Postgraduate Year One (PGY1) Community-Based Pharmacy Practice Residency

All PGY1 residents receive the same benefits regardless of individual program. These include: Health Care, Professional Development Funds and days of resident time off.

Time off for vacations, professional meetings, interviews, sick time, or other reasons is given to each resident in a “bank” called the RTO. The following is available to each resident:

1. PGY1 residents each receive at least 15 days of RTO yearly.
2. In addition, six holidays (July 4th, Labor Day, Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year’s, and Memorial) are provided to PGY1 residents.
3. RTO must be used for any days during attendance of an off-site professional conference (e.g., APHA, Residency Conference) that fall during the normal business week unless they are representing the residency, i.e. APhA poster presentation day.

PGY1 residents provide many types of service to King Soopers, Good Day Pharmacy, Sheridan Health Services, Denver Indian Health and Family Services, and the University of Colorado Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences. These generally include staffing (see FAQ below), provider education, patient education, and precepting of pharmacy students, classroom-based teaching and facilitating in the school’s PharmD program, participation in quality improvement initiatives, and conduct of research projects that add new knowledge regarding the optimal care of patients.

Stephanie Quach, PharmD
CU Sheridan and Denver Indian Health’s Resident Graduate 2024

My experience in this CU PGY1 Sheridan has been exceptional, particularly the extensive ambulatory care work with the underserved community, a cause close to my heart. My future aspiration is to advocate for low-income patients, improving their access to affordable healthcare and resources. Seeing my parents' similar struggles has deeply influenced this goal, and I believe pharmacists are uniquely positioned to drive meaningful change. Post-residency, I will be joining Wellpower, a low-income clinic, where I will divide my time between ambulatory care chronic disease management and community-based initiatives. This opportunity aligns perfectly with my commitment to enhancing accessible care for vulnerable populations.

Haley Huddleston, PharmD, BA
CU Good Day’s Resident Graduate 2024

What I enjoyed most about the CU/Good Day PGY1 residency program was the opportunity to bend the traditional role of community pharmacy by embedding clinical services directly into our workflow. Whether it was through independent billing, lifestyle modification coaching, patient counseling, or integrated ambulatory care practices, it was incredibly rewarding to be part of a model that is redefining what community pharmacy can look like. 

After residency, I plan to stay on with CU in their PGY2 ambulatory care program. I’m excited to continue building on the clinical skills and innovative practices I’ve developed during my PGY1, and to further contribute to advancing patient care in the ambulatory care setting. The clinical experience I gained throughout PGY1, along with the support and encouragement of my preceptors, played a key role in helping me take this next step. It has provided a strong foundation that has positioned me for long-term success, and I am forever grateful.

Lindsey Villanueva Little, PharmD
CU King Sooper’s Resident Graduate 2024

Lindsey is from Colorado Springs, Colorado. She completed both her pre-pharmacy coursework and her Doctor of Pharmacy degree at the University of Wyoming, where she was also heavily involved in the UW dance program. Her professional interests include geriatric care, health equity, and transitions of care, and she is excited to explore these through her King Soopers Pharmacy/ CU Residency! In the future, she hopes to precept students in a community or ambulatory care setting and be involved in pharmacy advocacy. Outside the pharmacy, Lindsey enjoys trying new restaurants, spending time with family and friends, and reading.

Kurt Spitzer, PharmD
CU Sheridan and Denver Indian Health’s Resident Graduate 2024

This residency was an incredible opportunity to gain experience in ambulatory care and community pharmacy, and not just in one setting, but three distinct ones. Half of my week was spent seeing patients in clinic and collaborating with primary care, behavioral health, and dental providers. Additionally, since each week was structured similarly across the entire year, but each individual day held something unique from the others, I feel the residency experience provided an excellent mix of both novelty and stability so that I never felt bored and was always looking forward to tomorrow. One of the original reasons I pursued this residency with Sheridan Health Services and Denver Indian Health and Family Services was because I viewed it as a potential path into a career as an ambulatory care pharmacist, and one that would not require me to spend time as a general health-systems pharmacist for a year in an academic medical institution. After this year I am pleased to report that I’ve accepted a post with Axis Health Systems in beautiful Durango, Colorado where I have the great honor of helping to usher in their new clinical pharmacy program. Seeing patients and tailoring drug therapy regimens for their chronic disease states has been a long-held dream of mine, and I’m deeply grateful to the University of Colorado’s community-based PGY1 residency for helping that dream come to fruition.

