College of Pharmacy students selected as 2026-2027 Columbus-Athens Schweitzer Fellows
Doctor of Pharmacy students Anitha Natarajan and Maya Subedi were selected as 2026-2027 Columbus-Athens Schweitzer Fellows.
The Schweitzer Fellows Program supports and trains emerging health-focused graduate and professional students in creating and carrying out service projects to address unmet community needs. The Fellows conduct a one-year community service project of at least 200 service hours, with at least 100 hours involving direct client contact. Fellows partner with an existing community agency in the Columbus or Athens area and have both an academic and a community-based mentor.
As a part of their project, they are partnering with the Helping Hands Health and Wellness Center to support uninsured and underinsured adult refugee patients. Their venture establishes a Pharmacist-Led Follow-up System dedicated to patients with chronic conditions like hyperlipidemia, hypertension and diabetes.
Through this initiative, they will conduct medication management and point-of-care testing during specialized evening appointments. They will also provide tailored educational materials translated into multiple languages to help overcome medication hesitancy and improve health literacy.
Natarajan and Subedi aim to alleviate the workload on primary providers, expand the capacity of the clinic, optimize the utilization of pharmacists within the interdisciplinary team and ultimately improve long-term health outcomes for the community.
