The amazing impact of our community service was recognized this past month when we heard from Dr. Tamara Mihic - pictured above receiving the 2019 UBC Pharmacy Sci Alumni Agent of Change Award.
Here are Tamara's words from her thank-you letter.
...I graduated from King George Secondary School in 2008, and I was the lucky recipient of the Sunrise Rotary Club Scholarship that year.
I used my scholarship to attend the University of British Columbia and complete a Bachelor of Pharmaceutical Sciences degree. After that, I went on to complete a hospital pharmacy residency and then obtained my post-graduate Doctor of Pharmacy at UBC. For the past 6 years I have worked at St. Paul’s Hospital as a Clinical Pharmacy Specialist specializing in the areas of mental health and addiction. Two years ago I helped implement an Opioid Stewardship Program at St. Paul’s to review our use of pain medications, and prevent adverse events including overdose and development of opioid use disorder. I also teach at UBC and developed my own elective course around the pharmacist’s role in caring for patients with substance use disorders.
Having grown up in Downtown Vancouver, I feel extremely privileged to now give back to my community every day by caring for our most vulnerable... I thank you for continuing to support those students and allow them to achieve their goals as I have achieved mine.
Finally, this scholarship had one final, unexpected benefit for me. I met my husband Mark Zhou (a Rotarian) at UBC and this past December we welcomed our beautiful son Maksim. It is our goal now to raise him to be kind and give back to his community whenever possible.