Kate Dryden, Pharm.D., MBA, is a PGY1 pharmacy resident at VA Puget Sound Health Care System. She earned dual Pharm.D. and MBA degrees from Washington State University in 2026. During pharmacy school, Dryden developed an interest in the intersection of pharmacy practice, health care operations, and research—an interest that has shaped both her professional involvement and her research agenda. She served as secretary of her ACCP Student Chapter and as its Emergency Medicine Focus Group leader, and she competed in both the ACCP Clinical Research Challenge and the ACCP Clinical Pharmacy Challenge, advancing to the national round of the Clinical Research Challenge.
During her residency, Dryden is building expertise in clinical practice, pharmacy operations, and organizational leadership. Her management rotation has provided experience in the administrative, strategic, and operational aspects of health system pharmacy, including how pharmacy leaders balance high-quality patient care, workforce considerations, regulatory compliance, quality improvement, and fiscal responsibility. She has particularly valued analyzing how operational strategies can reinforce effective medication use systems while ensuring the long-term sustainability of pharmacy services. Her residency also includes rotations in emergency medicine, bone marrow transplantation, primary care, and inpatient mental health.
Dryden’s research interests center on the fiscal impact of pharmacist involvement in patient care and how advances in medication therapy may influence hospital cost structures. She has participated in research collaborations resulting in publications and national poster presentations. Among her most meaningful projects is the MedOpt CKM Change Package, for which she contributed to several publications and developed practical resources to help pharmacy practitioners implement comprehensive medication management for cardiovascular-kidney-metabolic disorders.
Dryden’s path to pharmacy began in the ED, where she worked before pharmacy school and saw firsthand the impact pharmacists can have on patient care. The COVID-19 pandemic further shaped her career goals. “I became increasingly aware of how much I wanted to do more for patients during some of the most difficult moments of their lives,” she says. Working through the earliest months of the pandemic proved especially formative because she saw patients who lacked access to care arrive in emergency situations. Navigating the uncertainty and rapidly changing needs of both patients and health care professionals motivated her to pursue pharmacy so that she could contribute to patient care more meaningfully.
As she progressed through pharmacy school, Dryden found that she was drawn not only to caring for individual patients but also to looking after the systems that make high-quality care possible. Her experiences across several practice settings, together with pursuing an MBA alongside her Pharm.D., helped her recognize how much she enjoys working at the intersection of clinical care, operations, and leadership. These experiences ultimately led her toward health system pharmacy.
The mentors Dryden has encountered throughout pharmacy school, residency, and ACCP have continued to shape her path. She credits them with challenging her to think broadly about what pharmacists can contribute—not only to individual patients, but also to health system care overall—and with inspiring her to pursue leadership and seek opportunities to create lasting, positive change in the profession.
Dryden approaches innovation by first understanding the needs of those affected by a change. A solution that looks ideal on paper, she notes, may not succeed if it does not fit the realities of patients, practitioners, or health system leaders, so she seeks input early, identifies shared priorities, and builds solutions collaboratively. Her training has taught her to weigh both the clinical and the operational sides of a problem, asking not only whether a change will improve patient care but also whether it is feasible, sustainable, and valuable. She views innovation as an iterative process and believes the best solutions come from bringing diverse perspectives together.
For Dryden, effective advocacy begins with demonstrating the value that pharmacists bring to patient care. She believes advocacy is most powerful when it is grounded in evidence and measurable outcomes. Whether through direct patient care, research, quality improvement, or leadership, pharmacists have an opportunity to show how their expertise improves outcomes, expands access to care, and supports health system sustainability.
Her advice to pharmacists who want to become stronger advocates is to become knowledgeable about issues that affect their patients and profession, understand the perspectives of different stakeholders, and communicate effectively with different audiences. “A compelling clinical argument may need to be framed very differently for a patient, physician, health system leader, or policymaker,” she says. Dryden emphasizes that advocacy does not require a formal leadership position. Volunteering for projects, participating in professional organizations, contributing to research, and speaking up when there is an opportunity to improve care are all forms of advocacy. Building relationships matters just as much, she adds, because some of the most effective advocacy happens when pharmacists collaborate with colleagues who share a common goal.
After her PGY1 training, Dryden intends to complete a PGY2 residency in health system pharmacy administration and leadership. Integrating her clinical expertise with her MBA background, she aims to build a career in pharmacy leadership focused on designing innovative clinical services, assessing their organizational impact, and advancing medication use systems.
Outside pharmacy, Dryden is an avid knitter with one goal she has yet to accomplish: knitting a traditional Fair Isle sweater in the Shetland Islands, using locally sourced wool and learning the craft where the tradition originated. She would especially enjoy the opportunity to combine this hobby with travel, history, and learning from the people who have preserved the tradition.