Music City Magic

UHCOP Students, Alumni Receive Top Honors at American Pharmacists Association National Meeting

April 3 — From live competitions to leadership transitions, UHCOP students and alumni were among the top national honorees at the American Pharmacists Association (APhA) Annual Meeting & Exposition March 21-24 in Nashville, Tenn.

Patient Counseling

In the APhA-Academy of Student Pharmacists (ASP) National Patient Counseling Competition, UHCOP Pharm.D. candidate Hunter Adam placed First Runner-Up, demonstrating his knowledge and commitment to bestowing tailored patient care in a time-sensitive environment.

"You only have five minutes to counsel the patient in the competition, simulating the limited time you may have in practice," Adam said. "Most of my preparation involved practicing in a succinct, yet thorough manner, and I would time myself during practice counseling sessions to ensure I stayed within the time constraints."

Adam is well versed in winning counseling competitions, as he has competed, and placed, in local and state competitions every year of pharmacy school, including top 10 finalist in the 2022 college competition and state finalist and second place respectively in the 2023 and 2024 Texas Pharmacy Foundation (TPF) state competitions.

Adam sees competitions as a challenge that also brings with it preparation for what is to come after graduation.

"I compete to challenge myself to a further degree than what we are subject to in school," Adam said. "Competing against other students from my school and other APhA chapters allows me to assess my strengths while also identifying areas of improvement as I transition into a real-world practice setting."

Adam is the third UHCOP student in the past seven years to finish among the Top 10 finalists in the national competition. 

Research Poster

Third-year Pharm.D. student Ariana Moorer received a Presentation Merit Award in the Innovative Report (Student) category for her project, "Leveraging Pharmacy Interns to Improve Hypertension and Diabetes Outcomes For Value-Based Care Contracts in a Federally Qualified Health Center."

Moorer outlined her project supporting care coordination and improving patient outcomes at Legacy Community Health in Houston. As a clinical pharmacy intern, Moorer identified an opportunity to integrate pharmacy interns into a workflow, which she would go on to develop, to scale outreach in closing care gaps among patients with uncontrolled hypertension and diabetes.

"As Legacy Community Health had a relatively new clinical pharmacy team, there wasn't an existing formal workflow or reporting structure in place for identifying and closing care gaps," Moorer said. "While our clinical pharmacists were already providing excellent patient care, the integration of pharmacy interns created an opportunity to build and standardize these processes from the ground up, resulting in consistent, patient-centered care."

Moorer's workflow incorporated interns in conducting chart reviews, identifying open care gaps, placing referrals, and assisting with scheduling and documentation of closed care gaps.

"Not only did this help patients from falling through the cracks, but it also created a space for student pharmacists to actively engage in value-based care initiatives," Moorer said. "The integration of interns allowed pharmacists to spend more quality time with patients, while students gained hands-on experience supporting care coordination and improving patient outcomes."

In addition to significantly increasing the number of referrals and scheduled appointments, Moorer's workflow contributed to Legacy achieving a two-star improvement in the U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Star Ratings of federally qualified health centers in the areas of both hypertension and diabetes.

Moorer’s presentation was coauthored by Wuen Hernandez, Pharm.D., BCACP, a UHCOP alumna and clinical pharmacist at Legacy, and Neha Agrawal, Pharm.D., AAHIVP, director of clinical pharmacy services at Legacy.

National President

Alumnus Alex C. Varkey, Pharm.D. ('05), M.S., FAPhA, director of pharmacy at Houston Methodist Hospital, completed his term as APhA National President and transitioned to Immediate Past President. In his president's address to APhA members, Varkey reflected on the support of his mentors, colleagues and family in his success and development as well as the work being done to improve working conditions and pharmacy care services.

During his presidency, Varkey represented APhA in numerous official capacities, such as at the International Pharmaceutical Federation World Congress, and advocated for working pharmacists, the professional academy and patients among other pharmacy organizations, lawmakers and regulators, and the public at-large.

"It's a privilege to serve the profession and while there's still plenty of work ahead to ensure all patients have sustained access to pharmacy services, I am inspired by so many of you who are pillars in your communities," Varkey said in a farewell video.

Other highlights from the meeting included:

• For his efforts leading a study researching vaccine hesitancy among parents of pediatric patients, Associate Professor Douglas Thornton, Pharm.D., Ph.D., was awarded the 2025 American Pharmacists Association’s Wiederholt Prize For Best Published Paper Award For Economic, Social And Administrative Sciences (ESAS). The study was published in the March-April 2023 issue of the Journal of the American Pharmacists Association (JAPhA). First author on the paper was UHCOP Assistant Professor and alumnus Tyler Varisco, Pharm.D., Ph.D. ('21), who was also installed to a three-year term on the JAPhA Editorial Advisory Board.
• The Houston Program alumna Brandi Hamilton, Pharm.D., M.S. ('16), BCPS, director of pharmacy at California Rehabilitation Institute in Los Angeles, was inducted as a Fellow of APhA. In addition, this year's meeting marked the completion of Hamilton’s two-year term as APhA National Speaker of the House.
• Pharm.D. candidate Tammie Lam was presented with a Certification of Recognition for her service on the 2024-25 APhA-ASP National Communications Standing Committee.
• Pharm.D. student Janvi Patel served as the UHCOP Delegate in the APhA-ASP House of Delegates.

— Kristin Mitchener