Devra Dang, BCPS, CDE, FNAP, Associate Clinical Professor of Pharmacy Practice and Emily Perriello ’15 (Pharm.D.) have been named recipients of 2019 Advanced Practice Pharmacy Experience (APPE) Dennis J. Chapron Preceptor of the Year honors. Dang received the award for full-time faculty and Perriello received the adjunct award.
Each year, the graduating class of Pharm.D. students nominates APPE preceptors whose advice and encouragement have been particularly significant during the four years of their professional program. Preceptors can be selected from the greater community of pharmacists, representing community practice, institutional practice, and service learning. This year’s honorees come from the ranks of UConn School of Pharmacy faculty.
Dang is an associate clinical professor of primary care in the Department of Pharmacy Practice. She is also a core faculty member of the Urban Service Track, an inter-professional curriculum among UConn’s Schools of Dental Medicine, Medicine, Nursing, Pharmacy, and Social Work, and Quinnipiac University’s Physician Assistant Program. Her practice site is at the Burgdorf Primary Care Center in Hartford.
Following graduation from UConn in 2015, Perriello completed a PGY1 residency at Hartford Hospital and then a PGY2 in emergency medicine at Duke University Hospital. She worked as a pharmacist in the emergency department of North Carolina Medical Center prior to returning to Connecticut to assume her current position as Emergency Department pharmacist at Hartford Hospital.
In announcing their selection as faculty APPE Preceptors of the Year, Jill Fitzgerald, Pharm D., Director of Experiential Learning and Continuing Professional Development said, “These two preceptors were chosen among many nominations from this class in recognition of outstanding contributions to the educational development of future pharmacists [and] by demonstrating high standards of professionalism, ethics, and clinical practice. These awards are our way of recognizing and thanking those preceptors who go ‘above and beyond’ for our students every day.”
Among the comments in letters of recommendation from the P4 students were – about Dang – “She has been the most wonderful mentor and teacher in the last three years … I can say first hand that she goes above and beyond for her students … Dr.Dang is such an amazing pharmacist, and I aspire to be as great a teacher to my colleagues, students, and patients as she is to hers.” – student
And, about Perriello, “She provided opportunities to help foster my independence and help me work up to a resident’s speed … She is a phenomenal preceptor who taught me so much in one short month, I was eager to go into the rotation with her each day … She was extremely approachable and calm in stressful situations.” – student
The Preceptor of the Year awards are named in honor of Dennis J. Chapron who served as associate professor of Pharmacy Practice in the School of Pharmacy for 34 years. Known for his excellence in teaching, he twice received the School of Pharmacy’s Teacher of the Year Award and was named Preceptor of the Year in 2001.
A program honoring all 2019 Preceptors of the Year will be held in the fall, where recipients will be formally recognized for their many contributions to the education of UConn’s Pharm.D students.
