Residents, Paul Bush honored at Pharmacy Residency Graduation

The nationally-acclaimed pharmacy residency program at the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC) graduated its Class of 2021 on June 25, holding a ceremony at St. Luke’s Chapel on the MUSC campus. Former MUSC pharmacy director Paul Bush, who currently serves as vice president of global resource development and consulting at the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists (ASHP), was keynote speaker and recipient of the William H. Golod Award.

The ceremony honored graduates of both the post-graduate year one (PGY1) program, which was founded in 1957 and is one of the country's oldest, and the post-graduate year two (PGY2) program, which offers additional training in a specialty area. Some graduates were also awarded certificates for completing the Research Certificate Program or the Academician Preparation Program. Other awards included Preceptor of the Year for Joseph Mazur, Resident Volunteer of the Year for Cassandra Carter ’19, and recognition of chief residents John David Scheper, Jr. (PGY2) and Aaron Hamby (PGY1).

Bush is a highly accomplished leader with more than 40 years of experience in hospital and health-system pharmacies. He has served as chief pharmacy officer at Duke University Health System in Durham, N. Car., where he was responsible for pharmacy services for Duke University Hospital and Clinics, a 979- bed academic medical center. He has also served as director of pharmacy at MUSC, St. John Health System in Detroit, and Detroit Osteopathic Hospital, and has held faculty appointments at the University of North Carolina, Campbell University, MUSC, and Wayne State University colleges of pharmacy. He earned a bachelor of science in pharmacy from the University of Michigan and a Pharm.D. and MBA from Wayne State University

MUSC Pharmacy Residency Class of 2021

Landing a residency is a highly competitive business and the residency Class of 2021 came from all over the country. Many of them will now spread back out around the country once more.

Highlights of each resident and their plans

The PGY2 residents are back off to places like the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy, University of Louisiana Health, McLean Hospital, Wake Forest Baptist Health, Penn Medicine, Dell Children’s Medical Center, and National Guard Hospital in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

But Marwah Alnewais, a PGY2 ambulatory care pharmacy resident, will be staying at MUSC as the first awardee of a new academic fellowship at the MUSC College of Pharmacy. After graduating from King Faisal University, she came to MUSC because it is an academic medical center and she was interested in teaching and precepting opportunities.

Having completed both the PGY1 and PGY2 at MUSC Health, she’ll blaze new ground with the fellowship, which prepares pharmacists seeking a career in pharmacy education. The program trains academic pharmacy fellows to become active faculty members at a college or school of pharmacy upon their hiring. 

Most of the PGY1 residents are shifting into MUSC’s PGY2 program, though some are heading off to places like University of California-Davis Health, Jackson Memorial Hospital, University of Virginia Health, and Advent Health. 

Allison Fabrick is one of the ones continuing her education at MUSC. A biology major at Clemson, she earned her Pharm.D. at the MUSC College of Pharmacy before joining MUSC Health for her PGY1. Fabrick’s interests lie in internal medicine and critical care, so she’ll be doing a Pharmacotherapy PGY2 at MUSC.

“Having stepped directly into a residency from my previous role as a student at MUSC, the same principles that brought me to this great institution further incited my decision to stay,” she said as she entered the program. “From decades of vetted precepting to hands-on mentorship, MUSC offers a foundation that emphasizes a true investment in their pharmacists, both personally and professionally.”