Academic Pharmacy Now: 2017 Issue 5

Academic Pharmacy

The News Magazine of the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy

NOW

Volume 10 2017 Issue 5

Diverse Universe

Pharmacy schools are preparing future pharmacists to be inclusive and ensure that everyone receives the care they need. 12

Also in this issue: Practicing With a Purpose 4 Phone-a-Pharmacist 6

who we are @AACPharmacy

Academic Pharmacy The News Magazine of the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy

American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy 1727 King Street, Floor 2 Alexandria, VA 22314 p: 703-739-2330 P f: 703-836-8982

www.aacp.org

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

Letters to the Editor

We welcome your comments.

Please submit all letters to the editor to communications@aacp.org.

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

Change of Address

For address changes, contact LaToya Casteel, Member Services Coordinator, at lcasteel@aacp.org.

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For advertising information and rates, visit http://go.networkmediapartners.com/ aacp-mediakit or contact Jeff Rhodes, AACP Media & Event Sales, at jrhodes@networkmediapartners.com Š2017 by the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy. All rights reserved. Content may not be

NOW

CEO & Publisher

Lucinda L. Maine

Editorial Director

Lynette R. Bradley-Baker

Editor

Maureen Thielemans

mthielemans@aacp.org

Editorial Assistant

Kyle R. Bagin

kbagin@aacp.org

Art Director

Tricia Gordon

tgordon@aacp.org

Design Assistant

Sean Clark

sclark@aacp.org

Senior Advisor, Outreach and Communications

Stephanie Saunders Fouch sfouch@aacp.org

Freelance Writer

Athena Ponushis

reprinted without prior written permission.

Freelance Writer

Jane E. Rooney

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Academic Pharmacy NOW  2017 Issue 5

Volume 10 2017 Issue 5

@AACPharmacy a look inside

campus connection

4 Practicing With a Purpose What could have been a careerending car accident for a WNE University student pharmacist is now an opportunity to accomplish even more.

Share Your News with the Academy: Academic Pharmacy Now is seeking content for its Campus Connection and Community Impact sections.

Articles in Campus Connection highlight professional best practices, innovative research teaching techniques and curriculum tools, or news that’s happening on campus. Articles in Community Impact illustrate how the work of faculty or researchers is affecting the larger community. These stories may have a human interest element and showcase what pharmacy faculty are doing outside the classroom.

For submissions, questions or to learn more about broader themes for upcoming issues, contact Maureen Thielemans, associate director of communications, at mthielemans@aacp.org.

community impact

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Phone-a-Pharmacist

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Telepharmacy programs are educating patients on medicine and educating students on people.

Diverse Universe Pharmacy schools are taking steps to address cultural competency by preparing future pharmacists to be inclusive and ensure that everyone receives the care they need.

Pharmacy’s Federal Recognition A new USPHS award builds upon a growing tradition of distinguishing pharmacy’s role in public health.

@AACPharmacy

21 Register Now! It’s Time to Renew Your Membership Take advantage of all the professional development opportunities AACP has to offer in 2018.

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At the Intersection of Diversity + Inclusion As an ASAE Diversity Executive Leadership Program (DELP) scholar, Senior Director of Academic Affairs Dr. Cecilia M. Plaza hopes to apply the lessons learned in association management to increasing diversity and inclusion within AACP and ultimately patient care.

Academic Pharmacy NOW  2017 Issue 5

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community note publisher’s impact

Dear Colleagues: This issue of Academic Pharmacy Now focuses on the important work across the Academy that places our quest to create a diverse and culturally competent pharmacy workforce front and center. This is essential given the increased diversification of the patients to be served by our graduates. To accomplish these aims is complicated and requires efforts in stimulating a diverse applicant pool, cultivating a diverse and culturally competent faculty and student body, and offering the right combination of didactic and experiential learning opportunities to equip our learners to serve all people with insight, dignity and compassion.

Carla White and colleagues published the report of the special task force on “Diversifying Our Investment in Human Capital” earlier this year. The task force was initially charged by then-incoming President Cynthia Boyle and worked from 2015 to 2017. In the first year they presented the following statement for adoption by the AACP House of Delegates: AACP recognizes that a diverse student body, faculty, administration, and staff contribute to improvements in health equity and therefore encourages member institutions to develop faculty, staff, pharmacists and scientists whose background, perspectives, and experiences reflect the diverse communities they serve.

AACP affirms its commitment to foster an inclusive community and leverage diversity of thought, background, perspective, and experience to advance pharmacy education and improve health.

We are fortunate that, as evidenced by the material contained in this issue of the magazine, AACP members have taken to heart our collective commitment to work toward inclusivity and cultural competence among our students, faculty and graduates. This is one of those activities that is never done, however. As society works on this agenda we find nuances in new definitions and new attributes of individuals that must be incorporated into our awareness.

In a recent trip to India I was surprised and delighted to learn that one organization pointed with pride to the establishment of a school for the differently-abled.

Aren’t we all in some ways differently-abled? It is what makes us unique and worthy of consideration as we interact with the public and other members of the healthcare team.

In November 2016 the AACP Board of Directors also adopted a diversity statement to guide the work of the Association:

Sincerely,

Lucinda L. Maine, Ph.D., R.Ph. CEO and Publisher

campus connection

Practicing With a Purpose What could have been a career-ending car accident for a WNE University student pharmacist is now an opportunity to accomplish even more.

By Maureen Thielemans Stay positive. There’s light at the end of the tunnel. Anything is possible if you put your mind to it.

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There are countless expressions of consolation meant to uplift someone experiencing hardship. Oftentimes it’s hard to find the truth in these words,

but one former Western New England University student pharmacist is rising to the seemingly insurmountable challenges he’s encountered in the past

campus connection

“Now having the clinical knowledge and being ‘on the other side of the bed’ gives me the whole, encompassed knowledge.” ­— Jeffrey Mazzamurro

two years, and beating the odds. His perseverance is remarkable, and he credits the tremendous support, both personally and professionally, he’s received from his WNE deans, faculty and fellow students.

A Major Setback On Oct. 30, 2015 Jeffrey Mazzamurro, Pharm.D., had just completed his final day of a six-week longitudinal APPE rotation at Baystate Medical Center in Springfield, Mass. He was driving home to Connecticut when his car lost its grip, hit a median and flipped a few times. The resulting injuries left him wheelchair-bound, as a C5-C6 tetraplegic, with no leg, core or finger movement. He has just partial arm mobility.

