{"id":244599,"date":"2026-04-24T12:54:02","date_gmt":"2026-04-24T16:54:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/?p=244599"},"modified":"2026-04-24T12:54:02","modified_gmt":"2026-04-24T16:54:02","slug":"uconn-pharmacy-student-honored-with-usphs-excellence-in-public-health-pharmacy-award","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/2026\/04\/uconn-pharmacy-student-honored-with-usphs-excellence-in-public-health-pharmacy-award\/","title":{"rendered":"UConn Pharmacy Student Honored with USPHS Excellence in Public Health Pharmacy Award"},"content":{"rendered":"

Born and raised in West Hartford, Aleena grew up with her older brother and parents, both Indian immigrants. With many family members in healthcare careers, including her mother, Aleena became interested in pursuing a path in healthcare from a young age. Her passions for public health and pharmacy gradually emerged as she saw family members struggling to understand their doctors because of language barriers, and her uncle\u2019s journey as a kidney<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>transplant recipient.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Headshot
Headshot of Aleena Thomas<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

With her heart set on studying pharmacy, Aleena followed in her older brother\u2019s footsteps and became a Husky.\u00a0Enjoying her first two years as a pharmacy student\u00a0while wanting more opportunities to explore her passions in public health, Aleena decided to become a dual-degree student as a\u00a0Master of Public Health\u00a0candidate.\u00a0Already excited to dive into a career with lots of patient interaction, Aleena chose to pursue a degree in public health to increase accessibility for underserved communities.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cPeople can interact and talk with pharmacists regularly. I think\u00a0<\/span>there\u2019s<\/span>\u00a0a lot of power in that.<\/span>\u201d<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Although she\u00a0<\/span>didn\u2019t<\/span>\u00a0declare a dual degree right away, Aleena began exploring her passions for helping her community in her\u00a0<\/span>first year<\/span>\u00a0a<\/span>t UConn<\/span>.\u00a0<\/span>Admitted into the\u00a0<\/span>Urban Service Track\u00a0<\/span>(UST)\u00a0<\/span>at the School, Aleena developed her interprofessional skills by working with medical, dental, p<\/span>hysician-assistant<\/span><\/span>s<\/span><\/span><\/span>, and social work students. Participating in outreach events in different communities, especially in underserved populations, Aleena\u00a0<\/span>administered blood pressure and glucose screenings at pop-ups in Hartford while providing health and prevention education.\u00a0<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

After a clinic in a series of four Interprofessional Education (IPE) clinics for UConn students shut down because of the pandemic,\u00a0<\/span>Aleena and other UST students helped create the Keney Park clinics in Hartford.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>In\u00a0<\/span>one<\/span>\u00a0Keney Park\u00a0<\/span>clinic, Aleena<\/span>\u00a0worked with UConn Professor\u00a0<\/span>Chinenye Anyanwu (Pharm.D., MPH) and other UST students\u00a0<\/span>to create an event in<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>Keney<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>P<\/span>ar<\/span>k in tandem with the\u00a0<\/span>Ke<\/span>ney<\/span>\u00a0Park Sustainability Project. Providing medication education to community members, Aleena\u00a0<\/span>taught community members how to read nutrition labels, understand the difference between various over-the-counter drugs, and\u00a0<\/span>recognize different food interactions.\u00a0<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

After her first year in\u00a0UST, Aleena became a leader in the program. Facilitating events, Aleena connected with community members while educating them on important topics, including lead poisoning and the importance of reading to young children. Also attending learning retreats through the program, Aleena attended educational interactive sessions where she learned\u00a0how to best treat specific patient populations, including veterans and LGBTQ+ individuals.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

