their ability to manage those, it’s exciting.” Gabay, who has served as director of the DIG since 2007, believes the department’s work is crucial in today’s healthcare system because of its broader influence. “[Drug information] addresses health issues more on a population level rather than on an individual patient level,” he says. “The documents and initiatives we are working on can impact and improve care for numerous people.”

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WHITE COAT

together again

Welcoming the Pharmacy Class of 2025 On August 19, the UIC College of Pharmacy Class of 2025 took the Pledge of Professionalism during our annual White Coat Ceremony. Given the hybrid nature, we did not have coaters this year. Still, we did have several alumni and friends share welcome videos with the class. Our thanks to Dean Emeritus Jerry Bauman, BS ’76; Kathy and Paul Blahunka, BS ’83 and ’81 and PharmD ’87 and ’91 respectively; William and Stefanie Dreyer, PharmD ’92 and ’95 respectively; Ron Koch, BS ’70, PhD ’76; Miriam Mobley Smith, PharmD ’95; and Associate Dean Mary Moody, BS ’79, for this virtual welcoming.

BY THE NUMBERS

187 66% 34% 25 70% (Chicago 151 / Rockford 36)

TOTAL

FEMALE

MALE

AVER AGE AGE

(age range 19 to 49)

APPROXIMATELY HOLD BACHELOR’S , MASTER’S , OR DOCTOR AL DEGREES

AVER AGE GPA

3.4

OUR STUDENTS HALE FROM

STATE S

(AL, AZ, CA, FL, IA, IL, IN, KY, MD, MI, MN, MO, NC, NJ, NM, NY, PA, SC, TX, and VA) + Puerto Rico

25% 20 31

UNDERREPRESENTED MINORITIES NATIVE LANGUAGES

BIRTH COUNTRIES

SPECIAL THANKS to Jewel-Osco for their longstanding support for this meaningful welcoming of our student pharmacists to the profession!

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ALUMNI PROFILES

Dr. Jess de Jesus Keeps on Moving on BY JESSICA CANLAS

JESS DE JESUS ·

PHARMD ’90

Jess de Jesus, PharmD ’90, never thought he’d leave Chicago. It was January 1991, and de Jesus hadn’t been out of pharmacy school for even a year. He was working as a pharmacist at Illinois Masonic Medical Center and as a clinical pharmacist at Northwestern Memorial Hospital on the weekends. A pharmacy school friend had moved out to Arizona with his wife and encouraged him to consider a position there. “I didn’t want to leave. My whole family was in Chicago,” he recalls. “But you know what January in Chicago is like.” De Jesus had lived in Chicago his entire life, surrounded by family members in the healthcare field. His father, grandfather, and aunt were dentists. It made sense to pursue pre-med as an undergrad at Loyola University, but he quickly realized medicine wasn’t for him. Luckily, a new career path entered his radar when another aunt, a nurse, helped him get a job at St. Mary of Nazareth Hospital. Shortly after that, de Jesus took advantage of an opening in the pharmacy there and found it to be a good fit. “Pharmacy was never in my mind until I started working there,” he says. “But I really enjoyed it. I thought it would make a good career.” De Jesus worked as a technician there for seven years. “By the time I graduated [from UIC], I knew hospital pharmacy practice inside and out.” While interviewing for the position in Arizona, the balmy 70-degree weather proved to be persuasive. He and his wife settled in the Phoenix-Scottsdale area as de Jesus accepted a clinical pharmacy position at Banner Health. After leaving the company for a few years to take a position as director of pharmacy and, eventually, director of clinical operations at a local home-infusion company, de Jesus realized his “passion was working

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in hospitals,” so he returned to Banner, moving up the ranks to director of pharmacy for two of Banner’s regional medical centers, all while earning his master’s in business administration and healthcare management. By 2005, when the University of Miami came knocking, much of his family had relocated to Arizona from Chicago, and he and his wife had grown to a family of five with three daughters. “I didn’t really want to move to Florida,” he recalls. “But my wife always wanted to live near the ocean,” de Jesus explains. “Not to mention, they were offering free tuition for my kids.” Of course, five years later, when it came time for his oldest daughter to apply for college, she had no interest in attending the University of Miami. At the same time, de Jesus was being urged to return to Phoenix by a close friend and colleague, so back to Arizona for de Jesus and his family. He became associate vice president of pharmacy services for HonorHealth, where he stayed for five years until he received another opportunity to move back east. By then, De Jesus had begun to long for the diversity and unique hustle-bustle of more urban environments. “I realized that I missed being in academics. That was a big thing for me.” So it was off to Boston, where de Jesus became vice president and chief pharmacy officer at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, a research and academic medical center that serves as a teaching hospital for Harvard Medical School. De Jesus describes his time in Boston as “phenomenal.” However, by the following year, some close family members back in Arizona became ill, and the separation and travel proved challenging. Fortunately, by the end of 2017, de Jesus had landed a position as chief pharmacy

Today, de Jesus can take pride in his children carrying on the healthcare tradition. His oldest daughter is an occupational therapist, and his two younger daughters are in pharmacy school. De Jesus credits UIC for preparing him to excel as a clinician, which allowed him to move on to pursue his interest in making an even broader impact as an administrator.