Mazzamurro still had three APPE rotations to complete before he could graduate, which would now prove difficult. But WNE University College of Pharmacy Dean Dr. Evan Robinson, Assistant Dean for Student Affairs Dr. Joshua J. Spooner and Assistant Dean of Experiential Affairs Dr. Kim Tanzer stepped in to help, going above-andbeyond the typical responsibilities of a student-educator relationship.

“Dean Robinson and Dean Spooner drove an hour to see me in the hospital, and checked in on me periodically.

Whenever I needed anything, they were there,” Mazzamurro said. “They gave me their mobile numbers in case they were out of the office. Dean Tan-

zer traveled a lot too. We had meetings with my rotation preceptors, whether it was virtual or in person, and she drove from Massachusetts to Connecticut to meet with me.”

state boards of pharmacy to learn about their various laws and regulations. He also completed a rotation with RxInsider and another at the Hospital of Special Care in Connecticut.

Schools Step Up

Advocating for Others

Assessing the extent of Mazzamurro’s injury, and how that would impact the rest of his education and future career, was paramount. With one semester and three APPE rotations to finish before graduation in spring 2016, the logistics facing him were extremely challenging. His WNE team of faculty and administrators quickly mobilized to find rotations that he’d be able to complete as a tetraplegic.

Mazzamurro graduated this past August and while he’s still finalizing details for future employment, he’s eager to see what opportunities exist in various practice settings, including those with patient care components.

One thing he is certain of: he wants to utilize this new platform he has to really make a change in healthcare.

“I got into pharmacy to help people,” he said. “And so I’d like to focus more on advocating for patients or practitioners with disabilities. Now having the clinical knowledge and being ‘on the other side of the bed’ gives me the whole, encompassed knowledge.”

Mazzamurro was now back home in Connecticut, so completing rotations in Massachusetts, where WNE is located, was not feasible. His deans contacted pharmacy schools in Connecticut to inquire about experiential opportunities that could be made avail- “Anything is possible,” he continued.

“No matter what it is, whether it’s a car able to him—effectively asking if they accident for me, or the loss of a parent would be willing to give up a rotation for someone else, you’re always going spot from one of their own students to have hardships in life. That doesn’t and offer it to Mazzamurro. mean you can’t reach your goals or “Everyone really worked together, makdreams. You have to be true to yourself ing calls and pulling strings,” he said. and trust the process. Anything can happen.” P In February 2016, Mazzamurro began Maureen Thielemans is Associate Director his final three rotations, two of which of Communications at AACP and editor of he completed remotely from his home Academic Pharmacy Now. in Connecticut. One was with CVS Health, specifically within their law and regulatory department working with

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community impact

Phone-a-Pharmacist Telepharmacy programs are educating patients on medicine and educating students on people.

By Athena Ponushis Jed Swackhammer shows up to work early. As a student pharmacist at The Ohio State University College of Pharmacy, Swackhammer works at the Medication Management Program (MMP), calling patients across the country to review their medications. In the beginning, they may not like him, but by the end of the call, they thank him. And every day, Swackhammer leaves work feeling like he has made a difference.

Swackhammer checks for drug interactions, missing medications or duplicate medications. He looks at costs, to see if there might be generic options. Patients gain a greater understanding of how to take their medications, when to take them, when not to take them and when to follow up with their doctors.

“There is no routine patient,” Swackhammer said. “That’s what I have been able to experience at the MMP.” Such telepharmacy programs reveal how healthcare today extends beyond the physician’s office or pharmacy counter. Telepharmacy allows pharmacists, or future pharmacists, to reach patients in their homes, where they can open up their medicine cabinets and about their concerns. An old-fashioned phone call has become an innovative continuum of care.

Students are able to hone their counseling skills, practicing different methods of motivation to encourage medication adherence. They see how health conditions and corresponding medica-

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tions they have learned about in the classroom play out in a real life. Above all else, they are able to ask a patient, “How are you feeling?”

That might sound like a small question, explained Dr. Milap Nahata, director of the Institute of Therapeutic Innovations and Outcomes with oversight of MMP at OSU, but asked in an office setting, where patients know they only have a block of time, they may just answer with a cordial, “Good,” not wanting to be a bother. Therein lies the beauty of telepharmacy: Pharmacists and pharmacy interns ask, “How are you feeling?” over the phone, where time is suspended. And patients, in the privacy of their homes, tend to get personal. “Sometimes they share their life story,” Nahata said.

Optimal Health Outcomes, Only a Phone Call Away The OSU-MMP started in 2014 with a crew of two professional staff, one intern and one student. Now there are nearly 40 professional staff and 130 students, 80 of those being pharmacy interns, working at the MMP, helping more than 3,000 patients each week.

“Although I saw a need for our service and expected it to grow, I had no idea that it would grow so quickly,” Nahata said.

The OSU program was modeled after the Medication Management Center (MMC) at The University of Arizona College of Pharmacy, the collegiate

pioneers of telepharmacy. The MMC opened there in 2006, after the articulation of the medication therapy management movement was made to help patients be smarter and safer with their medications. Software was developed to keep a continual analysis of the medications patients were using and identify any potential problems.

This led to the spinoff of SinfoníaRx, a Tabula Rasa HealthCare Company, an industry leader in MTM. SinfoníaRx has four call centers, including the OSU-MMP and UA-MMC, with a fifth center on the way. The company keeps track of the number of interventions made and money saved since its inception. As of early October 2017, more than 1.5 million drug therapy problems had been solved and more than $1 billion healthcare dollars had been saved, per the real-time counter on the company’s website.

Dr. Osamah Eljerdi, a recent UA graduate who worked at the MMC, found telepharmacy could make a difference for so many because it can transcend transportation barriers, overcome language barriers and empower patients.

“I’ve had patients cry at the end of a call.

They tell me that their doctors don’t understand them, their families don’t know what to do, and that they’re so grateful for the medication review. They ask, “What am I taking this for?’ ‘What does this do for me?’ and ‘How does this help me get better?’” Eljerdi said. “I think that understanding their medica-

community impact

“Students admit that in face-to-face communications, there’s an element of intimidation and anxiety, this sense of, ‘Here’s this patient, much older than I am, and I have to educate this individual on things I’m still learning myself.’”

Telepharmacy gives students the luxury of practicing their counseling skills over the phone. Just as a phone call can ease a nervous patient, it can take the pressure off a student, too.

Plus, students know they can put the call on hold and ask pharmacists at the center for help.

