PGY1 Pharmacy Residency in Lakewood
Advancing you to your chosen pharmacy profession
Through this residency, pharmacists will develop professional responsibility, learn to promote their own professional growth and maturity, and develop leadership and practice skills they can apply to their chosen area of the pharmacy profession. This program will provide experience in various clinical settings that will lead to an advanced level of knowledge and clinical practice.
Application information
Applicants must be a PharmD graduate of an ACPE accredited college of pharmacy and must be eligible for and obtain licensure in Colorado. Visit the ASHP Residency Directory for annual residency application deadlines. All materials must be received by the deadline to ensure your application is considered. Applications will not be accepted unless they are submitted electronically through the Pharmacy Online Residency Centralized application Service (PhORCAS). Necessary application materials include:
- Letter of intent (max of 2 pages) addressing the following questions (at a minimum):
1. Reasons for pursuing a PGY1 residency at CommonSpirit St. Anthony Hospital
2. Strengths and weaknesses at this point in pharmacy career and how a residency will help the applicant with career development - Curriculum Vitae
- Letters of recommendation (three letters), one from each of the following:
- A pharmacy preceptor from an APPE clinical pharmacy rotation who can speak to the candidate’s clinical abilities
- An employer in the field of pharmacy
- A pharmacy professional contact, who has known the candidate and worked with them for more than half of their pharmacy education (i.e. professor, mentor, advisor, etc.)
- Official college of pharmacy transcript
Phone interviews are required, and if selected, candidates will be invited for a virtual or an on-site interview. A virtual or an on-site interview is required to be included on the candidate rank list for this program.
Each residency candidate is responsible for properly completing the online application by the deadline (there will be no exceptions), sending fees to PhORCAS on time AND regularly checking the status of your file online by logging onto the PhORCAS web application. The Residency Advisory Committee reserves the right to review each application on a case-by-case basis.
Pharmacy completion & requirements overview
St. Anthony Hospital's PGY1 Residency will provide pharmacists with the tools for general clinical practice. Pharmacists will develop professional responsibility, be prepared to train and teach future pharmacy providers, learn to promote their own professional growth and maturity, and develop leadership practice skills they can apply to their chosen area of the pharmacy profession.
- Completion of assigned evaluations and completion of the required goals and objectives of the residency program with “Satisfactory Progress” or “Achieved” with 85% or more “Achieved”
- Completion of a major research project with manuscript suitable for publication
- Poster and/or Platform presentation at a national or regional meeting
- Medication Use Evaluation
- Residency portfolio showing competency in non-clinical administrative tasks required to complete goals and objectives of the program
Participation and completion of a teaching certificate program through the University of Colorado Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences is optional, but highly encouraged.
Major research project
Each resident must complete a research project which meets the ASHP accreditation criteria. Residents will be given examples of projects that are available. The residents are encouraged to choose a topic, which, besides being an area of interest to the residents, will also contribute to the advancement of pharmacy practice for CommonSpirit Health / St Anthony Hospital.
One or more preceptors will serve as advisors for the project. All projects will be in compliance with any applicable CommonSpirit Health, IRB, and HIPAA regulations. Residency project results are presented at the Regional Residency Research Conference and are strongly encouraged to be submitted for publication in a peer-reviewed journal.
A program for guidance in research design and conduct is offered to residents to assist them with the completion of a research project.
Past residents
View our past resident classes, and what projects they have worked on during this program.
