Leadership

Grand President Christine Bryant was born in Anaheim, California but spent most of her childhood growing up in Indianapolis, Indiana. She joined Kappa Epsilon as a pre-pharmacy student in 2010 and was officially initiated into the Pi Chapter in 2012. She received her Doctor of Pharmacy degree from Purdue University in 2016 and continued her post-graduate education with a pharmacy practice residency in Indianapolis at Indiana University Health. She then went on to complete her specialty residency in pediatrics at Riley Hospital for Children at Indiana University Health.

Christine now lives in Crozet, Virginia where she is a Pediatric Clinical Pharmacist at UVA Children’s specializing in pediatric solid organ transplant and hospital medicine. Given her passion for preparing the next generation of pharmacist a lot of her practice focuses on precepting students and pharmacy residents in a variety of pediatric subspecialties, to show them that pediatrics isn’t so bad!

Her Kappa Epsilon involvement includes serving as historian, vice president, and president of Pi chapter during her collegiate years. Upon graduation from Purdue, she became involved with the Indiana Alumni Chapter in Indianapolis until she moved to Virginia. This is her fourth biennium on Grand Council, serving previously as VP Membership Recruitment, VP Collegiate Development, and most recently President Elect. She is ecstatic at the opportunity to continue to serve the Fraternity on Grand Council and help pave the way for the next generation of pharmacists, our future pharmacy and fraternity leaders.

In her free time, Christine enjoys running, hiking, rock climbing, country music, dogs, and anything leopard print.

Alicia Brenner is originally from Wellington, Florida, and is now residing in Arlington, Texas. She received her Doctorate of Pharmacy from the University of South Florida Taneja College of Pharmacy and is currently completing a PGY1 residency at Methodist Dallas Medical Center. She is elated to continue pursuing her long-standing passion for solid organ transplant next year, with a PGY2 SOT residency at University Health in San Antonio, TX.

Alicia was initiated into the Beta Tau chapter in 2018 and held the positions of Membership Recruitment Chair and President. She also served as an intern to the President-Elect for the 2019-2021 biennium and is ecstatic to continue learning and working with Grand Council for the years to come.

In her free time, Alicia loves reading a good book, relaxing on her couch, or working on diamond paintings. She also loves line dancing and is a big Disney fan! 

Born and raised in Findlay, Ohio, Alexis Youngpeter will graduate from Ohio Northern University in May 2022 with minors in leadership and business administration. After working as an inpatient pharmacy intern, Alexis has found a love for staffing and clinical pharmacy as well as emergency medicine. Upon graduation she hopes to obtain additional training in one of these settings before landing a job as a health system pharmacist in Columbus, Ohio where she currently resides.

Alexis has been involved with Kappa Epsilon her entire collegiate life and took on a leadership position just one month after being initiated in 2016 and has served as a member of the Psi chapter’s executive board for four years. During her year as chapter president, she also had the opportunity to serve as a voting delegate at the 49^th KE Convention in Charleston, SC. It was here that Alexis realized her true passion for KE and the profession of pharmacy and decided to take her service for the fraternity to the next level. Upon finishing her duties as Psi chapter president she became one of the first Grand Council interns working under Past Grand President, Erin Lingenfelter.

In the rare instance she is not working, studying, or dedicating time to Kappa Epsilon, Alexis loves to create and sell pieces of unique artwork, participate in just about any adrenaline-pumping activity, snuggle any cat or kitten that comes her way, and enjoy time visiting with family and friends.

President Elect Nikkina Hankins, PharmD is a native of Olive Branch, MS. She was initiated into Kappa Epsilon’s Alpha Gamma chapter in 2009 while attending the University of Mississippi. She transferred to the Alpha Pi chapter in 2014 and graduated with her Doctor of Pharmacy degree from Howard University in 2018. Nikkina completed her PGY-1 Community Pharmacy Residency in June 2019 with Lipscomb University and Marcrom’s Pharmacy in the Nashville and Central Tennessee area. Nikkina currently serves as a Clinical Pharmacy Specialist at an Outpatient VA Clinic in Hopkinsville, KY.

Nikkina has a long record of service to Kappa Epsilon and the profession of pharmacy. She has served as Chaplain, Vice President, and President in Kappa Epsilon in her local chapters and the National Grand Council as VP Membership Recruitment during the 2017-2019 biennium and VP of Communications during the 2019-2021. 

When Nikkina is not concentrating on the practice of pharmacy, she loves finding new crafts, reading books, and special cuddles with her cat. She is an avid crocheter, knitter, and painter. She finds most of her inspiration from Pinterest.

