{"id":240819,"date":"2026-02-05T08:00:15","date_gmt":"2026-02-05T13:00:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/?p=240819"},"modified":"2026-02-04T18:02:15","modified_gmt":"2026-02-04T23:02:15","slug":"faculty-spotlight-marie-smiths-commitment-to-advancing-health-policy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/2026\/02\/faculty-spotlight-marie-smiths-commitment-to-advancing-health-policy\/","title":{"rendered":"Faculty Spotlight: Marie Smith\u2019s Commitment to Advancing Health Policy"},"content":{"rendered":"

Graduating from UConn\u2019s School of Pharmacy in\u00a0the late\u00a01970s\u00a0with a B.S. in Pharmacy, Smith was a member of the CT Society of Hospital Pharmacy\u00a0and worked as a pharmacy intern at Backus and John Dempsey Hospitals during her time as a Husky.\u00a0Still friends with those she met during her time at the School, Smith fondly remembers cheering on the UConn basketball and soccer teams with other pharmacy students.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

After graduating from UConn,\u00a0Smith completed a\u00a0hospital\u00a0pharmacy residency at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital in Philadelphia before receiving her Pharm.D. degree at Virginia Commonwealth University.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Headshot
Headshot of Marie Smith (picture provided by Smith)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

With research interests in medication management in primary and patient care, Smith was first exposed to health policy while working at the\u00a0American Society of Health-System Pharmacists (ASHP). Naturally evolving from helping patients in a clinical setting to creating training materials and developing national standards for pharmacy students at ASHP, Smith\u00a0transitioned to e-health and e-prescribing at Aventis.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Early on in her career, Smith also worked as a clinical educator at the University of Tennessee and Eastern Virginia Medical School Family Residency Program.<\/span>\u00a0In these roles, Smith recognized t<\/span>he long-term consequences of unstable housing, employment, and transportation could have on a person\u2019s health and well-being. Working in safety-net clinics with primary care physicians and nurse practitioners, Smith\u00a0<\/span>started her early research\u00a0<\/span>exploring\u00a0<\/span>pharmacist medication management<\/span>\u00a0and patient outcomes.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Smith\u2019s research\u00a0builds upon a body of evidence\u00a0demonstrating\u00a0that\u00a0pharmacist\u00a0interventions improve chronic diseases, lower total costs of healthcare, and enhance care coordination across health care team members.\u00a0Now, deeply rooted in her passions for health policy, Smith\u2019s focus is ensuring that Connecticut pharmacists are compensated by health payers for direct patient care services they\u2019re licensed to provide, including administering vaccinations, prescribing hormonal contraceptives, testing and treating illnesses, and managing or monitoring chronic medications\u00a0in between doctor visits.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

As a healthcare practice transformational leader, Smith is a fearless change agent. Changing the way stakeholders think about their policies, with the\u00a0ultimate goal\u00a0of improving healthcare workflows and payment pathways, Smith is\u00a0unafraid\u00a0to advocate for her community.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In her current roles\u00a0with the CT Office of Health Strategy\u00a0cost growth benchmark\u00a0advisory board member, and appointed member in the\u00a0CT Insurance Committee\u2019s\u00a0workgroup on payment for pharmacist services, Smith\u00a0remains\u00a0passionately involved in\u00a0health policy initiatives.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Her most recent initiative has been with the\u00a0<\/span>legislature\u2019s\u00a0<\/span>workgroup on payment for pharmacist services, following a bill passed in 2025 t<\/span>o create a workgroup study, tasked with making recommendations for\u00a0<\/span>proposed\u00a0<\/span>legislation related to the compensation of pharmacists for patient health care services.\u00a0<\/span>Advocating in one of the six states where Medicaid and insurance companies\u00a0<\/span>don\u2019t<\/span>\u00a0pay pharmacists for patient care services, t<\/span>he workgroup has already presented draft language for a proposed bill<\/span>\u00a0that will be discussed by the\u00a0<\/span>CT\u00a0<\/span>Insurance Committee in this 2026 legislative session.\u00a0<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Marie
Marie Smith at the Moving Beyond Conference at the Legislative Office in Hartford (picture provided by Smith)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Last month, Smith presented at the Moving Beyond Conference at the Legislative Office in Hartford, exposing the barriers to pharmacists prescribing contrace<\/span>ptives.<\/span>\u00a0Even after a 2023 Connecticut law allowing pharmacists to prescribe self-administered hormonal birth control directly to consumers, there has been no uptake of pharmacists prescribing\u00a0<\/span>contraception because of the lack of compensation. With the proposed bill supported by Smith and other advocates, patients will have improved access to cont<\/span>raception services.<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

This month, Smith will present\u00a0to the Connecticut Pharmacists Association (CPA) on the successes and\u00a0setbacks\u00a0that are common with\u00a0new\u00a0pharmacy\u00a0law\u00a0implementation.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

From publishing the results of a research project in\u00a0<\/span>Health Affairs\u00a0<\/span><\/i>to planning the first national conference on Medicaid payment for pharmacist clinical services, Smith believes in\u00a0high-impact policy work.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

It is this high-impact policy work that motivated Smith to\u00a0<\/span>return to UConn to\u00a0<\/span>inspire the next generation of health policy advocates a<\/span>s a professor and assistant dean. In her professor role, Smith teaches management and public health courses,<\/span>\u00a0a<\/span>\u00a0research seminar, and<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>an elective in the business of healthcare<\/span>. This elective, \u201cFollow the Money,\u201d has tasked students with presenting\u00a0<\/span>oral testimony at a public hearing on a proposed pharmacy bill.\u00a0<\/span>As assistant dean, Smith serves on the\u00a0<\/span>dean\u2019s<\/span>\u00a0leadership team, focusing on opportunities to connect UConn with legislators and state agency leaders. Enhancing team-based care and ex<\/span>ploring new pa<\/span>y<\/span>ment pathways, Smith leverages faculty successes and research findings to advance pharmacy <\/span><\/span>practice<\/span>\u00a0in Connecticut.<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

For those interested in the health policy field, Smith emphasizes involvement with their state pharmacist organization as a first step. By serving on the Government Affairs<\/span>\u00a0Committee<\/span>, presenting oral or written testimony at public hearings, and\u00a0<\/span>attending Pharmacy Day at the Capitol, students and professionals can\u00a0<\/span>make<\/span> their first steps to becoming healthcare advocates.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When Marie Smith (Pharm.D.) isn\u2019t at UConn fulfilling her professor and assistant dean roles, she can be found on a Connecticut legislative workgroup or committee. Advocating for initiatives to improve patient care across the state, Smith is changing health policy to better reflect the needs of her colleagues, neighbors, and students. As a relentless changemaker, Smith\u2019s success is a testament to her ability to transform innovative ideas into meaningful impact. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":221,"featured_media":240822,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_crdt_document":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_series":0,"wds_primary_attribution":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[2644],"class_list":["post-240819","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-10 16:30:56","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/240819","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/221"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=240819"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/240819\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":240827,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/240819\/revisions\/240827"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media\/240822"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=240819"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=240819"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=240819"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=240819"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=240819"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}