Aleksandra Kiernoziak
- Residency project: Emergency department pharmacist interventions for patients with urinary tract infections
- PGY2 Infectious Disease
Emily Gammill
- Residency project: Guanfacine compared to clonidine for discontinuing continuous dexmedetomidine infusions in critically ill patients
- PGY2 Infectious Disease
Andrea Lielkoks
- Residency project: Impact of benzodiazepine and antiseizure medication dosing in status epilepticus
- PGY2 Critical Care
Christine Cayanan
- Residency Project: Impact of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus surveillance screening using polymerase chain reaction assay nasal swab on duration of antibiotic therapy
Marie Noelle Bate Baiyee
- Residency project: Evaluation of heparin order sets in patients transitioning from direct oral anticoagulants
Abigail Wedoff
- Residency project: Evaluation of tocilizumab on clinical outcomes in critically ill patients with COVID-19
- PGY2 Ambulatory Care
Kathryn Lamberton
- Residency project: Evaluation of four-factor prothrombin complex concentrate dosing for reversal of apixaban and rivaroxaban in patients with intracranial hemorrhage
- PGY2 Infectious Disease
Andrew Jung
- Residency project: Cefazolin dosing in critically ill patients
- PGY2 Critical Care
Emily McLaughlin
- Residency project: Ketamine for first-line sedation
Megan Fetters
- Residency project: Duration of antibiotic prophylaxis in long-bone open fracture
- PGY2 Critical Care
Juli Montgomery
- Residency project: Dronabinol for acute pain in marijuana users versus non-users
Jessica Gonsewski
- Residency project: Evaluation of remdesivir on oxygenation status in patients with COVID-19
Wendy Lovato
- Residency project: Evaluation of a clinical pharmacist service line in the surgery department
Kayla Wolfe
- Residency project: Mitigating the opioid crisis: evaluation of alternatives to opioids (ALTO) in trauma patients in the emergency department
Lauren Giblin
- Residency project: Evaluation of insulin efficacy on controlling blood sugar in the intensive care unit
Laura Hayes
- Residency project: Evaluation of digital pharmacist disease state management on diabetes control in outpatient clinics
- PGY2 Ambulatory Care
Casey Melvin
- Residency project: A matched pilot study examining cannabis-based dronabinol for acute pain following traumatic injury
Emily Armstrong
- Residency project: Evaluating the clinical impact of direct from blood antimicrobial susceptibility testing via disk diffusion methods for Enterobacteriales-positive blood cultures
- PGY2 Critical Care
Christopher Hayden
- Residency project: Evaluation of anaphylaxis management in the emergency departments of a large health system
Elisabeth Schneider-Smith
- Residency project: Evaluating the impact of pharmacist management of low molecular weight heparin anti-factor Xa monitoring in obese and underweight patients
- PGY2 Critical Care
Nicholas Tinker
- Residency project: Effect of pharmacist-driven procalcitonin ordering on antibiotic duration in patients with hospital-acquired and ventilator-associated pneumonia
- PGY2 Infectious Disease
Chelsey Imeraj
- Residency project: Virtual pharmacist consultation services in an ambulatory care setting: a single site pilot
Philip Leong
- Residency project: Antimicrobial use in patients at risk for ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP)
Keyvan Nekouei
- Residency project: Implementation of a full-time perioperative pharmacist in a level 1 trauma center
PGY1 pharmacy residency preceptors
- Pharmacy school attended: Ferris State University and University of Colorado
- Year started working at St. Anthony Hospital: 2016
- Rotation precepted: Management and Leadership
- Favorite book: Into Thin Air
- Favorite movie: Field of Dreams
- Hobbies outside of pharmacy: Skiing and coaching youth sports
- Advice for future residents: Treat every rotation like a job interview
- Pharmacy school attended: University of Colorado
- Year started working at St. Anthony Hospital: 2003
- Rotation precepted: Management and Leadership, Critical Care- Trauma
- Hobbies outside of pharmacy: Spending time with family, skiing, watching sports, working in the yard
- Pharmacy school attended: University of Colorado
- Year started working at St. Anthony Hospital: 2015
- Rotation precepted: Chief Resident Quarter, Pharmacy Operation and Training
- Favorite book: A Song of Ice and Fire series
- Favorite movie: Love Actually, Emperor’s New Groove
- Hobbies outside of pharmacy: Camping, paddleboarding, reading, baking, traveling with friends and family
- Advice for future residents: Find a time management system that works for you, it will help you with residency and professional life. Take time to relax and unwind, even for just a few minutes a day!
- Pharmacy school attended: Concordia University Wisconsin
- Year started working at St. Anthony Hospital: 2019
- Rotation precepted: Intensive Care I, Intensive Care II
- Favorite book: When Breath Becomes Air
- Favorite movie: Fantastic Mr. Fox
- Hobbies outside of pharmacy: Spending time with my wife and dog; going to concerts and sporting events; visiting family in Colorado and Wisconsin
- Advice for future residents: Take initiative- the best pharmacists are those that proactively help out with issues rather than waiting for things to come to them... Maturity and the big picture perspective goes a long way in fitting into any team and know how you can best help your teammates... Don’t take things personally- you may disagree with other pharmacists, nurses, doctors, etc, but keeping an open mind and meeting people where they’re at can go a long way in making an intervention and building long-term trust.
- Pharmacy school attended: Midwestern University, Glendale AZ
- Year started working at St. Anthony Hospital: 2003
- Rotation precepted: Intensive Care II (cardiac)
- Favorite book: Ender’s Game, Project Hail Mary, The Dog Stars
- Favorite movie: Guardians of the Galaxy
- Hobbies outside of pharmacy: Snowboarding, boating, traveling
- Pharmacy school attended: University of Colorado
- Year started working at St. Anthony Hospital: 1999
- Rotation precepted: Intensive Care I, Intensive Care II
- Advice for future residents: Learn all you can, it goes by fast.