VP Alumni Development Kristina Rosus was born and raised in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. She attended Purdue University College of Pharmacy in West Lafayette, Indiana and then returned to the Steel City after graduation in 2018. After a brief stint as a Clinical Pharmacist, she found her professional passion as a Medical Science Liaison with AbbVie in 2020.

Kristina has a long record of service to Kappa Epsilon and its members. She has served as Alumni Liaison, Convention Delegate and President for her initiating chapter, Purdue’s Pi chapter. During the 2019-2021 biennium she served her first National Grand Council role as VP Collegiate Development. In 2020 she collaborated with then VP Alumni Development, Dr. Melissa Ruble, to create the Zada Network Book Club. She is excited to continue fostering the lifelong KE bond among our alumni and collegiates!

When Kristina is not traveling for work or furthering her KE outreach she can be found reading, planning her next girls’ weekend, or trying the latest workout trend (even if she wonders why she is putting herself through it the entire time). She can also be found showing off pictures of her cat, Astraea, at any time!

Secretary Ashley Sotoodeh is originally from Irving, Texas and resides in Chicago, Illinois. She attended The University of Texas at Austin College of Pharmacy and is currently a Managed Care Pharmacy Resident at Health Care Service Corporation/Blue Cross Blue Shield of Illinois.

Ashley joined Xi chapter where she was initiated in the fall of 2017. She has served as service co-chair and two terms as president of her chapter. During this time, she was awarded the Zada Cooper Scholarship in 2019. Nationally, she has served as VP of Membership Recruitment during the 2019-2021 biennium. She is excited to stay on Grand Council and continue to assist chapters in any form needed!

Ashley enjoys traveling, hiking, trying new coffee shop, and bullet-journaling in her free time. 

Laura Wilson is an Outcomes Liaison Director for the North America General Medicines Division of Sanofi.   She received her Doctorate in Pharmacy from the University of Kansas and participated in a Pharmacoeconomics Research Fellowship with Thomas Jefferson University.  Laura’s experience within the pharmaceutical industry has continued for twenty years, with  varies roles of increasing responsibility within field based medical affairs.  She has been recognized by her organization with the North America Rising Star award for exceptional performance.  Laura is a current and active member of the Academy of Managed Care Pharmacy, the American Diabetes Association and Kappa Epsilon.  She also takes an active role with local philanthropic organizations.  She was a founding member of the Kansas Antibiotic Resistance Coalition, a member of the Kansas Asthma Coalition, created a women’s breakfast series in downtown Kansas City, ran the pharmacy for a medical mission in Honduras, and provided medical support for a clinic in Malawi, Africa.  Laura was initiated into Mu Chapter in 1997, was Mu Chapter President 1998-1999, served on Grand Council as Vice President of New Member Recruitment 1999-2001, and is currently the Foundation Board of Trustees President.  Laura was the 2020 Merck Vanguard Leadership Award Recipient.  She credits Kappa Epsilon with providing a foundation with which to build her leadership skills.

Donna Heffner is currently VP, Global Market Supply Operations in the Global Product Development & Supply organization of Bristol-Myers Squibb. Prior to this role, she was the VP, integrated Product Strategy at BMS. Before joining BMS, Donna was at Merck for 25 years where she held various positions of increasing responsibility in Quality, Technology, Procurement, Commercial, Product Development, Regulatory, Supply Chain, Product Strategy, and Business Development. Donna has a BS in Pharmacy from the Philadelphia College of Pharmacy & Science (now the University of the Sciences in Philadelphia) and an MBA from the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania.

Donna’s KE Career began at the Philadelphia College of Pharmacy and Science where she was initiated into Omicron chapter and served as Omicron chapter President for two years. She went on to serve at the national level by serving on Grand Council in two offices, co-chairing the National Convention in Philadelphia, founding/leading the National Alumni Interest Committee, and most recently serving as President and Secretary on the Foundation Board of Trustees. Donna has been the recipient of multiple KE awards, most notably the Zada Cooper scholarship, the Linda Rodgers Award, the Career Achievement Award, and the KE/Merck Vanguard Award.

Jeanie Brown was initiated into Kappa Epsilon Mu Chapter at the University of Kansas in 1984. She received her BS Pharmacy, PharmD and MBA from KU. Jeanie has served as the Mu Chapter Advisor or Co-advisor since 1989 and was the Grand Council VP Alumni Development from 2003-2005. Her professional pharmacy career includes retail, university student health, long term care, pharmacy benefit management, pharmacy director at Blue Cross Blue Shield of Kansas, and currently as a pharmaceutical medical science liaison.

