Stefanie Ferreri, PharmD, CDE, may be a professor, but she’s a community pharmacist at heart.

“My passion definitely lies in community pharmacy,” Ferreri says. “Community pharmacy patients are ambulatory, and as pharmacists we can help prevent them from going to the hospital. That’s where I think we can have the biggest impact.”

Stefanie Ferreri, PharmD, CDE Clinical Assistant Professor Director, Community Pharmacy Residency Program Division of Pharmacy Practice and Experiential Education Research Interests Evaluating pharmaceutical care in the community pharmacy setting

A clinical assistant professor in the Division of Pharmacy Practice and Experiential Education, Ferreri’s passion for community pharmacy shines through in almost everything she does.

In the classroom, Ferreri teaches Entrepreneurial Pharmacy Practice, a course targeted to students interested in community pharmacy. The course provides an overview of the management, marketing, and financial skills needed to own and operate an independent pharmacy.

Ferreri is also director of the Community Pharmacy Residency Program. Each year she guides four residents as they work in community pharmacy sites throughout the state. Ferreri says she enjoys seeing the residents grow into their roles as community pharmacists and enjoys being part of their maturation process.

She is chair of the School’s Community Pharmacy Advisory Committee, which identifies community pharmacies for collaborations and reviews study ideas and research proposals to implement in community pharmacy settings. Over the last year she also worked with Joan Settlemyer, director of pharmacotherapy at the Charlotte Area Health Education Center, to develop a community pharmacy focus for the Clinical Scholars Program that will allow students in their last year of rotations to focus on the skills needed to operate a community pharmacy. The program currently includes hospitals and ambulatory care assignments.

Ferreri is a co-advisor of the Community Pharmacy Student Interest Group, the school’s chapter of the National Community Pharmacist’s Association, and the Student National Pharmaceutical Association. She is also a co-adviser of the Student Health Action Coalition, a group that brings together students from all of the health affairs schools at UNC to conduct clinics in underserved areas where patients are educated about issues such as blood pressure, diabetes, and medication adherence.

At the state level, Ferreri serves on the board of directors of North Carolina Association of Pharmacy and is a member of the organization’s Educational Council and Residency Committee. Nationally, she is an officer in the American Pharmaceutical Association and is a member of the Clinical Practice Affairs Committee of the American College of Clinical Pharmacy.

Even with her heavy involvement at the university, state, and national levels, Ferreri still devotes one day a week to patients at a practice site at Kerr Drug Health Care Center in Chapel Hill that focuses on issues such as diabetes, hypertension, osteoporosis, immunizations, and medication therapy management.

“I went into pharmacy for patients,” Ferreri says. “I think that sometimes we get put in academic walls and forget there are real people out there who need our help.”