Above: Dr. Stephanie Forbes, pharmacy director at the MMC at The University of Arizona, and Dr. Kevin Boesen, president of SinfoníaRx, with the MMC team behind them. The MMC opened at UA in 2006, after the articulation of the medication therapy management movement was made to help patients be smarter and safer with their medications. Software was developed to keep a continual analysis of the medications patients were using and identify any potential problems.

Below: The OSU-MMP started in 2014 with a crew of two professional staff, one intern and one student.

Now there are nearly 40 professional staff and 130 students, 80 of those being pharmacy interns, working at the MMP, helping more than 3,000 patients each week. To learn more, visit http://bit.ly/2ACRH8r.

tions is really important to empower them to take care of themselves and take their medications appropriately.”

Managing Medications—and People Eljerdi will soon work as a pharmacist at SinfoníaRx’s new clinical call center.

He became more aware of the difficulties in healthcare by working at the MMC. The human interaction helped prepare him professionally by making him more understanding of people’s situations financially, socially and culturally. “You encounter every single

one of those issues every single day of your experience here,” Eljerdi said.

The MMC exposed him to real people with complex issues, patients taking 10 to 20 medications for chronic diseases. He did not have to deal with the lines of community pharmacies or the distractions of hospitals. “Here, it’s so condensed,” Eljerdi explained. “You’re cutting out all the frills and getting to the meat of what it means to be a pharmacist, and that is clinical monitoring, therapeutic guidance, education, counseling and monitoring issues that arise in a way that only a pharmacist can.

“One of the best things that occurs from our telepharmacy Medication Management Program is the opportunity to hire our students and put them in the situation of evaluating a patient’s medication plan,” said Dr. Henry Mann, dean of the OSU College of Pharmacy. “The students develop enhanced communication skills and their anxiety about talking with patients erodes with practice. Our preceptors in IPPEs and APPEs have commented on how noticeable this improvement is and how it sets our students apart as practitioners. There is so much that the pharmacy profession can still add to the practice of healthcare, and programs like the telepharmacy Medication Management Program at Ohio State demonstrate the positive impact we can have on patient lives every day.”

Telepharmacy Makes the World Feel Smaller Every pharmacist or student pharmacist working at a telepharmacy center has calls that stay with them.

Dr. Christine Prusa, lead pharmacist at the OSU-MMP, remembers a woman who was working on her blood sugar, it wasn’t evening out and she couldn’t figure out why.

Prusa and the woman were talking about her medication, which was LanAcademic Pharmacy NOW  2017 Issue 5

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community impact

“A typical 70-year-old patient takes 12 or more medications and low health literacy affects nearly 90 percent of adults.” ­— Dr. Milap Nahata tus, and at some point in the conversation, Prusa thought to ask the woman, “How are you storing your Lantus?”

telepharmacy makes the world smaller.

It brings us closer to patients, and closer to patient care.”

She was keeping it in the freezer because the medication said it needed to be cold, and so she thought the colder, the better. “My heart broke a little bit when she told me this,” Prusa said.

“She was trying so hard to control her blood sugar and here she was freezing her Lantus, and trying to inject herself with frozen Lantus. Take a moment and think what that feels like.”

Every day at the MMP, Prusa says patients tell her pharmacy interns, “I didn’t know that,” or “No one ever told me that.” Maybe someone did along the way, but they were too stressed at hospital discharge or too frantic in the pharmacy line to hear it. “For some reason, over one phone call, they heard us,” Prusa explained.

Prusa educated the woman on her medication and the science of storing it.

The woman was flabbergasted.

“Patients are trying to do the best thing,” Prusa says. “They just need more help.”

People are living longer these days, but they are living with multiple health conditions, taking multiple medications and seeing multiple providers. A typical 70-year-old patient takes 12 or more medications and low health literacy affects nearly 90 percent of adults, Nahata shared. The need to educate patients is obvious and the impact telepharmacy can make is remarkable.

“It comes down to accessibility,” Prusa said. “I have worked in and I have a passion for community pharmacy, and I’ve practiced in ambulatory settings and I love those too. They have a certain place, but the scope of patients we can impact through telepharmacy is truly remarkable. … Face-to-face will always remain and be important, but

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Advancing the Aim of Pharmacy Beyond preparing students, telepharmacy centers are also conducting research. “That’s what universities are all about, creating new knowledge and disseminating that knowledge to our students, to our patients and to the community,” Nahata said. “To me, a key reason for academic institutions to exist is to make our communities better and healthier.”

with wide-ranging rural areas, because patients need help. “We don’t have to go to their homes to reach them, but we can reach them in their homes,” Forbes said.

Community pharmacies and hospital pharmacies are not able to reach every patient. That’s where telepharmacy can help the current healthcare landscape and the future of pharmacy—to reach as many people as possible to help them use their medications in the best possible way.

“The reason I came into pharmacy was to make a difference in people’s lives through prevention and treatment of diseases,” Nahata said. “Medications can be life-saving, but they can sometimes be life-threatening, so we want to make sure we use them wisely. I always tell students, we want to make sure every medication that a patient uses is well-justified and that we use the smallest amount possible to achieve our results. That is the heart of pharmacy.

Centers are also working to bridge “My vision, and I hope this happens interprofessional gaps. “We have an during my lifetime, is that every interprofessional rotation that comes individual who is receiving a medicathrough here, with nursing students, tion has a chance to be touched by a nutrition students, pharmacy students pharmacist.

Every single one. We are and medical students who all work on not able to connect with everyone, but patient cases together,” said Dr. Stephtelepharmacy is one mechanism by anie Forbes, pharmacy director of the which we can reach more people, more MMC at UA. “We are pushing to have efficiently.” P more of an interprofessional relationship within the center, for the benefit of Athena Ponushis is a freelance writer based in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida. the patients that we serve.”

Forbes believes telepharmacy is vital, especially in Arizona and other states

community impact

Pharmacy’s Federal Recognition A new USPHS award builds upon a growing tradition of distinguishing pharmacy’s role in public health.

The Public Health Excellence in Interprofessional Education Collaboration Award, a joint effort with the Interprofessional Education Collaborative, joins the USPHS Excellence in Public Health Pharmacy Award in the organization’s cadre of prestigious recognitions.

dent of IPEC and president and CEO of the American Dental Education Association. “We applaud the students and faculty of the University of Central Florida, and all of the nominees, for showing that if we educate health professionals together, patients and the entire health care system benefit.”

Seeking to recognize health education programs that have significantly impacted their communities through multidisciplinary collaboration, the new award focuses specifically on programs improving health knowledge, awareness and behavior. The inaugural award was given to one national winner, with five honorable mentions.

