BONUS: Public Health Matters Video - Representation, Advocacy, and Mentorship Across Race and Gender

In this episode, the leadership journey and advocacy efforts of Dr. Frank North, the president of the National Pharmaceutical Association, are highlighted. His efforts center around increasing representation and support for minority pharmacists while emphasizing the importance of mentorship, networking, and collaboration within the pharmacy profession.

Christina M. Madison, PharmD, FCCP, AAHIVP: Hello everyone, and welcome to another episode of Public Health Matters, part of the Pharmacy Times: Pharmacy Focus podcast series. I am your host, Dr. Christina Madison, also known as the Public Health Pharmacist. I'm excited to have another incredible guest with me here today, Dr. Frank North. Dr. North and I have known each other for, it seems like forever, but really, I think we really started connecting actually right after the pandemic. And I'm so glad that I've had an opportunity to get to know this incredible leader and advocate for all things pharmacy, and in particular pharmacists that are from minority groups, and we're going to dive into some questions specifically on his leadership journey. But before we do that, I'm going to go ahead and let Dr. North introduce himself.

Dr. Frank North, PharmD, MPA, RPh: Hi, everyone. So my name is Dr. North, Dr. Frank North, and I'm a native Houstonian. So you have to forgive my look, I'm battling through the Hurricane Beryl that happened a few days ago. But I'm a native Houstonian. I'm currently president of the National Pharmaceutical Association (NPhA) and would be able to dive more into [that], and I currently serve as an instructional assistant professor at the Irma Lerma Rangel College of Pharmacy and also serve as the director of interprofessional learning and practice within the Office of Interprofessional Practice, Education and Research.

Madison: My goodness, you have so many titles, how do you keep it all together sir?

North: Yeah, so the new directorship role is somewhat new, so I'm still learning how to incorporate that. And then, we'll talk about my role as the president, which…I'm ending my term, which is a two-year term. So I'm so excited to kind of be able to get some of those interactions and activities off of my calendar, but still be involved in supporting the next president.

Madison: Absolutely. So I'm always interested to hear how folks end up with their roles and how they end up in their current position. I believe you graduated from Texas Southern University College of Pharmacy. And after that, where did your journey take you to end up in such a prestigious leadership position? Sure.

North: Sure, thank you for that. So I am a 3-time graduate, actually, of Texas Southern University. But I think my leadership really kind of stems from what I would think most individuals that are in leadership roles start with. In grade school and middle school and high school, when the teacher tells you to pair up or get into groups, and you're in those groups, and then they're like, “Well, somebody has to be the one that reports out,” I was always the one that was volun-told by the group to report out, so much so that by the time I grew up, when I would get in groups, I would just automatically volunteer so no one would feel like they had to force it upon me and different things of that nature. So I think having those experiences is where a lot of my involvement and a lot of my ability to really speak up and, even though I say this and people laugh and joke and say that I'm crazy for saying it, even in somewhat of my introvertedness and shyness and awkwardness, that I've been able to I think really rise as a leader. And as that transitioned, a lot of my leadership along my journey, were through some of the more social aspects of the experiences that I had in my academic experiences. In my fraternity, the Omega Psi Phi Fraternity Incorporated, joining it and being a part of that leadership role really encouraged me to stay involved and to stay in leadership roles. So I joined the NPhA shortly after graduating pharmacy school because of Dr. Sharon Earley, who at the time was a president-elect and coming into the president role. She's almost like my pharmacy mom. She really got me involved in NPhA, so I served on the board and served in a number of capacities on the board. And then, like, right before the pandemic, we had an awesome leader, Dr. Lakesha Butler, who ran for president of NPhA, the NPhA. And she was a SNPhA advisor, and not so much heavily involved in in NPhA, but just observing the work and the heavy lifting and the things that she was able to do for NPhA over time, over the course of her presidency really inspired me to seek presidency at the time that I did.

