April 17, 2012
Three student-faculty teams from the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy have been named Walmart Scholars by the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy, marking the sixth consecutive year that the School has had at least one recipient for the award.
The School’s 2012 winners:
- Kara Parsons and her faculty mentor, clinical assistant professor Lisa Dinkins, PharmD
- Allison Riendeau, PharmD, and her faculty mentor, clinical assistant professorJena Ivey Burkhart, PharmD
- Jennifer Waitzman, PharmD, and her faculty mentor, clinical assistant professor Kelly Scolaro, PharmD
The Walmart Scholars Program aims to strengthen the award recipients’ skills and commitment to a career in academic pharmacy through their participation at the AACP Annual Meeting. Each student-faculty pair receives a $1,000 scholarship to help cover registration and travel costs for the meeting, which will be held this year in Kissimmee, Florida, on July 14–18.
Parsons, a third-year PharmD student, served as a teaching assistant in the School’s Pharmaceutical Care Lab during her PY3 year. She has served as president of her class and vice president of the UNC Graduate and Professional Student Federation. She has also been a member of the School’s Curriculum Committee and Academic Calendar Committee, where she provides feedback to faculty regarding course development, review, and redesign. In addition, Parsons has held leadership positions in the School’s chapter of Phi Delta Chi.
Riendeau, a graduate of the School’s PharmD program, is a PGY2 resident in geriatrics at UNC Hospitals and Clinics. At her residency, she works as part of a geriatric interdisciplinary team where she adjusts complex medication regimens, provides education to patients and caregivers, and uses other health-care professionals on the team to provide comprehensive patient care. She has also presented and lectured to pharmacy students and geriatric medicine fellows. She is currently codirecting the Geriatric Pharmacy elective with Ivey Burkhart, her residency director, and helping to precept PY4 students on rotation at her clinical site.
Waitzman, an alumna of the School’s PGY1 Community Pharmacy Residency Program, is the first academic fellow in the Pharmaceutical Care Lab. She has coordinated PCL courses, taught electives, advised student groups, served on the School’s curriculum committee, conducted research, reviewed articles for pharmacy journals, and maintained a clinical practice at UNC Hospitals and Kerr Drug. Her fellowship research project is an evaluation of the top two hundred drug-information exercises used in the PCL to identify the strengths of the current system, as well as areas for improvement. Waitzman has also been an active member of the American Pharmacists Association and the North Carolina Pharmacists Association.
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