PSW CEO discusses her career arc and how the association and pharmacy profession are responding to the global pandemic

By Katie Gerhards

“I’ve taken the time to get to know people, and those relationships have helped create opportunities for the future,” says Sarah Sorum (PharmD ’05), CEO and executive vice president of the Pharmacy Society of Wisconsin (PSW).

The connections and relationships she has forged across the profession are what first landed her a role at PSW in 2007.

Matt Osterhaus, the owner of the Osterhaus Pharmacy in Maquoketa, Iowa and his resident, Amy (Belger) Kulig (PharmD ’03), came to speak in one of Sorum’s courses when she was a PharmD student at the University of Wisconsin–Madison School of Pharmacy.

“I was so taken in by the progressive practice they described, and it was like a light bulb went off — that’s something that I knew I wanted to do,” she says. Through the mentorship of School of Pharmacy faculty, she interviewed for the residency, and got it, setting in motion her path to PSW.

During the residency, she met Chris Decker — a 2018 Citation of Merit winner and CEO of PSW for nearly 30 years — who grew up in Maquoketa. When she’d completed her residency and a year of practice, she gave Decker a call.

“I was looking for a progressive practice opportunity to develop programs and change practice,” she says. “It turned out PSW had an opening on their staff for a director of professional and educational services.”

“I didn’t set out to work for a pharmacy association, but it certainly fits with my interests, which is helping implement programs, connect people, and help patients on a broader scale.”
—Sarah Sorum

Thirteen years later, following Decker’s 2019 passing and after a nationwide search, Sorum became PSW’s first-ever female CEO.

“I didn’t set out to work for a pharmacy association, but it certainly fits with my interests, which is helping implement programs, connect people, and help patients on a broader scale,” says Sorum. “I’ve been able to connect with a lot of wonderful people over the course of my time here and I’m absolutely thrilled to be in the CEO role now.”

Learn in Sorum’s own words how she grew to lead Wisconsin’s pharmacy association and how she’s navigating the organization through a global pandemic during her first year as CEO.

Was there a key opportunity for you in your first role at PSW?

I jumped into my job at PSW with both feet. I started about a month before the 2007 PSW Annual Meeting, which I was responsible for. I think if I had known what a big deal that was, I would have been much more scared than I was. It was a huge team effort, but it was a success.

I remember it was held in La Crosse and Sue Sutter (BS ‘78) was serenaded by Elvis — so that was my first annual meeting, and I loved it from the outset.

I also started at PSW about three weeks before Kari Trapskin (PharmD ’00), who manages the Wisconsin Pharmacy Quality Collaborative (WPQC), went on maternity leave. The WPQC was just getting off the ground and it was at a crucial juncture, so I filled in for her while she was out, while also working on educational programming for PSW.

Those were both big opportunities for me to get my footing and immerse myself in the inner workings of Wisconsin pharmacy.

Was there a pivotal moment or choice that led you to where you are today?

I think everybody gets to a point when they’ve been at a job for a while and feel like they’ve learned what they can from the role or contributed what they can. At that point, you can move on to something else or you can work to keep it fresh, adapt, change, and still be the best person for the role.

Instead of leaving PSW after my first few years, I had the support to expand my role and really lean into it. What then resulted was some grant-related work and bringing on additional staff, which enabled me to build my skills as a manager and as an association manager.

Is there a mentor or group of mentors who have been particularly influential?

Currently, I’d say the mentorship of other executives of pharmacy associations across the country is crucial. There are differences among each of the states, but we all deal with common issues.

I’m also getting to know some of the other state association executives, like the heads of the associations for bankers, broadcasters, counties, and other healthcare providers. Even though our members are all different, some of the issues we deal with are the same, so connecting outside of the profession has been important too.

Many of my mentors over the years have helped me understand that it’s important to prioritize different things at certain points in your career as you’re growing in different ways. Right now, I’m trying to grow in being a mentee and absorbing all that I can from the people I work with.

As PSW CEO, what is your vision for the future of the organization?

Since I’ve taken on the CEO role at PSW, I’ve been trying to honor the great things that are already in action and then also build upon that strong foundation to bring the organization into a new era, a post-COVID era.

In the next five to 10 years, I’d like to evolve into an organization that has a fabric of diversity, equity and inclusion within it. I’m the first woman CEO that PSW has ever had, and that’s important to me. We’re also at a critical time for pharmacists to address disparities in health care. Our patients are diverse, our profession is diverse, and we should be diverse in our organization to represent that and best serve our patients.

And lastly, I want to explore how we can leverage the amazing people we have in the state — the amazing pharmacists, pharmacy technicians, and student pharmacists — to help transform the care we provide patients, regardless of the practice setting.

“Our patients are diverse, our profession is diverse, and we should be diverse in our organization to represent that and best serve our patients.”
—Sarah Sorum

What do you see in the future of pharmacy?

What COVID has taught us is that pharmacists must play a role in public health, and I think that’s going to be front and center going forward.

Sometimes people think of public health as specifically an outpatient issue, but we’ve seen from COVID that it’s critical in long-term care facilities and hospitals, whether it be infection control, antimicrobial stewardship, or how products are rationed. We need pharmacists to be at that table, contributing to that conversation.

How has COVID impacted your perspective as CEO?

It’s been a game changer — no doubt about it — for everybody. I have never felt like there’s been more opportunity than there is now, and I think that’s the flip side of how to look at this situation.

PSW, as an organization, has had to be thoughtful and strategic while also moving forward with opportunities as they present themselves. Let’s use this situation as a reason to do something that we’ve been thinking about doing for a while and strategically use this crisis as a way to advance efforts to improve patient care.

How has PSW responded to the call to action against COVID-19?

Through the COVID-19 pandemic, PSW has been a venue for pulling people together. We started convening weekly calls between pharmacists and leaders of health-systems around the state, as well as the pharmacists who are responsible for the field hospital in Milwaukee, to discuss what the transition of care to that facility needs to look like.

We’ve also offered a number of town halls, bringing health-system leaders together to talk about surge preparation, shortages of ventilator medications, and staffing issues and have been curating crucial, timely information on our website and social media.

Lastly, we’ve been critical to working on policy. We’ve worked with pharmacy leaders across the state to identify where there needs to be regulatory or statutory variances to make practice possible in a pandemic.

For example, we’ve helped navigate how to get medication services set up at the field hospital, which is not a licensed pharmacy, and that presents some challenges, such as how to have medications delivered there. We had to get a variance to allow medications to be delivered there.

“My current tagline is every patient needs a pharmacist and every pharmacist needs an advocate — and that’s the role I like to serve in.”
—Sarah Sorum

What piece(s) of advice were you given that you continue to draw on?

My current tagline is every patient needs a pharmacist and every pharmacist needs an advocate — and that’s the role I like to serve in. If it’s right for the patient, it’s right for the profession, and the advocate is there to make it happen.

Also, as I manage a team and work with volunteers, I’ve learned that the most powerful question you can ask is, ‘What do you think?’ You don’t have to have all the answers, but through asking others what they think, you can synthesize a decision.

What is your advice, leader to future leader?

We put so much emphasis on professional success, and that’s really important. But there are also other major parts to who we are as people, and it’s important to recognize success and well-being in our whole lives. I always tell people to never apologize for nurturing something outside of your profession — nurturing your relationships with family or friends or a hobby or something that brings you wellness and joy. Be grateful for it, not apologetic about it.

Looking back at your career path, is there anything you would change?

I don’t think there is much I would change; I believe in learning from every challenge and leaning on a team to troubleshoot and find a path forward.