CPS 2024 Annual Meeting - Pharmacy Forward

Cody Hufstedler has been an inpatient palliative care chaplain at Saint Joseph Hospital in Denver since 2013, has served as lead chaplain for the palliative care department since 2015, and has served as faculty for the Saint Joseph Palliative Care Physician Fellowship since 2018. He is endorsed for chaplaincy through the Humanist Society. He loves to cook, mix cocktails, eat/drink, exercise, and ski. But he knows that those are just a small part of what self-care is. He's a terrible meditator, a sporadic journaler, and an avid introspector. In November of 2023 he launched his podcast: Dying to Tell You, in which he interviews people who are coming to the end of their life. Cody's deeply held values are Hospitality, Acceptance, Compassion, Kindness, and Fun.

Dr. Carnett earned her PharmD from Purdue University’s College of Pharmacy in West Lafayette, Indiana. Post-graduation she completed a PGY1 Community-Based Pharmacy Residency with Albertsons Companies and Idaho State University in Boise, Idaho.  

Dr. Carnett moved to the Denver-area after completing residency training, most recently practicing as a division-level Patient Care Pharmacist. In this role, Dr. Carnett supported pharmacy teams by providing advanced clinical services including conducting travel health appointments, leading a diabetes management program for associates, and performing medication therapy management consultations. Additionally, she trained pharmacists in medication administration techniques and how to complete independent pharmacist prescribing services. 

Dr. Carnett is passionate about increased access to care, preventative health and immunization services, mental health care, and about pharmacy’s role in providing direct care to our patients. She hopes that sharing her experiences in community-based practice and expanded pharmacist services will spark student interest in the future of the profession in the outpatient setting. As a previous preceptor for pharmacy residents and students, Dr. Carnett appreciates the importance of experiential education and the invaluable role it plays in our students finding their professional areas of interest. 

Dr. Stultz received her Doctor of Pharmacy degree in 2009 from the University of Florida. Upon graduation, she served as a Publix pharmacist and Community preceptor. In 2014, she was recognized as LECOM’s Preceptor of the Year. Since 2016, she has also served as the Experiential Director for both UF and LECOM. Dr. Stultz has received numerous awards recently including UF’s 2019-2020 Teacher Service Award, AACP’s 2021 Award for Excellence in Experiential Education, and UF’s 2023 Outstanding Publication in Teaching Innovation. 

In August 2023, Dr. Stultz joined CU SSPPS as the Assistant Dean of Experiential Programs. In this role, she focuses on equipping student pharmacists for success and advancing the experiential program to meet the needs of our rapidly changing profession. Dr. Stultz is excited to guide students on their experiential journey, whether they have a clear path in mind or are still exploring career options. 

Jill Hunsaker Ryan, MPH, is the executive director of the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment. She oversees a nearly 2,000 person department responsible for disease control, injury prevention, health promotion, air quality, water quality, monitoring and management of hazardous materials, licensing of congregate care facilities and ground ambulances, recycling programs, population health surveillance, a health equity office, environmental justice program, and other areas that help promote the public’s health.  

Director Ryan has nearly 30 years of experience in the field. She was appointed to Governor Polis’s cabinet in January 2019. Director Ryan has been a local public health agency director, the vice president and secretary of the Colorado Board of Health, and the previous director of the Department’s Office of Health Disparities (now the Office of Health Equity). Director Ryan served as an Eagle County Commissioner from 2013-2019, during which time she was president of the Colorado Communities for Climate Action (CC4CA). 

In 2020, Director Ryan received Denver Business Journal’s “Outstanding Women in Business” award for the health sector. In 2021, CiviCO honored Ryan with the Colorado Governors’ COVID-19 Heroes Award as an official who helped successfully lead Colorado’s pandemic response. In 2023, Ryan received Denver Business Journal’s “Most Admired CEO” award. 

Director Ryan lives in Edwards, CO with her husband and young son. She enjoys outdoor recreation and live music. 

