Laurel Legenza, alumna of UW-Madison School of Pharmacy and recent graduate with a MS in Health-System Pharmacy Administration degree from the University of Utah, will be the first fellow for the Comparative Health Systems Global Pharmacy Fellowship. The unique, first of its kind fellowship is a collaboration between the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Pharmacy and University of the Western Cape (UWC), Cape Town, South Africa.

The novel program advances the leadership of pharmacists, as well as the profession’s contributions, to global health. Legenza and her mentors at both universities, will work on quality improvement (QI) projects with overlapping themes in both countries, allowing for the comparative systems aspect. Mentors at UW-Madison School of Pharmacy include Warren Rose and Susanne Barnett, associate professors (CHS), in the Pharmacy Practice Division; UWC mentors include Prof. Angeni Bheekie and Dr. Renier Coetzee.

Quality Improvement (QI) projects related to infectious disease including a focus on issues related to rational medication use, access to essential medications, and adherence to therapies will be the scope of work for the first two-year cycle, beginning July 1, 2015.

Legenza received an MS in Health-System Pharmacy Administration from the University of Utah in May 2015. Prior to that she received a PharmD from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2013. She completed an undergraduate BS degree in Biology and Spanish at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point. As a student at the University of Wisconsin–Madison School of Pharmacy, Legenza organized the first Interprofessional Health Leadership Development Summit and was the first student from the University of Wisconsin to complete an advanced pharmacy practice rotation in Spain.

For her graduate student project she conducted a quality improvement study in perceived mental workload within University of Utah Health-System retail pharmacies. “I look forward to the opportunity to collaboratively implement quality improvement projects in the United States and South Africa. I am passionate about the sharing of knowledge, skills, and resources across borders in order to maximize the health of populations domestically and abroad,” said Legenza.