So although if I'm thinking about my involvement in NPhA, I probably would have, at some point, considered being a president, but not at this point in my career. Because of her and what she was able to do, it really encouraged me to throw my name in the ring for the president of NPhA. I'm so grateful for her for that. It was really because of her, coupled with the experiences of the other leaders that were part of NPhA at the time: Dr. Carleton Maxwell, Mr. Jermaine Smith, Mr. Terrence Burroughs, Dr. Ryan Marable who was, interestingly, a president, like my immediate past president, but I brought him into the fold of leadership for NPhA, and then he became president, and then following in his footsteps also helped me create this path to leadership from a social aspect. What many people don't know about me, and I've been working on it for some time, is that I'm currently [working on] a dissertation for a PhD, and that's exactly what I'm looking at; how does our social integration help us become successful as we're navigating professional degrees, like pharmacy degrees, medical degrees, nursing degrees, and different things of that nature. It's absolutely been the highlight of my academic career, in my academic professional settings, is through those social aspects that helped me connect with individuals. And they helped me understand what voices and what perspectives needs to be amplified, and then help amplify them. So that's how my journey to leadership became where it is now. Hopefully, I think that I'm kind of at a pinnacle of my career, but I've also recognized that there's so much more to do in this in this work. For me, the work is within the pharmacy profession, but then just within the communities that we live and thrive in.

Madison: Yeah. I just want to take a moment to really highlight the fact that you had consistent mentorship and the importance of having mentorship, and then also having mentors that look like you. So I don't know if you want to touch on that a little bit. I personally know that as a… I tease, and say I'm a recovering academician, since I left my academic position last year, but still involved in teaching and learning of trainees. I know it was challenging for me, because I didn't have mentors that looked like me. I don't know if that's something you want to touch on, especially considering the fact that you were able to go to pharmacy school at an HBCU; this is something that I am a little bit sad to admit, but didn't know as much about [the HBCU] until after meeting you, and after being more involved in NPhA, and then getting to know some of the other leadership with the National Medical Association, and then their role within medical education within the HBCU space. So just wanted to see what your thoughts were on that, and if you feel like part of the reason why you've been able to accomplish so much is because you had consistent mentorship and mentorship of folks that look like you.

North: Yeah, it's really interesting. I think that that's probably the case for my undergraduate career. But interestingly, navigating pharmacy school at an HBCU pharmacy school, I didn't really see a lot of people who look like me in terms of being male or being men and black and pharmacy. And then if they were around, I think maybe I was still in my undergraduate phase, so I got admitted into pharmacy school in a two-four program. So I did 2 years undergrad andI was admitted into pharmacy school, and then I had academic hardship and obstacles and other political experiences, where I kind of like, left and then did some other things. And then I came back and finished pharmacy school. So, I'm really, really transparent about that. A lot of people, I feel like the people that were around that time they know, right, but I think it's so important to be transparent because I think a lot of times we look at mentors or people who have gone on this journey, and we think that they've elevated to where they weren't in this linear fashion, and they have not. And that's really also what inspired me to go back to school and work on a PhD to kind of understand that phenomenon.

For me, I had a lot of consistent mentors before pharmacy school, but I really felt like my pharmacy school experience was kind of, it was kind of like us against them, right? So it was like me against the pharmacy school, or me against the administration and different things of that nature. So I created a pact where individuals that were like myself. We all were on this non-traditional path to finishing pharmacy school, African American males, and we had some female – some women that were part of that group, as well. And we just made a pact with ourselves that we were all going to graduate, we were going to pass the board on a first-time attempt, and different things of that nature. Everybody that was within that group, we graduated pharmacy school, whether it was together, or eventually, and all of us that were a part of that group passed the board on the first-time attempt, so both the NAPLEX and the MPJE.

So I attribute that to mentors; [they] can be people who have gone the journey, and can help you get there. But there also can be people that are going on the journey with you as well, and they continuously give you that encouragement and motivation to just keep going. That's what a lot of those individuals were for me. I don't want to miss the opportunity to talk about the value of the HBCU experience and what it afforded for me as an undergrad. Although I don't know what it would have been like for me to go to a non-HBCU pharmacy school, so I don't really want to compare the relationships between the HBCU pharmacy schools, but I'll tell you that it was almost like night and day, my experiences as undergraduate. And the nurturing, and the care, and the concern that you get at an HBCU school, in terms of the undergraduate experience. My hope, and I continue to do this work, because I hope that the experiences of those that come after me, whether it be at an HBCU, or faith-based school, or just a PWI, which is predominantly white institutions, which is historically tied to the structure of the academic system, that they don't experience the experiences that that I experienced, even at an HBCU pharmacy school. Nonetheless, I persisted, and with those mentors, those peer mentors that I had, that were going along the same journey, having some of the same experiences that I had, we created this pact to get us through, and that helped us. I don't want to say that there were not individuals at the HBCU pharmacy school to help me. I think about Dr. Aisha Morris Moultry who really helped me really see the values that I had. Dr. Eaton, and Lance Henderson, and Dr. Willie Capers, those individuals that I think became apparent or revealed themselves to me during the latter form of my time, really kind of helped me, I think during that time, so I don't really want to take that away. I also have to shout out Mr. Webb Jones, who taught law, now that my area that I teach is law. It was really because of that class, and a lot of the things that I felt like he challenged. The class that we really didn't see at the time really kept me involved and kept me interested and intrigued by the lesson, so I think it's so important for us to have race-concordant mentors and mentorship, race and gender.

