Angela M. Colella, PharmD, BCPS ([email protected]), is the manager of the Enterprise Drug Policy Center for Advocate Health. Her non-traditional route to this role began with an undergraduate degree in English literature from the University of Wisconsin Madison that she applied working in healthcare public relations and academic medical center marketing. Colella stepped away from the workforce to care for her two young boys for several years, then returned to school, obtaining her PharmD degree with the inaugural class at Concordia University Wisconsin. She completed a PGY1 residency at Aurora Health Care in Milwaukee, Wisconsin and stayed on with the organization in the Drug Policy Center, overseeing the medication use process for the health system through activities with the Pharmacy and Therapeutics Committee and other multidisciplinary stakeholders.
Colella’s service to ASHP includes an appointment to the Council on Pharmacy Practice as well as service as chair and vice chair of the Section of Clinical Specialists and Scientists Advisory Group on Emerging Sciences. She has also served as an alternate delegate to the ASHP House of Delegates, served on the Section of Pharmacy Informatics and Technology Advisory Group on Clinical Applications, and was a featured blogger on ASHP Connect where she shared her thoughts on pharmacy school life and often observed parallels between being a parent and a student. She has co-presented and helped organize ASHP webinars such as “Pharmaocequity for All: The Time is Now”, is an ASHP PGY1 pharmacy residency preceptor, and serves annually as a Midyear Clinical Meeting submission peer reviewer.
Healthcare continuously grows and challenges everyone differently, and I am honored to be part of the pharmacy profession that approaches this shifting landscape in unique and passionate ways. These efforts are visible across all of ASHP, but they are especially evident in work done by members of the Section of Clinical Specialists and Scientists (SCSS) who are challenged daily to translate highly complex, often nuanced, potentially data-limited, and innovative pharmacy topics into practice – and into consumable information for other health care professionals as well as patients. The ever-widening scope of medication therapies, the role of artificial intelligence in healthcare, the challenge of how to address and narrow disparities in care, and the constant expansion of health systems are issues we are likely all facing in our careers; however, through ASHP and the Section, we bring our collective experiences together to create support, solve problems, share information, generate ideas, and promote our profession. I am excited to have the opportunity to continue contributing to SCSS by facilitating collaboration and building connections between members and other Sections, highlighting the skills and unique backgrounds of everyone, and supporting a platform to share best – or maybe “just starting” – practices.