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Official Newsjournal of the Illinois Council of Health-System Pharmacists

ICHP Leadership Spotlight
Meet Ashlie Kallal, PharmD, CLSSBB

What is your leadership position within ICHP?
I am the Sangamiss Chapter President-Elect. My primary responsibility in this role is to plan the monthly CPE meetings for our members.

Describe your practice site.
I am the Supervisor of Medication Safety at Memorial Medical Center. As the Medication Safety Officer, I am responsible for the quality and safety of the medication use process. I also serve as a PGY-1 preceptor for the Medication Safety learning experience and am responsible for our Investigational Drug Service.

How did you know that pharmacy was for you?
Attending pharmacy school at Butler University was a clear career choice for me. I had always been interested in the medical field with special interest in science and math. My sister attended Butler University for pharmacy, and I fell in love with Butler during the many weekends I spent visiting her over the years. I love what I do and know that pharmacy was the right choice for me.

What are some challenges that you face in your practice?
A current challenge - and a medication safety focus – involves the safe use of opioids. This issue touches almost every patient we encounter. We have worked to identify high-risk patient populations and to implement process improvements to reduce the risk of opioid associated ADEs. Our current focus is safe opioid use in patients with renal insufficiency. We recently implemented additional electronic alerts to identify these at-risk patients at the time of order entry. We will continue to monitor prescribing habits to evaluate if these alerts have made a positive impact on opioid prescribing in this patient population.

What makes ICHP great?
ICHP offers many great leadership opportunities. There are so many different ways you can become more involved, and you can do so at a level that you are comfortable with, as your time allows. Not only will you benefit from these experiences, you are also positively impacting the pharmacy profession and your pharmacy peers.

Tell us about when your first experience with ICHP.
I initially joined ICHP to participate in the monthly Sangamiss CPE meetings. I am able to network with pharmacy peers while earning CPE and enjoying dinner and drinks! I now know more about all that ICHP has to offer, but these monthly meetings remain a personal favorite.

Do you have any advice for students?
I think it is important that as a pharmacist you become a self-learner. Pharmacy is constantly changing and evolving, and we must continue to learn and grow our skills and knowledge.

What special interests or hobbies do you enjoy outside of work?
I am a mom to three boys and spending time as a family is what I enjoy most of all. We enjoy traveling and camping, and I love to cook. I am always trying new recipes and picking up tips and tricks from The Food Network.

Where is your favorite place to vacation?
I love to travel and cannot narrow it down to a single favorite. We did recently take an amazing trip out west. We drove over 5,000 miles through ten states and visited five national parks. Yellowstone was the highlight of this trip for me. Our next big adventure to Alaska was planned for this summer but has been rescheduled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. ■