Focus on New Pharmacy Faculty With Allison Bell, PharmD

The James L. Winkle College of Pharmacy welcomes Allison Bell, PharmD, to the position of clinical associate professor. Bell is a native of Milford, Ohio and attended Randolph-Macon Woman’s College in Lynchburg, Virginia, earning a bachelor’s in biology. While her path to clinical pharmacy wasn’t a direct one, but we are happy she chose wisely and lighted at UC.

"I grew up in the Cincinnati area, and returned to the area for a few years after earning my BS (before moving to Atlanta for pharmacy school). Even though I have lived in many places throughout the South, I’ve always remained a Bengals fan. It’s good to be back in an area with Skyline chili and Graeter’s ice cream!”

 

When did your interest in pharmacy begin?
When I graduated with my degree in biology, I had no idea what career path I wanted to take. After working as an analytical chemist for a few years, I became interested in pharmaceutical sciences and the health care field. When I entered pharmacy school, I’d planned on earning a dual PharmD/PhD. I spent summers and free time during the school year in the laboratory, researching compounds that led to alterations of cell cycle regulatory pathways in human lung and rat liver cancer cell lines. Once I entered into clinical rotations in my P4 year I realized that I loved working in the clinical setting, even more so than working in the laboratory. Instead of continuing on with my PhD, I decided to pursue residency, with the ultimate goal of becoming a professor in pharmacy practice.

What is your academic pharmacy background?

I graduated from Mercer University College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences in Atlanta (’09). Following that, I completed a two-year pharmacotherapy residency combined with a master’s in pharmacy at the University of Texas at Austin College of Pharmacy/University of Texas Health Science Center San Antonio . My master’s thesis focused on the pharmacoeconomic impact of new agents in treating non-small cell lung cancer. My residency focus was a combination of adult medicine and critical care. After completing my residency/MS, I joined the faculty of the University of Mississippi School of Pharmacy as an assistant professor in the Department of Pharmacy Practice. My clinical practice site was on the University of Mississippi Medical Center at University Hospital in Jackson, Mississippi. I was a clinical pharmacist for adult internal medicine teaching teams. I served as faculty at "Ole Miss” for 6.5 years before joining faculty at UC.

Do you have a clinical focus?

In adult internal medicine, you are a jack of all trades, master of none. My interests span many areas, including liver, kidney and infectious diseases. I have published manuscripts for a wide variety of drugs/diseases; these publications include original research in antimicrobial stewardship, pharmacoeconomics, academia, community acquired pneumonia, and cancer. I have authored review articles in hepatitis C treatment, vancomycin dosing in elderly patients, new lipoglycopeptides, and fatty liver disease. This past fall I authored an Ambulatory Care Self-Assessment chapter on non-alcoholic fatty liver disease. Currently, I am a co-investigator on a grant focusing on risk and treatment stratification for patients suffering from Clostridium difficile infection. I have had the honor of presenting content for the GILN PRN at the 2016 ACCP Annual Meeting.

Why choose UC?

The James L. Winkle College of Pharmacy is well regarded in the pharmacy world. I wanted to be part of a program that produces excellent pharmacists and positively impacts the pharmacy profession. The immediate proximity to a large, academic medical center was also very important to me in terms of clinical practice. Many of the patients seen at these type of hospitals are high acuity and underserved, often allowing their disease to progress unchecked for many years. I feel it is important to serve these vulnerable patients, optimizing their care so they can achieve maximum health care outcomes.

There are goats!

I love being outdoors, and when I had free time I was into hiking, horseback riding, gardening, etc. Now that I have two young children I don’t seem to have any spare time. My husband and I have a small farm in Mississippi with two horses, five goats, two cats and a dog. We are hoping to find a place here where we can keep our goats.