Pharmacy program wins national community engagement award
Last week, I had the pleasure of meeting with a small group of Virginia Commonwealth University School of Pharmacy faculty colleagues who are involved in a special community engagement project.
Their project is now known to the nation.
Last spring, pharmacy faculty members Donald Brophy, Tish Moczygemba, Kelechi Ogbonna, Brigitte Sicat and Sallie Mayer won the Outreach Scholarship W.K. Kellogg Foundation Engagement Award in recognition of their Pharmacist Collaborative Care and Outreach in the Community program. As a result, they became finalists for one of the most prestigious national community engagement award competitions, the C. Peter Magrath University Community Engagement Award.
I am extremely proud to announce that this team, representing VCU, won the Magrath Award earlier this week, earning a $20,000 prize.
They embody VCU’s institutionwide commitment to being a national model for community engagement. Receiving the Magrath Award from the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities, which represents 237 public research universities around the nation, helps continue to elevate our profile among our peers.
Since 2001, more than 500 students, 14 faculty members and 35 residents have worked with Richmond-area organizations to promote safe and effective medication use via more than 20,000 patient encounters as part of the PCOC.
PCOC initiatives focus on underserved populations — those who are uninsured, elderly, homeless or living in rural areas. While the scope of PCOC advances all four themes of VCU’s strategic plan – student success, research, health and community engagement — the program also gives patients hope. All those involved have truly made an impact in the community where they teach, practice and live.
I thank them, and congratulate them on this prestigious award.
You can learn more about PCOC’s work by watching this video.
Pictured: (left to right) John Wiencek, Ph.D., interim provost and vice president for academic affairs; Kevin Allison, Ph.D., senior assistant to the president; Kathleen Shaw, vice provost for planning and decision support; Catherine Howard, Ph.D., vice provost for community engagement; Ivelina Metcheva, Ph.D., executive director, VCU Innovation Gateway
Categories Uncategorized