By Katie Gerhards

Mentorship plays an important role in professional development for young pharmacists, as does the ability to connect with practitioners across the country to advance the future of pharmacy education. The American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy (AACP) Walmart Scholarship shines a light on both of those necessities, while recognizing pharmacy graduate students, residents, fellows and their faculty mentors for their commitment to academic pharmacy.

For 2018, the AACP recognized three recipients and their faculty mentors from the University of Wisconsin–Madison School of Pharmacy, including two alumni and three faculty members in the Pharmacy Practice Division for their mentor/mentee relationships. Katie Kuecker (PharmD ’17), with faculty mentor Associate Professor Casey Gallimore, and Kathryn Zaborowski (PharmD ’17), with faculty associate Ed Portillo, are two of 85 awardees nationwide to be named Walmart Scholars.

Caroline Quinn, a PGY1 resident at UW Health Clinics, was also named a 2018 Walmart Scholar, with faculty mentor UW–Madison School of Pharmacy Associate Professor Susie Barnett. With Barnett, Quinn completed a concentrated teaching rotation in School’s Pharmacotherapy Skills Lab and is currently researching the impact of the lab on student confidence.

“Being recognized as a Walmart Scholar will enable me to see what other advancements and innovations in pharmacy education are happening around the country so that I can incorporate that into my current and future practice as an educator and preceptor,” says Kuecker.

Kuecker, who is currently a PGY1 ambulatory care pharmacy resident at the William S. Middleton Memorial Veterans Hospital, has had Gallimore as a mentor since she was a third-year PharmD student at the UW–Madison School of Pharmacy, when she elected to take one of Gallimore’s courses in academic teaching. As a resident, she also serves as a clinical instructor in the School’s Pharmacotherapy Lab sequences, which Gallimore coordinates.

“She has encouraged me to develop my personal teaching style and think critically about areas for improvement in terms of serving as a preceptor and providing feedback,” says Kuecker.

“The best part of my job at the University of Wisconsin–Madison School of Pharmacy is mentoring current pharmacy students and recent graduates. Having this opportunity to formally mentor Dr. Zaborowski as an emerging leader in pharmacy education is an invaluable experience,” says Portillo. “I love the idea that we are training the best and brightest future educators right here at the University of Wisconsin–Madison.”

The 2018 Walmart Scholars receive a $1,000 scholarship to attend the AACP Annual Meeting and the AACP Teachers Seminar, with their faculty mentor, in July 2018. The program aims to nourish young pharmacists’ interest in becoming academic faculty, who will ensure that future of pharmacy is in good hands.

Read about the UW–Madison School of Pharmacy’s previous 2017 Walmart Scholars.