January 29, 2014
Julie Lauffenburger, PharmD, a graduate student in the Division of Pharmaceutical Outcomes and Policy, is the 2013 recipient of the Kathryne A. Brewington Graduate Student Research Award.
The award recognizes the most outstanding student in the School’s PhD in pharmaceutical sciences program each year. The winner receives a plaque and a $1,500 grant that can be used to fund research, travel to another institution to develop new research skills, or attend a national scientific meeting where the student will present his or her dissertation work.
Lauffenburger, who earned her PharmD at the University of Pittsburgh in 2010, is in her fourth year in the School’s PhD program with Assistant Professor Gang Fang, PhD, as her adviser. Her research focuses on pharmacoepidemiology and health-services research, particularly on issues in acute myocardial infarction and atrial fibrillation.
The Brewington grant will support Lauffenburger’s dissertation work, which examines the use of oral anticoagulants for ischemic stroke prevention in patients with atrial fibrillation. She is using secondary databases to study the factors associated with selection, comparative effectiveness, and clinical effects of switching therapies in a commercially insured population.
The Brewington award honors the memory of Kathryne Brewington, who died while pursuing her PhD at the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy. The award is supported by the Kathryne Brewington Memorial Fund established by her father, Thomas Brewington, and held at the Pharmacy Foundation of North Carolina.
Brewington was a graduate of Dudley High School in Greensboro, NC, and earned a scholarship to study chemistry and chemical engineering at North Carolina State University. After working for Allied Signal in Hopewell, VA, she began her doctoral studies at UNC supported by a Patricia Roberts Harris Fellowship. She was a member of the Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority and an active volunteer with the Sonja H. Stone Black Cultural Center’s Communiversity program.
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