2011-2012 American Society of Consultant Pharmacists President
Penny Shelton: The Complete Package
In her free time Penny Shelton, PharmD, CGP, FASCP, incoming president of the American Society of Consultant Pharmacists (ASCP), likes to go kayaking. Although Shelton admits that she has little time to get on the water, starting in November 2011 she will have even less time: That is when Shelton will take over the presidency of ASCP. “I hope to lead by example,” she says. “I see myself as a roll-up-the-sleeves kind of leader.”
The woman at the top of her pharmacy profession originally didn’t intend to go to pharmacy school. Good at math, biology, and chemistry, she wanted to become an engineer. But, after the school’s orientation, she knew that engineering wasn’t for her. Instead, Shelton took some time off between high school and college and worked full-time for a local independent pharmacy. Her interest in pharmacy developed during this hiatus, and eventually she enrolled in Campbell University College of Pharmacy & Health Sciences, Buies Creek, North Carolina, where she received her PharmD in 1991.
Her work in Stokes County, North Carolina, for an independent home care pharmacy and for the local hospital that had a skilled care unit peaked her interest in geriatrics. “Every day I could see the impact that medications made in the lives of my elderly patients; my eyes were opened to the potential for pharmacists in caring for older adults,” she explained.
In 1993 she began a two-year fellowship in geriatric clinical research and drug development at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, and began her consulting career. This was followed by a four-year stint as an assistant professor at Campbell University and clinical specialist in geriatrics at the Dorothea Dix Hospital, Raleigh, North Carolina.
“Her work in her fellowship and at Dix opened her eyes to problems in geriatric care and how pharmacy students need to be trained to help make a difference,” says Larry N. Swanson, PharmD, FASHP, professor and chairman, department of pharmacy practice, Campbell University College of Pharmacy & Health Sciences. “Her real desire is to take care of patients and meet their needs. Teaching students how to feel comfortable caring for older adults is her gift.”
Her desire to focus on new ways to care for seniors led to her work as the clinical manager of research and geriatrics at the Physician Pharmacy Alliance, a North Carolina group working with patients with complex medication regimens. She spent time providing medication regimen reviews and adherence assessments and analyzing the impact of this company’s patient care model.
Shelton’s breakthrough in geriatric care came as the program developer and director of the Medication for Drug Safety (MEDS) Program Resources for Seniors, Raleigh, where she worked for seven years. This direct service program was designed to help seniors take their medication appropriately and provide information to other health professionals. “Social workers and nurses in case management in the county constantly ran into questions about medications and didn’t know who to ask,” says Shelton. “They just knew that something wasn’t right.” This referral program allowed her to assess clients from the community by going into their homes and coordinating their medication needs with the physician and other providers.
Shelton states she spent most of her time one-on-one with clients, working to identify, manage, and prevent medication-related problems. She describes her work with clients as part pharmacist, part investigator. “She’s intuitive about what older people need,” says K. Paige Brown, PharmD, assistant director of experiential education at Campbell. “She recognizes their needs before they even know that they need them.” Shelton is particularly proud of her work with the MEDS Program, stating “I believe, at the time, I was the only pharmacist across the United States employed full-time by an agency for the aging to provide this type of service.”
Interested in returning to Campbell, Shelton approached the pharmacy school with a unique offer: The MEDS program could provide in-the-field education for its pharmacy students, working with a mentor, to assess older adults. It was one of those offers too good to refuse, and Campbell’s Swanson took her up on it. This push toward community-based learning and providing care became a theme in her career. “If anyone can move us into the community, it’s her,” says Jeffrey C. Delafuente, MS, FCCP, FASCP, a member of ASCP’s board of directors, and professor and associate dean, Virginia Commonwealth University School of Pharmacy. “She’s a pioneer in senior care pharmacy,” he says. “What she was doing was unusual at the time.”
Teaching students through the MEDS program led Shelton to her present position: vice-chair, experiential and continuing education, and associate professor, department of pharmacy practice, at Campbell. “She was the ideal person to hire for this job because she had been a pharmacist in the trenches with direct patient care experience,” Swanson said. “Because of her, our standards for students are very high.”
Shelton says her move to the experiential education position was the best decision of her career. She loves working with the students and serving as an administrator for the college. Shelton believes the leadership skills honed in her job have helped in her leadership path for ASCP. Brown indicates that Shelton is “a natural born leader with much to offer our profession.”
Shelton no longer precepts students in the clinical setting, but she continues to find ways to foster students’ interest in geriatrics. She is responsible for the establishment of the geriatric assessment elective, which she still teaches. She also mentors students on independent research projects. She co-advises the student ASCP chapter along with Ann Marie Nye. Students are just as enthusiastic about her. “She’s passionate about geriatrics, and it comes across in whatever she does,” says Aubri Charboneau, PhD, PharmD, who had Shelton as a mentor. To add to the mix, Shelton has developed a third-year elective on medication therapy management (MTM). Not surprising, “She was doing MTM long before other people,” notes Delafuente. Shelton loves working with the MTM students because it is often their first real clinical experience. She states “it is truly rewarding watching students gain confidence and get excited about their profession.”
As an ASCP board member, Delafuente expects that Shelton is someone who is going to step back and take a look at ASCP and see if something is working and, if not, find out how to make it better. “I expect she’ll ask critical questions such as ‘Why are we doing this?’” he says. “She has a lot of good ideas about how to make the association grow and what the organization can do for pharmacy,” adds Brown.
Delafuente agrees. “She has vision. Penny’s definitely a big thinker. I have a lot of respect for her ability to lead.” And those who know her expect her presidential year to be a collaborative experience. “She’s interested in what other people say and can bring it all together,” says Brown.
Shelton says she wants to reach out to members and get them involved. “Our members are extremely important to us—we wouldn’t exist without them,” she says. “We need them to help advance our mission and achieve our vision.”
Swanson calls her “an idea-a-minute person,” someone who is completely passionate about her work and can get things done. “I don’t know when she sleeps,” he mused.
Shelton does, however, sleep, spend time with her 13-year-old daughter, and watch movies, including action flicks.
Self-effacing about her accomplishments, she’d rather her achievements speak for themselves, says Brown. Others are not bashful about praising her.
“She’s the complete package,” says Swanson. “A great teacher. A great administrator. A great patient care provider.”
Article from the October 2011 issue of the American Society of Consultant Pharmacists, The Consultant Pharmacist
By Marlene Z. Bloom, Managing Editor, The Consultant Pharmacist