As one of the student team leaders for the Northeast Connecticut Family Health and Wellness Day in 2025, Aleena worked with faculty members and other students in UST and in the Master of Public Health program to create a large pop-up event at Killingly High School last April. With professionals working in a variety of healthcare fields in attendance, families learned about healthy habits and measures to prevent health issues. Working with UConn Professor and UST faculty lead Devra Dang (Pharm.D.) and another UST student to facilitate this event, Aleena\u2019s looking forward to the second Family Health and Wellness Day event on April 25<\/span>th<\/span>, 2026.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Aleena
Aleena with other students at a clinic<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Aside from her work\u00a0in\u00a0the Urban Service Track, Aleena also conducts research with UConn Professor\u00a0Chinenye Anyanwu (Pharm.D., MPH).\u00a0Through the Community Asset Mapping Project and Public Health Immersion (CAMP-PHI) program, Aleena spent time in the Blue Hills neighborhood of Hartford. Working with other healthcare students from UConn, Aleena conducted asset mapping to understand the unmet health needs and disparities within the\u00a0neighborhood. Observing\u00a0a strong sense\u00a0of community, Aleena and other students decided to\u00a0propose and\u00a0facilitate\u00a0the creation of\u00a0a\u00a0community garden as an intervention, promoting nutrition while emphasizing the\u00a0strengths already present in the neighborhood. This project fostered Aleena\u2019s interest in public health, transforming it from an interest to a deep-rooted passion.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Throughout her time at UConn, Aleena has been Head Secretary of the School of Pharmacy\u00a0and Pharmaceutical Sciences\u00a0Diversity Committee, a Society Representative of the Student Society of Health-System Pharmacists, and Corresponding\u00a0Signare\u00a0of the Alpha Zeta\u00a0Omega Pharmaceutical Fraternity. She has also been a Pharmacy Ambassador, a mentor in the\u00a0School of Pharmacy\u00a0and Pharmaceutical Sciences\u00a0Peer Mentoring\u00a0Program and\u00a0has volunteered at the Queer Science Conference.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Aleena has received several awards, including the Urban Service Team Lead Excellence in Service Award and Semi-Finalist in the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists (ASHP) Clinical Skills Competition.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Her most recent award,\u00a0<\/span>the\u00a0USPHS Excellence in Public Health Pharmacy Award, has been the most prestigious award Aleena has received. Excited that this award reflects her passion for the integration of pharmacy and public health, Aleena views this honor as a full-circle moment for her.\u00a0With a goal of helping underserved populations and being an advocate for the most vulnerable communities, Aleena believes awards like the one she received\u00a0will inspire other students to\u00a0follow their interests in public health and pharmacy.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m\u00a0proud to\u00a0represent\u00a0UConn on a national stage\u00a0like this.\u00a0I\u2019ve\u00a0left an impact.\u201d<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Another goal of Aleena\u2019s is to demystify what it means to be a pharmacist.\u00a0<\/span>While people may be unsure of what pharmacists do and turn to stereotypes, Aleena\u00a0<\/span>hopes to spread awareness o<\/span>f<\/span>\u00a0the countless career opportunities in pharmacy, along with the responsibilities of each.\u00a0<\/span>With a future of interacting with patients ahead of her, Aleena\u2019s looking forward to educating people on\u00a0<\/span>the<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>roles that pharmacists\u00a0<\/span>have to<\/span>\u00a0provide for and protect their patients.<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Next year, Aleena will join Tufts as a post-graduate year one pharmacy resident (PGY1). Working in a community-based residency program,\u00a0<\/span>Aleena will be traveling to primary care and specialty clinics to work dire<\/span>ctly with patients.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>As part of the 12<\/span>–<\/span>month postgraduate curriculum, Aleena will learn to integrate direct patient care, pharmacy drug distribution, teaching, and management to prepare for\u00a0<\/span>a career focusing on community-based pharmacy.\u00a0<\/span>With a potential goal of becoming a professor in the future, Aleena is most excited about the teaching aspect of the residency program<\/span>, even obtaining a teaching certificate during her time in Boston. Living in West Hartford or Storrs all her life, Aleena is looking forward to experiencing city life, where\u00a0<\/span>her work can<\/span>\u00a0have an even greater impact<\/span>.<\/span><\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One of the top 10 recipients nationwide, out of 85 total recipients, to receive the United States Public Health Service (USPHS) Excellence in Public Health Pharmacy Award, Aleena Thomas will receive her Pharm.D. and a Master of Public Health from UConn in May. With her passion for helping underserved populations continuing in a post-graduate community-based residency track at Tufts next year, Aleena reflects on the last seven years she\u2019s spent as a Husky. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":221,"featured_media":244604,"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":[1864],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[2644],"class_list":["post-244599","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pharm"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-08 11:09:09","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\/244599","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=244599"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/244599\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":244611,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/244599\/revisions\/244611"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media\/244604"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=244599"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=244599"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=244599"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=244599"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=244599"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}