Megan Schlueter, PharmD
CU King Sooper’s Resident Graduate 2024

What I enjoyed most about residency was the variety in each week. There was always something new to look forward to and each day was different! Each rotation site has diverse patient populations that also broadened my skills with patients who were elderly, Spanish-speaking, suffered from low socioeconomic status, and many more. I cherish the relationships that I created with the patients I cared for, and that is what I will always carry with me! 

I am a pharmacist at MercyOne Pharmacy in Dubuque, Iowa. I work in transitions of care, the outpatient pharmacies, and provide diabetes education.

Andrea Segerstrom-Nunez
CU Good Day’s Resident Graduate 2024

Throughout my clinical rotations, I found immense satisfaction in the longitudinal structure of each experience. This format allowed for a deepening of skills and confidence within each particular setting. Had the rotations been limited to just 4-6 weeks, I doubt I would have felt the same level of growth. The extended duration provided exposure to a wide array of opportunities within community, ambulatory care, and academia settings, many of which I hadn't previously considered. Additionally, I cherished the relationships cultivated with the Good Day family. Their warm welcome and ongoing support made me feel valued throughout the year. While I look forward to what the future holds, parting ways with this program and Good Day is undeniably bittersweet.  I’m currently doing a PGY2 in Ambulatory Care with Intermountain Health and will be pursuing a career in an ambulatory care clinic after residency. 

Gina Cammarata
CU King Sooper’s Resident Graduate 2023

Completing the PGY1 Community Pharmacy Residency with University of Colorado and King Soopers Pharmacy was a transformative experience that significantly enhanced my qualifications as a pharmacy leader. During my residency, I gained hands-on experience in diverse clinical and community settings that prepared me for my transition into pharmacy management. In my current role as the pharmacy manager at City Market Pharmacy, I am entrusted as the sole pharmacy provider for a 30-mile radius. This pharmacy acts as a vital lifeline for residents, ensuring access to essential medications and health services that might otherwise be out of reach. For many individuals in rural areas, long travel times can be a significant barrier to healthcare; having a nearby pharmacy helps mitigate this challenge and fosters better medication adherence and health outcomes. My PGY1 training in community pharmacy prepared me for the unique challenges that rural, underserved pharmacies experience. I can confidently say that my time in the program empowered me to provide vital health services, such as immunizations, medication counseling, and health screenings, helping to address health disparities in the community. 

Austin Morgan, PharmD, BCACP, CDES
CU King Sooper’s Resident Graduate 2018

My PGY1 experience with CU School of Pharmacy and King Soopers developed skills and opened doors that I’m not sure would have happened otherwise. The variety of learning experiences focused on outpatient care, from ambulatory and transitional care to MTM and dispensing, created a strong, broad base to jump into different roles after residency. I particularly enjoyed the opportunity to teach in multiple settings, both experientially and didactically, and receive hands-on experience in corporate-level management. I think this broad yet rich experience created flexible and critical thinking skills that I use daily in my current role. The people I worked with in each setting were helpful and supportive, and the weather and scenery certainly helped make the residency year more enjoyable!

I currently work as the Lead Clinical Pharmacist III – Development and Training for Tria Health in Kansas City, MO, where I provide telephonic chronic condition management services to patients as part of their employer benefits package, along with administrative duties including directing our PGY1 Community-Based Residency Program, precepting residents and APPE students from 2 schools of pharmacy, coordinating clinical training for our pharmacists and non-clinicians, and assisting with program development and quality improvement.

Makenna Bishop, PharmD, BCACP
CU King Sooper’s Resident Graduate 2022

After completing the King Sooper/CU SSPPS Community-Based PGY1, I completed a PGY2 in ambulatory care at Denver Health. I now work as a board certified ambulatory care pharmacist at Intermountain Health. In this position, I work closely with patients to manage several primary care disease states including type 2 diabetes, hypertension, hyperlipidemia, and heart failure. In addition to helping patients meet disease state goals (A1C, blood pressure, etc.), we also work to set and prioritize their own, personal health goals. From early in pharmacy school, I knew I wanted to pursue ambulatory care and the King Soopers/CU SSPPS program was instrumental in getting me here. This PGY1 helped me to refine my patient communication, broaden my clinical knowledge, experience interprofessional collaboration and taught me how to work independently as a licensed pharmacist. My RPD and preceptors were supportive, and it was important to then that my experience was catered to my career trajectory. They worked with me to ensure I received additional ambulatory care experiences, when possible, while still meeting program requirements.