The Excellence in Public Health Pharmacy Practice Award recognizes student pharmacists who have made significant contributions to public health by promoting wellness and healthy communities.

Below are the recipients of both awards.

Public Health Excellence in Interprofessional Education Collaboration Award

“Public health starts with education,” emphasized Rear Admiral Pamela M. Schweitzer, Pharm.D., BCACP, chief professional officer of pharmacy, U.S. Public Health Service. “To build a strong community health infrastructure, we must continue to learn collaboratively and serve collectively. In do- 2017 USPHS IPEC Inaugural Award: ing so, we can effectively promote and advance the health of Overall Winner University of Central Florida our Nation.”

Harnessing the Strength of Inter-Professional Teams to Pro“Interprofessional health care practice is achievable and it vide Comprehensive Care for the Farmworkers of Apopka, Florida works,” says Richard W. Valachovic, D.M.D., M.P.H., presiJudith S. Simms-Cendan, M.D., College of Medicine, Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology Heather Peralta, DHSc, MSN, RN, College of Nursing Priya K. Patel, B.S., College of Medicine (MedPACt) Alexander Diaz, B.S., College of Medicine (MedPACt)

2017 USPHS IPEC Honorable Mention: Health Communications and Health Technology Lake Erie College of Osteopathic Medicine Community Paramedicine

Victoria Reinhartz, Pharm.D., School of Pharmacy James Crutchfield, NREMT-P, CCEMT-P, CCHW, Manatee County Public Safety Department David Nonell, M.D., Manatee County Emergency Medical Services Melissa Larkin-Skinner, MBA, LMHC, Centerstone of Florida

2017 USPHS IPEC Honorable Mention: Behavioral Health At the Summer 2017 IPEC Council Meeting, the USPHS IPEC Inaugural Award was presented to members of the University of Central Florida team for their program: Harnessing the Strength of Inter-Professional Teams to Provide Comprehensive Care for the Farmworkers of Apopka, Florida.

University of Alabama at Birmingham Bridging the Gap: Caring for Birmingham’s Most Vulnerable Populations Cynthia S. Selleck, Ph.D., RN, FAAN, School of Nursing Maria R. Shirey, Ph.D., MBA, RN, NEA-BC, ANEF, FACHE, FAAN, School of Nursing

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community impact

2017 USPHS IPEC Honorable Mention: Public Health Infrastructure

Massachusetts General Hospital Institute of Health Professions Crimson Care Collaborative: An Interprofessional AcademicPractice Partnership Patricia A. Reidy, DNP, FNP-BC, School of Nursing Marya J. Cohen, M.D., M.P.H., Harvard Medical School

2017 USPHS IPEC Honorable Mention: Community Empowerment and Education East Tennessee State University East Tennessee State University Prescription Drug Abuse and Misuse Working Group Robert P. Pack, Ph.D., M.P.H., School of Public Health Nicholas Hagemeier, Pharm.D., Ph.D., Gatton College of Pharmacy Fred Tudiver, M.D., College of Family Medicine Angela Hagaman, M.A., LPCA, College of Public Health

2017 USPHS IPEC Honorable Mention: At Risk and Vulnerable Communities

University of Alabama at Birmingham Increasing Access to Healthcare Services through an Interprofessional, Student-Led, Health Education and Medical Screening Program for Homeless Men in Birmingham Alabama James R. Kilgore, Ph.D., PA-C, School of Health Professions Kimberly Meadows Clark, Firehouse Ministries Doug Kovash, Firehouse Ministries J.M. Trimm, Ph.D, School of Health Professions

For more details about the Public Health Excellence in Interprofessional Education Collaboration Award 2018 application cycle, visit https://www.ipecollaborative.org.

USPHS Excellence in Public Health Pharmacy Award 2016–2017 Top Award Recipients Emily Highsmith University of Pacific

For demonstrated leadership in organizations devoted to improving vaccination rates, ensuring affordable healthcare access, and serving the homeless.

Ali Scrimenti University at Buffalo, The State University of New York

For service to the public through the many projects she coordinated to promote patient health and disease treatment awareness.

Rayburn Mumbuna West Coast University

For leadership, commitment, and involvement in providing services in HIV/AIDS prevention including travel to Zambia on humanitarian missions.

Chandler Schexnayder Xavier University of Louisiana

Recognition of his strong commitment to serve the underserved by hosting local health fairs, creating an initiative to promote oral

Do you know a student who has made significant contributions to public health by promoting wellness and healthy communities? Nominate him or her for the USPHS Excellence in Public Health Pharmacy Award. For more details about the current application cycle, visit https://dcp.psc.gov/OSG/ pharmacy/student_awards.aspx.

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health, and playing an integral role on the healthcare team in Haiti.

Kalyann Kauv Virginia Commonwealth University

Recognition of her relentless effort to improve medication adherence in underserved urban communities.

Sefa Kploanyi Touro College of Pharmacy–New York For co-founding the Pharmacist for Public (PPH) student organization and providing community outreach focused on nutrition, HIV, and Hepatitis education and screening.

Taylor Griffies Campbell University

For her commitment to serving underserved populations locally and abroad. This includes extensive health education programs, mental health awareness, and medical mission trips to Honduras.

Angela Pruitt Chicago State University

For educating underserved youth on health literacy and empowering them to make a difference in their communities.

Katie Brooks The University of Oklahoma

For her active involvement and leadership in a wide array of public health projects locally and abroad.

Melissa Bradley Auburn University

Recognition of her dedication to improving access to healthcare in underserved com-

munities through volunteerism and sustained leadership in efforts to establish a free clinic.

Meredith Welty Wingate University

For her leadership in reducing health disparities by establishing an educational program, through her university, to provide health literacy to new and expecting parents served by the crisis pregnancy center in her community.

Sonia Andrea Laguado The University of Texas at Austin

Recognition of her commitment to combatting the opioid epidemic demonstrated by her leadership and community engagement in her role as the founding student director of her university’s Operation Naloxone.

Alexander Mills Purdue University

Recognition for outstanding efforts towards providing and transforming wound care compression therapy services for underserved populations in western Kenya.

Hang Tran Pacific University, Oregon

Recognition for her leadership and dedication towards the development of student-led community public health initiatives, peer training and team building, and interprofessional health services to positively impact the lives of thousands of patients.

Andrew Gaiser Duquesne University, Pennsylvania

Recognition for his contribution and outstanding efforts to enhance access to naloxone rescue medications and promote screening for hepatitis C.

community impact

BIGGER FOOTPRINT. BOLDER VISION. The role of the pharmacist is expanding.