- Pharmacy school attended: University of Florida
- Year started working at St. Anthony Hospital: 2011
- Rotation precepted: Internal Medicine, Internal Medicine Subspecialty (Trauma, Infectious Disease)
- Favorite movie: Jurassic Park
- Hobbies outside of pharmacy: Mountain biking, playing guitar, gardening, traveling, trying new restaurants, spending time with family and friends
- Advice for future residents: Maintain a good balance between work life and personal life, try to see obstacles as opportunities, and keep the faith that all the hard work will pay off in dividends.
- Pharmacy school attended: Creighton University
- Year started working at St. Anthony Hospital: 2019
- Rotation precepted: Internal Medicine, Internal Medicine Subspecialty (Cardiology and Neurology)
- Favorite book: The Right Stuff
- Favorite movie: Apollo 13
- Hobbies outside of pharmacy: Family activities with wife and son, camping in the remote areas of Wyoming, traveling abroad and road trips across the U.S
- Advice for future residents: Be open to all opportunities! Residency is an incredible chance to obtain knowledge with the help of specialized preceptors while being a licensed pharmacist. It also gives you insight into what kind of pharmacist you want to be with the support of your peers. Don’t apply to residency for the sake of applying. Be sure to reflect on your own motivations as to what you want to get out of it! Each program (big or small) has its own identity and offers benefits that others don’t, so don’t make big decisions before determining if you would be a good fit.
- Pharmacy school attended: University of Georgia
- Year started working at St. Anthony Hospital: 2016
- Rotation precepted: Transitions of Careo Favorite book: Harry Potter
- Favorite movie: The Sound of Music
- Hobbies outside of pharmacy: Skiing, mountain or gravel biking, hiking, traveling, dogs, golf, fly fishing, camping
- Advice for future residents: Stay curious and be kind
- Pharmacy school attended: University of Colorado
- Year started working at St. Anthony Hospital: 2021
- Rotation precepted: Emergency Medicine
- Favorite book: Where the Wild Things Are
- Favorite movie: Happy Gilmore
- Hobbies outside of pharmacy: Snowboarding, hiking, traveling
- Pharmacy school attended: University of Colorado
- Year started working at St. Anthony Hospital: 2015
- Rotation precepted: Pharmacy Operations
- Hobbies outside of pharmacy: Hiking, basketball, snowboarding, golf, cooking, pickleball
- Pharmacy school attended: University of Colorado
- Year started working at St. Anthony Hospital: 2015
- Rotation precepted: Pharmacy Operations
- Favorite movie: Top Gun, Maverick
- Hobbies outside of pharmacy: Reading, scrapbooking, bird watching
- Advice for future residents: It gets better!
- Pharmacy school attended: Pacific University
- Year started working at St. Anthony Hospital: 2018 (enterprise level)
- Rotation precepted: Ambulatory Care
- Favorite book: The Great Alone
- Favorite movie: Love Actually
- Hobbies outside of pharmacy: Anything outdoors- spending time with my family, paddle boarding, running, skiing
- Advice for future residents: Never stop learning, there’s always room to grow
- Pharmacy school attended: University of Colorado
- Year started working at St. Anthony Hospital: 2010
- Rotation precepted: Infectious Disease/Antimicrobial Stewardship
- Hobbies outside of pharmacy: Family time! Watching my 3 boys complete in sports they love, running, cycling, dragon boat racing, paddle boarding, hiking
- Advice for future residents: Work hard and make the most of every experience as a learning opportunity. Grow personally and professionally every day; never let a day go by that you don’t learn something new
- Pharmacy school attended: University of Connecticut
- Year started working at Regis University (Affiliated with St. Anthony Hospital): 2011; 2018 as Residency Director at Regis University
- Rotation precepted: Academia
- Favorite book: Cat’s Cradle
- Favorite movie: Clue
- Hobbies outside of pharmacy: Skiing, hanging out with friends, trying new craft beers
- Advice for future residents: Stay organized, schedule free time for yourself, and be open to new experiences and opportunities.
- Pharmacy school attended: University of Arizona
- Year started working at St. Anthony Hospital: 2016
- Rotation precepted: Operating Room
- Favorite book: The Rainbow and the Serpent
- Favorite movie: The Jerk
- Hobbies outside of pharmacy: Hiking, mountain biking, woodworking
- Advice for future residents: Never stop learning.
- Pharmacy school attended: University of Illinois at Chicago
- Year started working at St. Anthony Hospital: 2022 (enterprise level)
- Rotation precepted: Corporate Management and Leadership
- Favorite movie: Enchanted
- Hobbies outside of pharmacy: Mountain biking, skiing
- Advice for future residents: Let your preceptors/leaders know how you want to grow and what you want exposure to
To learn more, contact our PGY1 Pharmacy Residency Program Director, Aleksandra Kolodziej, PharmD, BCPS: