Lipscomb Now: The Script

LIPSCOMB NOW: A Publication of the College of Pharmacy & Health Sciences at Lipscomb University Spring 2020 Vol. 11 No. 1

New era at college as founding Dean Roger Davis retires pg. 4

inside:

direct admission for nurses 20

pa students build community 18

never running on empty 38

Above: The friends and families of Lipscomb’s health science students filled the campus in May as recognition and commencement ceremonies celebrated the Class of 2019. These friends celebrate with Dr. Moonjung Kim (’19) after the Pharmacy Recognition Ceremony, on the day before graduation. (L to R) Rodney Vongkhamchanh (’16), Melissa Chinn (’18), Kim, Tracy Truong (’20) On the Cover: The college’s founding Dean Dr. Roger Davis (center), is retiring this year (Pg. 4). He laid the foundation for four thriving health care programs: nutrition and kinesiology, pharmacy (students pictured), a bachelor’s of nursing (students pictured) and physician assistant studies.

Contents Pharmacy

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dr. tom campbell named pharmacy dean

Jennie and Kelby Sutton are two alumni who have established their own pharmacy, bringing better access to health care to their rural hometowns.

See page 28.

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Campbell brings more than 30 years of experience in various aspects of pharmacy practice.

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pharmacy has gone to the dogs

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Alumna Katie Shepherd (’11) is part of a nationwide online network providing meds for pets.

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Nutrition and Dietetics

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Nutrition alumnus Drew McDonald (’05) brings fresh attitude with The Plaid Apron.

international research

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Dr. Zac Cox continues to garner national and international attention for his clinical research.

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enjoy life, eat cake Alumnae Ander Wilson ( MS ’11) and Jenn Fleischer (MS ’12) establish a new kind of Nashville nutrition practice.

Nursing

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dr. chelsia harris becomes executive director

Kinesiology

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tears of joy replace tears of pain

Departments

Harris’ personal investment with students makes her the ideal executive director.

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cooking local in knoxville

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Keonya Milam, nursing senior, carries out the legacy of a Lipscomb alumna in Malawi.

never running on empty Samantha Wood (’07) is known for her ultra running wins and positive life view.

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Vice Provost of Health Affairs Roger L. Davis

A Publication of the College of Pharmacy & Health Sciences at Lipscomb University

Director of Operations Sandra Hood

Editor Janel Shoun-Smith

Copy Editor

Winter 2020 Vol. 11 No. 1

Kim Chaudoin

Departmental News Drug Information Center Student and Alumni News

Designers

Web Content

Zach Bowen Will Mason Hailey Speciale

Stephen Bell

Photography Kristi Jones

Lipscomb Now: The Script is published by Lipscomb University. Go to pharmacy.lipscomb.edu to read more.

Postmaster: Send changes of address to Lipscomb Now: The Script, College of Pharmacy & Health Sciences Lipscomb University One University Park Drive Nashville, Tennessee 37204-3951 ©2020 Lipscomb University. All Rights Reserved

Letter from the President

God’s providence provided the right leader at the right time When we started our search for a dean to help launch and build the university’s new pharmacy program we expected it to be a great challenge.

We did not know that God had provided us with the right leader, currently engaged with Lipscomb as a board trustee. We were blessed to hire Dr. Roger Davis as the founding dean of the College of Pharmacy in 2006, which was expanded to the College of Pharmacy & Health Sciences in 2010.

Dr. Davis exceeded the qualifications suggested by the consultant we had hired to assist in the search process. Before joining Lipscomb to help launch the first college of pharmacy in Middle Tennessee, Dr. Davis had served as an assistant dean at the University of Tennessee College of Pharmacy and was leading a private pharmaceutical company. Dr. Davis provided wise counsel to me and to many other administrators, and through his strong leadership, we were able to build from the ground up the exceptional reputation the college enjoys today.

The College of Pharmacy & Health Sciences quickly gained a reputation for excellence and innovation through its pioneering interdisciplinary programs and experiential education. The college’s selection of residency programs in various health fields throughout Middle Tennessee and dual degree opportunities in informatics and management prepare students to navigate some of the most in-demand areas of health care.

Dr. Davis shepherded through eight classes of new pharmacists and created a familial atmosphere within the college that motivated student pharmacists to be the best in their field. The Class of 2019 had a 98.33 percent first-time pass rate in the national board licensure exam, which is 10 percent higher than the national average, and ranks the college No. 5 in the nation.

The person who perhaps knows best how fortunate we were to have Dr. Davis help launch the college is Hilton Dean, who was serving as the chair of the university’s board of trustees at the time Dr. Davis was hired. As told by Hilton Dean: “Randy and I met one day during the very early discussions he and his team were having about starting a pharmacy program. Randy had been at Lipscomb a very short time and hadn’t gotten to know our board yet. He said that he thought it would be very difficult to find the right person to lead the pharmacy program if we indeed decided to start it. I turned to him and said, ‘I believe we have the right person, right on our Board of Trustees – Roger Davis.’ Well, after getting to know Roger, Randy totally agreed and time and events have proven both of us right! God’s providence truly provided the inspirational and competent leader we needed to lead our world class program.”

We wish Dr. Davis the very best as this year he has retired, and we look forward to watching his good work continue in the very capable hands of Dean Tom Campbell, whom you will learn more about in the following pages and in what I anticipate will be our best years to come.

L. Randolph Lowry President, Lipscomb University

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Leaders Corner

Pharmacy has been a blessing every step of the way Editor’s Note: In February, former Associate Dean for Academic Affairs Dr. Tom Campbell, who has been with the college since its 2007 founding, was announced as the new dean of the College of Pharmacy, following Dr. Roger Davis’ move in 2019 to become vice provost of health affairs. To read more on the leadership changes in the college, go to page 4.

I am excited about the opportunity to serve this college and university in the role of dean of the College of Pharmacy. As founding dean, Dr. Roger Davis built a college that has an impressive reputation, tremendous faculty, staff and student pharmacist body and hundreds of alumni across the country who are leaders in their field.

One thing that, from the very beginning of the college, we have trained our graduates to be is practice ready. To know not only how to make sure the patients are getting the right medication, but that we are also looking into all the other variables that are affecting the outcomes for that patient—such as socioeconomic and cultural issues. I want to continue to build upon the positive reputation that our college has for delivering quality and compassionate care for the patients we serve. In addition, as the profession of pharmacy continues to be transformed in the ever changing world of health care, this college will continue to be positioned in a manner to provide solutions to the many medication-related issues facing society.

I have enjoyed pharmacy… it has been a blessing every step of the way for me. This new role as dean is special because it gets to the true core of what I enjoy doing and that’s teaching and being around young people who are just entering into the profession and giving them a vision of what this profession can be. That’s what has driven me to the academia side of the profession.

As I begin my tenure as dean, I will not depart from the core principles that have brought us to this day. We will continue to modify our curriculum as we anticipate ongoing changes in health care, but our adherence to our values of Christlikeness, truth, excellence, respect, service and professionalism will remain in all we do.

I am thrilled to work alongside an expert faculty, incredible staff, impressive alumni, wonderful colleagues in nursing, physician assistant studies, kinesiology, nutrition and dietetics, and a student body that continues to raise the bar higher and higher. It is certainly a blessed time to be a member of this college!

Tom Campbell Dean, College of Pharmacy

About Tom Campbell Dr. Tom Campbell brings more than 30 years of experience in various aspects of pharmacy practice to his role as dean. Campbell has been part of the college’s administrative team since its founding in 2007 and has played a significant role in building the program. He previously served as interim dean of the college and before that as associate dean for academic affairs and associate professor of pharmacy practice.

Campbell received his Associate of Science from Columbia State Community College and his Doctor of Pharmacy at the University of Tennessee College of Pharmacy.

His prior work experience includes a pharmacy practice residency with emphasis on geriatric medicine with VA Medical Center in Memphis, clinical pharmacy and research coordinator at Columbus Regional Health System in Columbus, Georgia, and senior director for cardiovascular medical affairs at Sanofi Pharmaceuticals. He has also served as president and on the Board of Directors of the Tennessee Pharmacists Association.

lipscomb.edu/cphs

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Pharmacy

Foundation for a successful future Retiring former dean and vice provost Roger Davis reflects on 10 foundational successes destined to provide a strong future After 13 years at the helm of the College of Pharmacy & Health Sciences, which began as the College of Pharmacy in 2007, Dr. Roger Davis, dean emeritus and now vice provost of health affairs, is retiring this May. Beginning as a pharmacist himself, Davis went on to shape the lives and careers of more than 900 Lipscomb student pharmacists since 2008 in addition to countless student pharmacists he impacted as a faculty member and assistant dean at the University of Tennessee for 28 years.

Today, more than 815 students in nursing, pharmacy, nutrition, informatics, physician assistant studies and kinesiology are majoring in or enrolled in programs housed in Lipscomb’s College of Pharmacy & Health Sciences, an institution that Davis, as founding dean, built from the ground up.

The advances of the college that can be attributed to his hard work and personal investment are numerous, but what will be remembered most on the Lipscomb campus 4

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and by its alumni is how, from the time the college was just an idea on paper, Davis worked with the leaders, scholars and servants around him to create a sustainable atmosphere of selfless leadership throughout the college.

For more than a decade Lipscomb’s community of health science educators–who prefer to call themselves a family–have worked as one to not only exponentially grow academic programs and facilities, but to do so while instilling the highest professionalism, Christian values and visionary practice methods within the hearts of the next generation of health care providers.

Today the college prepares to embrace a new leader, and that person will undoubtedly benefit from the foundation that Davis and Lipscomb’s community of health science professionals laid before. Read on to see the 10 foundational successes that Davis believes will bring continued success for tomorrow for the College of Pharmacy & Health Science.

Many of the innovative pharmacy practice models in existence today are the direct result of his vision for practice advancement. Our association, our profession and our patients in Tennessee owe Dr. Davis a debt of gratitude.

--Micah Cost, Executive Director, Tennessee Pharmacists Association

Feature Family atmosphere as the ultimate culture Since the first graduation of student pharmacists in May 2012, 1,662 graduates in pharmacy, nursing, kinesiology, nutrition and health care informatics have commenced from the college. And all of those graduates felt part of a close-knit family, thanks to the personal example of Davis, who valued one-on-one meetings with students, and established a faculty/student mentor program where faculty can stay in touch with students every step of their journey.

He is one of those people that come to mind when I have a big decision or obstacle, and I reflect on the knowledge and values he instilled in me to take a step forward. He is a big part of the reason Lipscomb feels like home to me.

Davis’ focus on personal interaction is evidenced by countless photos from the annual Thanksmas holiday event, the LUCOP’s Got Talent show, awards and white coat ceremonies and special student celebrations.

--Savannah Roberts Clary, Pharm.D. (Class of 2012)

Professionalism as the ultimate characteristic of graduates From day one in each program, a mindset of professionalism is instilled in each student. From professional dress and white coats, to student behavior and attitudes on rotations, professionalism is not just suggested it is required and has become the defining character of the college’s alumni.

Uniquely qualified and committed students Setting the highest admissions standards for expectations and performance has allowed the college to attract applicants who set a high standard for achievement and success. Such goal setting and achievement have allowed our alumni to obtain impressive management and supervisory leadership positions at initial employment. Thus, contributing significantly to the reputation of the college.

A strong infrastructure for the future Providing dedicated space for the health sciences to grow current programs and develop new initiatives has been a strategic objective.

Having dedicated spaces to build collegiality between faculty, staff and students increases their collective dedication and creativity to teaching and learning which is strategic to the success of each health sciences program.

Among the infrastructure improvements Davis enacted were:

Dr. Roger Davis

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Construction of the Nursing and Health Sciences Center and the Pharmaceutical Sciences Research Center;

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Full renovation of the Burton Health Sciences Center to establish the College of Pharmacy;

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Full renovation of the James D. Hughes Center, to consolidate health science programs in one area;

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Construction of a drug compounding laboratory, a state-of-theart cadaver anatomy laboratory and a 24-bed Health Sciences Simulation Laboratory:

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Construction of three human performance laboratories, a nutrition laboratory and a nursing assessment laboratory.

lipscomb.edu/cphs

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Pharmacy

Interprofessional education mandated Educating health care providers in interprofessional teams to promote collaborative practice so they can provide patient-centered care in the future is mandated, and Lipscomb is leading this endeavor.

The interprofessional Grand Rounds course and an intentionally interprofessional curriculum are making an impact and differentiating the college’s graduates in the marketplace.

The range of health science programs established during Davis’ tenure include: •

Doctor of Pharmacy

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Bachelor of Nursing Science

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Master of Health Care Informatics

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Master of Physician Assistant Studies

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A sports nutrition track within the Dietetic Internship Program

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Master of Exercise & Nutrition Science

Community engagement made a top priority

Regardless of what issues or troubles may be going on in his life, he always focuses his concern on others. The world could use a few more Roger Davises! Dr. Davis is one of those rare individuals that quietly enters your life, but leaves an enormous impact.

--Kyle Williams, Pharm.D. (Class of 2012)

Health science students have been provided avenues to investigate and experience opportunities in their chosen future profession while also serving the health needs and outcomes of patients today.

Community projects carried out by the college include: •

At least four international mission trips to disadvantaged nations each year;

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Research initiatives with collaborating institutions and agencies;

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International health care practice rotations;

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Providing screening services and cost reduction activities; and

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Providing thousands of flu shots to the Nashville community each year.

Christian education as the cornerstone Educating health care providers of the future includes instituting courses where faith, ethics and values are a cornerstone of their experience and has been a priority since the inception of the college. From weekly faculty and staff devotionals to the First Day We Pray event at the start of each school year, each day is filled with reminders of the Master each health care provider is ultimately working for.

Innovation instilled in graduates’ daily practice From dual degree programs in management and informatics to a Ph.D. pathway program, from opportunities to develop blockchain database applications to an advanced laboratory with simulated patients from preemies to the elderly, students are benefiting from the innovative tools, methods and pathways that will give them a competitive edge in the future.

Incredible faculty and staff From administrators who trust and support innovative thinking to incredibly talented and committed staff, the years since 2007 have packed the college with incredible faculty, staff and supporters who not only form a family for students, but who also raise the level of awareness for Lipscomb with national awards and distinctions, respected research advances and pioneering initiatives in technology.

A clear vision The vision for Lipscomb health sciences from the inception of the college has been to create a premier health care educational entity. Witnessing the successes of the alumni from each program are all testaments to the fulfillment and success of this vision.

A national search is currently ongoing to hire a new leader for health affairs to oversee the College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences.

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Feature

A reflection on Davis’ years at Lipscomb from the new pharmacy dean “It is a great honor to be named dean of the College of Pharmacy, however, I know I have some big shoes to fill. Vice Provost Roger Davis, founding dean of the college, has done an excellent job in building the college from the ground up.

“I remember our first meetings early in 2007 as we sat looking at a blank marker board. What type of program did we want to build? How would we be unique? What would position us for the inevitable changes that would occur in health care? Davis patiently and intentionally lead the process of building a program that would answer all of these questions.

“A program was built that emphasizes academic excellence and management and leadership opportunities to meet the needs of the profession. A program was built to prepare our graduates to handle important aspects of patient care that go beyond selecting the right drug or dose; such as how to manage

I had the distinct pleasure of serving on the College of Pharmacy inaugural Board of Visitors when it was established in 2007.

Roger Davis is one of the most honorable men I have ever known. Best wishes to Vice Provost Davis, my friend and trusted advisor.

--Dee Anna Smith, CEO, Sarah Cannon, The Cancer Institute of HCA Healthcare

socioeconomic and cultural factors that impact patient care. A program was built that focuses on the importance of research and innovation and invests in laboratory space that enables our students and faculty to help solve the unanswered questions facing our profession.

“While all of those factors have been critical in building one of the best pharmacy programs in the country, they weren’t the cornerstone of the college. Building upon the university’s rich heritage of incorporating spiritual development into academics, this college is characterized by exceptional academics taught by faculty who reflect Christ in their teaching and clinical practice and a curriculum grounded in ethical and compassionate practice. It is this intentional focus of not only educating the mind, but training the heart that makes our graduates unique and ready to meet the demands of an ever-changing health care landscape.

“I am thankful for Vice Provost Davis and his vision and commitment to building a program with Christ as the cornerstone.”

Dr. Tom Campbell Dean of the College of Pharmacy

lipscomb.edu/cphs

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Script News PHARMACY

NATIONAL PHARMACY ASSOCIATION AWARDS LIPSCOMB CHAPTER TOP HONORS The Lipscomb chapter of the American Pharmacists Association-Academy of Student Pharmacists has had an exceptional year, winning two national awards and celebrating a third at the March 2019 Annual Meeting of the APhA in Seattle, Washington.

As a chapter, the student pharmacists were awarded the National AAA Divisional Chapter Achievement Award, the most prestigious award the Lipscomb chapter has been awarded since its inception and the second-highest award the national association gives to a student chapter.

These awards are presented to chapters based on activities throughout the year related to operations and logistics, patient care, policy and professionalism.

Lipscomb’s chapter was awarded above the University of California, San Diego and East Tennessee State University.

Student pharmacist McDonald selected for national office In addition, Andrea McDonald, fourth-year student pharmacist, was elected to serve as the APhA-ASP National Speaker of the House.

McDonald is the first Lipscomb student to be elected to a national officer position of any organization. She will serve on the APhA-ASP National Executive Committee as one of the student representatives for more than 34,000 student pharmacists around the country.

As Speaker of the House, McDonald will serve as the chair of the Resolutions and Reference Committees, helping to draft resolutions for the House of Delegates, and as the chair of the National Policy Standing Committee, which implements the resolutions that are passed at each annual meeting.

HEALTH CARE INFORMATICS

BLOCKCHAIN ARTICLE WINS 2019 EDITOR’S AWARD

Lipscomb’s faculty in health care informatics have been awarded the first ever Editor’s Choice Award from Partners in Digital Health, the publishers of the journal Blockchain in Healthcare Today.

Kevin Clauson, associate professor; Beth Breeden, associate professor; Cameron Davidson (’17), of PioneerRx, a partner of Lipscomb; and Timothy K. Mackey of University of California, San Diego– School of Medicine were the authors of the most viewed and downloaded article since the journal’s inaugural publication date, making it the obvious choice for the editor’s award.

The article was titled: “Leveraging Blockchain Technology to Enhance Supply Chain Management in Healthcare: An exploration of challenges and opportunities in the health supply chain.”

“The competition was very tight at the top with the supply chain article winning by 125 more total engagements than the next most popular article, and garnering 21 citations to date,” stated Tory Cenaj, founder and publisher of the journal.

The award was announced by the journal’s Editor-in-Chief John Halamka, president of Mayo Clinic Platform, at the ConV2X 2019 conference this past fall.

“Some suggest that blockchain has gone from the peak of inflated expectations to the trough of disillusionment, but our winning article illustrates that there are many use cases for which blockchain is the most appropriate technology to solve the problem,” said Halamka.

With over 102,000 audience engagements, 76 citations and readership in more than 70 countries worldwide, Blockchain in Healthcare Today is the preeminent open-access international peer-review journal.

Lipscomb’s APhA-ASP chapter celebrates at the national annual meeting after being awarded as one of the most innovative, involved and impactful chapters nationwide.

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Partners in Digital Health publishes journals and hosts conferences to bring thought leaders, academics, innovators and practitioners from private and public sectors together to accelerate health care transformation.

To access the article in the online journal, go to https://doi.org/10.30953/bhty.v1.20.

Script News NURSING

NURSING PASS RATE EXCEEDS NATIONAL AVERAGE FOR FOURTH YEAR The Lipscomb School of Nursing Class of 2019 scored a record 97.96 percent firsttime pass rate on the National Council

Licensure Exam.

The 2019 pass rate is the highest rate within the last four record years, and the Class

of 2019 is the fourth consecutive class of

BSN graduates to surpass both state and The first-time NAPLEX® pass rate for Lipscomb’s pharmacy Class of 2019 marks the highest scores on the licensure exam in the 13-year history of the college.

national averages.

Lipscomb’s scores over the past four years have risen to 93 percent in 2016, then 95

percent, then 97.3 percent and now 97.96

PHARMACY

NAPLEX FIRST-TIME PASS RATE IS THE FIFTH HIGHEST IN THE NATION

The College of Pharmacy has achieved one of the top first-time pass rates in the nation on the 2019 North American Pharmacist Licensure Examination®.

The Class of 2019 had a 98.33 percent firsttime pass rate, which ranks them No. 5 in the country of the 135 universities whose graduates took the most recent national licensure boards.

Lipscomb’s graduates performed at a level that was 10 percent higher than the national average. This marks the highest first-time NAPLEX® pass rate for Lipscomb in its 13year history.

The NAPLEX® measures a candidate’s knowledge of the practice of pharmacy and is one component of the licensure process.

In addition to the NAPLEX®, the national licensure exam also includes a Multistate Pharmacy Jurisprudence Examination, a standardized exam created to assess competency and knowledge of pharmacy

law and ethics. Lipscomb’s Class of 2019 achieved a 94 percent first-time pass rate, the highest of any university in Tennessee, on the jurisprudence exam.

“The outstanding results are attributed to the hard work of our graduates and the outstanding mentorship and training provided by our faculty and preceptors,” said Dr. Tom Campbell, dean of the college. “Seeking excellence in all we do is one of our core values and being in the top five of pharmacy programs in the country is reflective of how we live out our values.

“I look forward to seeing how our graduates will take the knowledge and lessons learned here at Lipscomb and impact the world through the practice of pharmacy,” said Campbell. “Our goal in preparing our students is to prepare them to be practitioners in the pharmacies of the future and transforming pharmacies for the innovation of tomorrow.”

percent in 2019.

The NCLEX is a nationwide examination for the licensing of nurses in the United States and Canada.

In addition, the School of Nursing was

ranked as one of the best nursing schools

in the nation and the No. 6 Bachelor of

Science in nursing programs in the state of

Tennessee by RNCareers.org. In determining the rankings, RNCareers evaluated 1,892 RN programs across the country on a number of factors important to nursing students,

including first-time NCLEX passing rates,

accreditation and program offerings, among other considerations.

“This is a well-deserved honor that can be

attributed to the hard work and dedication

of the nursing faculty, staff and our students,” said Chelsia Harris, executive director of

Lipscomb’s School of Nursing.

In addition, the School of Nursing has implemented a new direct admissions policy allowing students to enroll as nursing majors as incoming freshmen. To see more about the direct admission, go to page 20. lipscomb.edu/cphs

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Script News DIETETICS

HUNT NAMED 2019 OUTSTANDING DIETITIAN OF THE YEAR

Vanderbilt University nursing officials Joshua Thornsberry and Linda Norman flank Chad Gentry as he receives his award from the Vanderbilt School of Nursing Alumni Board.

PHARMACY

GENTRY WINS LOCAL, NATIONAL RECOGNITION FOR HIS INTERPROFESSIONAL PRACTICE MODEL USED AT A NONPROFIT NASHVILLE CLINIC

Dr. Chad Gentry, associate professor of pharmacy practice, has been recognized by local, state and national organizations this past year for his work to establish the Mercury Courts Model which brings students from pharmacy, nursing, social work and medicine together to coordinate patient care at the Clinic at Mercury Courts in Nashville.

The Tennessee Pharmacists Association awarded Gentry the 2019 TPA Excellence in Innovation Award. The National Academies of Practice elected Gentry to be a Distinguished Fellow in the Pharmacy Academy, and Vanderbilt University School of Nursing Alumni Board awarded Gentry its 2019 Friend of Nursing Award.

The Clinic at Mercury Courts is a nursemanaged, interprofessional, collaborative practice serving urban underserved individuals with significant barriers to primary care access. Gentry’s work with Mercury Courts has led to more patients being on appropriate medications and better control rates for hypertension and diabetes.

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Gentry is the lead clinical pharmacist at the Clinic at Mercury Courts and holds an academic appointment at Vanderbilt University School of Nursing.

The TPA Excellence in Innovation Award is given annually to a pharmacist who has demonstrated significant innovation in practice, resulting in improved patient care and advancement of the profession of pharmacy.

The National Academies of Practice is a non-profit organization founded to advise governmental bodies on the health care system. It is the only interprofessional group of health care practitioners and scholars dedicated to supporting affordable, accessible, coordinated quality health care for all.

Election to become a NAP distinguished fellow recognizes Gentry’s leadership in the profession and that colleagues in other non-pharmacy NAP Academies recognize his ability to lead in the NAP Pharmacy Academy.

The Vanderbilt nursing alumni board’s Friend of Nursing Award recognizes significant local or national contributions, or both, to the profession of nursing from an individual who is not a nurse or Vanderbilt nursing alumni.

Gentry partnered with the School of Nursing during the creation of Mercury Courts.

He has worked closely with Vanderbilt to integrate pharmacy into clinical care while respecting the clinic’s nurse-led philosophy.

Nancy Hunt, associate professor of nutrition, was awarded the 2018-19 Outstanding Dietitian of the Year from the Nashville Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, the local chapter of the National Association of Nutrition and Dietetics.

Hunt, who has been on the Lipscomb faculty since 1986, served as the undergraduate program director for 32 years, but moved back to full-time classroom instruction in 2018.

The award honored Hunt’s effort to incorporate service-learning into her undergraduate nutrition courses, such as community nutrition and nutrition in aging, which teaches about agencies and programs offered through public health or nonprofits.

In her courses, students are required to volunteer at Nashville nonprofit organizations such as Second Harvest Food Bank, Room In The Inn, Meals on Wheels and Fifty Forward and local schools.

Students have coordinated health fairs for students, served meals to cancer patients and volunteered at the Nashville Food Project, Hunt said.

“To learn the content you need to go out and experience it. You have to interact with the community to be effective,” she said. “These experiences are also developing cultural awareness in our students which has become an essential skill for future professionals.”

Under Hunt’s leadership, Lipscomb’s didactic nutrition program maintained an internship match rate above the national average for three decades.

Hunt said when she began teaching at Lipscomb, the majority of nutrition students were planning to work in clinical settings, but today she sees many more students looking to work with the community.

“This generation wants to help the underserved,” she said. “They discover what they want to do in nutrition by our getting them out into the community.”

Script News PHYSICIAN ASSISTANT

STUDENT PA ONE OF 18 IN NATION SELECTED AS STUDENT HEALTH POLICY FELLOW

Jessica Baker visits Tennessee’s Congressional delegation as part of advocacy training fellowship Jessica Baker, a student physician assistant from Shawnee, Kansas, was selected for the Physician Assistant Education Association’s Student Health Policy Fellowship.

As the only fellow from Tennessee, Baker traveled to Washington, D.C., in September for a three-day intensive workshop designed to bolster students’ advocacy and leadership skills and empower them to enact meaningful change in their local communities.

The workshop kicked off with American Academy of Physician Assistants and PAEA lectures focusing on policy issues related to PA education and practice, state-level advocacy and the power of grassroots advocates, according to the PAEA website.

This year’s workshop included information on the role of PAs in promoting access to care for those suffering from opioid use disorder.

PHARMACY

PHARM.D.-TO-PH.D. PATHWAY GRADUATES CONTINUE TO EXCEL BEYOND LIPSCOMB Graduates of the College of Pharmacy’s Pharm.D.-to-Ph.D. Pathway Program continue to succeed both in their pharmacological Spitznagel training at Vanderbilt University and in professional research endeavors.

The second pathway graduate, Dr. Elizabeth Gibson, from Tate, Georgia, received her doctorate from Vanderbilt University in spring 2019 and began work as a post-doctoral research fellow at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital that summer.

At her new position at St. Jude, Gibson works to improve the use of chemotherapy drugs in infants and small children, particularly those with tumors of the central nervous system and other solid malignancies. Her work helps clinicians develop effective therapies and

tailor doses of these powerful drugs to fit the individual patient at various developmental stages of their disease.

While completing her Ph.D. in pharmacology at Vanderbilt, Gibson published two book chapters and two first-author papers. She also won the Leon Cunningham Award of Excellence in Biochemistry from Vanderbilt.

Dr. Brittany Spitznagel, currently working on her thesis studies at Vanderbilt, became the third pathway graduate to receive a PhRMA Foundation fellowship in pharmacology/ toxicology in April 2019. The award supports career development activities of scientists embarking on research that integrates information on molecular or cellular mechanisms of action with information on the effects of an agent observed in an intact organism.

Spitznagel was one of 14 recipients of the 2019 grants and fellowships awarded at the annual meeting of the American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics.

“The Foundation remains committed to identifying promising young scientists in these areas and providing the kind of support that will enable them to advance their research in a way that leads to significant scientific discovery,” said PhRMA Foundation President Eileen Cannon.

Dr. Elizabeth Gibson is using her pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics experience she learned at Lipscomb at St. Jude Children’s Hospital.

The culminating experience of the fellowship was Capitol Hill visits with each student’s elected representatives. The fellows met with the offices of 13 Senate Democrats, 10 Senate Republicans, six House Democrats and six House Republicans.

“On our last day, I went to the Hill and met with staffers of (Tennessee’s) Sen. Marsha Blackburn, Rep. Jim Cooper and the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, of which Sen. Lamar Alexander is the chairman,” said Baker.

Over the course of the next year, each of the 18 fellows are required to complete a communitybased advocacy project. lipscomb.edu/cphs

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Script News COLLEGE OF PHARMACY & HEALTH SCIENCES

SIGNIFICANT INVESTMENT IN SIMULATION LAB EXPANDS TEACHING OPPORTUNITIES

The Health Sciences Simulation Lab received five new patient simulators and hospital beds this past fall, increasing its capacity to host students for training by 35 percent, said Dr. Roger Davis, vice provost for health affairs.

A summer renovation of the lab created two private treatment areas and bisected the lab down the middle, allowing two classes to receive instruction at the same time without noise pollution, Davis said. The private areas also allow more types of treatments to be taught to students.

“These renovations were necessary due to the growth in the health science programs overall, including the new physician assistant studies program that has added 76 students in the past two years,” said Davis. “A large portion of our curriculum is based on simulations.”

A previous common area located adjacent to the lab was transformed into two treatment rooms that model a traditional intensive care unit. These two rooms allow faculty to demonstrate specialized simulations that require more privacy, Davis said.

The new design of the lab and additional simulators, bringing the total to 24, will allow for additional enrollment in the PA, nursing and pharmacy programs, he said.

The Health Simulation Lab was constructed in 2012 in the Nursing and Health Sciences Center and currently houses two cardiopulmonary mannequins and three premature baby mannequins, as well as simulators of adult patients.

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The recent re-working of the Health Simulation Lab allows for two classes to be conducted at the same time in the spaces pictured in the top and middle photos and allows for more use by physician assistant students by adding private treatments rooms, as shown in the bottom photo.

Script News

Lipscomb research at your fingertips.

COLLEGE OF PHARMACY & HEALTH SCIENCES

NEW LIBRARIAN BRINGS VALUABLE RESEARCH TO STUDENTS’ FINGERTIPS

Are you interested in?

Gill develops digital source for all COPHS research

Liver Cancer • Breast Cancer •

Pain Management • Nutritional

Quite often a patient’s positive outcome is directly dependent on the information a provider has at their fingertips in digital library databases, making it quick and easy to look up the latest research and best practices to treat the presenting condition.

That’s what makes Kayce Gill’s job as the new health sciences librarian designated for the College of Pharmacy & Health Sciences so important.

“With the explosion of research information in health care mostly accessible electronically, being able to stay current in practice and research throughout their career is a prime skill our students need to know,” said Dr. Roger Davis, vice provost for health affairs.

“We must prepare our students to adapt and be able to access information digitally throughout their lifetimes. So we felt it was important enough to have a dedicated person to do that.”

In January 2019, Gill moved from Lipscomb’s Beaman Library faculty, where she had worked since 2012, to the college faculty. She works directly with health science students to enhance their skill to evaluate primary biomedical literature and then discuss with patients the relevant information they need to know.

Gill is available to work with students one-onone, to provide perspective for curriculum development and to teach entry level classes, where students learn how to use health science resources, including PubMed, one of the largest medical databases in the world that includes 30 million citations.

Her job also involves supporting faculty conducting research. She provides perspective on good lines of research to

Supplements • Acute Heart

Failure • Blockchain Technology

• Interprofessional Health Care •

Diabetes Prevention • Digital Health Kayce Gill

pursue and works one-on-one with faculty to make sure they have access to all the research available in the relevant area.

As part of her work with faculty, Gill is building a new database of all Lipscomb COPHS faculty research, open to the public. The Lipscomb College of Pharmacy & Health Sciences Scholarship website launched in December on the SpringShare platform and includes all published works by Lipscomb COPHS faculty, with more to come.

“I discovered that the only way to learn about faculty members’ research and scholarship was by contacting a specific faculty member,” Gill said. “We needed a digital platform to promote the College of Pharmacy & Health Sciences’ faculty scholarship as a whole.

“Creating a central webpage provides a way to highlight faculty research for collaboration across departments, connect current and prospective students to faculty and showcase faculty research to a global audience.”

On the site, at https://libguides.lipscomb.edu/ cophsscholarship, research is searchable by department, author or year, Gill said.

Article citations link either to PubMed or the journal publisher’s website. Books and book chapters include the cover images and links to Amazon when available.

Then check out libguides.lipscomb.edu/ cophsscholarship These are just a few of the many

topics Lipscomb University faculty

and students are exploring to discover new knowledge in the research

labs of the College of Pharmacy & Health Sciences.

Log on to search Lipscomb

research, published nationally and internationally, by department, author or year.

IPSCOMB UNIVERSITY

College of Pharmacy & Health Sciences

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Script News

Lipscomb University Drug Information Center The College of Pharmacy’s Drug

Information Center strives to serve

the needs of pharmacy faculty, students,

preceptors and patients with information

on the latest developments in the field of

medicine and pharmacy.

Newsletter The DIC newsletter focuses on specific topics of interest including specialty, community and institutional pharmacy. Information about technology advances in interactive cell phone applications, new medical equipment and even web-based programs are also included. Fourth-year student pharmacists author much of the information provided with the oversight of their pharmacy preceptors.

We welcome input from our readers for topic suggestions for future editions.

To be added to the distribution list for DIC newsletters, please forward your information to druginformation@lipscomb.edu.

Emails The center is led by Drs. Nena Bowman and Robin Parker, who are available through email to answer drug information requests from health care providers, especially pharmacists, preceptors and alumni.

They can be reached at druginformation@ lipscomb.edu.

Online Library Drug information for faculty, students, preceptors and patients, including Access Pharmacy, PharmacyLibrary, the National Library of Medicine Drug Portal, Drugs@ FDA and more, is available at the DIC’s online resource library. https://libguides.lipscomb.edu/ pharmacy.

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CONQUERING VACCINE HESITANCY BY STRENGTHENING VACCINE CONFIDENCE

By Lacey Kinney, Class of 2020 Immunizations have always been a topic of discussion within the medical community.

With the most recent outbreak of measles, practitioners have to understand their patients’ concerns and provide them with the facts regarding immunizations.

Vaccine hesitancy is a complex apprehension based on many different factors. Hesitancy can arise from the vaccine’s indication or the thought that too many are being administered at once, which leads to delay in the schedule or prioritization of certain vaccines. Refusal may occur due to non-confidence in the safety or efficacy of a vaccine. Belief that vaccines are no longer necessary since disease prevalence is low or eradicated can be countered by educating patients about why certain diseases do not occur due to immunizations. Vaccines tend to be confusing because policies on immunization vary by state like in the case of required school vaccines or religious and medical exemptions.

These are all concerns patients experience that can be discussed and clarified.

STUDENT PHARMACIST PRESENTS AT PRESTIGIOUS TOXICOLOGY CONFERENCE Neil Gillette, fourth-year student pharmacist, recently represented the College of Pharmacy at the North American Congress of Clinical Toxicology Annual Meeting with a poster presentation titled “Canine Medication Apoquel® in Human Exposure: An Observational Study from a Single Poison Center.”

Gillette, who has worked at the Tennessee Poison Center for Dr. Nena Bowman, Lipscomb adjunct faculty and managing director at the Tennessee Poison Center, submitted an abstract in April in collaboration with Bowman. The abstract was accepted for poster presentation at the 2019

There are many ways a pharmacist is able to impact vaccine hesitancy. As a provider who has contact with patients regularly, pharmacists are able to effectively communicate with the patient important information and address any concerns by asking open-ended questions. By listening to the patient and reflecting on their concerns, a pharmacist is able to specifically address the issue instead of bombarding the patient with data and facts. Being honest with the patient allows the pharmacist to build trust over time which will assist in having conversations that impact the patients’ health, in addition to the community.

Parents especially play a large role in their children’s vaccination history due to their beliefs, behaviors and attitudes toward vaccines. It is important for pharmacists to concisely explain the process of approval and manufacturing that vaccinations undergo to help ease concerns.

Patient empowerment for adults and children is important to engage the patient in their health decisions. Health literacy is imperative in discussing preventative health options like vaccines as an alternative to treating diseases that could be avoided. Evidence-based research is one method pharmacists use to discredit myths such as vaccines linked to autism or containing mercury.

Pharmacists need to be up to date on vaccination changes and information to provide reassurance to the patient so they are able to make the bestinformed decision.

NACCT Annual Meeting hosted in Nashville in September.

The study used Tennessee Poison Center data collected over the last several years to characterize the reason and possible clinical effects of human ingestion of Apoquel®.

NACCT is one of the largest toxicology conferences in the world, bringing together toxicologists and specialists in poison information from all over the globe to share cutting edge toxicology research and issues. Many presentations of original research, symposia and expert panels are included in the conference programming. Pharmacists, physicians, nurses and Ph.D.s are all well represented.

The abstract, listing Gillette as first author in collaboration with Bowman, was published in the academic journal Clinical Toxicology in August.

Script News IT IS OUR CALLING. OUR PASSION. WE, ARE NURSES. In May 2019, Lipscomb awarded more than 300 degrees in health carerelated fields, more than 35 percent of its total graduates. One of those

graduates, Cassidy Cowen Meuting, was selected by her School of Nursing

classmates to speak at the May 2019 nurse pinning ceremony. Meuting is a first generation college student and was known as the “class encourager.”

The nursing pinning ceremony is a traditional rite of passage for all nurses

as they graduate from college and enter their professions. Below is an excerpt

from Meuting’s speech, which highlighted the community atmosphere within the Lipscomb University School of Nursing.

Good afternoon, I am honored to be speaking in front of you today. We are here today to finally retire our title as “nursing students” and claim the title we have worked so hard to obtain: “BSN graduates,” on our way to becoming RNs. Thank you to everyone who is here today to celebrate with us. For some of you, this is the first time you have seen us in two years—Because, well, that’s nursing school for you—so thank you for still coming.

Two years ago, we entered this program excited to become nurses. Then we started.

We showed up with our brain name tags, white shoes, white scrub tops—soon to realize we had no idea what we had signed up for. Our pupils quickly dilated to 9 millimeters, heart rate of 160, diaphoretic. I would like to tell you that it got better, that each semester got easier. But, well, that’s not how nursing school goes.

Semester after semester, we have struggled alongside each other. We have cried with each other, ranted to each other, had actual mental breakdowns together and listened to each other say again and again that we were quitting and changing our major—knowing that we never would. We have studied weeks for tests, pulling all-nighters after all-nighters, just to come up short. We have devoted all our mental capacity to ensure we complete all our assignments: care plans, online quizzes, patho papers, med cards,

Meuting

presentations and 5 million others—just to realize we forgot a Sherpath assignment that was due at midnight. We have sacrificed for the dream of becoming nurses. We dismissed calls from our loved ones, canceled fun dinner plans with friends and even neglected self care and exercise—all to be able to say “I did absolutely everything I could.”

Nursing school is hard. But whether we realize it or not, we have also seen each other thrive. We have watched each other successfully start IVs for the first time, pass HESI exams that you feel you can never actually be prepared for and accept our dream jobs at our dream hospitals. We have watched each other grow from scared nursing students to independent nurses ready to care for patients’ lives. And I am positive we will all be incredible nurses—because no one gets through nursing school without being passionate about this calling.

There’s a few people I’d like to thank for helping us through this roller coaster. First, I’d like to thank our clinical instructors for allowing us brand new nursing students to practice under your licensure the things we had only seen in simulation lab.

Secondly, I’d like to thank all our families for dealing with our constant mood swings and insane stress levels. I would like to thank our husbands and our children for being our biggest cheerleaders throughout this process.

I would also like to thank our teachers for choosing a career that takes aspiring nurses and turns them into great nurses and, of course, for the endless snacks that were truly the only thing that got us through some days.

I can’t imagine going through nursing school with any other group. We walked in as strangers, treating each other as competitors, and are leaving as close friends, truly sad we won’t be seeing each other every day.

But today is the day we finally get to open up our wings and take flight.

You see, we were born to be nurses; to hold, to aid, to save, to inspire. We are the ones who open the eyes of a newborn and gently close the eyes of a dying man. We hold the hands of strangers and wipe their tears as they are given a terminal diagnosis and celebrate with patients when their condition improves. We laugh in the face of adversity and cry for our patients behind closed doors.

We pray for our patients and pray with our patients, hoping to bridge the gap between heaven and this earth, just a little. You see, this is the toughest job you will ever love.

This is who we are. It is our calling. Our passion. We, are nurses.

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COPHS Family Photos 01

02

03

THE LIPSCOMB SCENE Each spring brings the formal pinning for Lipscomb’s health science graduates. The pinnings symbolize each student’s official initiation into the brotherhood and sisterhood of health care professionals. The nursing Class of 2019 lit their lamps in honor of Florence Nightingale at their ceremony (01). The pharmacy Class of 2020 celebrated the start of their clinical studies at their pinning ceremony (03) in April. Families celebrate this new phase of life for the graduating nurses at the nursing pinning (07). Dietetics interns receive their own pin to celebrate their certification as registered dietitians (09).

The 2019-2020 school year kicked off with the First Day We Pray (02), where these students showed up and received coffee to fuel them through the early morning spiritual gathering.

PA students participate in the Fiesta Glow Run on Lipscomb’s campus supporting the Jovenes en Camino boys’ home in Honduras (04).

Each year the College of Pharmacy & Health Sciences hosts four to five medical missions trips to disadvantaged nations and communities worldwide. This past year health science students traveled to Malawi (05) and to Honduras (10).

04

05

The Pharmacy Recognition Ceremony is always a family affair, including this youngster who came to celebrate the academic honors (06).

College of Pharmacy & Health Sciences faculty and staff took time out for a scavenger hunt during the college’s Fun Day (08).

Throughout the fall of 2019, pharmacy, physician assistant and nursing students provided more than 6,000 flu shots on campus and in the community (11), such as this flu shot clinic held at the nearby the Church of Christ in Green Hills grounds.

PA students celebrated National PA Week with a service project and a gift from the National Commission on Certification of Physician Assistants: sunglasses, because their future is so bright (12).

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06

08 10

07

09

12

11

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Physician Assistant Studies

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Highlights

PA students build community in first year, help one of their own Lipscomb’s first cohort of student PAs (pictured) had barely started their studies before they were called upon to come together as a group and help one of their own.

In February of 2019, the second semester of the inaugural cohort’s journey to a Master of Physician Assistant Studies degree, Josh Davenport (pictured center with the scooter) broke his ankle in an intramural basketball game put together by the PA class.

“It was scary because we were worried that he wasn’t going to be able to continue in the program,” said Benjamin Crisp, president of the PA cohort’s Student Government Association. “He went to the hospital and came back on crutches, and he lived on the second floor of an apartment building.”

Fariha Ghazi, a student PA from Detroit and one of the class officers in the 10-person student association, launched an effort for the students to provide Davenport with a knee walker scooter to make the recovery process a little easier for him.

The student association paid for the scooter and “he is still in school and didn’t get left behind,” said Crisp. “At that point in our program, it was a very hard time to be on pain medication and not be able to move around as well.”

The scooter is just one of the projects the PA student association carried out in its first year of existence at Lipscomb.

The group coordinated a fundraising basketball tournament called “The Battle of the White Coats” to raise money for the American Heart Association. One class officer, Jessica Baker, coordinated a recycling

program, establishing a partnership with Lipscomb Academy, Lipscomb’s pre-K-12th grade school, to come pick up the collected paper and bottles. The students also coordinated a partnership with the College of Pharmacy to help administer flu shots this past fall.

“We like doing what we can to bring some fun to our class and make an impact while we are here,” said Crisp.

According to Aven Humphreys, the School of Physician Assistant Studies director of student affairs, it is important for a new class of students to have officers and a social structure.

“The members of the inaugural Class of 2020 are our pioneers in a manner of speaking,” she said. “They took a leap of faith embarking on this journey with us. It was important for this class to have the ability to synthesize ideas, goals, opportunities, challenges and solutions by identifying leaders who would act on behalf of all class members. The officers are the voice of the cohort who act as a liaison between the class and the greater university.

Having class officers has helped unify and bond the class as a family which leads to a better educational experience overall, says Humphreys. “I think if you talk to any one of the students they would tell you that they and their classmates are now and forever linked through shared experiences, ups and downs, successes and failures.

“When students feel represented I believe they are in an environment to thrive not only educationally but personally, spiritually and professionally,” she said.

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Nursing

School of Nursing advances in leadership and admissions in 2019 Veteran nursing educator Chelsia Harris named executive director Dr. Chelsia Harris (pictured), the Lipscomb School of Nursing associate director of nursing for degree development since 2017, was named executive director of the school in May 2019.

Harris now leads a School of Nursing that has been ranked by RNCareers.org as one of the best nursing schools in the nation and in the top 10 in Tennessee.

“The appointment of Dr. Harris begins an important new chapter in the growth and reputation of the school,” said Dr. Roger L. Davis, vice provost for health affairs at Lipscomb.

“Her enthusiasm for the profession of nursing, reputation for leadership, credibility with accrediting agencies and personal investment with students makes her an ideal leader for the position. Her talents reinforce her role as one who will inspire students, faculty and all those who support the School of Nursing,” said Davis.

“I love to inspire and encourage people,” said Harris. “I am passionate about the profession of nursing and quality care at the bedside. If people can see your heart, they are more apt to believe you and trust you and jump on board with you. I really tried to set that tone this year.”

Freshmen now admitted directly to the School of Nursing This past fall, the first group of students was admitted to the School of Nursing as incoming freshmen, the beginning of a new direct admissions policy designed to build community among student nurses and keep them passionate about entering the nursing profession throughout the four years of the program.

Since it was established, Lipscomb has enrolled students in the BSN program at the beginning of their junior year. Now students will enroll as a nursing major as incoming freshmen and complete a mid-point readiness evaluation before their junior year in order to move forward in the nursing program, said Dr. Roger L. Davis, vice provost for health affairs at Lipscomb.

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Prior to her work at Lipscomb, Harris taught for eight years as an associate professor of nursing in a baccalaureate program at the College of the Ozarks in Point Lookout, Missouri. Harris’s clinical experience includes practice in medical-surgical acute care, outpatient cardiology, preventive health, primary family practice, and occupational and home health.

Harris said she is excited God has called her to lead an organization with such significant outcomes. “Our student nurses are being chosen for highly acute care positions before they even graduate,” she said. “These are positions that are not typically offered to new graduates.”

“We will be known by the way we love one another. Our faculty are modelling that for students, and our students are following suit,” she said.

A native of Hartman, Arkansas, Harris earned her Bachelor of Science in Nursing degree from Arkansas Tech University in 2004, her Master of Science in Nursing degree as a family nurse practitioner from Vanderbilt University in 2008 and her Doctor of Nursing Practice degree with an emphasis in educational leadership from Case Western Reserve University in 2015.

Harris’s publications include topics such as physician-assisted suicide, compassion fatigue, advanced practice nursing and nursing education, as well as her book Created & Called: A Journey to and Through Nursing and her children’s book Hannah Visits Nana in the Nursing Home. Harris also serves as a peer reviewer for the Journal of Christian Nursing and the American Nurses’ Association publication American Nurse Today.

“This new approach gives student nurses a defined path, a cohort mentality,” said Davis. “This will give them an identity as a health professional earlier in their journey.”

To ensure a strong community identity among student nurses at every level, Executive Director Dr. Chelsia Harris made a point to personally greet every nursing class and every incoming student in the fall of 2019.

The school is working to ensure all freshman and sophomore nursing majors have mentoring opportunities with faculty and upper-classmen, and it held various student networking events in the fall. Freshmen and sophomores are also invited to join the Lipscomb Student Nurse Association, Harris said.

“When a student feels a connection, whether it be with a mentor, a fellow student or just an overall spiritual connection, that’s how we retain an incredible community,” she said.

Highlights

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Pharmacy

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Highlights

Pharmacy has gone to the dogs Alumna is part of nationwide online network providing meds for pets If you have a pet, it’s likely you know Chewy.com. But you may not know that one of Lipscomb’s own is sitting behind the computer ensuring that pets and their owners get the proper medication prescribed by the veterinarian.

Dr. Katie Shepherd (’16) (pictured), who grew up in Mount Washington, Kentucky, near Louisville, started riding horses at the age of 12. She showed American Saddlebreds in competition and was surrounded by dogs and animals throughout childhood. She went off to college at Morehead State University as a pre-vet major, but the realities of veterinary medicine (such as having to put an ailing animal to sleep) caused her to switch to pharmacy.

At that point, “it was only a pipedream to do veterinary pharmacy because it is definitely a niche,” Shepherd said. “I remember my Lipscomb professor saying, ‘Take any job you can after school.

That doesn’t mean you will end up there forever.’”

So she did. Upon graduating from the College of Pharmacy, Shepherd worked in the home infusion field for a couple of years before she saw a job advertisement on Indeed.com for a veterinary pharmacist at PetSmart. She applied, but never heard back.

Then Chewy, founded in 2011, was bought by PetSmart in 2017 and began a process of expansion. Suddenly, the web-based pet supply store that earned customer loyalty with stellar customer service such as hand-written holiday cards and pet portraits needed a lot more pharmacists for its licensed pharmacy.

In 2018, the company went from eight pharmacists to 80 in a month’s time, Shepherd said. And as an added benefit for Shepherd, a staff pharmacist at the company, Chewy’s pharmacy is located in Louisville, Kentucky, her old stomping grounds.

Lipscomb’s curriculum does cover the skills needed for veterinary pharmacy practice, said College of Pharmacy Dean Tom Campbell, still the new crew of Chewy pharmacists had to learn a lot on the job, Shepherd said.

Her job is similar to a retail pharmacist, but on a larger scale, she said. She receives prescriptions from customers and veterinarians, confirms the orders are the correct dosage and medication for the

animal and checks it for accuracy again when the drug is ready to be shipped.

“It’s a lot of research at first, to make sure the dose is safe. A lot of veterinary doses are weight-based, so our practice is more like pediatrics. We had to learn the right weight-dosing,” Shepherd said.

Luckily, Lipscomb taught Shepherd how to do that and how to research the appropriate weight doses, so she can confirm a prescription for anything from a goat to a hedgehog.

“We do a lot of checking with the vets after the prescription arrives.

We double-check paperwork. I think veterinarians are grateful for that second set of eyes,” she said. “An online pet pharmacy is something that has just popped up in the last few years. This is very new for the whole veterinary world.

“I’ve been here for more than a year, and I learn something new every day,” Shepherd said.

Today, Shepherd still owns a horse and three dogs. Unfortunately for Shepherd, regulations prevent her dogs from being around medication, so Denny, Izzie and Whiskey cannot come into work with her.

But she gets plenty of workout time with her pets as she now competes in agility trials with them. She actually discovered her love of showing dogs during her years at Lipscomb and often returns to Nashville for competition.

Now her dream is to work in a large veterinary hospital, where she could be around animals more often, but she knows those jobs come few and far between.

She appreciates the family atmosphere she experienced during her studies at Lipscomb, especially as she lost her father while earning her degree and the students and faculty rallied around her, she said.

Lipscomb’s focus on compassion for the patient has served her well, even though her patients include ferrets, rabbits and chickens.

“I talk to pet owners two or three times a week, but most of the time they call because they’ve given their pet a drug and their pet is experiencing a side effect. For many of them their pets are their family,” she said. “It is important for us to understand this patient is as important as a person. Being able to make them feel like they have been heard and listened to, is something I really gained from my experience at Lipscomb.”

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Nutrition

Two senior nutrition majors step up to diversify dietetics in Nashville While still in the midst of their undergraduate studies, two nutrition seniors are already taking steps to advance their future chosen profession by establishing a local chapter of a national organization called Diversifying Dietetics.

Alexis Trice (pictured left), of Antioch, Tennessee, and Erika Robles (pictured right), born in Ecuador but now a Nashvillian, stepped up to gather local dietetics students and professionals together in September to network and share ideas about diversifying the profession.

Diversify Dietetics is an Atlanta-based organization dedicated to increasing diversity in the field of nutrition by empowering students and young professionals from underrepresented minority groups to join the next generation of nutrition experts.

According to the organization’s website, it is the only organization dedicated to increasing diversity in the profession that is inclusive of all ethnic and racial groups. It also has a focus on using social media to build its community of students, professionals and educators in the field.

Trice and Robles coordinated a “meet-up” of various undergraduate nutrition students from Lipscomb and Middle Tennessee State University, local registered dietitians who work across the state and dietetic interns.

“The overall response was great,” said Robles. “Everyone has a lot to say about the topic of diversity in dietetics, and everyone has a unique story to tell. The general response was that a lack of diversity has affected us all in some way, whether it was lack of confidence, lack of resources or general discouragement.”

Specific issues discussed at the first meeting included career barriers that practitioners who are minorities often face and stories of how professionals overcome those barriers; comments on how My Plate, the USDA Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion’s nutrition guide on the five food groups, does not fit all cultures, failing to acknowledge how some food can be part of a patient’s cultural identity; and how to stay confident during the dietetic internship.

The professionals answered many questions for the students, and contact numbers were shared all around to begin an ongoing networking group for the cause, Robles said.

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“This field is definitely one where you need connections and guidance, because the process (of becoming a registered dietitian) is pretty arduous,” said Trice.

