ACCP is pleased to welcome Amanda Ferguson, Pharm.D., as the 2022–2023 American College of Clinical Pharmacy-American Society of Health-System Pharmacists-Virginia Commonwealth University Congressional Healthcare Policy Fellow.

For 15 years, this fellowship has offered pharmacists an opportunity to gain insight into health care policy analysis and development through immersion in the congressional environment. Over their year in the program, fellows are mentored in legislative evaluation, policy development, and research and writing.

Ferguson earned her Pharm.D. degree from Massachusetts College of Pharmacy after completing undergraduate requirements at Howard University. She is currently completing her master’s degree in public policy at Georgetown University. Between earning these degrees, Ferguson served as an active-duty commissioned officer in the U.S. Department of the Air Force and Defense Health Agency (DHA) for almost a decade. Her domestic and international experiences cover a broad range of clinical and operational pharmacy practices, academia, defense health care, and health care policy. Toward the end of her tenure, she served as the director of operations for a military treatment facility (MTF) in the initial year of the military health reform, part of which, she recalls, entailed the following:

All MTFs were mandated by Congress to transition from self-management to the authority, direction, and control of DHA. Such overhaul required complex coordination and policy rewrites to standardize health care delivery across all services of the entire military.

Through this experience, she observes, “I became more involved in health policy, and by the completion of this assignment, I was clear on the extent to which policies can impact people and how important representation is to these policy discussions.

Ferguson was originally inspired to pursue pharmacy because of pharmacists’ involvement in her mother’s care and treatment for sickle cell anemia. Their frequent interactions with her and her family and the attentiveness they showed to her mother’s care regimen made her realize just how impactful pharmacists could be in their patients’ lives:

Being her advocate throughout my life made me realize I wanted to pursue a career in health care. I found pharmacy most interesting as a child because of how accessible we are to our patients and how integral we are in their care, both in the hospital and when they return to their homes. To be in a position to help restore a person’s health or quality of life is truly a privilege.

As the next fellow, Ferguson hopes to use her background to better advocate for inclusive health care policies at the national level and provide a pharmacist’s perspective to lawmakers and other relevant constituents, noting:

Innovation really needs to be married up with policy change. We can make efforts at the tactical level to continuously try to innovate operations, but if the policies aren’t updated and aligned, there will continuously be bottlenecks.

After completing the fellowship, Ferguson hopes to continue working in health policy development in some fashion. “My dream job would be at the intersection of health care, policy, innovation, and social welfare,” Ferguson says, adding:

That could be a position on the Hill, a position with a health care consulting firm, or a position within a think tank. The opportunities are limitless and I’m excited to see how everything will unfold!

About the Healthcare Policy Fellow Program

Launched in 2006, this prestigious program offers pharmacists a unique, year-long health care policy learning experience in the U.S. Congress. Through this experience, pharmacists have the opportunity to gain insight into health care policy analysis and development through immersion in the congressional environment. The program begins in July with 1 week at the Brookings Institution and 3 weeks each with ACCP’s and ASHP’s government affairs offices, followed by 12 months on Capitol Hill.

Alumni Fellows

Since September 2021, the 2021–2022 Fellow, Tatiana Bujnoch, Pharm.D., M.S., BCPS, has served on the staff of the Committee on Ways and Means in the House of Representatives, on the Subcommittee on Health. The 2020–2021 Fellow, Nimit Jindal, Pharm.D., is serving as Health and Labor Legislative Assistant in the U.S. House of Representatives, working for Congressman Joseph Morelle (D-NY). After their year in the program, past fellows have gone on to engage in a variety of important roles in health care policy and government:

• Nilofar Jafari, Pharm.D., MPH, currently serves as a Pharmacy Benefits Management Clinical Informatics Pharmacist Program Specialist, U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.
• Rita A. Habib, Pharm.D., MPH, currently works as a full-time staff member in the office of Senator Michael Bennet (D-CO).
• Tracy Rupp, Pharm.D., MPH, is currently a Consumer Safety Officer, CDER Office of Compliance at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
• Daniel Nam, RPh, J.D., is now the Associate Principal, Pharmacy Policy at Avalere Health.

Applications for the 2023–2024 Pharmacy Healthcare Policy Fellow Program

Interested candidates should visit the pharmacy Congressional Healthcare Policy Fellow program website for more information and instructions on submitting an application. For more information, click here.