UAA-ISU PharmD assistant dean: 'I'd always wanted to come back to Alaska'

 

Years ago, Tom Wadsworth worked as a pharmacist in Fairbanks before moving back to his home state to serve as clinical professor at Idaho State University.

Though he lived in Idaho, he maintained his license in Alaska and kept in close contact with his Alaska pharmacy friends, not knowing he would someday return to train up-and-coming pharmacists here in the state.

When the pieces of a "PharmD" program finally fell into place in May 2015, Wadsworth was surprised to find himself the natural fit for the position of assistant dean of the new UAA-Idaho State University collaboration.

"I'd always wanted to come back to Alaska; I just needed the right opportunity," Wadsworth said.

He found it here at UAA.

Growing a fulfilling career

Wadsworth grew up in Pocatello, Idaho, and discovered early in his life that he had an affinity for science-especially chemistry. As a junior in high school, he won a class contest after making a battery out of a piece of fruit.

"My lab partner and I used copper electrodes and a pineapple," he recalled. "Our little pineapple created the most voltage ... and I won a basket of candy bars."

His mother was a nurse, so naturally he thought he, too, would become a nurse. She recommended that he connect with a pharmacist she worked with.

"She said the pharmacist at her hospital was a really nice guy and seemed to like his job-maybe it was something I should look into," he said. "So I hung out with him a couple of times."

He emerged from the experience fascinated with the profession.

Wadsworth's history with Alaska extends back to 2002. That's when he graduated from ISU with his doctor of pharmacy degree and immediately traveled up to Fairbanks to serve about four years as a clinical pharmacist at the Chief Andrew Isaac Health Center there.

"We serviced Interior Alaska up to Prudhoe Bay," he said. "I ended up leaving there to go do a residency at the VA in Boise, Idaho. Pharmacy residents don't make very much money, so I supplemented by flying up to Bethel a couple of times to work out there because they were paying big bucks for fill-in pharmacists. While I was out there, they offered me a job."

Wadsworth planned to take that clinical coordinator job and move back to Alaska, but a few weeks before the move, ISU approached with a permanent teaching position.

"With the residency being affiliated with the university, I'd done some teaching for them and I'd done some research and wrote a couple of papers, and they really liked my work, which surprised me because I was just a pharmacist passionate about patient care and really had no aspirations for academia," Wadsworth said.

ISU offered him a teaching position as an assistant professor. Wadsworth is now in his 10th year of teaching: he started at St. Luke's Internal Medicine as a clinical teacher as well as a board-certified pharmacotherapist and ambulatory care clinical pharmacist.

His first year there, in 2006, ISU received its first letter from UAA about a possible PharmD partnership.

"The college knew I had history here in Alaska," he said. "So they invited me to sit in on the development talks. I was viewed as knowing Alaska culture, I was still licensed here, knew many people from here and came up quite a bit to visit friends. My involvement was primarily about familiarity and feasibility...how to deal with the time zone issue, what are the seasons like, what's pharmacy practice look like, where's there a need, what's rural pharmacy look like."

Once UAA and ISU decided to move forward to the next step, Wadsworth bowed out and returned to his work as a clinical professor.

"I really didn't think much about the project after that," he said. "It was really 'out of sight, out of mind' for me and became something I would hear about occasionally at faculty meetings.

Over the years, Wadsworth continued to progress as a professor and clinician, learning what it is to be in academia. "I naturally took on more duties and responsibilities with the college," he said.

Last May, the agreement between ISU and UAA finally matured.

"The dean of the [ISU] College of Pharmacy said we think you're the guy for the assistant dean position there," Wadsworth said. "And I thought...I was dumbfounded. 'Really? You do?

"What they needed was somebody who knew Alaska and fluent with ISU culture, who could be the bridge between the two schools and the two states," he said. "I simply just found myself uniquely prepared for this opportunity."

'A central point of learning'

Back in 2002, Wadsworth left Fairbanks with two kids. This year, he returned with six.

"We got here Aug. 1, [2015]" he said.

Wadsworth and his family have settled back into Alaska life, school and sports. He often bicycles to work from his home in the Eagle River-Chugiak area.

"I love Alaska, I've always loved it," he said. "Eagle River is a wonderful place. And the family is doing good. My oldest is 16. He's a competitive runner; placed third in state in the 400-meter hurdles. We just found the community here is vibrant. It was easy to get our children involved and meeting good people. They're all acclimated now, doing great."

Wadsworth's excited about the world that's about to open up for the eight pharmacy students poised to begin learning in the new collaboration's inaugural class.

"We have a unique blend of circumstances here in Alaska that make it a very interesting setting for learning," he said.

Students from Alaska have a greater awareness of local difficulties like these, Wadsworth says, which will help them identify innovative ways they can help people.

"It's just another way the pharmacy school benefits the community," he said. "This becomes a central point of learning for everybody in the pharmacy community. It's really cool."

Written by Tracy Kalytiak, UAA Office of University Advancement