Pictured from left to right:
Sophia Novack, Walgreens; Dr. Katie Cardone, ACPHS; President Toyin Tofade, ACPHS; Dana Johnson, Walgreens; Ted Avramov, Walgreens; and Nicole Cate, Walgreens.
Albany College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences has been awarded an $8,000 Walgreens Diversity Donation Award to aid the College’s efforts in increasing diversity among student pharmacists. Walgreens Healthcare Supervisor, Dana Johnson, recently presented a check to ACPHS President Toyin Tofade to mark the honor.
The Walgreens Diversity Donation is designed to increase the enrollment of underrepresented students in schools and colleges of pharmacy and to promote diversity and inclusion within the institutional culture. Underrepresented racial and ethnic groups in pharmacy include those that are disproportionately represented in the pharmacist profession when compared to their numbers in the overall U.S. populations. According to the 2019 National Pharmacist Workforce Study these sub-populations include African American/Black, Hispanic/Latinx, Native American/Alaska Natives, and Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islanders.
“ACPHS is committed to diversifying the pharmacy field and is so grateful for this gift from Walgreens to support our aspiring student pharmacists,” said President Tofade. “This new funding will allow us to find new ways to embrace diversity and to help our students better understand the health care needs of the communities we serve.”
The fund allocation is based on the following established criteria:
Walgreens Diversity & Inclusion Excellence Award - $2,500
Scholarship awarded to a single student with an interest in community pharmacy and meets at least one of the following criteria:
- Embraces diversity and promotes diversity and inclusion initiatives on campus
- Represents an underrepresented group in pharmacy
Walgreens Multilingual Scholarship - $2,500
Awarded to a single student who is fluent speaking in one or more languages in addition to English with an interest in community pharmacy
Pipeline Initiative Development - $3,000
Must be used to implement or enhance programs targeted at increasing the enrollment of diverse groups at the school of pharmacy.
Diversifying the Field
The Walgreens donation comes on the heels of ACPHS’ Stack Center for Biopharmaceutical Education and Training (CBET) being named one of only three sites nationally to host the National Institute for Innovation in Manufacturing Biopharmaceuticals’ (NIIMBL) eXperience program.
The NIIMBL eXperience program is designed to provide underrepresented minority students (URMs) completing their first year or sophomore year of college a glimpse into the field of biopharmaceuticals.
ACPHS will welcome its 15-student cohort in June 2023. This is the first year NIIMBL has employed a regional host approach to the program since the program’s inception in March 2019.
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.