According to the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics 2017 Compensation and Benefits Survey, “The demographic profile of [nutrition] practitioners is essentially unchanged since 2007.”

Trice and Robles were very aware of this lag in diversity from the beginning of their college careers. As freshmen, they were the only two students of diversity who had declared a nutrition major, they said.

When Trice found the Diversifying Dietetics organization online and shared the information with Robles, it was “exciting and refreshing to know that something like that existed for us,” said Robles. “It can be overwhelming, so it was nice to know of an organization that can help.”

Robles and Trice have learned the negative impacts of cultural differences on patient care firsthand on the Lipscomb-sponsored mission trip to Destin, Florida, to work at the nonprofit Hope Medical Clinic.

In professional practice, cultural differences can cause a language or literacy barrier or hesitancy on the part of the patient to openly share symptoms and experiences, which could negatively impact patient care, Robles noted.

“Some people may not even know what a dietitian is,” said Robles, who found herself having to explain the profession to a lot of friends and family when she chose nutrition as a major.

“As of right now, we plan to continue hosting meetups every spring and fall, even after we graduate from Lipscomb,” said Robles. “It is our plan to turn this into a monthly group in Nashville to simply create a space where dietetics students and registered dietitians can come together and discuss topics important to us.”

Robles and Trice both hope to apply and be accepted into Lipscomb’s Dietetic Internship after graduating in May. Robles wants to work in a hospital setting, and Trice plans to go into private practice.

Highlights

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Pharmacy

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Highlights

The world’s top academic journals on heart failure publish Lipscomb associate professor’s research Cox’s work with patients helps nab almost $2 million grant for one of the nation’s top medical centers Dr. Zac Cox, associate professor of pharmacy and an inpatient clinical pharmacist at Vanderbilt Medical University Center, continues to garner national and international attention for his research exploring various drug therapies for patients hospitalized with acute heart failure.

His past work with the drug Milrinone and other ways to reduce diuretic resistance in heart failure patients was one factor that helped win a $1.8 million grant from Astra Zeneca for Vanderbilt to study dapagliflozin, a new line of medications that was previously only used for diabetes, in acute heart failure patients.

Cox is listed as the co-primary investigator with Vanderbilt’s Dr. JoAnn Lindenfeld on the multi-center study titled, “A Randomized, Open-label Study of Dapagliflozin in Patients with Type 2 Diabetes Admitted with Acute Heart Failure.”

That grant came in a year when Cox was also invited to present his research at the European Society of Cardiology Heart Failure Congress in Athens, Greece, in May 2019. His project, “Diuretic Strategies for Loop Diuretic Resistance in Acute Heart Failure: The 3T trial,” tested drugs that may help eliminate excess fluid in patients who are resistant to the standard approaches.

In addition, he is published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology: Heart Failure with “Diuretic Strategies for Loop Diuretic Resistance in Acute Heart Failure: The 3T Trial” and will soon be published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology as a co-author of a review of diuretics in heart failure. These journals are the top journals for heart failure research in the world, Cox said.

He has also co-authored a book chapter in “Cardiorenal Syndrome in Heart Failure” on best practices for overcoming diuretic resistance and is currently carrying out a phase 1 clinical trial at the University of Kansas Medical Center for a novel inhaled Milrinone formulation for which he is co-inventor and co-principal investigator with Dr. Nick Haglund.

“Everything that we are doing in these investigations is novel,” said Cox. “We know that one-third of patients who leave the hospital are not fully decongested. One reason is that they are resistant to the class of medications that we use. The risk of that patient dying in the next year is really high. So we are demonstrating that different classes of medications can help with the decongestion and thus produce less chance of death in chronic heart failure patients.”

Since 2014, Cox has worked in his dual appointment at Lipscomb and Vanderbilt to provide top quality patient care, conduct research among Vanderbilt’s heart failure patients and supervise Lipscomb students in their Advanced Pharmacy Practice Experiences.

During his years at Lipscomb, his research findings have been praised by Cleveland Clinic cardiologists, and he pioneered the inhaled form of the drug Milrinone that has been patented. Milrinone is normally administered through IV, so creating an inhaled form of the drug reduces the risk of infection and increases the quality of life for patients, who often have to take the drug by IV at home while waiting for a heart transplant.

Such national recognition provides new opportunities to share the best practices around the world and builds the scientific community’s respect in Lipscomb’s research, thus boosting the chance of future grants and publications, Cox said.

To see more of Lipscomb researchers’ work in various health sciences areas, log on to libguides.lipscomb.edu/ cophsscholarship.

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Pharmacy

Hometown heroes In a retail world full of big-box stores and online merchants, it’s not common to see the neighborhoodbased, community pharmacy spring up very often. Lipscomb’s College of Pharmacy, however, has seen 14 of its graduates strike out and start their own independently owned pharmacies in the past decade.

This issue of The Script continues a series highlighting several of these intrepid entrepreneurs.

Jennie (’15) and Kelby Sutton (’14) and Heather Hollingsworth Knight (’12) have each headed back home to open pharmacies in their hometown communities of Pulaski, Tennessee, and Hamilton, Alabama, respectively.

Don’t miss the Script pharmacy owners’ series in future issues, featuring graduates such as Jay Wilmore, Jared Lonen, Andrew Byrd, Ian Bradley, Taylor Black, Delanie Sullivan, Brad Medling and Grant Mathis.

A marriage made at Lipscomb brings personal care to Pulaski The Sutton Family Pharmacy, opened in March 2019, in Pulaski, Tennessee, was in the making just a few months, but the couple who started it were in the making long before that.

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Jennie and Kelby Sutton (pictured on page 29) were a couple back in their community college days, when Kelby proposed over the Bunsen burner in the chemistry lab at Columbia State Community College. They both moved on to study pharmacy at Lipscomb and married during Jennie’s second year of pharmacy studies.

Kelby Sutton, a Pulaski, Tennessee, native waffled between engineering and pharmacy for

a time, but his work study job in the chemistry lab at Columbia State and a job in a Kroger pharmacy working for his chemistry professor’s son made up his mind to pursue pharmacy. And since that decision, Kelby said he has always wanted to open a pharmacy in his hometown.

He had the perfect partner in Jennie, who started working in an independent pharmacy in Lewisburg, Tennessee, in her senior year of high school. In between birthing and raising two children, both Jennie and Kelby worked at various independent pharmacies during their pharmacy studies and after graduation.

Kelby knew his hometown had always supported five pharmacies, so when Fred’s Inc., a troubled retail chain that operated pharmacies throughout the Southeast, announced it was selling out its Pulaski location to Walgreens, he knew the time was ripe for the Suttons to fill the gap.

Many of the former Fred’s customers moved over to Sutton because “it’s about the way we take care of people,” said Kelby. “This is about

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being able to take care of people the way you want to rather than having someone else tell you what to do.”

Sutton Family Pharmacy is the kind of place where Jennie can serve customers while infant daughter Lucie rests on her hip. It’s the kind of pharmacy where Jennie and Kelby personally know who they need to deliver to quickly because they are in hospice care. It’s the kind of place where they personally know their customers’ doctors by name.

“Ninety percent of the providers in town are listed on my phone,” said Kelby, who also has known many of his customers throughout his life.

The residents in that kind of town gravitate toward personal pharmacy services provided by someone they know, Kelby said. The Suttons greet their customers by name and have close enough relationships to remember details about customers’ home lives, Jennie says.

“We wanted to provide care that customers don’t always get from other places,” said Jennie. “No one leaves here feeling like we haven’t genuinely cared for them, and if they do, we’ve missed our mark.”

Sutton Family Pharmacy offers drug delivery, medication management, health assessments and natural medicine consultations, an increasingly popular product in the retail business. Like many other independent pharmacies, they also offer an array of home décor, gifts, baby clothes and overthe-counter products, all in a rustic setting with corrugated metal and brick walls.

The Suttons say their business plan from their community pharmacy course at Lipscomb, taught

by Dr. Ray Marcrom, helped them get started on their business, and consulting with the other Lipscomb alumni entrepreneurs helped shape their style aesthetic for their non-pharmaceutical retail goods.

While many may think that a married couple working together could cause problems, the couple say they have never had any trouble working together. In fact, Jennie says their differing approaches to patient care decrease opportunities for missed care.

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Pharmacy

Hamilton pharmacy is an advocate for health and community Heather Hollingsworth Knight (pictured below), who grew up the daughter of the Marion County Schools Superintendent, has used her Hamilton Pharmacy to not only provide excellent patient care for her

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neighbors, but to promote civic pride in her hometown community of Hamilton, Alabama.

When considering the design of her pharmacy, which she built and opened in 2017, she and her partners came up with the idea of creating a word map in the shape of Alabama. They created a long list of locations and businesses related to the Hamilton of today and yesterday, such as Coleman’s BBQ, Buttahatchee River Fall Festival, Dinelli’s Pizza and Hamilton High School.

The wall décor has proven so popular that she has now created T-shirts, which are selling well, with the same design.

Beyond that simple act, Knight’s business makes itself part of the community by sponsoring the local high school sports team, offering a line of children’s toys and a bridal registry for the high-end gifts she sells, items that are not easily found close by elsewhere.

Knight, a member of Lipscomb’s inaugural pharmacy cohort, became a consulting

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pharmacist living in Muscle Shoals, Alabama, and then Hamilton after graduation as she started her family. After growing weary of juggling driving far away to jobs and raising her kids, Knight decided to purchase an available lot in Hamilton and build the free-standing Hamilton Pharmacy.

She had plenty of help from her husband Tyler Knight, who has a design background and built all the cabinetry, and her cousin, Jonathan Shaw, a pharmacist who became her partner in the venture.

“You don’t go into it lightly. But it’s been rewarding in many ways,” said Knight, who says local customers always recognize her once they learn her maiden name. “Everyone knows my family!

“I’ve worked for chains before, and that’s a great job, but I like having that personal relationship,” she said. “When people walk in, they know that you know their name.”

she chose to carry Melissa and Doug toys because she knew local mothers like herself would appreciate a convenient outlet for educational toys.

She also credits Marcrom’s community pharmacy course as a source of concepts she uses to operate her business today. “It helped me see where pharmacy was headed,” she said of the course. “It gave me a a vision of what I could do (in the future).”

To build a successful business you have to “find your niche,” said Knight, who said

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Nutrition

Cooking local and wearing plaid in Knoxville

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Nutrition studies and New Zealand mission trip planted the seeds for local food menu at alumnus’ The Plaid Apron Drew McDonald (’05) (pictured) says that Dr. Jon Lowrance, professor of biology, pulling him aside and giving him the hard truth about his biology grades was the best thing that ever happened to him.

An entirely new major, culinary training in New Zealand and East Tennessee, and three kids later, and McDonald is at the helm of his own restaurant in Knoxville, Tennessee, that is considered one of the earliest purveyors of locally based cuisine in the city.

He has cooked in the James Beard House in New York City and has been featured in Garden & Gun, a lifestyle magazine focused on the South.