Karly Bergquist, PharmD
CU Good Day’s Resident Graduate 2019

The CU/Good Day Pharmacy PGY1 community pharmacy residency program provided me with invaluable exposure to a wide range of practice settings. I was able to develop my skills in leadership, teaching, community pharmacy, transitions of care, and research, while also serving an underserved patient population in ambulatory care. These diverse experiences were incredibly rewarding and set the foundation for my growth as a pharmacist. The residency’s strong focus on ambulatory care allowed me to build the confidence and expertise needed to pursue a PGY2 residency. This ultimately led to my current role as a remote Digital Medicine Pharmacist managing chronic disease states for a panel of patients collaborating closely with Family Medicine physicians, Endocrinologists and Cardiologists. The opportunities for hands-on learning and professional development during my PGY1 year were crucial in shaping my career trajectory.

James Le, PharmD, MBA
CU King Sooper’s Resident Graduate 2017

I found many rewarding lessons from my community experience. If I were an antibiotic, the residency gave me broad-spectrum fighting powers! Need some corporate leadership? Need some MTM? Need to manage patient’s therapies in ambulatory clinics? You got it—and so much more.  I gained so much from being exposed to all the ways pharmacists can be patient advocates in any care setting. And to top it all off, I got some lifelong mentors and friendships along the way.

The residency shaped my career path because I was able to immediately start working at a large hospital outpatient pharmacy serving oncology, HIV, and family medicine clinics.  My exposure to specialized patient populations helped me stand out from a competitive pool of applicants.  Afterward, my previous resident experience staffing Transition of Care allowed me to spearhead the inpatient MTM program at the same hospital. When I felt ready to move on, my corporate leadership experience allowed me to open an outpatient pharmacy for a rural hospital and lead the hospital’s vision for outpatient pharmacy care.  Overall, I was able to apply the broad skills learned in residency to very specific pharmacy needs throughout my ongoing career; or, in pharmacy terms, I went full empiric to targeted!

• Submitted applications are generally reviewed by program-specific groups consisting of the residency director, preceptors, and current PGY1 residents. The selection groups review the application materials (letter of intent, curriculum vitae, and letters of recommendation) in order to select candidates for on-site interviews. Following the interviews, these same groups evaluate candidates and determine rankings for the ASHP PGY1 match.
• The University of Colorado, King Soopers, Good Day Pharmacy, Sheridan Health Services, and Denver Indian Health and Family Services are affirmative action/equal opportunity employers. No applicant shall be discriminated against because of the individual’s race, creed, color, religion, gender, national origin or ancestry, age, mental or physical disability, sexual orientation, gender identity, or any other characteristic.

The traditional interview format is a one-day onsite experience. We have more than one candidate on-site for the interview day where you have the opportunity to meet current residents, preceptors, and visit the site(s). We also require a presentation unrelated to pharmacy. We will also offer a one-day virtual interview for this who are unable to attend in person.

We take pride in prioritizing well-being and minimizing weekend staffing obligations. We highly appreciate the diverse and distinctive staffing opportunities available on weekends. Specific weekend staffing requirements for each program are outlined below. Should you have any inquiries, please contact the resident director.

• King Soopers:  The residency program requires one staffing day per month during the weekend, commencing in the second quarter of the residency program (averages ~9 weekend days per resident year).
• Good Day: Serve as the Long Term Care Pharmacist and handle after-hours calls for assisted living and memory care, with support from other pharmacists every other month weekend requirement (averages ~6 weekends per resident year).
• Sheridan: Occasional weekend event requirement, such as health fairs, community outreach, distributing harm reduction supplies or attending powwows (averages ~6 weekend days per resident year).

Unfortunately, we are not able to sponsor visas for international residents. Visas cost the programs significant fees for which we are not allocated funding. Applications are welcome from non-U.S. citizens with a green card or current visa that will be valid throughout the residency year. Applicants must have graduated with a PharmD degree from an AACP-accredited college of pharmacy.