News @ VCU School of Pharmacy

More SOP kudos are in order

It’s nice when School of Pharmacy faculty, staff, students and alumni are so often recognized that it’s hard to keep up. That said, here are some accomplishments we’ve not yet announced:

• Jeff Delafuente, professor and associate dean for professional education, has been elected to a second term (November 2009-November 2011) on the American Society of Consultant Pharmacists board of directors. He also has been elected secretary of the Commonwealth Council on Aging for the 2009-10 program year.
• Mary Jayne Kennedy, assistant professor of pharmacy, made an oral presentation, “Identification of Candidate Biomarkers and a Potentially Novel Mechanism of Aminoglycoside-Induced Renal Injury in Children via Proteomic Profiling,” at the 12^th Congress of the European Society for Developmental, Perinatal and Pediatric Pharmacology, which took place June 17-20 in Chamoix, France. She also has received a National Institute of Child Health and Human Development grant of $48,321 for a study titled, “Urinary Proteomics in Aminoglycoside-Treated Newborns.”
• Sallie D. Mayer (principal investigator), assistant professor; Kai “Annie” Cheang, associate professor; and Tish Moczygemba, assistant professor, were awarded a 2009-10 VCU Council for Community Engagement Grant for a research study, “Development and Implementation of a Chronic Care Model in a Medically Underserved Population.” The grant, in collaboration with community partner CrossOver Ministry’s free clinic, was recognized in May at a “Celebrate! VCU With the Community” event. Also, Mayer’s grant from the previous year – which was in collaboration with the Center for High Blood Pressure -- was highlighted in poster format. Evan Sisson and Brigitte Sicat, assistant professors of pharmacy, also were part of the 2008-09 project, “Education and Care of Patients with Hypertension and Diabetes in a Free Clinic: Collaboration between VCU School of Pharmacy and Richmond Area High Blood Pressure Center.”
• Tish Moczygemba also has been named the 2009 recipient of the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists Research and Education Foundation’s Junior Investigator Research Grant. The Junior Investigator Research Grant Program supports practice-based research in medication use conducted by pharmacist new-investigators. Moczygemba will use the grant to conduct a study called “The Impact of Pharmacist-Provision of a Telephone MTM Program to Medicare Part D Beneficiaries: A 12-Month Follow-Up,” with guidance from a senior investigator, Jamie C. Barner, associate professor of pharmacy administration at University of Texas at Austin. In addition, Moczygemba was selected to participate in the 2009 NIH Summer Institute on Community-Based Participatory Research, hosted by the NIH Office of Behavioral and Social Sciences Research Aug. 2-7 in New Orleans.
• Amy Pakyz, assistant professor of pharmacy, has been named chairwoman of the Antimicrobial Stewardship Task Force for the Society of Infectious Diseases Pharmacists.

Submitted By:
Cynthia McMullen
8/6/2009