Albany College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences (ACPHS) announces the addition of five new fellows to industry positions within its burgeoning fellowship program. The new fellows, who began their two-year terms on *July 1, 2023, include:
Pharmacovigilance Fellows with BeiGene, the FDA and ACPHS:
- Fojan Abyaneh, PharmD
- Caitlin Harrington, PharmD
Quality Assurance Fellow with Crinetics Pharmaceuticals and ACPHS:
- Kingsley Lim, PharmD
*Dr. Lim started his fellowship in March 2023
Clinical Pharmacology Fellow with Crinetics Pharmaceuticals and ACPHS:
- Sumin Kim, PharmD
Global Manufacturing Fellow with Curia Global, the FDA and ACPHS:
- Mackenzie Quirk ’23, PharmD
“Our fellowships are a talent pipeline for organizations and individuals because they offer opportunities and mentorship to talented PharmD and PhD graduates transitioning into the biopharmaceutical, life sciences and biotechnology space,” said Bernie Tyrrell, RPh, MBA, director of fellowships at ACPHS. “A fellowship provides skills that help individuals gain a competitive advantage to launch a lucrative and fulfilling career.”
ACPHS partners with some of the world’s top pharmaceutical and health science organizations such as BeiGene, FDA, Crinetics and Curia Global to prepare the next generation of industry leaders. Both companies seeking talented professionals and individuals looking for their next career move, seek out ACPHS fellowships.
ACPHS 2023-25 Fellows
Fojan Abyaneh, PharmD
A native of Iran, Fojan Abyaneh, PharmD attended the Notre Dame of Maryland University and received her PharmD in 2023. She is currently completing a two-year post-doctoral fellowship with ACPHS, FDA, and BeiGene.
During her pharmacy education, Dr. Abyaneh reached for opportunities to better strengthen her pharmacy acumen. She was elected to 2022-2023 NCPA President, School Ambassador, and Honor Code Vice Chair where she advanced her leadership skills.
Dr. Abyaneh is a member of American Pharmacist Association (APhA) and is devoted to the pharmaceutical industry.
Caitlin Harrington, PharmD
Prior to beginning a career in pharmacy, Caitlin Harrington, PharmD studied Italian and Classics, worked as a baker, and earned a Medical Office Practice certificate. This past May, she graduated summa cum laude from the University at Buffalo School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences with a PharmD and received the Merck Manual Award for Academic Excellence. Dr. Harrington also completed the school’s Clinical Research Program with a project focused on optimizing antimicrobial strategies.
While at the University at Buffalo, she served as Vice President of the School of Pharmacy Student Association. She was also the founder and treasurer of Non-Pharmacy Options, the pharmacy school’s first student organization dedicated solely to student engagement and social support. Throughout pharmacy school she worked directly with patients in the community setting at Walgreens.
In her fellowship with BeiGene-ACPHS, Dr. Harrington is looking forward to improving patient care at the population level by learning how to detect trends and implement systematic changes.
Kingsley Lim, PharmD
Kingsley Lim, PharmD graduated from the Northeastern University Bouve College of Health Sciences in 2020. He also holds a Bachelor of Science in Pharmaceutical Chemistry from University of California, Davis.
Following graduation, he worked as a retail pharmacist for several years. During this time, Dr. Lim transitioned throughout multiple roles, from floater pharmacist to specialty pharmacist and eventually pharmacist manager.
His experience spans an array of areas including with large retail pharmacies such as CVS and Stop and Shop, in educational settings including UC Davis and Academia Sinica in Taiwan, and also for major media centers such as Boston Medical Center, Massachusetts General Hospital and Kaiser Permanente.
Sumin Kim, PharmD
Sumin Kim, PharmD graduated from MCPHS University in May 2023, with a concentration on drug discovery and development. She also holds a Bachelor of Science in Chemical Engineering from Washington University in St. Louis.
Dr. Kim's passion lies in the intersection of science and healthcare innovation, specifically in the field of drug discovery and development. She has gained valuable experience at Yale New Haven Hospital during her APPE rotation, where she contributed to patient care and witnessed the impact of research in clinical practice.
Dr. Kim is excited to join the fellowship program, where she aims to further enhance her skills and contribute to innovative healthcare solutions.
Mackenzie Quirk ’23
An accomplished professional, Mackenzie Quirk ’23, PharmD holds a Master of Science in Pharmaceutical Sciences from Albany College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences. She graduated summa cum laude from Siena College, Loudonville, NY, with a Bachelor of Science in Biology and minors in both Chemistry and Spanish.