As a dean, de Jesus offers students and young pharmacists two pieces of advice. “First, always do your best, because you’re always interviewing. Second, be open to opportunity. If you look at my career, I’ve been everywhere, and not because I like to move around. I’ve had some great opportunities. “Don’t limit yourself.”

Dr. Jill Collins Finds the Story Behind the Science

JILL COLLINS · PHD ’06

officer at UCLA Health. As of 2019, he also serves as assistant dean at the UCSF School of Pharmacy.

BY MICHAEL DHAR

So many healthcare and biotech companies make products and technologies that could transform lives. But getting that life-changing work funded and in customers’ hands calls for clear, impactful communication— something that can challenge even the most brilliant researchers.

communication skills UIC Pharmacy imparted. “You’re not just doing the work, but you have to share the work. You have to write about it, publish. You have to present at conferences,” she said. “It’s really about spreading the science and the results and communicating effectively.”

That’s where Jill Collins, PhD ’06, and her team make a difference. As CEO and chief strategy officer for branding agency Audacity Health, Collins helps health and science companies communicate why their work matters.

While wrangling pipettes in a postdoc lab at Stanford Burnham Medical Research Institute, Collins realized she loved science but wanted to leave the bench to focus on communicating research. She first transitioned to business development and marketing roles in biotech and, eventually, now her second go-around with Audacity.

“A theme throughout my career is that you can have incredibly intelligent scientists, but if they can’t communicate what they’re doing and why, then the value is not there,” Collins said. “We’re able to understand [the science and technology], build that brand story to explain what they do, how and why.” Audacity’s work could range from branding the newest product from an established medical device or diagnostic company to creating the entire brand identity for a precision oncology startup. “We will develop their brand strategy and messaging platform, which is really the essence of what their brand stands for.” Collins came to Audacity uniquely positioned for such challenges. Even while completing her dissertation at UIC, exploring drug targets via protein crystallography, Collins valued the

“I could see . . . that there was a great need for a scientific expert,” she said. “When you support science and health care companies, you have to understand their products and technology.” Since Collins took charge of Audacity in 2017, the company has experienced tremendous growth, with a workforce of ten expanding to approximately 30. The agency’s success has grown, too. “We look nothing like what we did three years ago. And right now, we have a very strong and positive reputation within our space. . . . I’m proud to have cultivated such a strong and talented team that has driven success for so many admirable healthcare brands.”

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ASK AN ALUMNUS

Palak Desai, PharmD ’01 Vice President, Pharmacy Actuarial Analytics, Centene Corporation Dr. Palak Desai has 20 years of experience encompassing clinical practice, academia, and managed care. After graduating from the UIC College of Pharmacy in 2001, she completed her pharmacy practice residency with an emphasis in cardiology at the Edward Hines, Jr., VA Hospital, where her published research led to change in clinical practice. Over the years, she has received awards and recognition for her leadership and practice. Dr. Desai began her career at Mayo Clinic-Jacksonville as a cardiology clinical pharmacist serving on multiple local and national committees, including Medication Safety, Pharmacy and Therapeutics, Congestive Heart Failure, and the Mayo Clinic Foundation Cardiology Task Force. Thereafter, she returned to Illinois and shifted her career focus to managed care. After gaining pharmacy benefit management (PBM) experience at Caremark and Walgreens Health Initiatives, she served as assistance director for Illinois Medicaid Prior Authorization and clinical assistant professor at UIC. Following this, Dr. Desai held the director of pharmacy position for Illinois Medicaid and Medicare at WellCare Health Plans where she had the opportunity to create and guide a bill impacting the opioid crisis into state legislation. During this time, she also served as the pharmacy chair for the Illinois Association of Medicaid Health Plans (IAMHP) and was featured in the “Who’s Who in Medicaid.” In her current role as vice president of pharmacy actuarial analytics at Centene Corporation, Dr. Desai serves as the clinical leader within the actuarial organization, guiding financial initiatives related to medical and pharmacy spend across the organization and influencing the risk management of major developments in the industry, such as gene therapy and the COVID-19 vaccines. You’ve had success at several professional stops— how? Each position I’ve held in the course of my career has been a stepping stone for the next. My philosophy has been to never stop learning, keep challenging myself, and never get too comfortable. What is actuarial analytics, and how does a pharmacist uniquely contribute to the work? Actuarial analysts develop statistical models to analyze data in order to project future financial risks and manage financial uncertainty for a business. In the context of managed care, healthcare actuaries and clinicians collaborate to combine healthcare utilization data and clinical insight to predict the impact of future costs and trends. The pharmacist-actuary partnership is imperative in translating qualitative clinical information

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into quantitative data allowing more accurate and precise predictive modeling for future drug and drugrelated spending. What are you working on right now, and what have you learned from it? Currently, I’m very excited to have the opportunity to work on public policy addressing the industry-wide financial and management risks posed by the emergence and expected exponential growth of cell and gene therapies over the next few years. With the unknown durability of these extremely high-cost, high-impact treatments, the financial sustainability within our current healthcare payment and delivery structure will be seriously challenged. By creating a solution through legislation that distributes risk appropriately, we can not only create a resilient financial model but also ensure equitable access to these groundbreaking therapies for the right patients at the right time.

