Jennifer Ortega received her Doctor of Pharmacy degree from the UNM College of Pharmacy in 2001. She has over 30 years of experience in community pharmacy in many different state and regional leadership roles and has been a strong advocate for advancing the role of pharmacists. Jennifer’s pharmacy journey began in 1992 when she was hired as a pharmacy clerk at the Medicine Chest Pharmacy in Albuquerque, NM where she first developed an interest in the profession. She worked with Medical Center Pharmacy in Las Cruces, NM during her undergraduate studies and continued her career in community pharmacy with Walgreens until she joined the UNM College of Pharmacy in 2022 where she is now the Executive Director of Experiential Education. Jennifer has contributed to the profession as a pharmacy preceptor and mentor, member of the UNM COP Admissions committee, Co-Chair of the UNM COP Diamond Campaign and on the Dean’s Advisory Council. She has also served as the New Mexico Pharmacy Association President and has remained active on the Executive Council for the Association as well as the NM Pharmaceutical Care Foundation. Jennifer is committed to growing strong female leaders and advancing gender equality in health care. In 2019 she founded the New Mexico Chapter of the Healthcare Businesswomen’s Association where she currently serves as Chapter President and Southwest Region Deputy Chair. Jennifer owes much of her professional success to her mentors and her family. The unconditional and unwavering love and support of her husband Louis (Class of 1997) and her daughter Mackenzie have allowed her to contribute to the profession and the professional growth of others in shaping the future of pharmacy. She is very excited that Mackenzie is pursuing a career in healthcare and will be a Lobo in the fall!
2019: Bob Shmaeff, class of 1961
2020: Mona N. Ghattas, class of 1984
2021: Michael C. Raburn, class of 1987
2022: Ronald R. Marotto, class of 1966
2023: Katrina A. Mealey, class of 1986
Rose Pavlakos was born and raised in Albuquerque New Mexico. She graduated with her PharmD degree from the University of New Mexico, then completed two years of post-graduate residency training in Ambulatory Care at The Ohio State University (OSU) College of Pharmacy. She now serves as Clinical Pharmacist Supervisor for the Division of Cardiology and an Assistant Clinical Professor for the School of Pharmacy at the University of California San Francisco.
She has spent a majority of her career implementing and expanding pharmacy services in the ambulatory settings. Her teaching has been in areas of interdisciplinary learning, hypertension, chronic heart failure, and Medicare Part D. Her research focus is in pharmacy service development and quality improvement related to topics such as hypertension management, medication access, transitions of care, cardiac rehab and pulmonary hypertension.
During her free time, she enjoys dancing, hiking, and spending time with her family and dog (Maple).
2018: Dr. Melissa Skelton Duke, class of 2008
2019: Dr. Jessica Conklin, class of 2011
2020: Dr. Adriane N. Irwin, class of 2010
2021: Dr. Davena M. Norris, class of 2012
2022: Dr. Monique R. Dodd, class of 2014
2023: Dr. Keenan L. Ryan, class of 2014
Dr. Todd A. Conner was selected as Director of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs Cooperative Studies Program Clinical Research Pharmacy Coordinating Center (PCC) in 2020. Prior to that, he was the Deputy Director, Assistant Center Director, and completed the Clinical Trials Fellowship at the PCC. He received his Doctor of Pharmacy in 2005 from at the University of New Mexico (UNM) College of Pharmacy (COP) in Albuquerque, New Mexico. He then completed a General Practice Pharmacy Residency in 2006 followed by a Nephrology Pharmacotherapy Fellowship in 2008 both at the UNM Hospitals and UNM COP, respectively. At the PCC, his duties as Center Director include establishing and maintaining extramural research collaborations with Industry, University, and the National Institutes of Health partners, balancing the VA CSPCRPCC’s research portfolio that includes support to over 80 clinical trials funded within and outside the VA Office of Research and Development, maintaining and establishing educational affiliations, and overseeing CSP and PCC strategic planning and quality initiatives. Some of his highlighted research contributions include the pivotal trials: “Drug-eluting Stents vs. Bare Metal Stents In Saphenous Vein Graft Angioplasty” (Lancet. 2018 May 19;391(10134):1997-2007); “Outcomes after Angiography with Sodium Bicarbonate and Acetylcysteine” (N Engl J Med. 2018 Feb 15;378(7):603-614); and “Combined Angiotensin Inhibition for the Treatment of Diabetic Nephropathy” (N Engl J Med. 2013 Nov 14;369(20):1892-903). Through these trials and numerous other ongoing research initiatives, he is committed to fulfilling the VA’s mission of improving the health and wellbeing of our Veterans and the Nation.
2020: C. Frank Bennett, class of 1980
2021 Dr. Brian J. Werth, class of 2010
2022: Dr. Hengameh H. Raissy, class of 1999
2023: Dr. Katrina A. Mealey, class of 1986
Nawarskas is Associate Professor of Pharmacy at the UNM College of Pharmacy (COP) and Associate Professor of Medicine at the UNM School of Medicine, Division of Cardiology. Dr. Nawarskas provides didactic and experiential teaching in several courses at the UNM College of Pharmacy focusing on cardiovascular medicine and also provides clinical pharmacy services at UNM Hospital with the Division of Cardiology. He was recently named Director of Professional Curriculum Assessment and Quality Improvement at the COP and is actively engaged in the scholarship of teaching and learning.
Feng is an expert in biochemistry and biophysics of metalloproteins and oxidoreductases. He has authored more than 96 scientific manuscripts and has been continually funded by the NIH. He is an active grant reviewer for NIH, NSF and French National Research Agency. His lab focuses on the central question of how Nature has optimized protein dynamics to promote electron transfer. This question forms his life’s work and is a source of endless fascination for him. The Feng laboratory is active in an innovative combination of cutting-edge approaches, including laser flash photolysis, pulsed EPR, ultrafast 2D IR, genetic code expansion and computational chemistry.
The goal is to understand what the function of a biological relevant metal site is, how it achieves its function, and what factors dictate its function. Feng’s recent studies of the NOS proteins demonstrate that functional domain motions and interdomain docking play a central role in NOS isoform function by modulating key electron transfer processes. Molecular mechanisms of NOS regulation are potentially key targets for development of direct, selective new pharmaceuticals for treating several diseases that currently lack effective treatments.