Pharm.D./Ph.D. student Crystal Leibrand is Express Scripts Scholar
The American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy has named VCU School of Pharmacy Pharm.D./Ph.D. student Crystal Leibrand an Express Scripts Scholar. She is one of four dual-degree pharmacy students nationwide to receive a $10,000 scholarship from the Express Scripts Foundation.
After earning her bachelor’s degree in chemistry at Randolph-Macon College, Leibrand enrolled in VCU’s Pharm.D./Ph.D. program in 2012. Her advisor in the Department of Pharmacotherapy and Outcomes Science is assistant professor MaryPeace McRae.
Leibrand chose the dual-degree program so she could serve patients through direct care as well as through research. Her primary focuses are HIV/AIDS, drugs of abuse and the blood-brain barrier.
She is 2015-16 community service chairwoman for the Zeta chapter of Sigma Delta Epsilon-Graduate Women in Science and serves as secretary-treasurer for the Department of Pharmacotherapy and Outcomes Science Graduate Student Association. Last spring, she was inducted into the Beta Nu chapter of Phi Lambda Sigma national pharmacy leadership society. In 2014, she received a VCU School of Pharmacy Summer Research Fellowship to conduct research on the effects of HIV and methamphetamine on the blood-brain barrier and drug transport.
Leibrand also is a member and/or officer of the Alpha Delta chapter of Phi Delta Chi, the Industry Pharmacists Organization, the American Pharmacists Association-Academy of Student Pharmacists and the School of Pharmacy’s class of 2016.
Express Scripts Scholars are chosen based on their career statements and goals, evidence of professional involvement and their resumes. The other 2015 recipients are a Pharm.D./Ph.D. student at Auburn University and Pharm.D./M.S. students at the University of Maryland and the University of Minnesota, respectively.
Leibrand is the second VCU School of Pharmacy student in two years to win the scholarship. Tien Truong was named a recipient in 2014.
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