A valuable lesson in this work has been to realize the importance of challenging the status quo and to continuously look for creative, innovative solutions. Has being a woman in leadership/pharmacy impacted you in any way? As a woman of color, from the outset of my career, it was apparent that I would be held to a higher standard than many around me. I wouldn’t be where I am, who I am, and with the skills I have today without that additional challenge. I strived to always be well-read and well-informed. However, knowledge and expertise only get one so far. I developed my communication skills to be consistently articulate, clear, and direct. I also made it a point to observe successful female leaders around me and emulate their admirable qualities. Being a woman has shaped my leadership style to be more empathetic, inquisitive, curious, assertive, and open.

health literacy and equity. As one of the most trusted professions, pharmacists are uniquely positioned to significantly impact health equity at the front lines, at the population health level, and within the public policy arena. I’m very excited to see what’s next! Do you have advice for our current student pharmacists/pharmacists starting today? In addition to some of the advice mentioned in my previous responses, periodically re-evaluate your purpose. I believe our purpose is dynamic, and we may have multiple purposes concurrently depending on the stage of our lives and careers. It’s important to stay in touch with our purpose(s) to ensure we don’t veer too far off course. Remember, your title or salary doesn’t measure success. It’s measured by what is truly important to you. Align with your purpose, commit to your passion, and live up to your potential.

At the start of each day, four post-it notes affixed to my desk remind me to “be bold,” “be brave,” “be you,” and to “take chances.” Where do you see pharmacy/healthcare going in the years ahead, and what opportunities do you see for our current student pharmacists? Long gone is the era where pharmacists were only seen in the dispensing role. While that still remains one function, the profession of pharmacy has evolved dramatically over the past couple of decades. It will continue to evolve beyond our imagination with the older range of Generation Z at the helm. With innovation, creativity, and independent thinking written in their DNA, Gen Z will create healthcare delivery models that meet patients where they are by expanding

As a pharmacist, how can I best prepare to adapt to the inevitable changes in the next 20 years? The best piece of advice I can give to a budding pharmacist is to always remain flexible, agile, and open-minded. Commit to your passion wholeheartedly, whether it’s clinical practice, academia, public policy, or something else while remaining open to new, out-ofthe-box opportunities. Second, anticipate AND accept innovation. As human beings, we are often resistant to change. In the face of change, our first instinct is to question it, resist it, and dismiss it as being short-lived. Those who anticipate innovation, embrace it, and evolve with it are the ones who will be successful long-term.

e r u t fu Y TODA THE PLAN VEST IN IN AND

of ollege C o g Chic a y the Illinois f o y ned b t e i s h r t e g v n ni ly s tre The U iends. tinual n o c and fr i s i n y m c u a u ’l l ted al Pharm ope yo dedic a h r u e o w f , goals osit y o nefit r own gener u o y w ill be n t o a t h t c e t refl e. ed gif A s you life tim deferr r a u r o y e r d f te onsi llege a also c the co

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 Associate Director of Gift Planning Geoffrey Hammond, JD, for more information on how to invest in the future at the UIC College of Pharmacy. Office of Gift Planning and Trust Services University of Illinois Foundation 1305 W. Green St. (MC 386) Urbana, IL 61801 217.332.5714 | gh15@uif.uillinois.edu

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ALUMNI NEWS

SHALLY ALENDRY VOIT, PharmD ’14, recently received a promotion to associate director, Safety Data Sciences, at AbbVie. NICOLE AVANT, PharmD ’12, recently published “Structural Racism and Supporting Black Lives—A Pharmacist’s Vow amid COVID-19,” which used the Oath of a Pharmacist as framework to “propose a set of best practices for pharmacists to advance health equity.” BRENTON BIALIK, PharmD ’14, was promoted to associate scientific director, Medical Affairs Immunology, Cross-Franchise & BioTherapeutics, at AbbVie.

Dr. Christian Berberich

IOANA BALTA, PharmD ’20, recently accepted a clinical pharmacist position with Advocate Illinois Masonic Medical Center. SARAH BANDAY, PharmD ’18, was promoted to Clinical Specialty Pharmacy Advisor at SPARx Therapeutics.

Dr. Joan Cannon

NATASHA BARROW, PharmD ’20, was recently promoted to director of business development, Lilly New Ventures, at Eli Lilly and Company. SACHEETA BATHIJA, MS ’12, joined Janssen as an associate director, Global Market Access.

