It was a successful day on Capitol Hill as 191 SLI attendees advocated on behalf of the pharmacy profession.
By Matthew Broadwater
The APhA–ASP Summer Leadership Institute (SLI) is a unique, one-of-a-kind experience. This past July, a total of 240 APhA–ASP Chapter leaders across all eight regions came together to further nurture their professional development and leadership skills with the hopes they will take back what they learned to make a true difference in their chapters and their communities.
On the Hill, then the roof
SLI weekend started off on a humid, Washington, DC, Friday morning, as 191 student pharmacists descended on Capitol Hill to advocate on behalf of the pharmacy profession. These student pharmacists went on to conduct more than 130 meetings with their congressional legislators and aides on the importance of having pharmacists on the health care team. Student pharmacists discussed how DIR fees are affecting pharmacy practice and clinical services, hurting the viability of community pharmacies, and increasing patient medication costs, and asked their legislators to support bill H.R. 1034/S. 640 to make DIR fees more transparent.
Back at the conference hotel following the Hill visits, APhA–ASP National President Kelli Jo Welter kicked off the Friday afternoon schedule with an interview of Board of Pharmacy Specialties Executive Director Bill Ellis. Ellis shared some tips based on his own leadership experiences and many life lessons. Following this session, attendees got to know each other by discussing their favorite children’s book. It was a nice opportunity to break the ice and, in total, 201 books were donated to Dr. Bear’s Closet and will be distributed to pediatric patients at the Children’s National Hospital. The husband and wife team of Keith Marciniak, BSPharm, and Macary Marciniak, PharmD, rounded out the programming for the day with a Media Training Workshop that focused on how to be effective communicators when using various communication platforms. Friday concluded with dinner on the APhA roof and a fantastic tour of the National Mall.
Ideas to take home
Saturday and Sunday mornings both started with the APhA and APhA–ASP Opportunity Roundtables in which students were able to visit five tables each day on the topics of the APhA Foundation, the APhA Academies (APhA–APPM and APhA–APRS), APhA Special Interest Groups, APhA publications, rotation opportunities (APPEs) with APhA, and much more.
On Saturday, past APhA–ASP National President and incoming APhA Board of Trustees Member Alex Varkey, PharmD, provided advice ranging from involvement, career and life lessons, and what APhA–ASP means to him. APhA’s Carly Harsha, PharmD, then provided updates on the Women’s Health Campaign and engaged the audience in how they can plan events for the fall.
Brian Donahue, PharmD, focused the remainder of the programming on being effective chapter leaders, how to create a fun and inviting culture of APhA–ASP at their schools, and how to get out of a “leader think” mindset. He provided leaders with brainstorming opportunities to be creative in designing unique events their chapters could host.
New support system
Sunday morning there was a final break-out session for chapter development, followed by a session to help chapter leaders navigate around essential resources. To wrap up the weekend, Kelli Jo inspired attendees by reminding them of her “Fearlessly Authentic” theme.
By the end of the weekend, the leaders were well-equipped to tackle their chapter issues with creative, concrete solutions. They had also connected with students from other chapters who faced similar challenges and created a support system they could reach out to further advance their chapters together.
Matthew Broadwater is a third-year PharmD candidate at the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and was the 2019 APhA Carl F. Emswiller Summer Intern.