College Launches PAAN: a resource for racial justice

The MUSC College of Pharmacy is launching the Pharmacist Alumni Action Network (PAAN) to create a resource to provide leadership and support in addressing racial injustice, the College announced today. It will help the College:

• ensure that it is a safe space where every member feels valued
• identify tools for MUSC pharmacy graduates to be agents of change in their communities

The founding members of PAAN are all African-American MUSC pharmacy alumni who have been actively engaged as College advisors, mentors, and role models. In the wake of the civil unrest ignited by the murder of George Floyd, MUSC College of Pharmacy Dean Philip Hall reached out to these alumni for input on how the College could make a difference.

“We all feel a little desperate to act and be more than just another voice in the chorus condemning racism,” Hall said. “We want to act in ways that push levers of change and make a lasting impact. So our first act will be to listen. But it will not stop there. Our commitment is to take action on what we hear.”

The network arose as one of the ideas generated in a conference call Hall hosted with these five accomplished alumni leaders, who all agreed to be the network’s founding members:

As an initial action, the PAAN founding members encouraged the dean to create a safe space for the MUSC pharmacy family as a whole to share their own experiences, concerns, and/or suggestions about future actions regarding racial injustice. These virtual listening sessions are open to everyone in the MUSC pharmacy family, regardless of race, and will take place this summer. The feedback will help inform the immediate objectives and activities of the network.

“The purpose of these sessions is to dive deeper,” Hall said. “What are the questions we haven’t been asking? Are there things we can teach our students or resources we can provide our alumni that will help them deal with these issues? The objectives of this initiative extend far beyond the confines of our campus, but we’ll start where we can make an immediate impact – at home.”

Some of the questions already raised include:

• How do we ensure that minority students feel fully accepted?
• Are there cultural differences we’re not accounting for?
• What are the assumptions we make about a student’s upbringing or support network that might alienate students from different backgrounds?
• Are we providing the right kind of support for a student who is the first in their family to get a college or professional degree?
• How do you deal with a racist patient? A racist colleague?

Hall’s intention is to get a candid picture of the minority experience in the College, in the profession, and in the community.

“We will do whatever’s necessary to make sure that the experience of every student in the College of Pharmacy lives up to our values of diversity and absolute inclusion,” Hall said. “Diversity is a great gift that should be treasured. We will use our platform as a college of pharmacy to do what we can to help communities outside the College also value this gift.”

One long-standing goal of the College of pharmacy is increasing the diversity of its student body and it has established endowed minority scholarships, partnerships, and programs toward that end. 

“We want to remove more barriers,” Hall said. “We want to create more opportunities. We can all do more. The Pharmacy Alumni Action Network will help us identify new and better ways to accomplish these goals.”