Dr. Brad Gillespie

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CHRISTOPHER CAMPBELL, PharmD ’11, was recently promoted to senior medical science liaison at Eisai US. JOAN (PETERSON) CANNON, PharmD ’97, FEL ’00, MBA, started a new position at TerSera Therapeutics as executive director, Scientific Communication & External Research. KEVIN CHANG, PharmD ’16, started a new position as adjunct assistant professor at Loyola University Chicago Stritch School of Medicine

as senior medical information therapeutic manager at Novo Nordisk. JOSEPH FRIEDMAN, BS ’78, MBA, has joined the advisory board of Cannabis Rx or CRx Magazine and has contributed several articles to the magazine since it launched in the fall of 2019. Joe has also partnered with the magazine to produce the CRx Podcast where he has already produced eight podcasts. JYOTI GILL, PharmD ’18, started a new position as customer success manager at Olive. BRAD GILLESPIE, PharmD ’94, recently started a new position as a senior consultant at Aclairo Pharmaceutical Development Group.

YAN CHEN, PhD ’12, recently joined Edwards Lifesciences as director of biology, Quality Lab.

JAMES GOCEL, PhD ’12, recently joined the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs as a manager.

WEI-HAN “WENDY” CHENG, MS ’13, PhD, was recently promoted to associate director, Health Economics and Outcomes Research—Oncology, at AbbVie.

STANISLAV GORDON, PharmD ’09, was promoted to manager, Global Medical Information, at AbbVie.

CHRIS DAO, PharmD ’16, was promoted to lieutenant commander and started a new position as chief pharmacist at Federal Correctional Institution Bastrop in Texas.

RACHEL HARRINGTON, PhD ’19, was awarded a grant from the California Health Care Foundation titled “Advancing Standardized Health Equity Quality Measures.”

MARISSA (KAMARYT) DAVIS, PharmD ’16, started a new position as senior sales director at New Global Wellness.

ZANE HAUCK, PhD ’17, was recently promoted to assistant laboratory director and mass spectrometry supervisor at ZRT Laboratory.

MORGAN (MICHALEK) DENG, PharmD ’14, was recently promoted to associate director, Global Scientific Communications Strategy, at Vertex Pharmaceuticals.

JOSHUA HENKIN, PhD ’19, has joined the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Agricultural Research Service (ARS) as a postdoctoral researcher.

BRENNAN ERTMER, PharmD ’11, was promoted to principal medical science liaison at AbbVie.

PETER HEROUT, PharmD ’99, recently joined EPI-Q, Inc., as a senior director, Clinical Affairs.

ELIZABETH (GORSKI) BISACCIA, PharmD ’12, joined Advocate Aurora Health as a clinical pharmacy specialist, Investigational Drug Services.

TARANEH FARHATNEZHAD, PharmD ’21, started a new position at as operations development associate in the Science & Technology Division at AbbVie.

HOLLY HOFFMAN-ROBERTS, PharmD ’98, began a new position as senior medical science liaison at Salix Pharmaceuticals.

BRANDON BONTES, PharmD ’21, was recently promoted to project manager, Clinical Supply, at AbbVie.

CHRISTINE FOANIO, PharmD, RES ’13, started a new position

DAVID BEARDEN, PharmD ’97, FEL ’00, serves as both associate dean for academic integration and clinical advancement and clinical professor of pharmacy practice at the Oregon State University College of Pharmacy, and he recently assumed the interim dean position. CHRISTINA BERBERICH, PharmD ’12, MPH ’12, RD, was recently promoted to vice president, Regulatory and Safety, at Bobbie.

Dr. Tom Kanyok

KELSEY BRIDGEMAN, PharmD ’19, was promoted to pharmacy practice coordinator, Outpatient Oncology Services, at Northwestern Memorial Hospital.

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SAM HONG, PharmD ’19, MS, recently started a new position as director, Global Health Economics

and Outcomes Research— Diagnostics and Genomics Group, at Agilent Technologies.

ALISSA LEE, PharmD ’19, was promoted to regulatory affairs manager at Kite Pharma.

SOOJIN JUN, PharmD ’13, MS, recently cofounded Patients for Patient Safety U.S.

DONNY LEE, PharmD ’20, started a new position as scientific advisor, North America Medical Affairs at Moderna.

TOM KANYOK, PharmD, RES ’91, FEL ’93, started a new position as global product manager, TB and Emerging ID, at Cepheid. KIBUM KIM, PhD ’16, was appointed assistant professor in the UIC Department of Pharmacy Systems, Outcomes, and Policy. KHYATI (PATEL) KOTAK, PharmD ’11, was promoted to associate professor at Rosalind Franklin University College of Pharmacy. Dr. Patel also received the 2021 Excellence in Service to the University Faculty Award. BRIAN KRAMER, BS ’85, MBA, was appointed as vice chair of the Board of Directors for the Senior Care Pharmacy Coalition (SCPC). SAMANTHA LANDOLFA, PharmD ’15, was promoted to director, Ambulatory and Specialty Pharmacy Services, at ChristianaCare. ERNEST LAW, PharmD, PhD ’18 was recently promoted to director, Global HEOR (Ritlecitinib) at Pfizer.

