Alumni Spotlight: Lisa’s Experience in the MS HSPAL Program

We had the pleasure of connecting with Master of Science in Health-System Pharmacy Administration and Leadership  (MS HSPAL) graduate Lisa Mostafavifar to hear more about her experience in Ohio State’s online master’s in pharmaceutical sciences program. Hear about Lisa’s experience as a student in this master’s degree in pharmacy and what you can do with a master’s in pharmacy.   

Ohio State Online: Tell me a bit about your career pathway before you enrolled in Ohio State’s Master of Science in Health-System Pharmacy Administration?  

Lisa: In 2016, after practicing as a Specialty Practice Pharmacist for nearly five years at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center (WMC), I became interested in administration and leadership. After months of exploring ways to get more involved, an opportunity opened to interview for the PGY1 Residency Program Director (RPD) position.  

I was selected through a peer interview process and feel extremely grateful and fortunate to have served as the RPD for the five remaining years I was at WMC. This opportunity gave me experience managing an ASHP (American Society of Health-System Pharmacists) accredited residency program, working with a diverse group of preceptors that spanned inpatient, outpatient, and the Ohio State College of Pharmacy, as well as experience managing between four and six residents per year.  

As my time as the PGY1 RPD progressed, I knew I wanted to eventually move into a formal leadership role; however, I also realized I likely needed more education to be successful. I started by signing up for internal leadership courses led by the WMC Human Resources Department. I found these to be helpful, but far too basic for addressing where I felt my gaps were, which is what propelled me to explore the MS-HSPAL program. I entered the MS-HSPAL Program in January 2020 as a working professional student.  

Ohio State Online: Did you consider other degrees or training before enrolling in the master’s in pharmacy program?  

Lisa: I considered a working professional MBA, but it came down to one question: did I really see myself practicing outside of pharmacy? And the answer to that, for me at least, was no. I also looked into certificates through ASHP, and although those are really great, they [certificates] probably wouldn’t get me to that next level.  

Ohio State Online: Did you have any hesitations or concerns before joining the program?  

Lisa: As a working professional student, one hesitation was making sure that my cohort was large enough that I felt included as part of the program, and I ultimately felt like part of the cohort with the residents as well. It honestly made for a really good learning environment, because they brought things to the table that I wasn’t thinking about, and likewise the working professionals brought things to the table that maybe the residents weren’t thinking about.  

The other thing was that I hadn’t been in school for like…10 years. Did I really want to go back to school? And that’s a hump all working professionals have to work through on their own. But for me, I knew that it was the right next step for my career, and I knew that if I put in the time, the rewards would be great.  

Ohio State Online: How were you able to juggle your studies with work and the rest of your life? 

Lisa: This is one of the reasons why I chose this program. The assignments were transferrable to what you’re doing at work, so some of the projects that I did were projects that I was already working on as a pharmacist that I could apply to the program. It is not always easy, but something I really liked about the program is that I could pace myself appropriately, so I wasn’t staying up all night trying to get my work done on time. 

I don’t think there’s ever a right time to go back to school. I entered the program right after I had my third child, so time management between working a full-time job, three kids, and school was at time challenging, but overall manageable.  

Ohio State Online: How did this program help you in your career? 

Lisa: One big realization I had at the beginning of the program was there was so much about my job that I had no idea went on in the background. As a pharmacy specialist, you spend a large portion of your day in a niche area. As I moved through the program, I was learning about operations and finance, whereas my job on the floor wasn’t involved in all those aspects of pharmacy.  

I realized quickly that I was happy I was in the program because there was so much I still needed to learn about the profession that I’d been in for the last 10 years.  

While I was in the program, I was looking for the next step in my career and ended up getting hired as a manager before graduating, which to me showed a recognition of the value of the program that I was able to get hired into a managerial position while I was a student.  

Ohio State Online: What was your experience like as an online student? 

Lisa: With everything I had going on in my life at that moment, I was really grateful that this program allowed me to self-pace myself in an asynchronous way. And coming back into CarmenCanvas [after not being a student for 10 years], I was really impressed by the ways in which Ohio State could deliver education through modules. Quizzes, tests, and group work that can be done online through branching activities that could be developed to really engage everyone that’s online to make it feel like you’re in person.  

Ohio State Online: What did this program teach you most about leadership?  

Lisa: The value of concise communications (laughs about her long answers during this interview). When you’re a pharmacy leader, other leaders and people above you in the C-suite know each other’s time is valuable and limited. So, we practiced executive level communications and how to present complex topics in very short periods of time.   

Ohio State Online: What was something that surprised you about your experience as a student in this program?  

Lisa: I think people underestimate their own experience. I felt like in my role as a pharmacist within a health system, I was able to use my resources appropriately to then do really well in classes. My experiences in projects I’ve done in the past allowed me to apply those to some of the assignments I was asked to do. There wasn’t anything [in the coursework] that I was overwhelmed by. 

Ohio State Online: How would you describe your relationship with your classmates in the program?  

Lisa: I honestly feel like that was one of the best parts of the program: the support I felt through my cohort. There were some heavier times with the curriculum, assignments, and deadlines, but it was nice to have built in friendship with people in your classes to lean on when things were getting a little bit tough.  

Ohio State Online: What  was your most rewarding accomplishment as a student?  

Lisa: In one of my last projects in my Economic Evaluation course, I did a cost-benefit analysis of our TPN (total parenteral nutrition) compounder. It was something I had always wanted to look into, and when I took the course, I knew it was a project I could pick at my site that I could improve. Based on the analysis, I pushed for a change to make our operations more efficient, and then we made the change. It was a good example of how I could apply coursework to a real-world situation. 

Ohio State Online: Overall, what was your favorite part of this master’s in pharmaceutical sciences online program?  

Lisa: Getting to know the instructors. They’re administrators at the health systems that are part of the program, and not only are they great instructors, but they invite guest lecturers from their organizations to give lectures from time to time, so I met 30 to 50 leaders throughout my two years as a student, which allowed me to make connections for the future.  

Another thing was the excitement about being in the program. I was excited to apply what I was learning to a future position, and after I became a manager, it seemed like everything I was doing [as a manager] I had prepared for as a student in the program.