McDonald has not followed the path he expected to when he stepped on campus to begin his college career. McDonald, whose father William B. McDonald was a Lipscomb Board of Trustees member during his college days, intended to go into pre-med and return home to Centerville, Tennessee, to be a doctor.

But, “after much debate and struggling with grades and recognizing the fact that I would rather be out doing something with my hands than reading books,” McDonald abandoned that plan and began looking for a new major.

A summer job at the Park Café in Nashville’s Sylvan Park and a chance meeting with Dr. Autumn Marshall, now chair of the Department of Nutrition and Kinesiology, put him on a path for a degree in food systems management, which saved his GPA and led to a lifelong career in the culinary world.

Throughout his career, he has worked at the Great Smoky Mountains posh resort Blackberry Farm; at the Huka Lodge, a luxury resort in Taupo, New Zealand; at the Hermitage Hotel in Nashville; and nine years ago he opened The Plaid Apron in Knoxville, a market he saw as ripe for a new

restaurant offering his kind of food—“familiar foods presented and combined with different cultures.”

Before all that, however, he went on a Lipscomb-sponsored mission trip to New Zealand, which not only sparked his fire for cooking, but also introduced him to his future wife, Bonni Standifer, a University of Tennessee, Knoxville, student who joined her Lipscomb-student sister on the trip.

The couple have carried a shared love for New Zealand throughout their marriage and careers and have returned to the nation several times.

After graduating from Lipscomb, McDonald earned his Associate of Culinary Arts from Sullivan University in Kentucky and his first career experiences helped shape what would later become the menu at The Plaid Apron. At Blackberry Farm, a mountain resort located in Walland, Tennessee, all the food is fresh and made in-house, sourced from the farm itself, McDonald said.

And in New Zealand, another highland area, he saw firsthand how a nation that relies largely on its own resources does haute cuisine. “At any point in its geography, (every location in New Zealand) is only three hours from the coast, so seafood is always fresh,” said McDonald. “There is hardly any imported produce. If this country can be organic for the most part and deliver high-end produce to large store owners, then why can’t we do it on a small—or even a larger-scale—back home.”

McDonald harkened back to those experiences, as well as his boyhood experience in Centerville where he grew up eating vegetables from the garden canned at home, to establish The Plaid Apron, which serves brunch in the Sequoia Hills neighborhood of Knoxville. His first step in establishing the restaurant was to build relationships with the farmers selling at the Laurel Church of Christ farmer’s market near his location.

Today, all the restaurant’s dishes are made from ingredients grown by farmers located within 30 miles, he said. McDonald sets a lighter, more healthy tone with his food. He doesn’t have a deep fryer in his kitchen at all, he says.

Sticking to locally-based ingredients is not easy, McDonald said. “If our farmers are having a bad year, we have to figure out how to use what they have available in a way that is appealing to our customers. We can’t hesitate.

We have to use our expertise,” he said.

“I can cater to any dietary need that walks through my door. We make all our bread inhouse. We make all our mayo and aioli. We are about as scratch as you can get,” he said.

And thanks to his foundational Lipscomb nutrition degree, McDonald said he can have authoritative conversations with his customers about their food allergies, such as the effects on the body of eating glutenfree bread (made with rice or potato flour) versus sourdough bread for a customer choosing gluten-free.

At the time The Plaid Apron was established, the “farm-to-table” concept (a term that McDonald hates) was being talked about, but it wasn’t a fad yet, he said. “In nine years, Knoxville has come a very long way,” McDonald said of the city’s locally based food scene. “I think we started a restaurant that was not available to the city at the time and gave encouragement to a lot of people in the area to start similar restaurants.”

The restaurant business turned out to not only be McDonald’s career, but perhaps also his calling, as he relishes training his staff to move on to better careers in the culinary industry. Some of his staff have gone on to cook in James Beard Award-winning restaurants, he says.

“We think about getting out of this business sometimes,” he said of he and his wife, who boards and trains horses for competition. “But then we have moments where we challenge people and they step up, so we feel like God gave us this (restaurant) to do good. We have created this to help people better their lives and offer a better restaurant lifestyle.

“If you don’t leave here better than you came, then I haven’t done my job,” he added. “I always have higher expectations for you than you have for yourself.”

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Nutrition

Enjoy life, eat cake A pair of Lipscomb alumnae dietitians are throwing out “dieting” and going back to the health basics Can you be a dietitian without prescribing diets?

“Absolutely!” say two Lipscomb University graduates who have banded together to take a unique approach to a private nutrition therapy practice in Nashville that is rooted in embracing Health At Every Size.® That’s the way Ander Wilson (MS ’11) (pictured left on page 35), a registered dietitian and graduate of Lipscomb’s sustainability master’s program and its Dietetic Internship Program, described the approach at Nashville Nutrition Partners, a private practice that began accepting clients in February 2019 and now involves six Lipscomb graduates, clinicians or interns in its operation in booming East Nashville.

“That is our big difference. We focus on health behaviors, not weight loss,” said Wilson, who also taught at Lipscomb for a time. Wilson established the practice along with Jenn Fleischer (MS, ’12) (pictured right on page 35), a registered dietitian nutritionist and graduate of Lipscomb’s Master of Exercise and Nutrition Science program and its DIP program.

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About four year ago, while working in private practice, Wilson saw that the latest research showed that “diets” are not working for most people, she said. Studies show that at the year two mark, patients who went on a diet to lose weight have gained back everything they once lost and more, she said. That cycle is more dangerous, with a higher risk of developing a chronic disease or an eating disorder, than a stable, but higher, weight, she noted.

Wilson began to wonder: “How can I counsel people on positive health outcomes and not focus on losing weight?”

She wondered, but early in her career, Wilson, as well as Fleischer, did not start out as non-diet dietitians, said Fleischer. During their careers, Wilson has been a ghost-writer for weight loss programs, and Fleischer has worked with health programs, which she said is code for “weight loss.”

And they both continued to find that at the 12week mark, most clients plateau, get injured or suffer an ailment that causes them to start to back-track. “It happens to every person I work with,” Fleischer said of her early career.

After a few years of using her food systems degree in sustainability to serve as a nutrition consultant, Wilson began to crave the one-onone private practice atmosphere, but knew that to make it successful, it would have to be a group practice.

Then a friend introduced Wilson to Fleischer, who had been working as a health coach, specializing in diabetes, for various entrepreneurial health and wellness companies. The two found they had a similar mindset and a similar vision for a one-stopshop group nutrition practice that would support employees who were working parents (like themselves) and would practice a clientled curriculum focused on improving health outcomes, not chasing weight loss.

“We are not hierarchical or authoritative in our care approach,” said Wilson. “We are the experts on food and nutrition, but you are the expert of your own body and your own life experience.”

With so much changing and conflicting information available to the average consumer today, many clients arrive confused or basing their health decisions on behaviors that worked for a different person with a different type body, Fleischer said.

“We go back to basics. We make sure they have the right goals for their body, that they remain interested and safe,” she said.

“Everything is individualized to the client.”

“The first thing I do is find out what rules has the client been following, because most of the time they are rules that were effective for their great aunt, not for them personally,” said Wilson. “People are reckless with nutritional interventions because they don’t know the

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side effects, which could be serious eating disorders.”

The Nashville Nutrition Partners office location also reflects the keystones of their viewpoint: furniture designed for patients of any size, a family-focused space with a “zen room” for nursing mothers or parents of small children to have some privacy (with a “nursing mothers at work” door hanger on the doorknob of the

barn-style door), a “community room” that promotes collaboration among the nutrition therapists and a neon pink “enjoy life, eat cake” sign welcoming newcomers to the office.

“We wanted our space to be therapeutic,” said Wilson.

Since opening, Nashville Nutrition Partners has grown to eight practicing dietitians

and one administrative professional. The practice includes Mollie Perry, a Lipscomb master’s of exercise and nutrition science and DIP graduate, and Kaitlyn Kownacki, a Lipscomb DIP graduate, both RDs and nutrition therapists. Another therapist in the practice, Whitney Pinkston, has served as a clinical preceptor for Lipscomb, and current Lipscomb dietetic interns carry out rotations at the practice.

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Nursing

Tears of joy replace tears of pain God brings Lipscomb’s health science alumni and students together to serve the people of Malawi Keonya Milam (pictured above), a senior nursing major, a working LPN and mother of two, doesn’t seem like a likely candidate to devote a month of her life away from family and livelihood to work in Malawi, Africa.

Keonya Milam assisted with surgeries and the delivery of babies in Malawi.

But then Sara Walker (’00), also a wife, mother and a health care provider, didn’t seem a likely candidate to inspire hundreds of people to donate money, time, muscles and their health care skills to citizens of another nation across the sea. Yet with a Divine influence, that is what has happened, with Milam becoming just the latest of hundreds of Lipscomb students to use their patient care skills at Blessings Hospital in Malawi.

Milam wasn’t even sure she could do it herself, at first considering spending two weeks—at most—away from her children and husband.

But Milam’s family was supportive of the endeavor, and God pulled on her heartstrings to commit to stay in Malawi longer, Milam said.

“The Lord needed me there. And honestly, I needed to be there for myself,” said Milam.

She ended up spending a month at the hospital, May 26 to June 23, and delivered a baby that she was asked to name, a tradition in Malawi. She named him King, after the Lord Jesus.

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After an application and interviews, Milam was one of six Lipscomb student nurses and pharmacists chosen for mission work in Malawi in summer 2019. Those students were six of 50 student nurses and pharmacists who have made up COPHS mission teams to serve at Blessings Hospital over the past seven years, all funded through the Sara Walker Foundation.

The foundation, established by members of the Brentwood Hills Church of Christ in Nashville who knew Walker, a Lipscomb alumna and Nashville physical therapist who died of cancer in 2012, has funded the Lipscomb mission teams as well as other medical mission trips and humanitarian efforts at the hospital and adjacent Mtedndere Orphanage.

The foundation funds a nurse practitioner at the hospital and has purchased two mobile clinics, run out of Land Rovers®, allowing Blessings Hospital to reach more patients. The foundation funds all medication, equipment and staff needed to run the mobile units every day of the year, said Jenni Whitefield (’96), a surgical nurse at Centennial Hospital and adjunct clinical instructor in Lipscomb’s School of Nursing as well as the founder and a board member of the Sara Walker Foundation.

The hospital serves a geographic region of about 400 square miles, and 85 percent of the Malawian population do not own even a bicycle, Whitefield said. The mobile units have allowed the hospital to greatly increase the number of patients who can be treated in the early stages of malaria. Malaria patients’ lives can be saved with a simple finger prick and $1 worth of medicine if the disease is caught in time, she said.

“That was a time that really changed my life,” Milam said of her work with the mobile medical units during her work in Malawi. “I was scribing for a clinician, and a new patient came in on the other side of the curtain. I pulled back the curtain and saw a wheelchair. It was a little boy about 9 or 10 years old, and he was in a wheelchair because he had no feet. His brother, who was even younger, had pushed him into the clinic location. He had a huge open wound on his lower extremity.

