Plein Center News
December 23, 2021
Four students awarded Baxter scholarships in Geriatric Pharmacy
Four second-year pharmacy students have been selected to receive a Baxter Scholarship toward their fee for the Plein Certificate in Geriatric Pharmacy. The Plein Center Leadership Team was inspired by the motivation and vision of the scholarship recipients. Each scholarship winner shared compelling personal stories of experiences that inspired them to pursue a career in geriatric pharmacy. A link between all of them is a desire to strengthen relationships with – and uphold dignity and agency to – older adults.
October 14, 2021
New Geriatric Pharmacy Fund Honors the Legacy of UWSOP Alum Dean Baxter
For Louise Baxter, M.D., the roots of health care and a commitment to geriatrics truly run deep.
In 2011, Louise established the McPhee Geriatric Nursing Support Fund at the UW to honor her mother Sally, who, along with several relatives, devoted her life to a career in nursing. A few years later, Louise decided that a parallel fund to support geriatric pharmacy would be a perfect complement, so in tribute to her late father, UWSOP alum Dean Baxter ’58, she established the Dean Baxter Endowed Support Fund in Geriatric Pharmacy in 2017. The fund supports professional pharmacy students and practicing pharmacists seeking a Plein Certificate in Geriatric Pharmacy.
August 18, 2021
Plein Center Director Shelly Gray Wins ASCP Award
Congratulations to Professor and Plein Endowed Director of the Plein Center Shelly Gray, who was recently named winner of the 2021 George…
May 27, 2021
New Plein Center Video Overview
A new video chronicles the Plein Center’s work and history.
February 22, 2021
The School of Pharmacy Mourns the Passing of Dr. Joy Plein
Joy (Bickmore) Plein, ’51, ’57, a beloved UW School of Pharmacy colleague, mentor and true pioneer in the field of…
December 22, 2020
Jennifer Bacci Selected as 2021 Recipient of the Albert B. Prescott Pharmacy Leadership Award
The Pharmacy Leadership and Education Institute has named UWSOP’s Jennifer Bacci the 2021 recipient of the Albert B. Prescott Pharmacy…
December 18, 2020
Zach Marcum authors a paper published in Neurology on dementia prevention
Plein Center Assistant Director, Zach Marcum, PharmD, PhD, served as co-first author on a paper published in Neurology, along with…
Laura Hart publishes report in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society on fall-related drug risks
Plein Center postdoctoral fellow alumna, Laura Hart, PharmD, MS, along with Plein Center Director, Shelly Gray, Pharm D, MS, and…
Melissa Barker-Haliski publishes Alzheimer’s disease study in Neurobiology of Disease
Plein Center faculty member, Melissa Barker-Haliski, PhD, was senior author on a paper published in Neurobiology of Disease studying the…
Abhi Nath co-authors paper in PNAS examining small heat shock proteins
Plein Center faculty member, Abhi Nath, PhD, was a corresponding author on a paper published in PNAS examining small heat shock…
Lena Chaitesipaseut awarded scholarship from the UWRA
Lena Chaitesipaseut, a Plein Scholar and class of 2021 PharmD-MBA student, was recently awarded a $4,000 scholarship from the UWRA….
Tesfahun Eshetie begins Geriatric Pharmacotherapy Postdoctoral Research Fellowship
Tesfahun Eshetie, PhD, MScClinPharm, began a 2-year fellowship with the Plein Center as of July 1, 2020. He received his…
December 14, 2020
The Plein Center Welcomes New Assistant Director of Outreach, Abby Winter
For Abby Winter, the Plein Center’s new Assistant Director of Outreach, a passion for health care comes honestly. In addition…
June 16, 2020
Educating Our Seniors During A Pandemic
In an age of social distancing, ensuring our older adults have safe, convenient access to the medications they need is…
March 4, 2020
Chaitesipaseut awarded UWRA scholarship
Lena Chaitesipaseut, a Plein Scholar and class of 2021 PharmD-MBA student, was recently awarded a $4,000 scholarship from the UWRA….