Rosalie Sagraves is dean emerita and professor emerita at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) where she served as dean and professor at the College of Pharmacy. She also served as co-director of the UIC/US Department of Health and Human Services Center of Excellence in Women’s Health. Later, she was a consultant for the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy (AACP) in the area of global pharmacy education. She previously served in various academic and clinical positions at the University of Oklahoma (OU), University of Texas at Austin and The Ohio State University (OSU). She received her BS degree in pharmacy from OSU and her PharmD degree from the Philadelphia College of Pharmacy & Sciences (USciences). Her areas of education/research include pediatrics, women’s health and global pharmacy education.

Dr. Sagraves has been actively involved in the pharmacy profession throughout her career. Some of her professional activities include service to AACP as chair and secretary of the Section of Teachers of Pharmacy Practice, chair of the Council of Deans, member of the Board of Directors, Brodie Scholar, Interim Chief Science Officer and a founder and first chair of the Global Pharmacy Education SIG. She was a member of the American Pharmacists Association (APhA) Board of Trustees, president of its Academy of Pharmaceutical Research and Science, a founding associate editor of Pharmacy Today and an APhA fellow. She is an American College of Clinical Pharmacy (ACCP) fellow and chaired its Women’s Health Task Force. She served on the National Institutes of Health Office of Research on Women’s Health Advisory Board, its Women’s Health Research for the 21st Century Task Force and other advisory committees.

She has served Kappa Epsilon (KE) in various capacities including chapter advisor at the University of Texas at Austin and the University of Oklahoma, national president and treasurer, and the KE Foundation as president and board member. She is a member of Rho Chi, Phi Lambda Sigma and Lambda Kappa Sigma (honorary member).

Dr. Sagraves has received various awards for outstanding teaching and leadership such as the KE Merck Vanguard Leadership Award, Career Achievement Award and Key of Excellence. The Professional Fraternity Association presented her with its Career Achievement Award. The OU College of Pharmacy presented her with a Teaching Excellence Award and ACCP gave her an Outstanding Educator Award. The OSU College of Pharmacy presented her with a Distinguished Alumnus Award. She has been awarded multiple Who’s Who awards including the Albert Nelson Marquis Lifetime Achievement Award. Dr. Sagraves gave the 2018 OSU Doctor of Pharmacy graduation/hooding presentation.

Gay Dodson is a 1969 graduate of the University of Texas at Austin, College of Pharmacy. After graduation, Gay worked as a community pharmacist in the Dallas area for 13 years. While working as a community pharmacist, she was an active member of the local, state, and national pharmacy associations.

Gay has retired from her employment with the Texas State Board of Pharmacy on December 1, 2017. She began her employment with the agency in November 1982 by serving for 2 years as Field Compliance Officer in the Houston Area, 3 years as Senior Compliance Officer in the Austin office, and almost 10 years as Director of Compliance.  On June 28, 1997 she was appointed as Executive Director/Secretary of the Board. In her position as Executive Director, Gay served as the chief executive officer of the agency and an ex-officio member and secretary of the Board of Pharmacy. She also served as the District 6 Representative to the National Association of Boards of Pharmacy Executive Committee from 2016 to 2017.

Her awards and recognitions include: 2013 Kappa Epsilon Career Achievement Award; 2012 State Agency Council to the Governor’s Commission for Women, Outstanding Women in Texas Government; 2010 Texas Society of Health System Pharmacists’ Distinguished Service Award; 2007 National Association of Boards of Pharmacy’s Lester E. Hosto Distinguished Service Award; 2006 Texas Pharmacy Association’s Distinguished Service Award; 2000 University of Texas College of Pharmacy William J. Sheffield Outstanding Alumnus Award; 1997, Recognition Award from the Texas Society of Health-System Pharmacists in “ recognition of her commitment, leadership, and dedication in advancing the practice for pharmacists and the patients they serve ,” 1993 award for Outstanding Service from the Texas Pharmacy Association; and the 1989 Linda T. Rodgers Memorial Leadership Award from Kappa Epsilon. She is a member of the American Pharmaceutical Association, American Society of Health-System Pharmacists, Texas Pharmacy Association, Texas Society of Health-System Pharmacists, Capitol Area Pharmacy Association, and the National Association of Boards of Pharmacy. She is currently serving as Chair of the Texas Health Professions Council. Ms. Dodson is also a Past-President of the University of Texas College of Pharmacy Alumni Association and is an active member of the University of Texas Longhorn Alumni Band (LHAB). As a member of LHAB, Ms. Dodson marched in the 2017 London New Year’s Day Parade and in 2019 participated with LHAB in two parades and 3 concerts during the 75^thAnniversary of D-Day in Normandy and Paris, France.

