Alumni Highlights: Pharmacy Residency Celebrates 10 Years

Greater Lawrence Family Health Center’s PGY-1 Pharmacy Residency program with MCPHS University is celebrating its 10th Anniversary. To commemorate this milestone, we will be profiling graduates of our teaching program over the next few months.

 Dr. Alexia Sroka, PharmD, BCPS. Alexia is now the project lead for the New York State Medicaid Prescriber Education Program, a collaborative initiative between the University at Buffalo School of Pharmacy and the New York State Department of Health. Through educational materials, Alexia helps healthcare professionals make informed decisions in patient care. She said the hands-on experience offered by the GLFHC/MCPHS University Residency program provided a deeper understanding of the importance of community and firmly established her commitment to improving health outcomes through teaching and learning.

Dr. Jacob Reaser, PharmD, BCACP. Jacob now works as a Health Outcomes Pharmacist at Highmark Health in which he helps providers succeed in different value-based reimbursement programs by closing care gaps, educating on quality measures, and discussing ways to reduce drug spending. He said GLFHC gave him the opportunity to work with a wide range of healthcare professionals, resolve multiple drug-related problems, and build strong relationships with the patients he served. His experience at GLFHC allowed him to become an expert in providing guidance to healthcare providers on how they can continue to improve health-related outcomes for their patients.

Dr. Alana Regan, PharmD, BCPP. Alana was the program’s third pharmacy resident in 2016. Alana returned to GLFHC in 2021 and is currently a psychiatric clinical pharmacist, working in tandem within behavioral health and primary care to provide comprehensive medication management for a variety of chronic disease states. She also works closely with the integrated care teams to support clinical pharmacist integration; and is a preceptor in the pharmacy residency’s research, clinical pharmacy services, and elective behavioral health learning experiences. Alana holds a per diem position at McLean Hospital as a psychiatric clinical pharmacist where she enjoys staying current in mental healthcare. Alana credits her residency experience at GLFHC for emphasizing the importance of inter-professional collaboration among clinicians to achieve optimal health outcomes and patient satisfaction. She is thankful to her GLFHC residency preceptors for providing excellent examples of advocacy for the profession and highlighting the impact of clinical pharmacists on care teams. These examples helped her feel more confident in her subsequent roles when carving a space for herself in a new PGY2 residency program and when developing clinical programs in her career.

Dr. Christine (Dimaculangan) Parikh, PharmD, BCACP. Christine is currently a Clinical Assistant Professor at the Ernest Mario School of Pharmacy with Rutgers University, The State University of New Jersey in Piscataway, NJ. She has a clinical practice site at a Ryan White Funded clinic, the Center for Comprehensive Care at Jersey City Medical Center, in Jersey City, NJ. She helps manage patients living with HIV, HCV and other STDs. Being an alumna from the residency program at GLFHC and MCPHS University helped Christine to have a foundation in chronic disease state management in the setting of certain specialty (i.e. Infectious Diseases) areas and allowed her the opportunity to delve in to the world of academia, a role she has always envisioned herself pursuing. GLFHC also taught her how important the role of the pharmacist is, and she is forever grateful to have been a part of the history of this program.