Patterson named 2016 Express Scripts Scholar
Julie Patterson, a Pharm.D./Ph.D. student at VCU School of Pharmacy, has been selected as a 2016 Express Scripts Scholar by the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy.
Patterson is one of four dual-degree students nationwide to receive the $10,000 scholarship funded by the Express Scripts Foundation. Express Scripts Scholars are chosen based on their career statements and goals, evidence of professional involvement and their resumes.
After earning her bachelor of science degree in interdisciplinary studies/cultural epidemiology at the University of Richmond, Patterson enrolled as a Pharm.D. student at VCU in 2011.
In 2012, following completion of a School of Pharmacy Summer Research Fellowship, she enrolled in the combined Pharm.D./Ph.D. program in pharmacoeconomics and health outcomes. Her goal in doing so was to gain the skills and perspectives necessary to merge her clinical understanding of patient care with her interests in data analysis, economics and marketing.
As a current graduate student working with adviser David Holdford, she looks forward to using her interdisciplinary experiences to conduct population-based research that can help improve the quality and cost-effectiveness of drug therapy. She has had five peer-reviewed publications in the areas of pharmacoeconomics, pharmacoepidemiology and clinical pharmacy.
Earlier this year – during the International Society for Pharmacoeconomics and Outcomes Research 21st International Meeting — Patterson received a PhRMA (Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers) Foundation predoctoral fellowship award in the category of health outcomes. Last year, she was awarded the Rho Chi-AFPE First Year Graduate Fellowship by the American Pharmacists Association.
Activities during Patterson’s tenure at the School of Pharmacy have included being a member of the 2015 and 2016 award-winning VCU-ISPOR Student Research Competition team, a member of Rho Chi and the Virginia Academy of Student Pharmacists, and editor of the student newsletter, The Capsule.
She also is a professional-level triathlete who last year combined her knowledge of medications and athletics to publish an article, “Are Antidepressants Performance-Enhancing Drugs?”, on the TRS Triathlon site. She is the women’s 10K record holder at University of Richmond and in 2012 was on the three-woman team that won Team USA its first-ever women’s gold medal at the FISU World University Triathlon Championships in Taiwan.
Joining Patterson as 2016 Express Scripts Scholars are a Pharm.D./Ph.D. student at the Ernest Mario School of Pharmacy at Rutgers University and Pharm.D./M.S. candidates at the McWhorter School of Pharmacy at Samford University and the University of Iowa College of Pharmacy.
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