So are we. Our 60,000-square-foot building addition opens this fall on Rutgers’ health sciences campus.

Ernest Mario School of Pharmacy

A PREMIER PHARMACY SCHOOL WITHIN A POWERHOUSE ACADEMIC HEALTH CENTER

WE’RE CELEBRATING A

BIG YEAR (OUR 125TH ANNIVERSARY) with a new home for the way 21st-century pharmacy is practiced. Our expanded building puts patient-centered, team-based care at the center of pharmacy education—by design.

That’s right. Now we’re all set for . . .

A N OT H E R E R A O F I N N OVAT I O N .

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community impact

Diverse Universe Pharmacy schools are taking steps to address cultural competency by preparing future pharmacists to be inclusive and ensure that everyone receives the care they need.

By Jane E. Rooney

Diversity has long been a buzzword in workplaces, in politics, on college campuses, in the entertainment industry—virtually all corners of society. But for health professionals, including pharmacists, recognizing diversity goes beyond simply acknowledging that patients represent different backgrounds. Truly understanding people’s differences and cultures can be a vital part of providing quality patient care. Cultural competency is defined as “a set of congruent behaviors, attitudes and policies that comes together in a system, agency or among professionals, and enable that system, agency or those professions to work effectively in cross-cultural situations.”

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community impact

Obstacles to health can lead to health disparities, which stem from characteristics historically linked to discrimination or exclusion such as race or ethnicity, religion, socioeconomic status, gender, mental health, sexual orientation or geographic location. Ideally, when health providers recognize cultural differences and work to minimize health disparities, they can achieve health equity. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, health equity occurs when all people have the opportunity to attain their full health potential and no one is disadvantaged from achieving this potential because of their social position or other socially determined circumstance. Addressing these issues is a priority for institutions as well as the Academy as a whole.

“The conditions in which people are born, live, learn, work, play, worship, intersect with culture and affect a wide range of health functioning and outcomes,” said Carla White, assistant dean, Innovative Leadership and Diversity, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Eshelman School of Pharmacy. “A diverse workforce and culturally skilled clinicians and scientists are a societal need.” White is chair of a special Taskforce on Diversifying Our Investment in Human Capital, which was appointed for the period of 2015–2017

by AACP Past President Cynthia J. Boyle based on recommendations from the Argus Commission. The Taskforce was charged with identifying barriers that inhibit the diversification of human capital in college and schools of pharmacy; finding “game changers” in professional education, healthcare or related areas where substantial

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improvements have been achieved; and recommending strategies, vetted through the AACP councils for input, for short- and long-term solutions. The AACP Board of Directors asked the Taskforce to develop and propose a diversity statement to guide the Association’s work.

The board adopted the following statement in November 2016: AACP affirms its commitment to foster an inclusive community and leverage diversity of thought, background, perspective and experience to advance pharmacy education and improve health.

“Health equity and health disparities are the why to cultural competence and inclusion,” White noted. “When clinicians and researchers are not prepared, they are not asking the right questions, not equipped to consider the patient’s primary concerns and often lack selfawareness and may come across as judgmental.

These experiences lead to suboptimal or no care and the lack of diversity in clinical trials.”

White said that the Taskforce has been productive. “A representation and diversity statement was developed, topics were presented on unconscious bias and the infrastructure needed

community impact

for accelerating diversity and inclusion, and a white paper, to be published this fall, offers best practices, articles and other resources. Additionally, the Taskforce helped develop a statement on testing for people with cognitive and physical disabilities. The overarching goal is to demonstrate a commitment to key stakeholders (member institutions, corporate and other partners, and public) that we are preparing a workforce ready to care for the world.

“AACP has done a tremendous job recognizing that we have an opportunity here,” White continued. Next steps, she said, include focusing on programmatic and assessment strategy.

For Dr. Nancy Borja-Hart, associate professor, The University of Tennessee Health Science Center College of Pharmacy, cultural competency is about awareness and taking the time to get to know patients beyond their medical issues.

“It’s about being inclusive and thinking about what’s important to that patient,” said BorjaHart, who is chair-elect of the Health Disparities and Cultural Competency SIG. “You don’t have to overhaul a case. Just knowing more about your patient can help you tweak care.”

Through its programming—including webinars on topics such as health literacy, limited English proficiency and religious issues—the SIG had recently focused on incorporating culture into patient cases.

Borja-Hart recalled Dr. Yolanda Hardy’s presentation at the AACP Annual Meeting, providing an example: “This is a patient who is this age and has these labs and you need to think about what medications to start. But there’s more—we need to think about other issues, such as if the patient has Medicaid, or if the patient is Muslim and it’s Ramadan and how you would adjust insulin therapy for the patient during that time.” She said the speaker challenged the audience to consider how a pharmacist’s planned course of action might change once he or she weighed these additional factors.

One of the SIG’s goals is improving students’ knowledge of these cultural issues and helping them understand that some populations struggle with the healthcare system, whether it’s due to a language barrier or a lack of financial resources. Borja-Hart has also talked about patient interaction with her students and paying attention to whether they are saying things that are inappropriate or culturally insensitive without even realizing it. “I encourage members to publish what they’re doing in the classroom and with their patients in relation to cultural competence and health disparities,” Borja-Hart noted. “The other piece is to get faculty to try things in the classroom and give it the effort. It’s really just about the desire to learn more and a willingness to incorporate it into everyday practice.”

Similarly, White said the Taskforce wanted to “provide resources and examples so member institutions could understand how they can

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community impact

“We talk a lot about innovation in this field. As practitioners and researchers, we don’t innovate at the levels we can without diversity and inclusion.”

­— Dr. Carla White

approach this work and that key stakeholders understand on a national level that we are contemporary in our thinking and we are connected to the issues and prepared to address them.” She wants schools to be able to build on the infrastructure in terms of curriculum and workforce development. Pharmacy students “will be faced with situations and nuances and we want to make sure they get an education that is relevant and realistic,” she added. “They deserve to be prepared and equipped to work at the very top of their training. We talk a lot about innovation in this field. As practitioners and researchers, we don’t innovate at the levels we can without diversity and inclusion.”

