Emily Belarski

Reasons for selecting this career path:

I have been passionate about working in pediatrics since before pharmacy school (one of my first jobs was as a swim lesson instructor!). I love the unique challenges that pediatric pharmacy poses and the necessity to truly cater each medication treatment to an individual patient. I knew that I wanted to work as clinical specialist in an academic medical center, therefore I chose to do a traditional PGY1 residency followed by a PGY2 in pediatrics.

Professional Interests:

• General pediatrics
• Cystic fibrosis
• Asthma
• Transitions of care
• Medication safety

Interest in the NPF Executive Committee:

I decided to take a break from formal leadership roles during residency, therefore I first joined the NPF during my first year post-residency as a member of the Membership and Outreach Advisory Group (MOAG). After my first year as a workgroup project lead I decided to apply for the Chair position in MOAG to challenge myself in a position with increased responsibility as I settled into the second year at my job. As Chair I have loved seeing the incredible work that all of the MOAG members have put into their projects this year. The launch of the ASHP NPF Twitter account has provided us an avenue to easily publish the deliverables from all of our hard work and see the immediate benefit our work has to new practitioners. I knew that I wanted to continue contributing to this growth as a member of the Executive Committee in order to help facilitate collaboration between the various advisory groups. I am particularly interested in the continued leverage of the Twitter account as an avenue for all advisory groups to share the resources they are creating with new practitioners more easily. In addition to contributing to the growth of the Forum I also wanted to use my involvement on the EC to gain a better understanding of where I can best contribute my efforts to ASHP in the rest of my career.

Benefits of being involved in ASHP as a New Practitioner:

The best part of being involved in the NPF is the relationships you develop. I love working with my peers across the country and building both personal and professional relationships. Between Twitter and Instagram, I truly feel like I have built friendships with people that I otherwise never would have met. Getting involved as a new practitioner has also given me a better idea of how I see my professional organization involvement evolving throughout my career. The relationships I have built across ASHP now will absolutely help me achieve those goals. My involvement in the NPF also fuels the passion I have for the pharmacy profession overall, not just focused on my small slice of pediatric pharmacy!