West Virginia University School of Pharmacy’s Betsy Meredith Elswick, Pharm. D, can provide a wide array of knowledge on immunizations.

Elswick is a clinical associate professor in the Department of Clinical Pharmacy at the WVU School of Pharmacy, and director of the WVU-Rite Aid Community Pharmacy Practice Residency.

Her areas of research interest include diabetes, rural health and the role of the community pharmacist in advancing patient care initiatives, including immunization delivery.

Elswick currently serves as co-chairperson for the Wigner Institute for Advanced Pharmacy Practice, Education and Research, an institute committed to advancing the role of the community pharmacist in West Virginia. She is a graduate of the WVU School of Pharmacy, and completed a pharmacy practice residency at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, Va.

Her current practice site, located in a Rite Aid Pharmacy in Grafton, was the first community pharmacy in West Virginia to receive status from the American Diabetes Association as a recognized program. In 2008, she was appointed to an ad hoc committee for the West Virginia Board of Pharmacy to finalize the rules to allow pharmacists to immunize in West Virginia.

Elswick serves as program faculty for the American Pharmacists Association immunization certificate program and has trained over 100 pharmacists to provide adult immunizations in West Virginia. She is a member of the WVU School of Pharmacy’s Weapons of Mass Destruction Task Force. She currently serves as president for the West Virginia Pharmacists Association and nominating committee for the West Virginia Association of Diabetes Educators.

Elswick’s past accomplishments include receiving the 2005 Innovative Pharmacy Practice Award, the 2006 West Virginia Distinguished Young Pharmacist Award and a 2007 Outstanding Teaching Award from the WVU School of Pharmacy first-year students. She is also the recipient of a 2007 Health Care Heroes award by the West Virginia State Journal and was named to the Lincoln High School Hall of Fame in 2009.

To set up an interview with Elswick contact Amy Newton, director of public relations for the WVU School of Pharmacy, at 304-293-7192 or anewton@hsc.wvu.edu.