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Winter 2025

Message from Dr. Christina Mnatzaganian, Associate Dean for Experiential Education 

Happy 2025, Preceptors!

As we embrace the new year, we are filled with excitement and optimism for the opportunities ahead. Your dedication to mentoring and shaping the next generation of pharmacy professionals is invaluable to the success of our students and the profession. Through your guidance and expertise, experiential practice sites become transformative learning spaces where students can grow in their clinical knowledge and professional confidence. I hope you enjoy reviewing this edition of the newsletter. Scrolling down you’ll see recent student highlights, preceptor accolades, and upcoming events hosted by the OEE. Please feel free to email me at cmnatzganian@health.ucsd.edu if you have any suggestions for future content. Thank you for your unwavering commitment to the mission of SSPPS. We are deeply grateful for your passion and dedication to fostering excellence in pharmacy education. Here's to a fantastic year! 

We are excited to announce Greg Marciel as the Introductory Pharmacy Practice Experiences (IPPE) Coordinator. Greg brings extensive experience in administrative support, supervisory roles, and SSPPS, along with an academic background in Business Administration and Economics. He is expected to be a great addition to the OEE team and can be contacted via email gmarciel@health.ucsd.edu or by phone at (858) 822-7803.

Pam McGlynn, our previous IPPE Coordinator, is moving to the Office of School Affairs (OSA) as a Student Affairs Officer, after years of dedicated service with the OEE. The OEE team thanks her for her hard work and wishes her the best in her new role.

UC San Diego SSPPS Spring Preceptor’s Conference and Annual Preceptor Development Program and Annual Preceptor Excellence and Recognition Awards

Date: Saturday, April 19, 2025

Time: 9:00 - 11:00 am

Location: Virtual via Zoom

Title: “Fostering and Assessing Clinical Reasoning in Experiential Pharmacy Education”

Presented by: Dr. Eliza Dy-Boarman, PharmD, Assistant Dean for Clinical Affairs, Director of Experiential Education, Associate Professor, Drake University

Credit: 1.0 hours of CAPE credit 

R.S.V.P. required and registration through the following link before April 4, 2025 

Zoom link: will be sent to all registrants one week before the event

Dr. Harminder Sikand was awarded the 2024 American Colleges of Clinical Pharmacy’s Clinical Administration PRN Clinical Achievement Award. Dr. Sikand has been a dedicated member of the PRN for many years, including serving as Chair during the 2012-2013 term. With over 30 years of clinical pharmacy leadership, she has made an extraordinary impact in the field.

Dr. Sikand’s extensive contributions include conducting over 200 systematic formulary reviews, authoring over 200 disease-specific clinical guidelines, delivering more than 150 invited presentations, and contributing to publications and posters. She has been honored with 22 awards throughout her career. Her exceptional leadership and expertise have earned her the distinction of being a Fellow of ACCP, ASHP, and the California Society of Health-Systems Pharmacists.

Please join us in congratulating Dr. Harminder Sikand on this well-deserved recognition!

After an impressive 39 years of service to the VA and healthcare systems, Dr. Morreale has officially retired, leaving behind a legacy of groundbreaking work in the field. His dedication and impact on the healthcare community have set a high bar for future leaders in the industry. We are excited to see what new endeavors Dr. Morreale will pursue in this next chapter of his career. To learn more about his achievement and the 2024 Best Practice Award, you can read the full article Department of Veteran Affairs.

We are proud to congratulate our SSPPS Students, Larsa Goro, Maryam Koreal, and Theresa Nguyen for their exceptional work during their APPE in the UC San Diego Hillcrest Discharge Pharmacy’s "Meds to Bed" program. This program ensures that patients have their discharge medications in hand before they leave the hospital, enhancing their transition to home and improving their care. Dr. Adriann Deguzman, Medical Offices South Pharmacy Manager, praised their contributions, emphasizing that the students helped UC San Diego Health at Hillcrest achieve nearly 90% of discharged patients receiving their medications before leaving the hospital. Dr. Charles E. Daniels, Chief Pharmacy Officer and Associate Dean, highlighted how valuable this experience was for the students, noting the clinical impact of their work in a direct, patient-facing setting. 

For more details on how the program impacts click here. 

Left to Right: Courtney Jang and Don Nguyen

Please join us in applauding Courtney and Don for their outstanding achievement in winning the Clinical Skills Competition at the California Society of Health-System Pharmacists (CSHP) Seminar this past November in Palm Springs, California. They competed against pharmacy schools from across California and excelled in both the written and oral components of the competition.

Courtney and Don’s success is a testament to their dedication and clinical expertise. As champions, they represented our school at the ASHP Midyear Clinical Meeting in December 2024.

Well done, Courtney and Don! We are incredibly proud of you!

Please join us in congratulating APPE student Anurag Chanan, for receiving the prestigious “High Five” Award for excellence in patient care during a rotation at the VA San Diego. The patient highlighted Anurag’s exceptional performance, noting that he was “very patient, very knowledgeable about my husband, and very professional.”

The Hospital Director also commended Anurag, stating, “I commend you for your exceptional customer service and for making a positive impact on the experience of this Veteran. My sincere appreciation for a job well done and providing 5-star experiences to our Veterans!”

Anurag’s dedication and professionalism exemplify the highest standards of care and service. Congratulations on your outstanding achievement, Anurag!

As our P3 students prepare for their APPEs during P4 year, they joined us for our annual rotation fair, held on October 17, 2024, where they networked with preceptors and explored our numerous rotation options.

We are proud to offer hundreds of rotations to our students, including sites at pharmaceutical companies, biotech firms, hospitals, community pharmacies, specialty clinics and more.

Student and preceptors remarked enjoying networking and mentoring each other. Thank you to all of our incredible preceptors and students for making this event such a success!

What is your current title, employer and specialty?  Ambulatory Clinical Pharmacist at UC San Diego Health - Rheumatology                                                    

What inspired you to become a preceptor, and how long have you been precepting? I have been a preceptor for about 4 years (time flies!) I was inspired by the amazing mentors/preceptors who really invested in my development and helped shape my career path. It was important to me to pay that forward and help students build the skills and confidence they need to be successful in practice.                                

Explain how your team and facility benefit from precepting our pharmacy students.  Pharmacy is constantly changing, and it is exciting to see how new perspectives and innovations emerge from students. As a preceptor, I not only get to share my experience and knowledge, but I also learn from my students, which keeps me engaged and motivated in my own practice. We have been fortunate enough to learn from our learners through topic discussions, in-service presentations, and quality improvement projects.

Benefits of a Preceptor Appointment include:

For more information about how to become an Affiliate Preceptor, please visit the Experiential Education section of the SSPPS website.

Contact the OEE:

Christina Mnatzaganian, Pharm.D., Associate Dean, Experiential Education

cmnatzaganian@health.ucsd.edu

(858) 822-5642

Ila Saunders, Pharm.D., Director, APPEs

isaunders@ucsd.edu

(858) 822-6839

Alex Luli, Pharm.D., Director, IPPEs

aluli@health.ucsd.edu

(858) 534-5750

Jamie Kneebusch, Pharm.D., VA Clinical Track Coordinator

jkneebusch@ucsd.edu

(858) 534-9486

Greg Marciel, IPPE Coordinator

gmarciel@health.ucsd.edu

(858) 822-7803

Karla Barranco-Marquez, APPE Coordinator

kbarrancomarquez@ucsd.edu

(858) 822-5503