I’m in Texas, so there's an attack on diversity, equity, inclusion, but even before diversity, equity, and inclusion was a sexy topic, my effort has always been about representation. You think about all the negative connotations that a person can pin toward diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts, you really can't pin those same things toward representation, and just what that looks like, right? So, race-gender concordance is super important to me and how I got here, but then, in the areas and in the spaces that we met in, there are people who I attribute mentorship who are not race and gender concordant. Dr. Michelle Fritsch, of MEDIPRENEURS, has been an awesome mentor for me. I always say Dr. Sue Paul and I have to correct myself. There are just so many individuals and those are just mentors that are within the pharmacy family, right – “the pharmaly.” There are so many more mentors that look like me racially and gender-wise that’s outside of “the pharmaly,” outside of the pharmacy space. And then even those that don't look like me with race and gender outside of the pharmacy, or “the pharmaly,” right, that have really poured into me for me to really kind of… there's this quote that Dr. Robin on Sirius XM kind of talks about: “wake up, grow up show up; it's our prescription for life,” right? It has required me to really…I don't know the order that she talks about it, but to wake up, to show up, to grow up, and to be this mature, responsible being that I always kind of tell my students and other individuals, that are really just a kid with a PharmD, right, and now working on PhD. I think we're all kid-like in our interactions, but society and our spaces tell us that we have to grow up, and we have to do these things and whatnot, but I believe that if we do them with fun and intention, and that intention is mentorship…[it would be best]. So I go out and I try to mentor other individuals because of one of two things: either the relationships and the benefits that I got from the mentors that I had, or the recognition of what I could have received if I had mentorship in a particular space. That's why I try to show up in those particular spaces, because it is important, and it's been important to me, even the recognition of the lack of mentorship has been important for my mentorship.

Madison: Yeah, I agree with that. Really just talking about the importance of your network, right? So your network is your net worth, and it's all about who you know. It could literally be one degree away from the President or the Vice President. Which leads me to my next question, which is, if you could chat a little bit about your recent visit to the White House and how that came to be?

North: Right. So again, my big thing is collaboration, right, and partnership. And I think that it's important, and I think for so long, pharmacists have been fighting our battles. From the nosebleed seats that I have been able to observe the profession, and its advocacy piece has been somewhat trying to fight our own advocacy piece, sometimes even fighting against each other. When I became president of NPhA, I wanted to do two things. I wanted to be bi-directional in how I establish partnerships, right, so partnerships that were internal. So we talk about how we work and play as an independent association, NPhA, with APHA, with ASHP, with NACP, with all these various organizations, right. That's one thing, right? Because we have to be able to play well in our own sandbox. But then what happens when we go to new playgrounds, right? Another thing was to really build relationships with external groups. I had a mentor from my fraternity that does some work with the National Medical Association, and one of my other mentors -- so many mentors, and I'm like, now I got to say everybody's name because if they see this and they don't hear their name, it's going to be something. But Dr. Lanita White, who has done some amazing things in Arkansas, connected me with the National Medical Association president, Dr. Yolanda Lawson. Dr. Lawson is the 124th president, I think like the 17th female president, of the National Medical Association.

Madison: And we’re about to get another female president, Yext, right?

North: That's right. Dr. Lawson's work has been really coalescing and a lot of the national, professional black associations together to really create a document that’s like our Black Agenda, right, or what are the needs of the black community from all perspectives, so within the healthcare space, but then within the criminal justice space, within the education, space, different things that nature. Hard work really coalesced, the National Bar Association, which is historically Black or African American lawyers in the country. And the National Business League, which is one of the oldest Black trade associations to which the National Medical Association and the National Bar were birthed out of. It was established by Booker T. Washington. They were this triad association group, they really worked together to bring the national Black professional associations together so we can have intentional collective conversation, that is not meant to be exclusive to just Black people, right? It's meant to be inclusive. When I became president, my presidential thing was “Black by popular demand,” and a lot of people thought that it was very exclusive to just Black individuals, but it's really targeted to… When you look at prognosis lists, or when you look at diagnoses, if it's bad to be at the top, Black people were at the top; if it's bad to be at the bottom, Black people are at the bottom. The intention was, how can we focus on all of the needs, but make sure that we intentionally focus on the African American or the Black communities. Because if the efforts happen in those communities, all groups are going to see improvement.

