UAMS Pharmacy Student Named Ambrose Scholar

By Nate Hinkel

Brown is the fifth UAMS student pharmacist to be named as an Ambrose Scholar. Past recipients were Sarah Frank Uroza (2007), Pharm.D.; Eric Crumbaugh (2008), Pharm.D.; Ashley Castleberry (2011) Pharm.D.; and Corey Hayes (2013).

The program is planned and implemented by the Association for Prevention Teaching and Research, the professional organization for the academic public health community dedicated to prevention research and professional education. It introduces health professions students to influential public health professionals and prepares them to be leaders in addressing public health challenges.

The honor means Brown will attend a three-day leadership symposium June 20-23 with 40 health professions students from across the country with similar interests in prevention and public health. He also will implement a funded and mentored community project. He will receive a $200 reimbursable micro-grant to assist with project-related costs, as well as a travel stipend.

The Symposium provides skills-based training by leaders in public health. Past speakers have included Surgeons General, public health officials, industry experts and veteran public health practitioners.

With his micro-grant, Brown will work with media outlets to provide assistance to people seeking Medicare Part D plans. Via a link on the outlets websites, seniors would be connected to UAMS College of Pharmacy students who will help them find the right plan for their particular medical needs.

Brown, of Van Buren, is the son of Karen and David Brown. He attended Van Buren High School and the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville prior to attending UAMS.

At UAMS, he is a member of Rho Chi Honor Society and Kappa Psi Pharmaceutical Fraternity. He also serves as president of a newly founded graduate student chapter of the International Society for Pharmacoeconomics and Outcomes Research and is a graduate student in the College’s Pharmaceutical Evaluation and Policy program.

The scholars program is posthumously named for Paul W. Ambrose, M.D., M.P.H., a rising star in the field of prevention and public health who died in 2001. At the time of his death, Ambrose worked for the Association of Teachers of Preventive Medicine and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, serving as the seventh Luther Terry Fellow.

UAMS is the state’s only comprehensive academic health center, with colleges of Medicine, Nursing, Pharmacy, Health Professions and Public Health; a graduate school; a hospital; a statewide network of regional centers; and seven institutes: the Winthrop P. Rockefeller Cancer Institute, the Jackson T. Stephens Spine & Neurosciences Institute, the Myeloma Institute for Research and Therapy, the Harvey & Bernice Jones Eye Institute, the Psychiatric Research Institute, the Donald W. Reynolds Institute on Aging and the Translational Research Institute. Named best Little Rock metropolitan area hospital by U.S. News & World Report, it is the only adult Level 1 trauma center in the state. UAMS has more than 2,800 students and 790 medical residents. It is the state’s largest public employer with more than 10,000 employees, including about 1,000 physicians and other professionals who provide care to patients at UAMS, Arkansas Children’s Hospital, the VA Medical Center and UAMS regional centers throughout the state. Visit www.uams.edu or uamshealth.com.