Pharmacy Innovators Podcast

In the first of four parts of our series on Pharmacy Automation Projects, we're going to discuss what goes into initial planning.

Kennedy was Born and raised in Olympia, WA, and is a student at Washington State University (WSU) College of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences in Spokane

Kennedy was elected the National President for APhA-ASP in 2021 and has been an advocate for promoting diversity, equity and inclusion within the profession as well as the power of advocacy by promoting pharmacists to join together through professional organizations.

Outside of pharmacy, her hobbies include hiking, catching up with family and friends, playing piano, doing puzzles, playing Beat Saber, and hanging out with her two cats, Harrison and Ellinor.

Amar Festic is in charge of Business Development and sales for Loccioni USA, an innovation company focused on high end robotics for hospital pharmacies. He is one of the nation’s experts in robotics applied to IV compounding and has spent 10+ years implementing complex robotics projects and integrated platforms, working with some of the leading institutions in the United States (Mayo Clinic, Cleveland Clinic, Johns Hopkins, Ohio State, Froedtert Health and others) as well as Europe and Asia. Areas of interested and work cover oncology as well as non- hazardous compounding, both in hospitals and 503B settings.

Today on the show we have Pharmacist Dr. LaQuoia Johnson! LaQuoia is more than a pharmacist these days, she's also a life coach and educator that focuses largely on diversity, equity and inclusion. 

LaQuoia started a program called Grace Culture that gives a framework for training people on diversity in the workplace. 

If you'd like to contact LaQuoia, reach out to her by email at: 

[email protected]

Today on the Pharmacy Innovators Podcast we welcome Alex Varkey. Alex is the Director of Pharmacy at Houston Methodist Hospital - Texas Medical Center in Houston, TX. Alex received his PharmD from the University of Houston in 2005. He then completed a two-year administrative residency at Nationwide Children's Hospital in Columbus, OH while completing his Master of Science in Health-System Pharmacy Administration at The Ohio State University in 2007.

Today we're going to be discussing pharmacist burnout and about some of the interesting things Alex has been doing in this area to help alleviate the issue. 

On the first episode of Pharmacy Unscripted we welcome CEO of Visante, James Jorgenson. James is a pharmacy leader with over 30 years of experience in hospital management and leadership.