Please join us in welcoming two new faculty members to the UConn School of Pharmacy’s Department of Pharmacy Practice:
Youssef Bessada, PharmD., BCPS, Assistant Clinical Professor of Pharmacy Practice
Bessada received his Doctor of Pharmacy degree from the Albany College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences and completed his PGY-1 Pharmacy Residency training at the UConn John Dempsey Hospital of UConn Health, followed by training in a PGY-2 Cardiology Pharmacy Residency at the Thomas Jefferson University Hospital. Bessada has a passion for system-based, transition of care management in patients with cardiovascular disease states, anticoagulation stewardship, and pharmacy-led preventative medicine, including cardiovascular secondary prevention.
He worked with the Thomas Jefferson University Hospital Department of Vascular Medicine on the development of an innovative peripheral arterial disease clinic, with an emphasis standardization of treatment algorithms, addressing health disparities, and leveraging the pharmacist on the healthcare team. He is a passionate advocate for advancing the role of the pharmacist, as well as elevating pharmacy student and resident learning experiences to new heights. Bessada is a board-certified pharmacotherapy specialist (BCPS), was a previous Connecticut Society of Health System Pharmacists Resident Taskforce Co-Chair and is a recipient of the prestigious United States Public Health Service Excellence in Pharmacy Service Award for his work with various public health initiatives in Albany, NY.
Katelyn Galli, Pharm.D., BCPS, BCCP, Assistant Clinical Professor in General Medicine.
Galli earned her Pharm.D. degree from Northeastern University in 2015 and completed a PGY-1 pharmacy residency at Tufts Medical Center in Boston followed by a PGY-2 pharmacy residency in cardiology at UMass Memorial Medical Center in Worcester, Mass. Following residency training, Galli took on cardiology specialist positions at the Lahey Hospital and Medical Center in Burlington, Mass. and most recently at Kent Hospital in Warwick, Rhode Island. In her most recent clinical experiences, Galli has developed pharmacist-led outpatient clinics (e.g. anticoagulation, antiarrhythmics), participated in multidisciplinary healthcare teams within the intensive care units and general medicine floors, as well as maintained stewardship of high risk cardiac and anticoagulant therapies. Over the last few years, she has also taken on the residency program director role for the PGY-1 residency program at Kent Hospital.
Galli comes to UConn with vast experience in clinical practice development and residency oversight and training with hopes to extrapolate such skills to the newest generations within the School of Pharmacy. She values her ability to help students apply their foundational knowledge to actual patients and expand their critical thinking skills and confidence to interact with other healthcare providers.