Seeing Patients as People Institutions are trying various approaches to fulfill Standard 3 of Standards 2016, Approach to Practice and Care, and incorporate it into curricula. Cultural sensitivity is an element within this standard. Since its foundation in 2006, St. John Fisher College Wegmans School of Pharmacy has offered a diversity course to first-year students. The course addresses numerous different patient populations including: elderly, veterans, HIV positive, LGBT, end-of-life, refugee, Muslim, patients with a disability, and mental health. When the course first began, training around basic LGBT terminology was included, said Dr. Amy Parkhill, associate professor and interim chair, Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, but once students began asking more questions specifically about transgender patients, the school decided to collaborate with the Out Alliance (formally Gay Alliance of Genesee Valley) to create a panel discussion with transgender individuals from the community.

“We didn’t want the discussion to be too clinically focused,” Parkhill noted. “We wanted students to think of the panelists as people and not as a condition. The panelists do start off by talking about their own stories and also talk about any experiences they’ve had in pharmacy, good and bad. After that it’s open for questions. A lot of

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students do ask about hormone therapy, but for the most part it is getting-to-know-you types of questions. The panelists are very open—no question is off limits.

We want students to think about asking questions that will make them better pharmacists.”

Parkhill said student feedback on the transgender panel discussion has been overwhelmingly positive.

Students comment on how the discussion helps clear up misconceptions and changes their viewpoints about how they will interact with transgender patients going forward. Still, she admitted that it is challenging to integrate LGBT healthcare into the entire curriculum. “It’s hard to fit in with all the other required topics we need to fit in. We have some work to do to intentionally include LGBT patients within all our courses and making it just a normal part of the courses activities.”

Parkhill said the biggest benefit the first-year diversity course offers is that “students are able to interact with different patient populations and clear up any preconceived notions in a safe environment. That interaction takes away any fear and hesitancy they might have in interacting with diverse patients. So when they have to interact as an intern or pharmacist, they are a lot more confident.

community impact

Several patients from diverse populations have had negative interactions with the healthcare system. Since pharmacists play such a key role in healthcare, I think it’s important to teach students to be both open-minded and empathetic in order to be a good resource to all of their patients.”

Addressing cultural sensitivity in general has always been a big priority at the school and significant efforts have been made to include many diverse populations in many of our didactic required and elective courses, our early and advanced experiential experiences, and our co-curricular experiences. For example, as part of the school’s requirements, all first to third year students are required to complete 10 hours in a diverse setting. Additionally, the school’s diversity committee develops events to allow students to keep up with diversity topics. The committee schedules speakers who have discussed topics including HIV, refugee health, Amish healthcare, and working with patients on the autism spectrum. The school also offers several international medical service summer trips and 4th year rotations—where students can put their cultural competence training into action. Lastly, the school has created continuing education programs on diverse patient populations that are available to both students, faculty, preceptors, and regional pharmacists.

Another group that has not always been included in health professions education is people with disabilities. The overall percentage of people with disabilities in the U.S. is about 12 percent, according to Dr. W. Thomas Smith, dean of

pharmacy programs and professor of pharmaceutical sciences, Manchester University College of Pharmacy, Natural & Health Sciences. “As our population ages, more and more people will have cognitive as well as physical challenges and will be in need of care from pharmacists,” Smith pointed out. While he said that cultural competence is a high hurdle to clear, cultural sensitivity is something we can and should expect from pharmacists. Pharmacists who are culturally sensitive “won’t make assumptions in dealing with patients from a given minority culture and will know the kinds of questions they need to ask and the questions they may need to avoid when speaking with persons from a particular culture. It’s important to expand our sense of culture beyond just race and gender and look at culture a bit more broadly to encompass other minority populations, including persons with disabilities.”

As a person with a disability, Smith said it’s been important to him to get students to expand the notion of culture to include persons with disabilities. He has not seen conversations around disabilities and health disparities happening enough in health professions. “I have done some workshops with AACP and faculty from other institutions who were incorporating disability issues in their discussions, but I have not seen that take off in a widespread way,” he said. “There weren’t others really leading that charge in the Academy. There are people incorporating disability issues in their work but not leading the charge to advance the curriculum.”

Smith created an assessment tool a few years ago to look at student comfort level in their interactions with persons with disabilities. “We found that the students weren’t all that comfortable interacting with patients with disabilities but also didn’t have a lot of experience in interacting with them, certainly in the classroom as well as in the experiential curriculum,” he noted. “It was a patient population that many students identified as not having enough experience with. As demographics evolve, we expect to see more individuals with disabilities as people age.”

At Manchester, cultural sensitivity is woven into the curriculum, beginning with an Introduction to Pharmacy class that looks at what it means to be a culturallysensitive practitioner. “In those discussions we talk about the definition of culture in a broader sense to include populations beyond the traditional thinking of race and gender,” Smith explained. “We also talk about

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community impact

it in our Professional Communications course. Students work in teams and are assigned a particular culture to learn more about and the team is asked to give a presentation about the particular culture to the rest of the class. There are some exercises in our Pharmacy Skills Lab that incorporate culturally sensitive communications, such as counseling to members of a particular culture. A stand-alone elective course centers on medically-underserved individuals. We offer some experiential opportunities for students to work in underserved areas in our community. Students are asked to do IPPEs that involve the student going out to a clinic in the Fort Wayne area that works with vulnerable and underserved patients.”

Smith said all of this is geared toward getting students to think about reducing barriers to quality care. “We can’t do much as colleges and schools of pharmacy in mitigating payment barriers, but we can help mitigate cultural barriers,” he acknowledged. “We can educate pharmacy students about the various kinds of patients they are likely to encounter in a community and really get them to treat all patients with respect, provide them with the dignity they’re owed, not make assumptions and invest in patients as human beings. It helps to tear down those barriers caused by fear and lack of understanding.

Starting with the person first is never bad advice to give to student pharmacists. That’s where we can do a better job in helping to reduce those barriers for future practitioners.”

Serving All Populations Colleges of pharmacy want students to be prepared to handle patient interactions with empathy and be cognizant of health disparities, which is why many colleges are committed to research and service devoted to ensuring that all community members have equal access to care. The U.S. Census Bureau predicts that by 2043, the United States will become a majority-minority nation. Demographic changes will necessitate changes to the healthcare delivery system, according to Dr. Margarita Echeverri, associate professor, educational coordinator in health disparities, cultural competence and diversity, Xavier University of Louisiana College of Pharmacy. “Research has found that healthcare professionals’ biases and stereotypes combined with patients’ diversity characteristics have an impact in treatments, healthcare practices and health outcomes,” she said. “The Healthy People 2020 Initiative to eliminate health disparities includes new indicators to measure the percentages of medical, dental, nursing and pharmacy programs providing training in cultural diversity. The goal is to develop educational interventions to make current and future healthcare providers, including pharmacists, aware that disparities in healthcare exist and to prepare them to face all the challenges.”

