Mayer is School of Pharmacy’s first VCU ASPiRE Faculty Fellow
VCU School of Pharmacy assistant professor Sallie Mayer has been named a 2015-16 VCU ASPiRE Faculty Fellow. Academic Scholars Program in Real Environments Faculty Fellows are selected to share their community engagement experiences with ASPiRE students and staff.
“Your accomplishments in innovative community-engaged teaching research and service have been truly impressive,” wrote Lynn Pelco, VCU associate vice provost for community engagement and acting director of ASPiRE.
In her faculty fellow role, Mayer will work with pre-health professions and graduate students on diabetes education and health coaching. She plans also to engage pharmacy students and residents in her endeavors.
Pelco noted that ASPiRE fellows play a key role implementing the university’s Quest for Distinction strategic plan. “The community engagement aspect of Quest is key,” said Mayer. “I feel lucky VCU has supported me … and it’s good that the School of Pharmacy can have a clear presence in this. The students learn and gain so much by working directly with patients in the community clinics.”
Since joining the SOP faculty in 2006, Mayer has been involved in community engagement on a number of levels. In fact, she is one of 17 faculty members directly involved in developing and sustaining the school’s Pharmacists Collaborative Care and Outreach in the Community program, which recently won both the C. Peter Magrath University Community Engagement Award and the Lawrence C. Weaver Transformative Community Service Award.
Mayer’s primary community partnership is with CrossOver Healthcare Ministry, which provides a variety of services for the uninsured and underserved.
In 2011, Project IMPACT: Diabetes named Mayer a three-year Community Champion for CrossOver in conjunction with Richmond’s Fan Free Clinic and the Goochland Free Clinic. The grant, funded by the American Pharmacists Association Foundation, allowed CrossOver to establish an interprofessional core diabetes team, consisting of a physician or nurse practitioner, pharmacist and medical assistant, as well as an expanded team to help patients focus on areas such as nutrition, ophthalmology, podiatry and counseling.
CrossOver is the area’s only free clinic housing a licensed pharmacy, and Mayer serves as the School of Pharmacy’s primary site preceptor.
She also is program director for the VCU-CrossOver Ambulatory Care Residency Program, created as a result of the need for more services not only by diabetes patients but patients with other chronic conditions. The residency was partially funded during its first two years by a 2009-10 VCU Community Engagement Grant Mayer received for “Development of a Chronic Care Model in an Underserved Population.”
In 2010, Mayer and several SOP faculty colleagues won the VCU Community Engagement Council’s top award, the Currents of Change Award. The school’s collaborative pharmacy program also earned it a spot on the 2009 President’s Higher Education Community Service Honor Roll for Exemplary Community Service Projects.
Mayer was again among the Currents of Change Award winners in 2012 for her work as co-director of Una Vida Sana!, an interprofessional Hispanic outreach program also based at CrossOver Healthcare Ministry.
VCU ASPiRE is a living-learning program promoting community engagement through academic coursework and co-curricular experiences. The mission of VCU ASPiRE is to enrich and deepen undergraduate students’ understanding of their capacity to create positive change in communities and address critical societal needs through long-term sustainable partnerships. ASPiRE is dedicated to making an impact in accessible and affordable housing, community building, education and work force development, environmental stability and health and wellness.
Categories Faculty news, Preceptors, Student news