"I have the leadership, expertise, and motivation to successfully carry out the SAMHSA Strategic Prevention Framework project. Leading high-performing teams for 20-plus years, I have experience researching and publishing on issues related to the substance abuse crisis— including drug prevention work for a rural school district and survey work investigating local public health activities in response to the opioid crisis. As a Project Director on two HRSA-funded grants, a contractor on the HRSA-funded planning grant, along with being a co-investigator on university and state-funded grants, I laid the groundwork for the proposed SAMHSA grant by designing the strategy and project team and leveraging strong ties with community stakeholders. I have successfully administered multiple projects (e.g., staffing, design, implementation, and fiscal oversight) and collaborated with community partners. Through the SAMHSA opportunity, we hope to implement best practices to additional rural counties in Colorado. "

Alexis Ritvo MD, MPH is a board-certified addiction psychiatrist. She is the Program Director for the Addiction Psychiatry Fellowship at the University of Colorado (CU) School of Medicine where she is an Assistant Professor of Psychiatry. She earned her Medical Degree and a Master’s in Public Health in Health Policy from Emory University in 2012.  She completed her general psychiatry residency and addiction psychiatry fellowship at CU before joining faculty in 2017. Since then, she has been a supervising attending of general psychiatry residents in the CU Medicine Outpatient Psychiatry clinic where she directs a co-occurring disorder subspeciality clinic. Her growing interest in the safe prescribing and deprescribing of prescription benzodiazepines led her to co-found the Benzodiazepine Action Work Group with the Colorado Consortium for Prescription Drug Abuse in late 2020.  In 2022, she became medical director for the national non-profit the Alliance for Benzodiazepines Best Practices. She is the current chair of the Education Committee for the American Association of Addiction Psychiatry. She has a passion for psychotherapy, teaching trainees, improving health systems, and advocacy. 

   Dr. Ryan Jackman is a family medicine and addiction medicine physician who practices at St. Mary’s Medical Center in Grand Junction Colorado. He acts as the medical director for St. Mary’s Integrated Addiction Medicine clinic and provides full-spectrum education to family medicine residents. He currently also fulfills roles as the program director for St. Mary’s HRSA funded Rural Communities Opioid Response Program and co-chair of Mesa County’s opioid settlement committee, both of which aim to increase prevention, treatment, and recovery resources in Western Colorado. He is as a content expert with the Integrated Care for Women and Babies program for the State of Colorado, which operates through the University of Colorado. 

 Dr. Billups is an Associate Professor at the University of Colorado Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Director of Population Health Pharmacy. She works in the Office of Value-Based Performance at University of Colorado Medicine where she leads development, implementation, and evaluation of population-management strategies to improve quality outcomes in the patients cared for by CU Medicine providers.

She is interested in researching ways to deliver healthcare more effectively and efficiently using innovative care models, especially those involving pharmacists, pharmacy trainees, and technology.

  Stacia Rumer is the Pharmacy Clinical Coordinator at Craig Hospital. She received her PharmD from the University of Colorado School of Pharmacy and is a Board Certified Pharmacotherapy Specialist, as well as a diplomat of the ASHP Foundation Pharmacy Leadership Academy. Stacia has worked at Craig Hospital for 26 years and is part of an interdisciplinary team providing holistic care to patients with spinal cord and brain injury. She has presented locally and nationally on multiple topics, including medications for the treatment of the effects of brain injury and pharmacist-managed penicillin allergy testing. She completed the ASHP Well-Being and Resilience Certificate program and is a Well-Being Ambassador. She is involved with promotion of resiliency for staff at Craig Hospital and is a member of the CPS Workplace Conditions and Wellbeing Taskforce. Outside of Craig she enjoys spending time with her family, youth ministry, yoga, and golf.

   Tisha Smith loves being a pharmacist and fiercely advocates for the underdog. As a Mexican American, her interest in pharmacy is both personal and professional. Tisha became a pharmacist to care for patients but not just by providing medications but working with and engaging the patients to make their health a priority, especially in our most vulnerable patient populations who may also be experiencing health inequities. Tisha received her Doctor of Pharmacy from the University of Colorado, School of Pharmacy in May of 2000. Since that time, she has worked in many areas of pharmacy including, retail, specialty, and inpatient before finding her passion in ambulatory clinical pharmacy. As the Assistant Director of Ambulatory Clinical Pharmacy at Denver Health Medical Center, she is privileged to work with an underserved population while overseeing the ambulatory clinical pharmacy teams, establishing strategic direction, and identifying areas of expansion. Tisha is an active member of Denver Health’s DEI council, the co-chair for the Anticoagulation QI workgroup and has held leadership positions within our professional state organization, Colorado Pharmacists Society (CPS), as Treasurer, President-Elect, President, and Past President. While serving as CPS President, she advocated and testified on a bill to allow for reimbursement of clinical pharmacy services. With the approval of this bill, Tisha has successfully implemented billing for clinical pharmacy services at Denver Health. In her free time, Tisha enjoys sending time with her family and friends, skiing, soccer, and tennis.  

