Kathleen Johnson
Holder of the William A. and Josephine A. Heeres Endowed Chair in Community Pharmacy
Today’s doctor of pharmacy (PharmD) credential has been the profession’s gold standard since USC pioneered it in 1950. There are currently some 800 pharmacy students in USC’s four-year program, which continues to push the envelope in pharmacy education with a reduced emphasis on classroom learning and intense focus on hands-on pharmacy experiences in remarkably diverse settings.
Unlike the cookie-cutter training found at most pharmacy programs, USC’s curriculum leaves room for students to stake out areas of pharmaceutical specialization. Dozens of electives span everything from managing sleep disorders to homeopathic remedies, the dynamics of substance abuse or psychiatric pharmacy practice. By the fourth year, the program is experiential: Each student rotates through six clerkships at sites across California and beyond, working under some 400 volunteer “preceptors” – veteran pharmacists who agree to coach fourth-year student pharmacists in their workplace.
“USC is on the cutting edge of pharmacy education by involving students, residents and faculty in several inner-city clinics,” says Kathleen Johnson, an associate professor in both pharmaceutical economics and the Titus Family Department of Pharmacy. “The clinics give our students an opportunity to see a different health-care setting,” adds Johnson, who co-directs USC’s community pharmacy program. “This is not Beverly Hills!”
In addition to the private clinics operating on Skid Row and in South Central and the Crenshaw district, Johnson says a new partnership with Queenscare Foundation will soon put USC pharmacy students to work in nonprofit clinics around Hollywood, Echo Park and central Los Angeles.