The sight of a young child taking on the responsibility of an adult touched Milam’s heart as a mother, she said. “That was what changed me. I thought that my life here was hard, but every time I think of that little boy in the chair with no feet, I realize that in my life I’m blessed,” she said.

Milam also worked in the operating room, assisting with suturing injured patients, changing wound dressings, removing JP drains, administering injections and assisting with delivering babies. Many of these experiences are ones often limited for student nurses in America, said Mary Hesselrode, associate executive director for academics at the School of Nursing.

“Students have a unique opportunity to work in an environment that has limited the comforts and supplies they are accustomed to in our American hospitals,” Hesselrode said of the school’s mission opportunities. “Students return to their clinical experiences in America with a new appreciation of all the resources available to them as they care for patients.”

Milam felt empowered when she was tasked to pick out the most critical patients from a long line waiting to be assessed at one of the mobile units. Everyone she pulled out and moved ahead of the line tested positive for malaria, she said. “I’m glad I used my nursing intuition, because I may have saved a life,” she said.

Milam’s experience in Malawi certainly changed the way she approaches her current job and future nursing career. “I realized that I wasn’t giving attention to the patients as much as I should,” she said. “Taking time to slow down and be personable with people is important. I used to be in such a rush to get things done. I learned to pull back and take the time to give them the love and attention they need.”

The friendly, hospitable culture of the nation was another factor that caused Milam to slow down and focus on the patient, Milam said.

“Going to Africa is like going to visit cousins you haven’t seen in a long time. They are so happy to see you there and so sad to see you leave. It was a beautiful experience,” she said.

In May four Lipscomb mission teams funded by the Sara Walker Foundation, the most ever, traveled to Malawi. These included one group from nursing, one from pharmacy, the Lipscomb women’s basketball team and a team from the Raymond B. Jones College of Engineering’s Peugeot Center for Engineering Service in Developing Communities.

The engineering team made life-saving changes at the hospital by installing a 6,000watt solar array, allowing the hospital to have a more consistent, reliable power source, which translates into more effective ICU care and blood transfusions, Whitefield said.

As of 2019, the Sara Walker Foundation has held 10 annual 5K runs, sponsored by Lipscomb and held on the university campus to raise money for health and humanitarian efforts in Malawi, Ghana and Haiti.

“In Malawi they don’t know tears of joy. They only know tears of pain,” said Milam. So the Malawians were surprised to see her crying for joy as she helped deliver the baby boy King. Her emotional outpouring touched the mother so much she asked Milam to name her newborn son.

“If I hadn’t obeyed God’s voice, I would have missed out on an absolute lesson,” said Milam.

“Even if we are doing things we don’t want to do, if we are doing it for the glory of God, He will use it for good.”

“Students’ assessment skills are enhanced because of the language barrier and limited resources. They are forced to slow down and really connect with their patients and form meaningful relationships that impact how they care for patients their entire careers,” Hesselrode said.

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Kinesiology

Never running on empty 38

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Exercise science alumna known for her ultra running wins and positive attitude Samantha Wood (’07) (pictured) has always been running through life.

She came to Lipscomb University from Texas on a running scholarship; she used running as an anchor while practicing physical therapy in combat zones in Afghanistan; and now she’s still running, challenging herself more and more each day with trail runs, ultra runs, obstacle courses and even running with a donkey.

With her bachelor’s degree in exercise science from Lipscomb and her doctorate of physical therapy from U.S. Army-Baylor in San Antonio, Wood has built a career in physical therapy.

But she’s still running, now competing as a biathlon and marathon athlete for the California National Guard.

“My time at Lipscomb was when I first started to see how running could play a role in adult life outside of scholarships and competing,” said Wood, who ran track and cross country for coaches Clay Nicks and Karen Robichaud and made the NCAA Atlantic Sun All Conference Team.

“I saw people older than me who had a passion for running. I saw myself running a marathon one day.

It became such a part of my life, that I thought, ‘Until I come up with something better, this is what I am doing: Breaking a sweat and watching the sunrise.’”

Wood is now a self-employed physical therapist in private practice in Colorado, but as soon as she leaves the office, apparently she takes off running!

Wood ran the Leadville 100-mile trail run in a pair of sandals in 2016. She won third place on the NBC show, “Spartan: Ultimate Team Challenge” with her team, “Commanding Officers.” She is considered one of the top female Spartan racers in the world, she said.

In 2018, she won the Leadwoman Challenge, the fastest total time for five races: a trail marathon, a trail 50-mile run, a 100-mile mountain bike ride,

a 10-k run and a 100-mile trail run, all within the span of two months. In 2019, she placed as the third female in the Leadville 100-mile trail run.

“I started running my freshman year of high school. I didn’t like it that much at first,” said Wood, who grew up in El Campo, Texas, hunting and fishing. She loved nature, so she gave cross country a try, bringing along her Walkman. Her first goal was to jog one mile, no matter how slow she had to go.

By the end of the school year, she competed in the state tournament. “The only thing that kept me doing it was that I didn’t want to be a quitter,” she said. “That set a good precedent in my life.

If I quit everything that is hard, where am I going to be? If you are consistent and you go slow, you start to see what your body is capable of. And then you are hooked.”

Flying by the seat of your pants Upon graduation from Lipscomb, Wood spent some time researching her options for a career.

She was familiar with military life through her stepfather, a 41-year Army veteran, so when she found out that the Army had a physical therapy school, she began to look at a career in the military more closely.

“I didn’t know a whole lot about what it would be like to be an officer, but I knew it would provide many different opportunities than I would get in regular physical therapy school, such as leadership roles,” said Wood.

She found Army-Baylor to be “a completely different vibe,” very focused on soldiering and

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Kinesiology physical therapy, said Wood. The experience was accelerated and very intense, she said.

Wood completed clinical training at Fort Campbell in Clarksville, Tennessee, and at an outpatient clinic in San Antonio.

Upon graduation in August 2011, Wood, now a 1st lieutenant, expected to go to work at a hospital in Colorado Springs, but by September she was notified that instead she would be deployed to Afghanistan. By December she was in-country, where she would practice until May. Wood became the therapist for the 2nd brigade, 4th infantry division, which was made up of nearly 5,000 soldiers. With that many potential patients, she had to learn to prioritize and to travel. She travelled by convoy or helicopter to see patients at various sites, bringing all the needed equipment (such as braces) for particular patients with her, as that appointment could be the only day to see them for a while.

“It’s very unique. You are flying by the seat of your pants. You don’t even have a treatment table. You have to bring it all with you,” she said.

While practicing in Afghanistan, Wood spent much of her time helping patients work through injuries. In fact, in many cases, she was the first health care provider the patient saw after being injured, so she was familiar with acute situations and had experience reading X-rays, relocating joints, splinting unstable fractures and interacting with the orthopedist.

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“You have more autonomy (as a military PT practitioner),” she said. “When I got in-country, within a month I was making decisions about who would be transferred to Germany for more care or who would be sent home. That’s a big decision because that particular person could be strategically critical to a mission.”

And throughout that experience, Wood kept running.

“My base was near Kandahar, and we had a one-mile, rocky loop within the wall that I could run on. I ran that one-mile loop 45 to 50 times a week, because I needed something I could go back to,” Wood said. “Running is a ritual that predictably brings me gratitude. A lot of times you feel alone and scared, and to have something predictable that I could go back to was really important to me.”

Bring it on After deployment, Wood returned to Colorado and Army hospitals until 2015, when she transferred to the Army Reserves and joined a unit in Denver. She became a self-employed physical therapist, which left her time to continue to pursue her military career.

She continued to compete for the Army in marathons, cross country, orienteering and

obstacle course racing, and she also began expanding her distance running, up to 100 miles.

Then she took a step that followed the advice Army colonels gave her when she first entered PT school, “You should follow your passion.

Make sure you’re having fun, and it’s going to work out.” So this past year she followed her passion, transitioning to the California Army National Guard, where she represents the guard as a marathon and biathlon athlete. The move offers her some new opportunities to have a voice in therapeutic treatment, and she plans to attend Master Fitness Trainer School.

“I want to be an expert in how we are training soldiers and come up with plans to do it effectively and safely,” she said.

The fact that Wood doesn’t know how to ski has not stopped her from planning to compete in biathlons for the National Guard, and that is typical of her attitude toward life.

“Having a goal that is just a little bit scary, a little bit beyond what I have done before, makes such a difference in how I structure my day,” she said.

“Our goals are who we become. It’s a growth mindset, and Lipscomb certainly encouraged that growth mindset in me. It has never left me. I do believe I found that at Lipscomb. I’m ready to tackle whatever comes my way! Bring It!”

COPHS Family News College of Pharmacy

Department of Nutrition and Kinesiology Lindsey Benson (’16) married Tyler Cox Dec.

David Adams (’66) of Madison is retired from a career as a physical therapist and now donates funds to build fish ponds in third-world countries.

15, 2018, in Nashville. Lindsey is a pharmacist at Duren Pharmacy in Waynesboro.

April Burton (’99) of Franklin Spencer (’16) and Allison Bridges announce the June 3, 2019, birth of their son Russell Alan Bridges.

Russell weighed 7 lbs. 7 oz. and was 19 inches long. Spencer is a pharmacist at Centennial Medical Center.

and Ian Hooker of Hot Springs, South Dakota, were married Sept. 1, 2019 in Negril, Jamaica.

DonJurea Daniels (’17) of Nashville is a registered dietician with Nanticoke Physician Network.

Genna (’17) and Nick Holder of Murfreesboro announce the May 12, 2019, birth of daughter Ansley Marie.

Jonathan Payne (’15) of Oxford, Mississippi, graduated from Perfusion School at Texas Heart Institute in Houston, Texas, in June 2019.

Chad Huntsman (’15) of Nolensville is part owner of College Park Pharmacy.

Duy Tran (’18) and his wife Anna announce the July 25 birth of their daughter Avery Truc-Linh Tran. Avery weighed in at 6 lbs. 6 oz. The Trans live in Grand Prairie, Texas.

School of Nursing Jodi Haynes (’17) of Lebanon is an emergency department nurse at Saint Thomas West Hospital in Nashville.

Justin and Tiffany Uram James (’10) of Naperville, Illinois, announce the May 15, 2019 birth of son Charlie Jacob.

Mariah Lester (’16) of Kansas City, Missouri, is a registered nurse with The University of Kansas Health System.

Tricia C. Stocker (’16) of Rensselaer, New York, is a registered dietician and certified lactation consultant.

Faculty and Staff Brooke Eidson (’16) and her husband Kevin, assistant professor in the Lipscomb University College of Pharmacy, announce the June 14, 2019, birth of their son Graham Kent Eidson. Graham was 8.1 lbs. and 20 inches long. Brooke is a pharmacist working in Lawrenceburg.

Chad Gentry, associate professor of pharmacy practice, and his wife Brooke announce the birth of their son Ethan Jackson Gentry on July 16, 2019. Ethan weighed 9 lbs. 4 oz. and was 20 inches long. lipscomb.edu/cphs

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