2017 Nellie Wakeman Fellowship Recipient: Zaneera Hassan

Zaneera is currently in her first year of graduate studies at Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) School of Pharmacy within the dual PharmD/ PhD program. Thus far, she has completed the requirements for a PharmD and over the next few years, will focus on research within the Department of Pharmaceutics in the field of preterm birth. Her mass spectrometry- based proteomic research has the potential to bridge basic research and clinical pharmacy though the continued mapping of the human vaginal metaproteome, leading to identification of preterm birth biomarkers and potential drug targets.

Zaneera has been involved in the Tau chapter at VCU since her first year of Pharmacy school and continues to be involved as a graduate student. She has held several executive positions including Historian and Pledge Class Historian and has been involved in the Women’s Health Committee within her chapter. She looks forward to being additionally involved in KE on the national level as a member of the National Projects Committee.

Throughout Pharmacy school, Zaneera has been a member of several pharmacy organizations including the Pediatric Pharmacy Student Group, the Inter Health Professionals Alliance, and Phi Lambda Sigma Leadership Fraternity, as well as research organizations: Graduate Women in Science (Richmond Chapter) and the American Association of Pharmaceutical Scientists as a Student Representative of the Newsletter Content Advisory Committee. Zaneera is passionate about serving the underserved as demonstrated by her participation and leadership involvement in outreach trips traveling to rural areas of Virginia as well as international trips to Ghana and the Dominican Republic. After graduation, she intends to apply to become an officer in the Commissioned Corps of the United States Public Health Service, where she can utilize trainings from both degrees by conducting research full time with the background and perspective of a pharmacist, to become a patient centered research pharmacist.

Zaneera is sincerely honored to have been selected as one of the recipients of the 2017 Nellie Wakeman Fellowship and looks forward to continuing her research with the support of the Kappa Epsilon Fraternity and the American Foundation for Pharmaceutical Education.

CONGRATULATIONS ZANNERA!

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