  Kristin Holmes is the owner and head pharmacist at Capitol Heights Pharmacy, an original liquor-licensed drugstore established in 1881 in the Congress Park area of Denver.  Kristin and her husband, Chris, have owned the pharmacy for the past eleven years, having purchased the pharmacy on May 1, 2013, a few weeks before Kristin even graduated from the CU Skaggs School of Pharmacy.  As a student, Kristin was a member of the Colorado Pharmacists Society, Rho Chi, and Phi Lambda Sigma. She is currently serving her third year as member-at-large of the Colorado Pharmacist Society.  When Kristin began at Capitol Heights, the pharmacy was struggling to fill enough prescriptions to stay open and did not offer any additional services other than traditional prescription filling.  Now ten years later, Capitol Heights gives thousands of vaccines per year – including flu shots down to 6 months due to an innovative protocol and training from a nurse practitioner - and has begun implementing many medical services newly allowed under pharmacy scope of service, thanks to the tireless efforts of the Colorado Pharmacist Society.  These medical services include birth control and naloxone prescribing, UTI treatment, cold sore treatment, travel consultations, and point-of-care testing for flu, Covid and strep.   Kristin credits much of her success to her steadfast partnership with her husband Chris, who now also works full time at the pharmacy managing an in-house audiology clinic providing traditional and over the counter hearing aids and helping run the business, which has quadrupled in revenue over the past 10 years all from word of mouth and community goodwill. More importantly the pharmacy has become a beloved community resource by the neighborhood she serves, and Kristin was honored to be named by Nextdoor for the past two years as the community’s favorite healthcare destination - a true point of pride for Kristin who is an adamant believer in the importance of small business and the unique ability of independent pharmacy to provide the level of service and care patients deserve. Additionally, this past year, Kristin received the Horizon Alumni Award from CU as well as won Woman Pharmacist of the Year in the Independent category from ASHP. She looks forward to continuing to find innovative ways to serve her community. 

  In 2021 Maria became a severe COVID-19 and ECMO, (extracorporeal membrane oxygenation, an extreme form of life support) survivor after spending over four months at the Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland. After her discharge, she established Maria's Miracle, a 501(c)3 non-profit dedicated to funding critical care medical training and supporting families and patients facing ECMO treatment or recovery from prolonged ICU stays. She continues to battle long COVID and the aftereffects of her time in the ICU.

After over 20 years working in health communications supporting multiple government agencies within the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), Maria joined the Novavax Advocacy team in January 2023. She uses details of her journey to increase awareness about the seriousness of COVID-19 and other respiratory viruses and the importance of vaccination.

  Gina is Senior Associate Dean for Operations and Regulatory Affairs at the University of Colorado Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences. Her responsibilities include oversight of school operations and also oversees a number of external partnerships. She coordinates and teaches the Pharmacy Law course, and is president-elect of the American Society for Pharmacy Law. She is past-president of the Colorado Pharmacists Society and has served as legislative chair of CPS for the past seven years. She earned her Doctor of Pharmacy degree from the University of the Pacific School of Pharmacy and her Master’s in Business Administration from the University of Colorado.  Her research interests are in the establishment and documentation of Clinical Pharmacy Services, Pharmacy Law, and Drug Utilization Review.

  Michelle L. Hilaire is currently a Clinical Professor at the University of Wyoming School of Pharmacy. She earned her PharmD from Duquesne University and completed 2 residencies at the University of Toledo and the University of Tennessee. She is Board Certified in Pharmacotherapy and Ambulatory Care, a Certified Diabetes Educator, and a Fellow of the American College of Clinical Pharmacy and the American Society of Health Systems Pharmacists. She is an active member of ASHP, ACCP, AACP, and the Colorado Pharmacists Society. She is a past chair and member of the ASHP Ambulatory Care Educational Steering Committee and was part of the AACP Academic Leaders Fellows Program. She is a former ASHP Delegates for the state of Colorado and the Current Chair of the Colorado Academy of Health System Pharmacists.

