Home

The AST Transplant Pharmacy Community of Practice was established in 2009 and is the third largest COP within AST with over 380 members. The goal of this COP is to provide a forum for transplant pharmacists and other professionals to network, exchange thoughts, share resources, collaborate on best practice solutions, develop research ideas, participate in educational activities, and promote the practice of transplant pharmacy. We encourage all individuals interested in transplant pharmacy to join this dynamic and growing community.

If you have any suggestions on how we can improve our online community OR if you want to be featured in the member spotlight, please email Barrett Crowther at Barrett.Crowther@uchealth.org.

Executive Committee 2019-2020

Chair: David Taber (2021)
Co-Chair: Barrett Crowther (2021)
Board Liaison: Lisa Potter (2020)
Nicole Alvey (2020)
Patricia West-Thielke (2020)
Joelle Nelson (2021)
Amanda Szczepanik (2021)
Early Career Member-at-Large: Mariesa Cote (2020)

Anne Kreiss (AST Staff Liaison) –akreiss@myAST.org

AST Happenings

Antonette Flecha, PharmD

Describe your current position.
I am a Clinical Transplant Pharmacy Manager for adults and pediatric patients at Montefiore Medical Center in New York. I work primarily with liver transplant and pediatric kidney transplant patients. I do all the immunosuppressive therapy management and dosing as well as managing all the medication management for the patients other comorbidities. I do both pre and post transplant patient education as well as extensive staff education on medications and transplant patient care and ways to enhance medication adherence.

Describe your education/training for this job.
I received my PharmD from Long Island University in Brooklyn, NY and then went on to do an ASHP PGY1 pharmacy residency at Brookhaven hospital. Once I decided to be a clinical pharmacist I concentrated on transplant and nephrology. Once I completed my residency I started my first job as a Clinical Transplant Pharmacist at SUNY Downstate Medical Center. I worked with both adult and pediatric life transplant patients. To this day I still work for SUNY Downstate as a pharmacology professor for their College of Medicine and Health Sciences.

What inspired you to become a transplant pharmacist?
My path to transplant was personal. I watched a family member suffer on hemodialysis and not get a kidney transplant. He eventually passed away from complications to kidney failure, and the years of dialysis really wore on him and his caretakers. It was such a sad and potentially preventable death. Once I went into Clinical Pharmacy I knew it was going to be in Transplant, and that I was going to help others where I couldn’t help my own family.

What is one of your favorite quotes?
Every Champion is a contender that refused to give up.

How do you manage stress?
I manage stress in a few ways: Cooking - I love making new recipes for dinner or appetizers. Being in the kitchen and cooking for my family helps me to forget what I’m stressed about; Exercise - I try and hit the gym almost every day, a healthy body equals a healthy mind and spirit; Spending quality time with my son, when I’m with him nothing else matters!

What is the hardest thing you’ve ever done?
This is a tough one… one thing is deciding ¾ through college as an English major, Journalism minor to do a complete 180 and go to school for my PharmD. But I am decisive and when I decide to do something there is nothing that will stand in my way.


What TV show are you embarrassed about watching?
I loved Game of Thrones. Sad it’s over but I didn’t hate the ending.

If you won the lottery, what is the first thing you would do?
By a winter home in the Florida Keys. I do not like the cold weather. I’d get one for my parents too; I wouldn’t be who I am or where I am today if they didn’t give me all the tools and strength I have. Then, I’d make a nice donation to my hospital's transplant program. 

Rosemary P Cross, PharmD, BCPS

Describe your current position.
I am one of three transplant clinical pharmacists at Piedmont Hospital in Atlanta, Georgia. We rotate services monthly and cover adult kidney, liver and pancreas transplantation inpatient and outpatient as well as liver, pancreas and cancer surgery inpatient services. We assist in many industry-sponsored investigational studies, as well as serve on the department’s QAPI committee. Additionally, we precept students from three Georgia schools of pharmacy and PGY1 residents at our own institution.

 
Describe your education/training for this job.
I received my PharmD from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. I then completed a PGY1 Pharmacy Practice Residency at Piedmont Hospital in 2004, right around when the UNOS bylaws were amended to recommend a dedicated pharmacist member of the team. I ended up staying on with the transplant department to help develop a rapidly growing program. I obtained BCPS certification in 2005 and the bulk of transplant knowledge I learned from great mentors at my center and neighboring states, with a lot of nights spent reading up on primary literature.

What inspired you to become a transplant pharmacist?
I was actually headed down the specialty path for Infectious Diseases.  Then I lost a game of rock, paper, scissors to my co-resident during PGY1, which allowed me to spend 6 weeks with the transplant program who was looking to expand services and utilize a dedicated pharmacist’s expertise. After residency, I accepted a position with transplant for what I thought would be a few years, and now 15 years later has proven to be a wonderful career.

What is one of your favorite quotes?
“Stay Gold” by S.E. Hinton from The Outsiders, that I interpret as staying true to yourself. I love it so much it’s tattooed on my right arm.

How do you manage stress?
It’s rare that I get stressed, I’m a pretty easy-going person. I like to make to-do lists and cross things off. I’ll read a book from my favorite YA fiction genre if I need a break from work-related stuff. I play tennis year-round with USTA and ALTA and do Tough Mudder full obstacle courses with my husband for fun.

What is the hardest thing you’ve ever done?
Raising three tiny humans to be kind and compassionate members of society challenges me every day.

What TV show are you embarrassed about watching?
Totally not embarrassed to say I love pretty much everything on the CW. My favorites right now are Riverdale, Roswell, Flash, Arrow, Legacies, DC Legends of Tomorrow, with Shadowhunters and Cloak and Dagger on FreeForm.

If you won the lottery, what is the first thing you would do?
Call my husband first, absolutely. Then I would put in for extended time off at work, fly the kids up to NJ to stay with my parents, and head to Australia to see the Koala bears.