Kim Gwiazdzinski serves as Vice President, Outcomes & Value  at Coeus Consulting Group, a boutique strategy consulting firm supporting life sciences companies, payors and health delivery systems.  In this role, she is develops revolutionary market access strategies on behalf of clients to drive value through proven clinical outcomes, optimizing market coverage and ensuring affordable access to products designed to improve patients lives.

Kim is a registered pharmacist with more than 20 years of direct market access experience holding key strategic positions at large National payers including Prime Therapeutics and Cigna, and industry leading pharmaceutical companies Merck, AstraZeneca and NovoNordisk.  She specializes in managed markets strategy, value-based contracting, commercial innovation, pricing and contracting, and affordability.

Immediate Past President Erin M. Lingenfelter, originally from Sandusky, Ohio. She was initiated into the Psi chapter in 2001 and received her Doctor of Pharmacy degree from Ohio Northern University in 2005. She continued her post-graduate education with a pharmacy practice residency in Kalamazoo, Michigan at Borgess Medical Center and completed her specialty residency in Critical Care with University of Utah Health Care in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Erin Lingenfelter currently serves as a Clinical Emergency Medicine Pharmacist and Residency Program Coordinator for the PGY2 emergency medicine residency at University of Utah Health Care. She and her team started the first emergency medicine pharmacy practice in the state of Utah. In addition to her clinical responsibilities, she provides lectures and clinical rotations for the colleges of pharmacy, medicine, and paramedics. Erin is also active in her local community and orienting the refugee population to the health care system.

Her Kappa Epsilon involvement has includes Grand Council President Elect (2017-2019),  Grand Council VP Alumni (2011-2013), Grand Council VP Communications (2007-2011), Grand Council Secretary (2005-2007), Chair National Projects Committee (2003-2005), Psi Chapter President (2003-2004), Psi Chapter National Convention Delegate (2003), Psi Chapter New Member Educator (2002-2003). Erin is also a recipient of the Unicorn Award.

In all of her free time, Erin enjoys cross country skiing, snowshoeing, hiking, camping, fly fishing, scuba diving, vegetable gardening, and photography. She lives in Salt Lake City with her partner Dr. Kashyap Yellepeddi and her goldendoodle, Cleveland.

Priya has more than 24 years of combined experience in business and technology strategy development within Pharma, Medical Device, and Supply Chain consulting.  Priya started her career as a senior architect at a Supply Chain services company prior to joining BMS. She joined Bristol-Myers Squibb Company, in 2001, as an IT Business Partner and held roles of increasing responsibilities for several business functions.  In 2008 she was the Global IT Transition Manager as ConvaTec was divested from BMS and she was part of the CIO leadership team at Convatec, Inc as Director of Global Application Management from 2008-2012.  In 2012 she joined Merck & Co. as the manufacturing division SAP Enablement Program Director and was responsible for multiple analytics and process improvement initiatives.  She rejoined BMS in 2015 as the Head, Digital partner for the Global Supply Chain (GSC) organization and drove the digital capabilities for Supply Chain Transformation and later also led the Integrated Global Quality digital transformation at BMS.  Priya joined Eli Lilly & Co. in 2019 as Associate Vice President, Digital Quality, Drug Product & Devices where she has been accountable for providing quality leadership and partnership in the identification, selection, and deployment of applications of technology to implement connected health solutions that enable Lilly’s Connected Care & digital strategy.  In Nov 2022, Priya transitioned to a newly created role of Associate Vice President, Information Systems Quality with a broader global remit.  In this role, she will be accountable for the design, execution, and monitoring of information systems quality management.  She is also accountable for Manufacturing and Quality data governance and will drive innovative approaches to information systems to meet compliance expectations. 
 
Priya holds a Ph.D. in Civil & Systems Engineering from the University of Virginia and is an alumna of the Harvard Business School from the Executive Education program.  She also holds a Masters in Civil Engineering from UNLV.  She is a published author in peer-reviewed journals and has presented at several industry conferences.

Sarah serves as the executive director for Kappa Epsilon Fraternity and account executive for the association management company since 2022. From 2012 – 2021, she led the alumnae team for a national women’s association headquarters, focusing on member engagement through practical vision alignment with the organization’s strategic plan. Previous roles include director of a regional youth services organization serving 3 counties in the state of Indiana; event manager for the IUP Natatorium, IUPUI and served as the lead for a national swimming competition, Olympic trials, regional and local competitions, and oversaw a 10-week camp program. Sarah is a graduate of Ball State University.

