28 May Cedarville School of Pharmacy Producing Leaders
Cedarville University’s School of Pharmacy is officially 10 years old. But despite how young the school is, it is mighty. Not only has it been accredited by the Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education (ACPE) and received an 88.46% match rate for graduates receiving postgraduate year one (PGY1) residencies in 2019, but numerous graduates are already serving in hospital leadership roles in the pharmacy profession.
Dr. Ryley Uber, a 2018 graduate, is currently a clinical pharmacogenomics fellow at the University of Pittsburgh School of Pharmacy. He studies pharmacogenomics — how a patient’s genetics influence his or her response to medications — through laboratory work and research as well as clinical research. He has collaborated on research with multiple organizations, including the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
Uber will finish his fellowship this summer and join the Geisinger Health System in Danville, Pennsylvania, as the pharmacogenomics program director and assistant professor in the associated School of Medicine in July. In this new position, he also will begin to test the impacts of COVID-19.
“I plan on leading and conducting novel COVID-19 research to better understand how this disease may be impacted by medications when considering genetics,” explained Uber. “In the near future, I hope to apply my artificial intelligence development skills to discover how human genetics play a role in medication response in this new population.”
Dr. Danielle Baker, a 2018 graduate, currently serves at Wake Forest Baptist Health in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. In June, she will permanently join the team as she transitions to the pharmacy manager of ambulatory services.
Baker completed her two-year residency in health-system pharmacy administration and leadership at Wake Forest Baptist Health. During this time, she also earned a master’s degree in pharmaceutical sciences from the University of North Carolina Eshelman School of Pharmacy and became credentialed as a board-certified pharmacotherapy specialist in the fall of 2019.
Dr. Jordan Long, a 2017 graduate, is currently the pharmacy operations manager at Cleveland Clinic Main Campus in the inpatient pharmacy where he oversees more than 40 employees. He is also a current board member for the Ohio Society of Health-System Pharmacists (OSHP).
Before this Long had a two-year residency as a health-system pharmacy administration resident at the Cleveland Clinic Main Campus. During this time, he also earned his master’s in health-system pharmacy administration from Northeast Ohio Medical University in Rootstown, Ohio.
“When I think about my influence on the profession, I can say that it is very little — the profession has had a lot of influential people leave their legacy for the rest of us to build on. However, my goal is to continue to make decisions to help make Cleveland Clinic Pharmacy the best it can be along with my fellow leaders, and hopefully, those decisions can eventually have an impact on the profession as a whole,” said Long.
While at Cleveland Clinic, Long coordinated the first international pharmacy intravenous compounding robotics summit, improved their practice model during third shift hours and advanced their pharmacy internship program.
Dr. Kasandra Chambers, a 2016 graduate, is currently the associate director of pharmacy at Kentucky Children’s Hospital in Lexington, Kentucky.
Before that, she completed a health-system pharmacy administration residency at Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus, Ohio, one of two pediatric institutions in the country that offer this type of training. She completed her master’s degree in health-system pharmacy administration at The Ohio State University and managed the pharmacy in the children’s hospital at Michigan Medicine in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
When starting her career in pharmacy at Cedarville, she would have never guessed she would be serving in pharmacy leadership.
“I think if you asked my pharmacy professors to be completely honest, most of them would be shocked that I ended up where I am today,” said Chambers. “Despite never being a top student, my professors never gave up on me, and I was always encouraged to ‘go for it.’ Without that support system and all the lessons that taught me to be resilient, I really wouldn’t be where I am today. Sometimes God uses the least likely person to do some incredible things.”
When Chambers joined the American Pharmacist Association Academy of Student Pharmacists (APhA-ASP), she found something within pharmacy that combined her passions and interests. She was the president of Cedarville’s local student chapter and during her second year of pharmacy school, Chambers ran for an APhA-ASP regional officer position and won.
“My role meant that Cedarville University would host the APhA-ASP Midyear Regional Meeting for hundreds of pharmacy students,” said Chambers “It was an incredible experience raising several thousands of dollars to pull off this event and quite impressive for such a small school that hadn’t even been accredited or graduated their first class yet!”
Chambers credits this role for helping her develop into a pharmacy leader.