Speakers

Conference Co-Chair:

Claire Schmidt, PharmD
ITPA President
Clinical Pharmacist – Solid Organ Transplant
Loyola University Medical Center

Dr. Claire Schmidt is the current president of ITPA. She is a clinical transplant pharmacist at Loyola University Medical Center. She completed her pharmacy school at Creighton University and residency training at Penn State Health Milton S. Hershey Medical Center and Loyola University Medical Center. She enjoys participating in trainee education and connecting with all the other awesome transplant pharmacists across the country at meetings and events.

Conference Co-Chair:

Rachel Christensen, PharmD
ITPA Vice-President
Clinical Pharmacist – Solid Organ Transplant
Clinical Assistant Professor
UIC Retzky College of Pharmacy

Dr. Rachel Christensen is the current vice president of ITPA. She is a clinical transplant pharmacist and clinical assistant professor at University of Illinois Chicago Retzky College of Pharmacy. She completed her pharmacy school at Wayne State University and residency training at University of Illinois Chicago Retzky College of Pharmacy. She enjoys teaching, precepting, and learning from other transplant pharmacists across the country.

Ashley A. Vo, PharmD, FAST
Clinical Professor, Pediatrics
David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA
Clinical Director, Transplant Immunotherapy Program
Comprehensive Transplant Center

Dr. Ashley A. Vo, PharmD, FAST, is the administrative director of the Transplant Immunotherapy Program at the Comprehensive Transplant Center at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center and a professor of Pediatrics at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA in Los Angeles, CA. Dr. Vo earned her PharmD degree at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles. She then completed a general practice residency and a specialty residency in administration, both at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center.

Dr. Vo’s research has been in advancing the field of desensitization for the highly HLA sensitized patients awaiting a living donor or deceased donor kidney transplantation. Patients, nationally and internationally, are referred to the Kidney Transplant Immunotherapy Program for desensitization and for transplantation. This program also specializes in ABO-incompatible transplant and in the development of novel therapeutics for the prevention and treatment of antibody-mediated rejection in kidney transplantation.

Dr. Vo directs the clinical research group and is a sub-investigator for all kidney transplant investigator-initiated trials and industry sponsored trials. She also serves as an ad hoc reviewer for many journals, including Transplantation, American Journal of Transplantation, and Clinical Transplantation and has published in peer-reviewed journals, including the New England Journal of Medicine, Transplantation, American Journal of Transplantation, World Journal of Nephrology, and Immunotherapy. Dr. Vo has been awarded both the AST Clinician of Distinction Award, a prestigious award that recognizes clinical excellence and creative scholarship to the field of transplantation, and the Fellow of the American Society of Transplant Award.

Annie Przybylski, PharmD, BCTXP, BCPS
Clinical Pharmacist Specialist, Solid Organ Transplant
Edward Hines Jr, VA Hospital

Dr. Annie Przybylski is a Clinical Pharmacist Specialist in Solid Organ Transplant. Dr. Przybylski completed her post-graduate training at Indiana University Health in Indianapolis and Barnes-Jewish Hospital in St. Louis. She started transplant pharmacy services at the Edward Hines Jr. VA Hospital at the inception of the renal transplant program, where she currently maintains a practice. She is the regional VISN12 (Illinois and Wisconsin) Transplant Taskforce Chair and is the national Subject Matter Expert Chair for pharmacogenomics in transplantation at the VA. She is board-certified in pharmacotherapy and solid organ transplant. She participates in transplant-related research and trains pharmacy residents.

Robert L Page II, PharmD, MSPH
Clinical Director, Colorado Medicaid Drug Utilization Review Program
University of Colorado School of Pharmacy
Clinical Specialist, Division of Cardiology
University of Colorado Hospital

Dr.  Robert Page II received his bachelors of science degree in biology and chemistry from Furman University (Greenville, SC); bachelor’s of science in pharmacy and Pharm.D. degrees from the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC; Charleston); Masters of Science in Public Health with an epidemiology focus from the University of Colorado School of Medicine (Denver); and specialty residency in pharmacotherapy with a focus in cardiology from MUSC. He is a board-certified pharmacotherapy specialist with added qualifications in cardiology, and a Fellow of the following organizations: the Heart Failure Society of America, the American College of Clinical Pharmacy, the American Heart Association (Council on Clinical Cardiology), the American Society of Consultant Pharmacists, and the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists.

Dr. Page has served and chaired on numerous AHA, HFSA, and ACC committees, was the first chair of the Clinical Pharmacology Subcommittee of the Council on Clinical Cardiology, and has been an external reviewer for several ACCF/AHA cardiovascular management guidelines. Within the AHA, he has served on numerous leadership positions within Clinical Cardiology and QCOR councils, chaired two clinical science statements, has been a writing member on a total of five, and has served as a voice for the AHA on several health policy related issues at the FDA and NIH, as well as state and national media outlets regarding the cannabis use, smokeless nicotine products, drug shortages, and use of complementary and alternative medicines in patients with cardiovascular disease.

Dr. Page has 30 years of clinical expertise in the management of patients with heart failure in both the outpatient and inpatient setting. He has published over 250 peer reviewed manuscripts, abstracts, and book chapters in the management of patients with cardiovascular disease.

Adley Lemke, PharmD, BCPS, BCTXP 
Solid Organ Transplant Clinical Pharmacist
Research Subcommittee Chair, Mayo Midwest Pharmacy Equity, Inclusion, and Diversity Council
Department of Pharmacy

Dr. Adley Lemke graduated in 2017 from the University of Minnesota College of Pharmacy and went on to complete his PGY-1 Pharmacy Practice and PGY-2 Solid Organ Transplant residencies at Hennepin Health, Minneapolis, MN. Following post graduate training he joined Mayo Clinic, Rochester, MN where he cares for heart, kidney, liver, lung and pancreas transplant recipients in hospital and clinic settings. Dr. Adley earned dual board certification with BCPS and BCTXP. He is actively involved in professional organizations like the American College of Clinical Pharmacy and the American Society of Transplantation, has authored numerous peer-reviewed articles, and presented at national and international conferences. His research interests include pharmacogenomics, antimicrobial dosing, and improving transplant recipient outcomes.