Build a culture of prevention
Members of the Touro College of Pharmacy Class of 2016 received their doctor of pharmacy degrees last week at a spirited ceremony led by their new dean, Dr. Henry Cohen. The college’s fifth commencement exercises were held at Columbia University’s Roone Arledge Auditorium, which was packed with the graduates’ families, friends and well-wishers on a warm spring afternoon.
“You will soon be licensed pharmacists,” Cohen told the graduates, “one of the most important and trusted health care professionals—and the drug expert. Always place your patient’s care first … and be sure that you do no harm. We are confident that you will excel and lead in this profession.”
The Class of 2016 will spread out across the country in pursuit of a variety of different career paths: working as postgraduate residents or fellows; in retail or hospital pharmacies; in clinics; or for drug companies, public health organizations or government agencies.
A nod perhaps to the diversity in pharmacy in today’s health care workforce was the students’ first choice of keynote speaker: Rear Admiral Pamela M. Schweitzer, Pharm.D., United States Public Health Service, assistant surgeon general, 10th chief professional officer, pharmacy. Schweitzer was the first female appointed to the post, in August 2014.
Schweitzer reminded the graduates that health care is “in the midst of transformation with so many new areas to explore: personalized medicine, specialty pharmacy, population health, big data, telemedicine and information technology.”
“Accept the challenge and if you have the opportunity or the desire to do something different,” she urged. “Go for it.”
Schweitzer said she was impressed with Touro College of Pharmacy and its “vision to improve the health of our communities.” She warmly welcomed graduate Christopher Mendoza, seated in the audience with his classmates, who will be joining the USPHS for an Indian Health residency at the Gallup Indian Medical Center in Gallup, N.M.
“As graduates, you will play a major role in not only advancing the profession but changing the culture of health in our country,” she said. “We need to build a culture of prevention so we are a nation that is as good at preventing illness as we are at treating it. Thank you for leading the way.”
The audience also heard from two student speakers chosen by the class, Philip Armendi and Mehwish Mahmood, student body president and class valedictorian, respectively. The two spoke together, alternating as they traded jokes and recalled memories of the past four years, including what they learned, some successes, some failures and some surprises. They paid tribute to their new dean, thanked their teachers, families, peers and colleagues and noted that their class is sending a record number of graduates on to postdoctoral residencies and fellowships.
“What are the problems that we will be the first to have ever solved?” asked Armendi, who will be heading out to the prestigious Global Pharmaceutical Sciences Postgraduate Fellowship at the University of Southern California-Allergan Pharmaceutical Industry Fellowship Program in Los Angeles. “What will be our contributions to the field of pharmacy and to society?”
Mahmood, who will soon be a resident at VA North Texas Healthcare System in Dallas, the VA’s second largest healthcare system, responded, “We’d like to believe that when each of us is able to answer that for ourselves, we will have come closer to realizing our true life’s work.”