SIERRA (DELEHANTY) MEEKS, PharmD ’19, recently joined SwedishAmerican, a division of UW Health, as an outpatient pharmacist MIAORAN NING, PhD ’17, was recently promoted to senior scientist at genentech.

SOK BEE LIM, PhD ’10, was recently promoted to regulatory affairs and quality assurance manager at Ferring Pharmaceuticals.

DIANA NOWICKI, PharmD ’17, joined UNC Health as an Investigational Drug Services pharmacist.

YIJIA LUO, PharmD ’15, started a new position as adjunct faculty at Purdue University.

JORDAN ORDOÑEZ, PharmD ’17, MPH ’18, recently joined the AIDS Foundation of Chicago as a policy intern.

ATTIYA (KHAN) MAJEED, PharmD ’18, is now a board-certified critical care pharmacist (BCCCP). VICTORIA MARSHALL, PharmD ’20, started a new position as clinical pharmacist at Advocate Aurora Health. MARC MCDOWELL, PharmD ’14, recently joined the UIC College of Pharmacy Department of Pharmacy Practice as a clinical assistant professor/clinical charmacist, Medical ICU and Emergency Medicine. LORI MCGUIRE, PharmD ’14, is now a board-certified pharmacotherapy specialist (BCPS).

Alumni Dr. Laban Creates Original Artwork for the College MYRON LABAN, PharmD ’18, created a painting for the college that depicts the essence of UIC College of Pharmacy through its different initiatives: research, service, and education. The painting includes the College of Pharmacy building in Chicago, a sculpture emblematic of Rockford, and all the various activities that take place at the college, such as research and clinical care. The bright colors, organic shapes, and shades of green represent Dr. Laban’s signature painting style.

More of Dr. Laban’s artwork may be found at myronlaban.com.

CAROLINE PARK, PharmD ’05, started a new position as therapeutic area lead, Immunology Gastro, U.S. Medical Affairs, at AbbVie. REENA PATEL, PharmD ’16, started a new position as clinical pharmacist, Utilization Management, at Optum. RUPAL PATEL, PharmD ’19, was recently promoted to senior manager, Regulatory Affairs, U.S. Advertising and Promotion, at AbbVie. SHREE PATEL, PharmD ’11, recently joined CareDx, Inc., as a senior medical science liaison.

What has changed in your life? PLE A SE LE T US K N OW AT

GO.UIC.EDU/ ALUMNIUPDATE

VISHAL PATEL, PharmD ’20, joined Sanofi Genzyme as a medical science liaison, Neurology.

Dr. Don Raineri

GARY PEKSA, PharmD ’10, was recently promoted to clinical pharmacy manager at Rush University Medical Center. ALYSSA PEREZ, PharmD ’21, started a new position as clinical pharmacist at UI Health.

Dr. Dean James Scott

LEVI PILONES, PharmD ’18, started a new position as clinical instructor/clinical pharmacist at the UIC College of Pharmacy and UI Health. TAMARA POLUS, PharmD ’20, started a new role as pharmacist at Passionate Care Management LLC, as well as pharmacist at Walmart Pharmacy.

Dr. Christopher Saffore

Dr. Patrick Zueger

DANYA QATO, PharmD ’02, MPH, PhD, selected to participate in one of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s leadership programs, their Culture of Health Leaders program. These programs connect changemakers from every profession, sector, and field across the United States to learn from and work with one another in creating more just and thriving communities.

DON RAINERI, BS ’84, PharmD ’86, vice president, Regulatory AffairsU.S., at Astellas was recently recognized as a 2021 We Work for Health Champion. The annual award highlights individual efforts in elevating awareness and advancing priorities that are integral to our patient-centric mission and the biopharmaceutical industry. BOBBIANN (AUER) RAUGHLEY, PharmD ’16, started a new job as pharmacy manager at Mariano’s. ERIN ROBEY-GAVIN, PharmD ’07, recently joined AMITA Health as a medication safety officer. MICHAEL ROBLES, PharmD ’19, started a new position as general oncology pharmacist at UW Medicine/Seattle Cancer Care Alliance. NICOLE SACCONE, PharmD, RES ’20, ’21, started a new position as clinical pharmacy specialist, Heart Failure, at Advocate Aurora Health. CHRISTOPHER SAFFORE, PharmD ’16, PhD ’19, was recently promoted to associate director, Global HEOR Strategy Lead— RINVOQ Psoriatic Arthritis/Axial Spondyloarthritis, at AbbVie.

