Gretchen Garofoli (PharmD 2009)
Gretchen Kreckel Garofoli, PharmD, BCACP, CTTS, FAPhA is an Associate Professor at West Virginia University School of Pharmacy in the Department of Clinical Pharmacy. She is a graduate of the University of Pittsburgh School of Pharmacy and completed a Community-Based Pharmacy Residency at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, VA. Her part-time practice site is Waterfront Family Pharmacy in Morgantown, WV where she focuses on immunizations. She also serves as the Managing Network Facilitator for CPESN West Virginia. Dr. Garofoli's areas of interest include immunizations, diabetes management, medication therapy management, compounding, and program development and implementation in the community pharmacy setting. Dr. Garofoli was the 2011 recipient of the West Virginia Pharmacists' Association Distinguished Young Pharmacist Award, the 2015 recipient of the American Pharmacists' Association Distinguished New Practitioner Award, the 2018 recipient of the West Virginia Pharmacists' Association Excellence in Innovation Award, the 2020 recipient of the West Virginia Pharmacists' Association Dr. James H. Beal Award, and the 2022 recipient of the West Virginia University Health Sciences Center Women in Science and Health (WISH) Mid-Career Award. She was recognized as a Fellow of the American Pharmacists Association and was part of the team that received Honorable Mention recognition for the Immunization Champion Awards in the Corporation/Institution category at the American Pharmacists Association 2022 Annual Meeting. She currently serves as a Member-at-Large for the American Pharmacists Association-Academy of Pharmacy Practice and Management. Her research interests include immunizations, diabetes, pharmacist provided screenings, and the impact of pharmacy-based patient care programs.
Douglas Gebhard (PharmD 2009)
Dr. Gebhard is currently the President of RareMed Solutions where he provides leadership and oversight across all areas of the growing organization. During his career, Dr. Douglas Gebhard has held leadership positions with increasing responsibility at a number of large and growing pharmacy organizations which includes extensive experience in Specialty Pharmacy, Patient Services, Retail Pharmacy; Product Development, Quality Management, Pharmacy Compliance, and Clinical Education.
Prior to launching RareMed, Dr. Gebhard served as the VP of Pharmacy Services for PANTHERx Rare Pharmacy. He was responsible for overall operations and management at PANTHERx, including distribution, reimbursement, quality, compliance, and clinical education. In addition, he also served as the program director for the PANTHERx Rare Fellowship which he helped to develop and implement. Prior to leading all of Pharmacy Services for PANTHERx Rare, Dr. Gebhard served as Vice President of Quality & Education where he was responsible for compliance, accreditation, and strategic quality improvement.
Earlier in his career, Doug led a cross-functional multidisciplinary team at CVS Health within Enterprise Product Innovation and Development. His team was responsible for the research, development, and implementation of patient-oriented healthcare initiatives and services. His portfolio had a specific focus on developing products, services, and initiatives to redefine the role that CVS/pharmacy played in improving health outcomes for its patients and partners by directly addressing medication non-adherence.
Dr. Gebhard graduated from the University of Pittsburgh School of pharmacy with his Doctor of Pharmacy degree. Additionally, Doug received his Masters of Business Administration from the Joseph M. Katz Graduate School of Business at the University of Pittsburgh.
Ukwen Akpoji (PharmD 2015)
Ukwen Akpoji, PharmD, BCPS, BCIDP is the Associate Medical Director, Neurology (NMOSD) at Alexion, AstraZeneca Rare Disease. He a clinical Pharmacist by training with a PharmD (Cum Laude: Area of Concentration in Community, Leadership, Innovation & Practice) and Bachelors in Pharmaceutical Sciences (Magna Cum Laude) from the University of Pittsburgh School of Pharmacy, post-doctoral residencies at Atlanta VAMC (PGY-1 Pharmacy Practice) and VA Northeast Ohio Healthcare System (PGY-2 Infectious Diseases), Lean Six Sigma Green Belt, VA/AMIA Health Informatics certificate, and dual Board of Pharmacy Specialty certifications in Infectious Diseases and Internal Medicine.
Following residency, Ukwen was hired as the VANEOHS Antimicrobial Stewardship Program (ASP) Manager, where his aptitude in clinical decision support tools, change management, and vaccination principles established the multidisciplinary Cleveland ASP as the first VA hospital in the U.S. to achieve IDSA’s ASP Center of Excellence designation in 2019. Ukwen’s interest in infectious disease heuristics helped him serve as IDSA’s Treatment Subcommittee Chair of Respiratory Tract Infections to operationalize community-acquired pneumonia management for under-resourced/rural hospitals across the nation. Ukwen’s internal medicine background has facilitated different institutional initiatives throughout his career. He started and maintained a “handshake stewardship” rounding service for Internal Medicine and Surgical service lines at the Cleveland VA Medical Center to advise on antibiotic selection, established a penicillin allergy de-labeling service for inpatients and outpatients, regardless of their admitting condition, and subsequently started a peri-operative screening program to guide surgical site infection planning.
At Pfizer as a Field Medical Outcomes & Analytics Director, Ukwen led a Medical/Commercial team that operationalized guideline-concordant population health initiatives for atrial fibrillation, deep vein thrombosis, COVID-19, migraine, endometriosis, and uterine fibroids at northern Ohio health systems including Cleveland Clinic, University Hospitals, ProMedica, and Summa Health. He notably recruited an academic medical center to participate in an industry-collaborative, multicentre, retrospective real-world evidence study investigating the consistency of prescribing practices for direct-acting oral anticoagulants in the management of non-valvular atrial fibrillation, according to FDA labeling.