Dr. Quirk has held various leadership roles throughout her academic and professional career, including serving as President of AAPS-ACPHS, the Director of the VIP Case Competition for IPhO-ACPHS, and President of Inspire Autism Awareness Club at Siena College. Quirk also interns at Kelly's Pharmacy, Greenville, NY.
She believes that keeping a patient-centered mindset is important for pharmacists in industry, as helping patients remains the end goal for all products and devices in development.
“I have enjoyed a fast-paced year of APPE rotations and endorse the value of a pharmacist in a variety of settings,” Dr. Quirk remarked. “Growing up in a small town in Upstate New York, I appreciate the importance of getting to truly know your patients and making them feel like they matter.
ACPHS Inaugural Fellows 2021- 2023
Drs. Kim and Lim succeeded two fellows who concluded a two-year inaugural pharmacological fellowship with corporate partners, BeiGene, a biotech firm specializing in oncology and new-agent therapies, and the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
From July 2021 – June 2023, Sabrina Hayden, PharmD and Vincent Wysocki, PharmD participated in the post‐graduate training program, Innovate in Pharmacovigilance Fellowship, designed to train pharmacists in pharmacovigilance, with research and field‐based medication safety learning opportunities. ACPHS Program Director, Patrick Meek, PharmD, MSPH, served as mentor to the fellows.
A new approach to pharmacovigilance training, it launched in 2021 as a collaboration between pharmacists, safety scientists and data scientists from academia, industry and the FDA. The fellowship distributes training activities over a two‐year period including 12 months at a life sciences company; four months at ACPHS; and eight months at the FDA.
The program, designed to serve as an industry pipeline, focuses on pharmacovigilance, medication safety and data science. Typical activities include safety surveillance and adverse event reporting, monitoring safety and quality of patient care and medication use systems, and analysis of the FDA’s adverse event reporting system (FAERS) data.
Sabrina Hayden, PharmD
This fellowship allowed Sabrina Hayden, PharmD to manage and support the strategic partnership with Novartis through work with the joint Novartis-BeiGene Safety Governance Model. She collaborated with the chair of HITLab and VP of Safety Innovations at BeiGene in the development of the Center for Pharmacovigilance in Hopewell, New Jersey, created to expand on pragmatic opportunities to better enhance patient safety both internally as well as externally.
Dr. Hayden spent four months at ACPHS, where she taught didactic courses on FDA policies and spoke at events hosted by IPhO and SNPhA to share information for students interested in pursuing post-doctoral fellowship opportunities after graduation. Within the first two months of her term with the FDA, she worked closely with the FAERS Safety Database contractor in Landover, MD on best ways to implement strategic alert systems in the FAERS data entry workflow process and initiated a more robust business staffing model that would help the FDA continue to meet its regulatory compliance goals. Since then, she has moved within the different divisions in the FDA’s Office of Surveillance and Epidemiology working alongside pharmacists, MDs, epidemiologists, and data scientists.
Dr. Hayden received her PharmD from the Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences (MCPHS) in 2021 and then enrolled in MCPHS’ master’s in business administration program with a specialty in healthcare management.
Vincent Wysocki, PharmD
This fellowship positioned Vincent Wysocki, PharmD as an excellent candidate for post-doctoral training in the intersection of informatics and drug development. As a pharmacovigilance fellow, he published two original research abstracts, focusing on electronic health record (EHR) data collection and data mining.
With a passion for learning and data science, he seeks to continue his growth while contributing to the fundamental activities of pharmacovigilance, including signal detection, risk management, and post-market surveillance data management.
Dr. Wysocki obtained his undergraduate degree from South Dakota School of Mines and Technology (SDSMT), a small engineering university nestled in the Black Hills of South Dakota. While there, he became fascinated with the potential of computer science and its ability to advance pharmaceutical development through bioinformatics. He then pursued a PharmD degree at the University of Colorado, where he honed his understanding and proficiency in programming.
About Albany College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences
Founded in 1881, Albany College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences (ACPHS) is a private, independent college dedicated to educating the next generation of leaders to improve the health of society. ACPHS offers 17 undergraduate, graduate and doctorate programs including online Master of Biomedical Sciences and Master of Biotechnology programs. Students have myriad opportunities to extend what they are learning in the classroom at The Stack Family Center for Biopharmaceutical Education and Training (CBET), at student-supported pharmacies in underserved communities, and at The Collaboratory, a public health resource designed to alleviate community health disparities in Albany’s South End neighborhood. ACPHS ranks #1 in New York State for best return on investment by Georgetown University’s Center on Education and the Workforce and was graded an A+ for value by Niche.