ISABEL SANVANSONKARCESKI, PharmD ’99, was recently appointed chief of pharmacy at the Jesse Brown VA Medical Center. FRANK SCILLUFO, PharmD ’20 recently joined AbbVie as a manager, Regulatory Affairs U.S. Advertising and Promotion. JAMES SCOTT, PharmD, FEL ’97, was recently appointed dean of the Touro University California College of Pharmacy. Dr. Scott is also the California Society of Health-System Pharmacists president-elect. AHLAM SHAABNEH, PharmD ’20, started a new position as manager, Regulatory Affairs U.S. Advertising & Promotion, at AbbVie. DHARMI SHAH, PharmD ’19, started a new job at Sanofi as a labeling manager in Global Regulatory Affairs. HASAN SIDDIQUI, PharmD ’17, recently joined Novartis as a senior product manager for Cosentyx. MICHELLE SMITH, PharmD ’19, RES ’20, a clinical pharmacist at AMITA Health, recently assumed additional duties as a pharmacy residency coordinator for their PGY-1 community residency program.

Spotlight: Vernita Bryant, RPh When Vernita Bryant, BS ’55, was in pharmacy school, she was only one of three women in her class. A native of Waycross, Georgia, Bryant earned her bachelor’s in chemistry—with a math minor—at Fisk University in Nashville, Tennessee, and had begun working at the U.S. Customs and Border Protection Office in Chicago analyzing and verifying substances like cotton and liquor. “I’m a very gregarious person,” says Bryant, who had felt isolated working in the customs lab. “So I told my mother I didn’t care for that job. She suggested pharmacy, and that was it.” Bryant promptly applied for and was accepted at what was then called the University of Illinois College of Pharmacy. To this day, she feels indebted to the late Dean George Webster for the opportunities that allowed her to build a career in the profession.

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“I had difficulty finding an apprenticeship,” recalls Bryant, who’d initially found a position at her cousin’s pharmacy, where she found herself spending the better part of her time selling “more whiskey than filling prescriptions.” She approached Dean Webster, who sent her across the street to the university’s Illinois Research and Education Hospital, where she went on to eventually become assistant chief pharmacist. “He was a great man, George Webster.” Bryant went on to marry the late Jack Bryant, a WWII veteran and civil engineer. The couple eventually migrated east to Cohasset, Massachusetts, where they raised two children, and Vernita continued to work in retail pharmacy. When reminiscing on her career, Bryant, who admits to “always being a people person,” says what she misses most is developing relationships with patients and their families. “I can’t think of a career that I would have enjoyed more.”

KIM SPENCER, PharmD ’03, MHA, recently joined SSM Health as their system vice president for pharmacy services. JENNIFER SPLAWSKI, PharmD ’10, MS, recently joined Kit Check as director of clinical solutions. NATALIA SZYNALIK, PharmD ’19, was promoted to clinical pharmacist at Jesse Brown VA Medical Center. BRIAN TALON, PharmD ’16, PhD ’21, started a new position as senior manager, Value Evidence, at Lundbeck. ANDREA TENBARGE, PharmD ’12, started a new position as advisor, MA Communications and Omnichannel Engagement, at Eli Lilly and Company. NISHANT THAKAR, PharmD ’12, received the Distinguished Teaching Award from Roosevelt College of Pharmacy. HARDIK THAKKAR, PharmD ’17, was promoted to district leader, emerging leader, at CVS Health. ANNIE TRAN, PharmD, RES ’14, MBA, recently joined AmerisourceBergen as a clinical operations director, Specialty Pharmacy. JAY TRAN, PharmD ’07, started a new position as director, clinical government services, at Capital Rx. ALINA VARABYEVA, PharmD ’19, was promoted to leukemia clinical pharmacist specialist at Roswell Park Comprehensive Cancer Center.

ELAINE (GUIAO) VILLANUEVA, PharmD ’12, clinical pharmacist, UIC College of Pharmacy, is now a board-certified pharmacotherapy specialist (BCPS).

Dr. Zaibak has done it again!

AMIN VIRANI, PharmD ’18, has joined Sanofi as an oncology medical science liaison.

McKesson recently announced that HASHIM ZAIBAK,

KAREN (ECKMANN) WATKINS, PharmD ’08, started a new position at Coeus Consulting Group as a senior manager of medical affairs.

performance and exceptional community health leadership.

KERSTEN WEBER TATARELIS, PharmD ’07, was recognized as part of ASHP’s “Fellow of ASHP” (FASHP) Class of 2021. TIFFANY WU, PharmD, RES ’20 started a new position as lead infectious disease pharmacist at Tulane University Hospital and Clinic at Tulane Medical Center. ERICKA WYCKSTANDT, PharmD ’19, started a new position as registered pharmacist at CGH Medical Center. CONNIE YAN, PharmD ’17, started a new position as HEOR Neuroscience at AbbVie. WILLIAM ZHOU, PharmD ’20, started a new position as staff pharmacist at PharmScript LLC. GABRIELA ZICCARELLI, PharmD ’12 recently joined Walgreen’s Office of Clinical Integrity as manager, Pharmacy Innovation. PATRICK ZUEGER, PharmD ’13, PhD ’18, was promoted to director, U.S. HEOR Strategy, Rheumatology, at AbbVie.

