The USC College of Pharmacy has been selected as an inaugural Community Pharmacy Center
of Excellence by the Academia-Community Transformation (ACT) Pharmacy Collaborative.
The college is one of 17 nationally to be named for its commitment to advancing community pharmacy through teaching, service, scholarship, leadership, and partnerships.
Along with the other programs chosen, the college will serve as an ambassador for pharmacy education in convenings with pharmacy and health care leaders and will work to amplify community pharmacy practice transformation efforts.
Community pharmacists are able to create long-term relationships with their patients to optimize their medications and help address social factors that impact their health.
Jordan Ballou, clinical associate professor and director of community-based residency programs, will serve as the college’s champion for the program. She notes that, with many graduates going into community-based practice, the recognition from ACT and the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy shows that the college is invested in our students and their success in community settings and advancing this area of pharmacy.
“Community pharmacists are able to create long-term relationships with their patients to optimize their medications and help address social factors that impact their health. We have extremely engaged faculty on our ACT team who care about community pharmacy and want to show our students all the good that they will do when they are out in practice,” she says. “I am also excited for the opportunity to network with faculty at the other Centers of Excellence over the next year and get to share about our work here, as well as to learn new community-focused strategies to bring back to the college.”
Other faculty and staff involved in with the center are Patti Fabel, clinical associate professor and executive director of the Kennedy Pharmacy Innovation Center; Kathy Quarles Moore, clinical associate professor and director of community and compounding laboratories; John Holladay, clinical assistant professor; and Tessa Hastings, assistant professor.
The college will be formally honored at AACP’s annual meeting, Pharmacy Education 2024, in Boston, on Tuesday, July 23.