Alumni in Action: The Lewises help COVID-19 vaccination efforts at UIC College of Pharmacy
Richard and Elizabeth Lewis, PharmD '88, have dedicated their time and expertise to assist the UIC College of Pharmacy's Rockford campus with its COVID-19 vaccination efforts. We took a moment to chat with them about their experience giving back to their alma mater during the pandemic.
How did you all get involved in the COVID-19 vaccine administration efforts at UIC’s Rockford campus?
Both of us now practice pharmacy in non-traditional roles. I (Richard) have not been in direct patient care for years! As the COVID vaccine was coming into play it seemed like a great opportunity to get involved in a more direct practice and hopefully help in the monumental task ahead of us in getting millions of people vaccinated. I occasionally work with Mary Moody on some educational programming and simply asked her if she knew of any volunteer opportunities and she immediately thought of Rockford. We live in Bartlett, so that is about an hour’s drive but probably faster than driving into downtown Chicago.
Are there other ways that you and Elizabeth stay engaged with the College?
Our company ProCE often interacts with the College in continuing education collaborations or with faculty we recruit for our education programming. Indirectly, we stay in touch with several of our pharmacy school classmates!
How has COVID-19 impacted both of you, professionally?
I (Richard) work in continuing education so it mostly impacted our ability to host on-site educational events but, luckily, we had a great deal of experience with providing content virtually. With COVID, that exploded! Of course, we also worked to provide COVID-related education. Beth is a Drug Compliance Investigator in the Medical Cannabis Section of the State’s Department of Professional Regulation. With COVID, she had to adjust to working from home versus the State of Illinois building downtown Chicago and provide dispensaries with regulatory assistance as it related to their practices during a pandemic.
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To get involved in the College's efforts to vaccinate Illinois residents, visit The Illinois COVID-19 Pharmacy Vaccine Task Force.