Lessons from the Field Lessons from the Field is a video interview series hosted by Dean GLEN SCHUMOCK. The series features a diverse array of alumni guests with a passion for pharmacy and pharmaceutical sciences. Dr. Schumock leads guests through a discussion of topics ranging from education to current events in pharmacy and everywhere in between. Recent alumni guests include Drs. YIJIA LUO, CHRISTINA BERBERICH, MOSES DUNSON II, TAMY LEUNG, and SARA VAYVAYAN. With over 30 videos to choose from, you’re bound to find someone you know and learn something new!

Check out the full playlist of videos at go.uic.edu/lessons.

PharmD ’99, has again been recognized as McKesson’s Pharmacy of the Year for superior superior clinical In addition to this 2021 accolade, Dr. Zaibak was the 2014 Health Mart franchise recipient.

ALUMNI NEWS

MIKE GANNON, PharmD ’15, and Amanda welcomed their second child, daughter Macey Rae Gannon, on September 8, 2021, weighing 7 lbs 5 oz and measuring 20.5 inches.

Emory Levi Baker

JOSIAH BAKER, PharmD ’21, and fiancé ISABELLA RUIZ, P3, welcomed their first child, son Emory Levi, on July 13, 2021, weighing 6 lbs 15 oz. MICHELLE BRYSON, PharmD ’11, and husband Brad Opfermann welcomed daughter Eleanor Jane Opfermann on December 15, 2020, weighing 7 lbs 5 oz and measuring 19.5 inches. SARAH BOUDINOT, PharmD ’16, welcomed her first child, daughter Lillian James, who was born August 11, 2021, at 3:12 p.m., weighing 6 lbs 10 oz and measuring 19 inches.

Margot Cameron Bridgeman

KELSEY BRIDGEMAN, PharmD ’19, and husband Kris welcomed their first child, daughter Margot Cameron Bridgeman, on August 1, 2021.

KYLE GORDON and MARIA TANGONAN, both PharmD ’14, welcomed their second child, son Jack Michael Gordon, on September 2, 2021, weighing 6 lbs and measuring 19.5 inches. Jack joins big brother Sean (3). DAN GRATIE, PharmD ’17, and wife Allie welcomed their first child, Samantha Grace Gratie, on June 13, 2021, weighing 7 lbs 5 oz and measuring 20 inches.

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Sofia Martinez

L. JEANETTE (LOZOYA) MARTINEZ, PharmD ’11, and husband Alejandro welcomed their second child, Sofia Martinez, on June 15, 2019. She joins big brother Emiliano Martinez (4).

Samantha Grace Gratie

JUANITA (BRUCE) JACKSON, PharmD ’14, and Jarvis welcomed their first child, Jacob Lawrence Jackson, on August 27, 2021, weighing 7 lbs 11 oz and measuring 19 inches. KIBUM KIM, PhD ’16, and Mijin welcomed son Ryan Joonseo Kim on August 28, 2021. Ryan joins three siblings in the Kim family.

Zaina Inara Gardner

Macey Rae Gannon

Iris Maryam Ali

KELLYN MORAN, PharmD ’15, and Hannie Ali, welcomed their first child, daughter Iris Maryam Ali, on May 20, 2021, at 4:00 p.m., weighing 7 lbs 9 oz. GEORGETTE MURAD, PharmD ’12, and husband Daniel Gardner welcomed their second child, daughter Zaina Inara Gardner, on May 20, 2021, weighing 7 lbs 13 oz and measuring 20.5 inches. She joins big sister Amira.

RENE (WILLIAMS) RABAZA, PharmD ’17, and husband Michael Rabaza welcomed their first child, son Beau Anthony Rabaza, on May 27, 2021, at 3:40 a.m., weighing 7 lbs 6 oz and measuring 20 inches.

Amira Shanti Baxi

Grayson Kyle Wyckstandt

RINA SHAH, PharmD ’05, and husband Nihar Baxi welcomed their first child, daughter Amira Shanti Baxi, on May 22, 2021.

Beau Anthony Rabaza

VICTORIA RAMOS, PharmD ’19, and husband Moshe Dolejsi welcomed their first child, son David Dean Dolejsi, on August 24, 2021, at 11:45 p.m. ,weighing 10lbs 6 oz.

JAISON and RAJU VARGHESE, PharmD ’15 and ’16, respectively, welcomed a daughter, Anaya Aley Varghese, on July, 9, 2021.

ERICA WYCKSTANDT, PharmD ’19, and husband Kyle welcomed their first child, son Grayson Kyle, on March 29, 2021.

