Dr. Jeannie Lee from UA College of Pharmacy Named Geriatrician of Year

Jeannie K. Lee, PharmD, assistant head of the Department of Pharmacy Practice and Science at the University of Arizona College of Pharmacy and an associate professor in the same department, has been named the 2015 Geriatrician of the Year by the Arizona Geriatrics Society.

Each year, the AzGS recognizes and honors exemplary and outstanding health-care professionals who are passionate about caring for older adults and have made significant contributions in the field of geriatric medicine or gerontology. Nominees are evaluated based on their demonstration of exemplary interprofessional geriatric practice or education, their impact in the community or place of employment and their scope or length of service.

Dr. Lee is also a research associate and faculty member of the UA Center on Aging in the Arizona Geriatric Workforce Enhancement Program, funded by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

In nominating materials for the award, Dr. Lee is praised for working tirelessly to train and mentor pharmacists, student pharmacists and others, including medical, public health, social work and nursing students. She is described as “dedicated to providing as much as she can to each student in their clinical year. These experiences facilitate students’ learning, which results in pharmacists with a more robust geriatric knowledge-base.” The nomination continues, “Perhaps one of the qualities that make her so wonderful to work with is her inherent kindness; she genuinely values the input of each person she works with and the well-being of all patients.”

Dr. Lee attended the American Society of Consultant Pharmacists national conference in October to present her work on a geriatric curriculum guide for pharmacy schools and training programs, as well as posters on aging research. She has published numerous research articles in journals, including the Journal of American Geriatrics Society, Medical Care (a journal of the American Public Health Association), the Journal of the American Medical Association, and the Journal of the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists. Dr. Lee is working on the National Institutes of Health-funded project, “Chronic Disease Health Beliefs, Medication Adherence and Health Literacy,” with the UA Department of Anthropology, as well as another project, “National Center for Integrative Primary Healthcare,” funded by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to the UA Center for Integrative Medicine.

A graduate of the University of Georgia College of Pharmacy, Dr. Lee completed residency training at the VA Medical Center in Washington, D.C. In addition to her faculty appointment in the UA College of Pharmacy, she has a cross-appointment in the UA College of Medicine – Tucson. She practices interprofessionally at the Southern Arizona VA Health Care System and at Banner – University Medical Center Tucson.

Media Contact: Ginny Geib