Part of the university’s mission, she continued, is to promote a more just and humane society, which is addressed through community service and scholarly work. For student pharmacists, that means focusing on eliminating disparities and promoting equal access to

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care. Accordingly, the college created community clinical practice experiences focused on providing integrated culturally competent and interprofessional healthcare services to underserved populations in New Orleans.

“We have a healthcare event that targets Latino, Vietnamese and African-American populations,” Echeverri explained. “We work with doctors, dentists, social workers and pharmacists to provide clinical services to patients and partner with the community to provide screenings and referrals for free follow-up services. We collaborate with interpreters to provide integrated services. These experiences provide not only our students but also other professionals with an opportunity to serve a diverse, multicultural, multilingual population using a holistic and culturally sensitive approach.”

Echeverri said the college’s curriculum is focused on embracing diversity and improving personal interactions. “In the first year we focus more on definitions, data and implications of health and healthcare disparities,” she noted.

“In the second year we spend time on knowledge of different cultures and diversity dimensions. In the third year we focus more on disparities in pharmaceutical therapies, and finally students bring it all together in the seminar and rotations in their fourth year.” Faculty created an assessment tool—the Self-Assessment of Perceived Level of Cultural Competence—to allow students to recognize their own biases and identify training needs.

As part of the college of pharmacy, in 2002 Xavier established the Center for Minority

community impact

“We can educate pharmacy students about the various kinds of patients they are likely to encounter in a community and really get them to treat all patients with respect, provide them with the dignity they’re owed, not make assumptions and invest in patients as human beings.” ­— Dr. W. Thomas Smith Health and Health Disparities Research and Education, which is dedicated to improving health outcomes of diverse communities disproportionately impacted by health and healthcare disparities, through community engagement and partnerships in research, education and practice. The center hosts an annual health disparities conference that looks at using multidisciplinary partnerships to achieve health equity and discusses models to eliminate health disparities. Participants include clinicians, researchers, health educators and community health leaders.

“We work in collaboration with the community to decrease disparities,” Echeverri said. “We focus on the main ones in Louisiana: diabetes, cancer and asthma. Most of our projects are related to research and education on prevention and early detection and barriers to care.

Currently we are developing culturally competent educational interventions to address African-American and Latino populations’ lack of knowledge or misunderstandings regarding cancer prevention, screening, treatments and research.”

At the School of Pharmacy at the University of California, San Francisco, cultural awareness has been top of mind as the school redesigns its curriculum, set to begin in July 2018. “We will have a fully integrated curriculum,” said Vice Dean and Professor Dr. Sharon Youmans.

“Cultural concepts will be woven throughout the curriculum. It starts with unconscious bias training so students are self-aware and understand why they think the way they do. It’s not to call out people but it’s about being aware. We want to acknowledge that we all have prejudices.” She said students will need to think about

what’s driving their decision making during patient interactions and how that can impact healthcare and the way patients are treated.

When it comes to health disparities, one focus will be on communication. “We have to be more intentional in communicating with someone who has low literacy skills or speaks another language or laypeople who aren’t familiar with medical terms,” Youmans pointed out. “This is not something we’ll mention once. We need to revisit these concepts throughout the curriculum. We’re in a diverse city so we have to be able to address all healthcare needs. In the classroom and in direct patient care settings students can work on those skills, techniques, and attitudes. The goal is to provide students the tools they need to take care of patients in the real world.”

While she said these types of conversations were already happening with students, revamping the curriculum provided an opportunity to do a better job and make those discussions more intentional. “Being able to create this new curriculum allows us to take a step back and look at things with a fresh eye and think about what we’re going to talk about,” she noted. “Issues around health policy, the ACA, how insurance will be impacted...all of these are connected. These are not isolated courses. If a patient doesn’t have insurance or isn’t set up socially to carry out medication instructions, it means nothing.

That’s where we want to change our focus and talk more about how to change and or improve health behaviors.”

Despite institutions’ efforts to address cultural awareness, both in terms of treating patients from diverse backgrounds and trying to recruit minority faculty and students to health professions, Xavier’s Echeverri said she thinks we’re still too focused on our differences rather than our similarities. “We need to see our patients as partners and collaborators working together for better health outcomes,” she urged. “We need to have a sincere conversation regarding our feelings, thoughts and beliefs regarding the different manifestations of diversity. I insist on talking about this with my students in class. I find that my students want to be culturally sensitive not as a means to decreasing healthcare disparities but because they want to embrace diversity and become global citizens.” P Jane E. Rooney is a freelance writer based in Oakton, Virginia.

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campus connection

New Models | New Paths New Initiatives in Community Healthcare We fund evidence-based research and educational initiatives designed to improve patient outcomes and advance public health.

Visit us at NACDSFoundation.org

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@AACPharmacy

Register Now! February 24–27, 2018 Long Beach, California Insightful speakers, dynamic microsessions and enlightening peer discussions will invigorate current and future leaders during four days of collaboration and hands-on learning. Attendees will return to their schools with new strategies to lead and manage change.

New This Year!

• Lead from the Lab at the 2018 Research

Symposium: Learn how to spark collaboration and innovation among researchers to drive discovery at your institution.

• Rapid Remarks: New 10-minute microsessions

will tackle the profession’s most pressing topics, including elevating the brand of pharmacy, building the applicant pipeline and more!

It’s the AACP INterim Meeting— INspire 2018—in Long Beach!

You will learn:

Who should attend?

• How to leverage personal strengths to be the

• • • • •

leader your institution needs;

• How to effectively persuade different audiences during a crisis;

• How to successfully navigate conflict using peertested case studies;

• How data from the NAPLEX and PCOA are being utilized to improve pharmacy education.

Deans Associate/Assistant Deans Department Chairs Faculty Professional Staff

INspire 2018 attendees can now earn up to 10 hours of CE credit!

Register Now: www.aacp.org

It’s Time to Renew Your Membership

Take advantage of all the professional development opportunities AACP has to offer in 2018: •

Access valuable resources. The new aacp.org, membersonly AACP Connect and programmatic Webinars allow members to utilize professional development resources and opportunities more easily than ever.

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Stay up-to-date on industry news and opportunities.

Explore valuable content in publications such as Academic Pharmacy Now, the American Journal of Pharmaceutical Education and AACP electronic newsletters.

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Strengthen the Academy. Collaborate throughout the year with faculty, administrators and staff who have shared interests by engaging with AACP’s Special Interest Groups, Sections and Councils.

