Community Engagement

What we do

Mission

Improve health through relationships and partnerships that address the needs of diverse communities in Minnesota and beyond.

Vision

Improving health and addressing health inequities through:

  • Building relationships by working with communities to understand their health needs
  • Fostering connections between our students and communities to bolster students’ relational skills and clinical empathy
  • Empowering faculty, staff, and students to advance sustainable engagement efforts to meet community needs

Community Engagement Activities in MN and Beyond

Members of the College of Pharmacy community, including faculty, staff, and students, are engaged in numerous community engagement activities across the state and the country. You can see these activities plotted on the map.

To read more, see the University of Minnesota's Public Engagement Footprint map, linked here

Map of the United States showing College of Pharmacy Community Engagement project sites


Action Plan for AY2024

  1. Assess current College of Pharmacy Community Engagement activities via survey: AY2023 completed; re-issue assessment survey annually.
  2. Partner on Community Engagement outreach events with Mobile Health Initiative.
  3. Create a job description and hire a Community Engagement student worker to aid in development and implementation.
  4. Develop and disseminate a curriculum in Community Engagement approaches, and explore links to MNSpire curriculum and co-curriculum. Initial primer video development is in-progress for dissemination in early fall semester, with more in-depth resources planned to be completed in December 2023. 
  5. Work with OT and MLS to understand how each program engages in Community Engagement, and offer support / cooperative planning, as part of the integration of CAHP into the College of Pharmacy: Planned to start in October 2023 after Accreditation self-study is completed. 

How to get involved

Current faculty, staff & students

  • Please complete the Community Engagement Survey survey to document any Community Engagement-related activities involving individuals from the College of Pharmacy. You can complete this survey as many times as needed in order to document multiple activities. 
  • Volunteer with the Mobile Health Initiative

Resources

Directors for Community Engagement

Olihe Okoro Headshot

Olihe Okoro, PhD, MPH, MPharm

Associate Professor, Department of Pharmacy Practice and Pharmaceutical Sciences

Ann Philbrick Headshot

Ann Philbrick, PharmD, FCCP, BCPS, BCACP

Associate Professor, Department of Pharmaceutical Care & Health Systems