PharmD students support Cincinnati neighbors on urban service-learning trip

“We are all one or two disease states away from crisis.” 

Rusty Curington, PharmD, vice president of pharmacy at the Society of St. Vincent de Paul and founder of the Charitable Healthcare Network Medication Access Program (CHN–MAP), waits for this to sink in.  

Dr. Curington addressed an audience of 15 Doctor of Pharmacy (PharmD) candidates from The Ohio State University College of Pharmacy, all visiting CHN–MAP as a conclusion to their seven-week Urban Pharmacy Service-Learning (UPS) course. 

As the founder of Ohio’s first statewide drug repository and a pharmacy leader at Cincinnati’s largest charitable healthcare organization, this reality is one that Dr. Curington is extremely familiar with. And while Ohio State pharmacy students are visiting, he is hoping to show them how they can provide hope despite the challenges that many community members face while seeking medical treatment. 

CHN–MAP was just one stop for the Pharmacy Buckeyes, who spent their fall break, October 15-17, rotating with Cincinnati healthcare partners like St. Vincent de Paul. On the capstone trip, students explored pharmacy practice in inner-city settings and learned how pharmacists are essential for community health. 

“We are preparing the next generation of pharmacists to understand their communities on a deeper level,” said Jennifer Rodis, PharmD, FAPhA, associate dean for outreach and engagement and professor at the College of Pharmacy. “The first seven weeks of this course highlighted the social determinants of health for inner-city community members. We talked a lot about the challenges, but also the opportunities and wonders of working, playing and living in an inner-city environment.” 

Dr. Rodis co-instructed the course alongside Christopher Hernandez, PharmD, BCACP, AAHIVP, clinical assistant professor; Rebecca Lahrman, PharmD, MS, BCACP, clinical assistant professor; and Susan Nguyen, PharmD ’12, BSPS ’08, BCACP, clinical associate professor. 

The UPS course was created to support the goals of the college’s Pathways and Recruitment Opportunities for Pharmacy Exploration and Learning (PROPEL) project. Funded by a grant from the McKesson Foundation, PROPEL aims to improve PharmD graduates’ preparedness to provide care in rural and urban communities through immersive learning opportunities. 

The visit to Cincinnati was the second installment of the service-learning series. In autumn 2025, 15 PharmD students wrapped up their Rural Appalachian Pharmacy Service-Learning (RAPS) course with a service-learning trip to Southeast Ohio. 

By showing practice settings vastly different from those encountered in Southeast Ohio, faculty encouraged students to problem-solve alongside patients, utilizing a new library of community and healthcare resources.  

“While both rural and urban communities have unique barriers to care, the stories behind them vary greatly,” Dr. Lahrman said. “Similarities in barriers do not mean that these patients are facing the same circumstances.” 

Understanding patients as neighbors

“As a college, we are focused on not only enhancing the health of folks living in urban and rural environments, but also enhancing their lives,” Dr. Rodis said. “This trip checks a lot of those boxes, asking students to step up and make connections with Cincinnati pharmacists and patients.” 

Over the three-day service-learning trip, students rotated at five unique practice sites: 

• Ambrose Clement Health Center 
• Altev Pharmacy 
• The Charitable Healthcare Network Medication Access Program (CHN–MAP) at St. Vincent de Paul Charitable Pharmacy–Milford 
• St. Vincent de Paul Food Pantry 
• St. Vincent de Paul Charitable Pharmacy–Cincinnati 

Moving between sites, a gradual change took place in the vocabulary of Ohio State students and faculty. The word “patient” was slowly replaced by “neighbor.”  

This conscious swap, introduced by the staff of The Society of St. Vincent de Paul, highlights the importance of engaging with patients as equals. 

“I want to use my pharmacy skills to meet patients where they are, treating the whole person rather than their symptoms,” reflected Joesie Schmotzer, a second-year PharmD candidate. “Opportunities like this trip provide students access to communities unfamiliar to them and open the door to serving those patients directly.” 

Schmotzer and her peers interacted with patients face-to-face as both healthcare professionals and community members. 

“When people think of ‘underserved care,’ they often don’t understand just how complicated that term is. Our ‘underserved population’ refers to such a diverse group of people and circumstances,” said Lydia Bailey, PharmD, director of pharmacy at St. Vincent de Paul. “The Ohio State students visiting us get to put a face to the populations they’re working with. That’s so important for them to treat patients effectively when they become providers.” 

As students moved between clinical sites and staple community services, like food pantries and community pharmacies, holistic treatment remained a clear throughline.  

At the St. Vincent de Paul Food Pantry, PharmD candidates helped visitors shop for their families’ food needs. At St. Vincent De Paul Charitable Pharmacy and Ambrose Clement Health Center, they shadowed counseling visits with patients, engaging in conversations about health goals and medication adherence. 

“Helping at practice sites and the food pantry was a reminder that medicine is an important part of patients’ health, but it’s not the only aspect that we need to care for as pharmacists,” said Cecilia Han, third-year PharmD candidate who also took the 2025 RAPS course. “A lot of the time, food or housing is going to be a higher priority for patients. Those topics can have just as big of an impact on their health and, ultimately, affect whether they will even engage with pharmacy.” 

New obstacles call for new solutions

Across the Greater Cincinnati Area, students and faculty noticed their rotation sites getting creative.  

At both Altev Pharmacy and St. Vincent de Paul Charitable Pharmacy, patients can take advantage of medication delivery and programs that utilize apps like Lyft to travel for appointments, food pantry visits and rent assistance meetings. 

Emmanuel Ayanjoke, PharmD, otherwise known as Dr. Manny, founded Altev Pharmacy as the first in the McKesson Foundation’s Project Oasis. Altev was established in a pharmacy desert with the hopes of closing gaps of care for community members, employing innovative pharmacy solutions and making care more accessible.  

“Two miles to your pharmacy might not seem extreme, but without reliable transportation, that turns into a 45-minute bus ride,” Dr. Manny explained. “What I’m most proud of is how our pharmacy listens to our patients’ needs and finds creative ways to solve those problems.” 

When a customer walks into Altev Pharmacy, they can find more than just prescriptions and over-the-counter medications. The pharmacy goes above and beyond, with medication-access services, inexpensive household and personal care items, and a help desk to connect community members to a variety of area resources. 

“I noticed that as we drove into Cincinnati, there were a lot of areas where we didn’t pass any pharmacies,” said Skylar Darnall, third-year PharmD candidate. “When we shadowed Dr. Manny, it was really clear that his pharmacy is providing important access and really building trust with patients by being there for them.” 

From major organizations like St. Vincent de Paul to independent pharmacies like Altev, pharmacists are in a wonderful place to get creative, know their community and support multiple aspects of patients’ wellness. 

“Our students received such a well-rounded experience,” Dr. Hernandez said of the service-learning trip. “They got to watch St. Vincent de Paul and the health center employ a lot of charitable community and healthcare supports, and then they also observed smaller, community-specific problem-solvers like Altev.” 

For students, the experience demonstrated just how many ways pharmacists can engage with and serve their communities. 

“Coming from a rural area, I’ve watched members of my family struggle with healthcare systems and shortcomings of community services,” said Grace Baker, second-year PharmD candidate. “Getting into the Cincinnati community showed me another side of underserved care and reinforced how pharmacists can make a difference simply by knowing a person or resource that can help their patients. The best thing you can do is listen and be there for them.”