ELAINE (GUIAO) VILLANUEVA, PharmD ’12 and husband Matt welcomed their third child, daughter Amelia “AJ” Joyce, on July 25, 2021. AJ joins big brothers Oliver (4) and Nicholas (2). KAREN (ECKMANN) WATKINS, PharmD ’08, and husband Jack welcomed their second child, son Wesley, on April 10, 2021. He joins big sister Eleanor (4).

Drs. Jaisson and Raju Varghese and Anaya

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MAY

CHOLE MAJKOWSKI, PharmD ’18, married Tim Boland on May 1, 2021.

MAY

SAMANTHA LANDOLFA, PharmD ’15, married Emanuel Mendez Ruiz on May 30, 2021, at the Merion Tribute House near Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The newlyweds honeymooned in Napa Valley.

JUN

JUL

JULIA URSAN, PharmD ’13, married Cosmin Lucaci on July 24, 2021. The couple honeymooned in New Orleans, Ireland, and Romania, where they had a family celebration as well.

JUL

31 MADIHA KHAN, PharmD ’18, married Shiful Malik on June 20, 2021. DHARMI SHAH, PharmD ’19, married Ronak Shah on May 22, 2021, in an intimate outdoor ceremony with close friends and family. The newlyweds recently moved back to Chicago.

MAY

SAJEEL LATIF, PharmD ’20, married Aisha Anwar on May 23, 2021.

MAY

STEPHANIE CHANG, PharmD ’17, married Kevin Choi on July 31, 2021.

AUG

JUN

HUNTER PATTON-GENTERT, PharmD ’21, married Jenna Nygren on June 26, 2021. The newlyweds are planning a future honeymoon in Hawaii.

HANNAH BRENNAN, PharmD ’20, married Tom McGovern on August 21, 2021. The newlyweds honeymooned in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico.

AUG

JUN

SONIA SHAH, PharmD ’11, married Harshal Dave on August 28, 2021.

SEP

04 KEVIN CHANG and JESSICA DAPISA, both PharmD ’16, were married on May 29, 2021. The couple were married in an intimate backyard ceremony and honeymooned in Maui.

MAY

NATALIYA MILIKHIKER, PharmD ’17, married Sean Mahon on May 29, 2021.

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ANESIA RETICKER, PharmD ’18, married Justin Piper on July 17, 2021. Former resident MELODY SAUNDERS, PharmD, RES ’20, married Gennaro Hernandez on July 21, 2021.

JUL

PAULINA SAMBOR, PharmD ’18, married Ilya Chaynik on September 4, 2021. The newlyweds will be honeymooning in Greece.

ERIC ABASOLO, PharmD ’19, became engaged to Katlyn Mast. ENELA ALIAJ, PharmD ’18, became engaged to Nick Batt. ASHLEY CHA and DAVID SILVA, both PharmD ’19, became engaged. MELISSA MORIARTY, PharmD ’16, became engaged to Patrick Knight. The big day will take place in April 2022 in San Diego. NATASHA PATEL, PharmD ’16, became engaged to Chaitan Parikh.

Noel Dicks

CHRIS SAFFORE, PharmD ’16, PhD ’19, and MERCEDES SANCHEZ, PharmD ’16, became engaged. ANISA SHALABI, PharmD ’20, became engaged to Adam Hobson. JIM TERNIG, PharmD ’19, became engaged to Jaci Petrik. MAGELLAN YADAO, PharmD ’18, and CORINNE SONGER, PharmD ’19, became engaged.

NOEL C. DICKS, BS ’52, passed peacefully on June 4, 2021. After graduation, he served the United States Army as a pharmacist at Brooke Army Hospital in San Antonio, Texas, during the Korean War. In 1957, Noel married the love of his life, Iris Jeanne Lape, and they ultimately purchased Grantham Drug Store in Arthur, Illinois, in 1960 and changed the name to Dicks Pharmacy. He remained the sole proprietor until his retirement in 1995. JULIUS E. GOLEMBO, PHC ’37, passed away July 25, 2021, at the age of 106.

SHARON LOWRIE, PharmD ’89, passed on July 15, 2021, following a tragic accident. Sharon lived her entire life in the Chicago area. Following graduation, Sharon was a practicing pharmacist until her death, and she was a strong advocate for the rights of the mentally ill. RONALD A. RICHMOND BS ’80, MBA, MPH, passed on June 12, 2021. Ronald had a long career at Albertson’s, serving in several leadership roles in Compliance and Managed Care before joining Paramount Rx as their senior vice president for provider relations.

Ronald Richmond

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The Pharmacist - Fall 2021

Articles inside

Students' Next Experiential Rotations are Just an Interactive Map Click Away

Alumni Profile: Dr. Jill Collins Finds the Story Behind the Science

Alumni Profile: Dr. Jess de Jesus Keeps on Moving on

Ask an Alumnus: Palak Desai, PharmD ’01

Turning Knowlege into Profit at the DIG

Change Agents

A Home Away from Home

Important Step, Important Time The New BSPS Program

Beyond the PharmD