February 19, 2020
Pharmacists can help solve our overmedication problem — if we let them
Imagine that your local grocery store announced they would start employing several nutritionists, each of whom had years of training…
September 24, 2019
Marcum first pharmacist to receive prestigious Beeson Award
Zachary Marcum, PhD, PharmD was recently awarded the Paul B. Beeson Emerging Leaders Career Development Award (K76) from the National…
September 13, 2019
A Tradition of Reinventing Pharmacy
Never doubt the profound impact that our faculty and alumni have had on health care nationwide through decades of advocacy…
July 1, 2019
Gray receives AGS Editor’s Choice Award for dementia research
Congratulations to Plein Center for Geriatric Pharmacy Director Shelly Gray who received the The American Geriatrics Society Editor’s Choice Award…
June 21, 2019
Meet the Plein Certificate Preceptors: Jason Rusk, PharmD, BCGP
Jason Rusk, PharmD, BCGP, has been a UWSOP Preceptor for many years. Earlier in his career (2010-2013), he precepted UW…
Meet the Plein Certificate Alumni: Grant Walker, PharmD
Grant Walker, PharmD, ’10, is a pharmacist at Mercury Pharmacy Services where he staffs the pharmacy and works as a…
Meet the Plein Certificate Faculty: Melissa Barker-Haliski, PhD
Melissa is a Research Assistant Professor specializing in translational epilepsy research. She develops and implements preclinical models to support the…
Meet the Plein Certificate Faculty: Nagham Ailabouni, PhD, Senior Fellow
Nagham earned her BSPharm, Postgraduate Certificate in Research Pharmacy, and PhD at the University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand. Her…
Hart’s research shows risk in older adults with dementia taking CNS-active medications
While competing the postdoctoral fellowship in geriatric pharmacy here at the UWSOP, alumna Laura Hart, PharmD, MS, BCPS, BCGP,’14, ’17,…
Congratulations to this year’s class of Plein Geriatric Certificate graduates!
We are so proud to celebrate this year’s class of Plein Geriatric Pharmacy Certificate graduates! Everyone was recognized at a…
June 14, 2019
Celebrating our 2019 Plein Student Scholars!
The goal of the Plein Student Scholarship is to foster student interest in geriatrics-related research. Research areas may include but…
March 27, 2019
Advice from UW pharmacists on senior use of marijuana
Marijuana use among older adults has soared in recent years despite little being known about the effectiveness and safety of…
December 17, 2018
CHOICE director Anirban Basu and collaborators receive NIH grant to study costs of dementia care
Team seeks to improve the projections of the future burden of the disease. Anirban Basu, director of the CHOICE Institute…
November 27, 2018
Barthold uses economics methods to improve dementia diagnosis and treatment plans across race, ethnicity, and sex
The newest researcher in The CHOICE Institute at UWSOP, Doug Barthold is taking a couple of approaches that use data and…
Collaboration with UWSOP results in health benefits against flu for Era Living residents
Last year’s flu season was one of the worst in nearly a decade. The people most susceptible to the flu…
Meet our Plein Center for Geriatric Pharmacy Preceptors: Neris Palunas
Neris M. Palunas, PharmD, BCGP, is a Consultant Pharmacist with Consonus Pharmacy, serving people in the Seattle area. Neris consults as…
Meet our Plein Center for Geriatric Pharmacy Alumni: Cara McDermott
Alumna Cara McDermott, PharmD, PhD, MSc, ’11, ’12, 16, is a K12 Scholar in the UW Implementation Sciences Training Program and…
Meet our Plein Center for Geriatric Pharmacy Faculty: Leigh Ann Mike
Learn the latest about the deprescribing education and outreach UWSOP faculty member Leigh Ann Mike provides to older adults and…
Marcum takes a multi-prong approach toward developing a dementia prevention strategy
The prospect of developing dementia is terrifying for most people, particularly for those with family members who have had the…
Plein Center students and faculty research highlighted at ASCP’s annual meeting
Our School’s faculty and students presented two posters at the ASCP Annual Meeting, and the abstracts are in the October…
Barker-Haliski’s novel research looks at the under-studied problem of epilepsy in patients with Alzheimer’s
People with Alzheimer’s disease can have up to an 87-fold increased risk of seizures. Patients with early-onset Alzheimer’s have the…
November 15, 2018
UW Researchers Gray and Phelan to study the impact of deprescribing to reduce falls in older adults
UW Pharmacy’s Shelly Gray and UW Medicine’s Elizabeth Phelan are teaming up to identify ways to prevent falls in older…