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Bolster your career development. Immerse yourself in a year-long leadership experience through AACP’s Academic Leadership Fellows Program (ALFP) and the new AACP Catalyst program for research development.

Renew Your Membership Today: www.aacp.org Academic Pharmacy NOW  2017 Issue 5

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@AACPharmacy

At the Intersection of Diversity + Inclusion As an ASAE Diversity Executive Leadership Program (DELP) scholar, Senior Director of Academic Affairs Dr. Cecilia M. Plaza hopes to apply the lessons learned in association management to increasing diversity and inclusion within AACP and ultimately patient care.

By Athena Ponushis DELP is a two-year program that supports 12 individuals from under-represented identity groups to advance into the ranks of leadership in the association management profession. Plaza is the first pharmacist to ever participate in the program, and she’ll take part in accelerated leadership activities in education, mentoring and volunteer service within the association community.

In the realm of academic affairs at AACP, Plaza oversees curricular and institutional quality improvement, institutional research, assessment and accreditation, and the American Journal of Pharmaceutical Education. As the director for the Center for the Advancement of Pharmacy Education (CAPE), Plaza led the panel that revised and expanded the educational outcomes by which all pharmacy graduates are educated at colleges and schools of pharmacy in the United States. Currently, Plaza also serves on the ASAE Diversity and Inclusion Committee.

“As pharmacists, we tend to just look at other health associations or other pharmacy organizations, but we really have more in common with other groups than we think,” Plaza says. “That’s the strength this program helps bring: it

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exposes me purposefully to other associations that are very different in terms of content but not different in terms of best practices and the way things could be done.”

As a DELP scholar, ASAE says you will participate in an accelerated leadership program of education, mentoring and volunteer service. What has that entailed thus far?

Plaza says she’s honored to have this opportunity to explore the association management side of herself. She’s a firm believer that we should celebrate what we have in common just as we celebrate what makes us different. Here, she opens up about what she’s learning, where she’s going and what she hopes to bring back to AACP and its members.

During my scholarship period, I will attend two ASAE annual meetings. I went to my first one in August in Toronto and I’m able to choose another ASAE meeting to attend each year of my fellowship. I’ll be traveling to Colorado in March for the ASAE Great Ideas Conference, learning about different brainstorming techniques and how to think outside the box with regard to association management. Next year, they will send me to the ASAE Volunteer Retreat, where I will be able to interact with board members and leaders of various committees. It’s a great opportunity to learn from them and help direct the future of ASAE, which affects all of us because associations touch every aspect of your life, whether people recognize it or not. Associations have a hand in the things you do every day.

What about the program drew you to apply?

I saw a post about it on Twitter and I thought, “This sounds interesting, let me learn more.” And the more I read about it, the more I was drawn to it.

The Detroit Metro Convention & Visitors Bureau has sponsored this for 17 years with unwavering support, and along with ASAE, they have a genuine commitment to diversity. The groups they included really spoke to me—under-represented minorities, LGBT and/ or the disabled—and the fact that they were so inclusive in their call really spoke to me because I think all those groups play an important role.

What have you learned from your fellow scholars and what do you hope they learn from you?

What’s unique about this program is that I’m in a class of 12, but for the rest

@AACPharmacy

“As pharmacists, we tend to just look at other health associations or other pharmacy organizations, but we really have more in common with other groups than we think.” ­— Dr. Cecilia M. Plaza of the time you are in nonprofit association management, you’re invited to a DELP reunion in Detroit, so you get really embedded with the alums.

You can be as close to them as you are to the members of your own class. I’ve learned how to approach networking a bit differently, how to be a better leader, and am learning from those who have taken that step and become executive directors. I’m continuously asking “what are the struggles, what are the challenges, but also, what are the rewards?” Just having discussions about association management and being able to bounce ideas off people who really care about each other is amazing.

The phrase I kept hearing repeatedly in Detroit was, “Welcome to the family.”

What have been some of the most impactful takeaways you’ve learned thus far?

I’m a big proponent of diversity and inclusion, but I think this program takes it to a new level. I’m seeing how this program has really effected change and how everybody succeeds when there’s more diversity of all types, especially in leadership. Seeing someone who might look like you in a position of power is incredible. It gives you the sense of, “I can do that.” It’s really solidified my commitment to working on diversity and inclusion efforts.

Describing the DELP program, ASAE says today’s leaders need to bring a wide variety of professional and personal experience to the table. What do

you bring and what do you hope others will take away from you?

I think the greatest gift you can give to any other human being is meeting them where they’re at. Making people feel welcome and appreciated is something I try to model in my own life personally and professionally. Also, paying it forward when someone has done something for you.

Life can be challenging at times, whether it’s from physical challenges or other tests. But you must try to take life with a sense of humor, as best you can, and continue to persevere. That’s something I feel pretty passionate about as well.

What would you like AACP members to know most about this ASAE opportunity?

AACP has a commitment to strengthening cultural competency and this really puts it in perspective. It’s not just words, it’s action. I think this program is going to help our members, and that’s why you have associations--to help members. I hope to bring back all I learn, not only in the area of cultural competency, but also in other areas of association management, to help our members.

How will this fellowship impact your work at AACP and benefit members?

There are so many things I can continue to bring back to the Association.

I think bringing these concepts of increasing diversity and working to-

ward inclusion is obvious, but also just being aware of the tools and resources they offer that could potentially impact some of the things that we do.

One thing we learned at our DELP orientation is that when people apply to be candidates for the ASAE board of directors, they have to write essays that address how they’ve affected diversity and inclusion issues. That’s not only a core value of ASAE, but it’s part of their strategic plan, so it permeates literally everything they do. Seeing that model and their commitment is really powerful. I hope to bring some of those practices into our Association.

What has not been said about cultural competency that you would like to see in print?

With regard to diversity and inclusion, the message that has really resonated with me is: the folks are out there, and sometimes they just need to be identified or encouraged, but that it’s worth it. There’s a solid business case for increasing diversity. Experience improves not only everyone’s ability to do their work but also the bottom line. It’s so important to be exposed to people who might be different than you, because in the case of my Association, it produces better pharmacists, it makes for better faculty, and ultimately translates into practitioners who are able to provide better care. P Athena Ponushis is a freelance writer based in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida.

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Just Launched: The New aacp.org After a year of stakeholder research and creative development, AACP is creating a new portrait of the pharmacy profession—reflecting the dynamic, patient-facing, medication experts our Academy builds every day.

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