Cait Hawkins was born and raised in Canton, OH and currently resides in Cincinnati, OH. Cait is attending the University of Cincinnati James L. Winkle College of Pharmacy where she is a third-year student. She is involved with KE (president), Rho Chi (vice president), SSHP, and PLS. Cait works as an inpatient pharmacy intern at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center, where she has taken on leadership positions and completed many operations-based quality improvement projects.

Cait joined the Rho chapter her first year in pharmacy school and was initiated in November of 2019. She quickly got involved, becoming the New Member Initiative Chair and President-Elect soon after. She is the current President and is excited that she now has the opportunity to be the Intern to the Grand Counsel President and learn more about Kappa Epsilon at a national level.

Outside of work and school, Cait enjoys hanging out with friends, exploring Cincinnati, reading, crafting, growing plants, and snuggling with her two cats, Archie and Nova.

Shannon Retureta is originally from Miami, Florida and is currently attending The University of Florida College of Pharmacy (Gainesville campus) where she is completing her fourth year of pharmacy school. She currently works at Publix Pharmacy.

 Shannon joined Kappa chapter, where she was initiated, in the fall of 2018. She has served as pledge class president, president-elect, and president of Kappa chapter, as well as a Bylaw and Publication committee member for the 2019-2021 biennium. She is excited to experience Kappa Epsilon on a national level as an intern and is looking forward to what this biennium brings.

 Outside of school and work, Shannon enjoys travelling, trying new restaurants, and training for half-marathons.

Intern to the VP of Financial Development, Faiza Sumra is originally from Edgewood, Kentucky and resides in Cincinnati, Ohio. Faiza is a 3^rd year pharmacy student attending The University of Cincinnati College of Pharmacy where she will obtain her Doctor of Pharmacy degree in 2023. She currently interns at Kroger Pharmacy where she has worked since 2018.

 Faiza was initiated into Kappa Epsilon’s Rho chapter fall of 2019. At this time, she is serving her second year as the treasurer of her chapter. She is delighted to represent Kappa Epsilon on a national level and is looking forward to developing as a leader and future professional.

 Aside from school and work, Faiza enjoys traveling, spending time with friends and family, and taking care of her new baby brother who was born March of this year!

Vice President of Collegiate Development Intern Madeline (Maddy) Jager was born and raised in Cincinnati, Ohio. Maddy is currently attending The University of Cincinnati James L. Winkle College of Pharmacy where she is in her third year. She will also be graduating with her Master of Business Administration with a concentration in Healthcare Administration in December of 2021.  She currently works part-time at The Christ Hospital in the inpatient pharmacy department.

Maddy joined the Rho chapter where she was initiated in the Fall of 2019. She has served on many committees, served as secretary her second year, and is currently serving as the chapters vice president. Maddy is looking forward to serving Kappa Epsilon further and meeting Kappa Epsilon Brother’s from around the country.

Outside of school, Maddy enjoys spending time with her husband and family, reading mystery books, and cooking.

Vice President of Alumni Development Intern Chaz Riley attends the University of Florida College of Pharmacy where she is a fourth-year student on her APPE rotations. Her favorite part about APPE rotations is getting to meet other students and experience new areas of pharmacy. During pharmacy school, she was involved in various organizations including the University of Florida College of Pharmacy Ambassadors, Industry Pharmacists Organization, and Phi Lambda Sigma.

In the fall of 2019, Chaz was initiated into the Kappa Chapter of Kappa Epsilon. Within her time in the Kappa Chapter, she served as the Local Non-Profit Chair, as well as Sergeant at Arms. Currently, she serves on the National Kappa Epsilon Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion committee where she collaborates with other members to support and educate about Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. Chaz is excited to continue to serve Kappa Epsilon through national involvement and is looking forward to creating new ideas for alumni development.

Shane Artiles is originally from West Palm Beach, Florida, and currently resides in Gainesville, Florida. He is currently a 4th-year pharmacy student at the University of Florida College of Pharmacy. He currently is a lead intern at the local MTM company, MedWiseRx. He also is involved collegiately as the Eastside Clinic Pharmacy Operations Officer for the Equal Access Clinic Network, a UF COP Student Ambassador, an Iota chapter member of the PLS Pharmacy Leadership Society, and chair member of the UF COP LGBTQ+ & Allies Sub-Committee.

Shane joined the Kappa chapter and was initiated in the Fall of 2019. He served as a Social chair during his third year and is currently an active alumni member of the chapter as a fourth year. Shane received chapter awards for outstanding members three years in a row, a kappa chapter scholarship award two years in a row, and received the advisor’s award last year.

Outside of work, Shane likes to cuddle with his 4 cats, host board game nights with friends, watch reality TV shows, and play video games.