 Lesleigh Potter, B.S., PharmD is a Community Based Pharmacist Practitioner and Pharmacy Manager at

Albertsons/Safeway in Denver, CO. Dr. Potter graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Business from

Oklahoma State University and Doctor of Pharmacy degree from the University of Colorado Skaggs

School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences. She then completed a Community Based PGY1

residency with Albertsons/Safeway where she was able to help expand patient care services. Since 2017,

Dr. Potter has practiced clinical pharmacy within the community setting offering services such as the

administration of vivitrol injections and long acting antipsychotics. She is also a preceptor for pharmacy

students from both Regis University and CU SSOP and she has also enjoyed being adjunct faculty at Regis

University.

  Heather is a Patient Care Pharmacist with Albertsons and Safeway.  She started with Albertsons as a pharmacy manager and transitioned into Specialty Care/Clinical Services in 2021.  Since then, her focus has been expansion of services throughout Colorado, Wyoming, Montana, Idaho, New Mexico, Nebraska, South Dakota, and Utah.  She is particularly proud of her expansion of Albertsons medication administration service, in which patients can receive their long-acting injectable medication for mental health or recovery at any Albertsons pharmacy.  This has expanded access to these medications by providing resources throughout the state.   Heather also trains pharmacists on how to provide these injections. 

Heather is part of the legislative committee and on the Board of Directors for Colorado Pharmacist's Society.  She has been nominated for a Top Women in Grocery Award as well as received an award by Drug Store News for Top Women in Health, Beauty, and Wellness. 

In Heather's spare time, she enjoys everything Colorado has to offer.  She particularly loves all the backpacking trails throughout Colorado!

   With a track record of delivering results in communities across Colorado and at the Capitol, Adeline has been engaged professionally in state politics since 2014. Building on experience gained as a legislative intern at the Colorado General Assembly, Adeline worked as a contract lobbyist at a Denver-based firm for seven years before joining forces with Amanda Gall to found Meridian. 

Prior to working in government affairs, Adeline spent over five years providing clinical mental health services to children and families in inpatient psychiatric, residential treatment, and public school settings. Adeline holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Psychology and Sociology from Boston College and a Master’s Degree in Social Work (MSW) from the University of Denver.

 Amanda joined Meridian from the administration of the elected District Attorney for Colorado’s First Judicial District, where she represented the DA in policy matters and public affairs and managed her budget and operational directors. Before serving in that administration, Amanda lobbied in-house on behalf of the state’s twenty-two elected DAs at the Colorado District Attorneys’ Council.

An attorney, Amanda’s legal career began in international finance and investments before she pivoted to become a prosecutor specializing in crimes against children. She has served on a number of boards and committees, both public and nonprofit, and counts the support of children's causes among her priorities. She holds a bachelor's degree in political science from Arizona State University and a J.D. from Lewis & Clark Law School.

   Emily B. Zadvorny, PharmD, BCPS is a proud professional advocate and trained clinical pharmacy specialist. A native of Colorado, she earned her Doctor of Pharmacy degree from the University of Arizona and two post-graduate residencies. She is a board-certified pharmacotherapy specialist and clinical associate professor for the University of Colorado Skaggs School of Pharmacy. Her professional passions are primary care and geriatric medicine, public health, and advancing the pharmacy profession both locally and nationally. She practiced clinically for many years in cardiovascular and primary care at Kaiser Permanente CO and UCHealth. 

Dr. Zadvorny currently serves as the Executive Director for the Colorado Pharmacists Society (CPS), the only professional pharmacy association in the state of Colorado. CPS serves as the “One Society, One Voice” for pharmacists, technicians, and interns, with a mission to promote, develop, and advance the profession of pharmacy to optimize patient care and public health. In this role she oversees the operational, educational, networking, and advocacy efforts for the Society. She has helped influence public policies and passed several key pieces of legislation to advance pharmacists’ scope of practice, advance payment for pharmacist services, improve patient access and pharmacy care in the state of CO, protect pharmacy practices, and elevate the level of training and safety/wellbeing of pharmacy professionals. She represents Colorado pharmacy practice at a national level, networking and advocating in conjunction with national organizations, U.S. legislators, and other key stakeholders, and serves as a consultant source for state and national news/media outlets.