But if you take those same interventions, and you put them in other minoritized communities, everybody else is going to see impact, but Black people are not going to see impact. So again, we have to be targeted in that. That's Dr. Lawson's, and President Calhoun, Dominique Calhoun, who went to Texas Southern University as well, so we weren't really strangers with each other. They put that collective voice together to say, here's a blueprint of what we think is beneficial, not just for Black people, but for all of America; but specifically making sure that Black people were not left out of the conversation, which arguably, we are often left out of the conversation. So, that came to conversations with individuals, like the Congressional Black Caucus, which is a caucus that aims to advocate positions and policy statements that are effective and fair for Black people. They're, again, not an exclusive caucus or being; if there's not one now, there have historically been non-Black members of the Congressional Black Caucus. We were invited to DC to meet with the Congressional Black Caucus and their chairman, who is from your home state, Nevada.

Madison: Yes, Steve Horsford, he's the chair this year. He's about to term out.

North: Thank you for saying his name. Can you say his name just again, so we can make sure it's clear?

Madison: Oh, yeah. [Representative] Horsford? Steven Horsford? Yeah.

North: And so, we met with him and the chair and executive director of the Congressional Black Caucus. And then we also through some of the networks of the National Bar, and the National Business League, and the National Medical Association, sought and got invitation to the White House. We met with a man, blanking on the name right now, but the mayor, Stephen Benjamin, I believe, who is now the director of public engagement for the Biden-Harris Administration. We were able to have authentic conversation and transparent conversations about what the Administration is doing, what the impression of what they're doing is in the community, and how could they do it better. So we were having that conversation, and what happens after November 2024, when there's a huge decision to be made in this country? And how do we make sure that the individuals that we represent are still a part of the conversation and that those interventions that we're having are not merely – and I say merely –taunting the attacks on diversity, equity, inclusion. I think it's so important, but not just merely diversity, equity, and inclusion, and not just diversity for the sake of diversity, but representation for the sake of reality, right?

We are completely involved in embedded into the policies, into the decisions and into the initiatives that are being made, regardless of who the administration is, but then also really being able to brag about the accomplishments of the current administration to our communities, because they have done…and what I think and what we think its more for the communities that have been done in a long time. So that was the essence of, of the meetings. Of course, so often, pharmacists are left out of the conversation, that we're not even able to advocate for ourselves. That meeting was all about the collective, right, and all about how the Black community stands up for representation. But it was also an opportunity for pharmacists to be represented, so we can talk about the great things that pharmacists can do and how we're able to increase access to health care for communities, regardless of the race of the community, right? How eradicating diversity, equity, and inclusion from medical schools can impact pharmacy schools, and what that could do to the representation of those race concordance and gender concordance that we talked about that provides other [inaudible].

Madison: Yeah, having that representation, it's definitely going to change that and impact that. So one of the things I wanted to bring up was, for me personally, I had not been involved with NPhA as a student pharmacist, or SNPhA. It was really nice to attend the meeting for the first time, I was there speaking on behalf of ViiV within the HIV space, but part of the reason why I bring this up is because I know that NPhA has done a lot within the HIV prevention space. I don't know if you want to chat a little bit about the initiative that you guys did last year around PrEP and sort of the multi-pronged social media blitz that you guys did, which I felt like was pretty cool, and I don't know if a lot of people know about.

North: Sure. Yeah, thank you for that, and interestingly, I wasn't as involved in SNPhA as a student, but it's almost like financial savings, like it's never too late to start saving money or to invest it. But the NPhA, we launched through the leadership of our great president-elect who will soon be the president, Dr. Tamara McCants, and her initiatives and her passion for ending the HIV epidemic. We were funded through a grant from Gilead to put on a PrEP and AMP tour. That PrEP and AMP tour was a virtual PrEP rally. That PrEP rally was broadcast within 5 of our regions, so the NPhA is organized into 5 regions; within those 5 regions, we had particular local areas that volunteered – or, again, like when we were in grade school and we were in those groups, were “volun-told” – that you were going to be the area to which the PrEP rally will be will be held. We built relationships; I'm in Houston, and we were at the Honeycomb Clinic in Houston is owned by Dr. Latisha Rowe, who is a Black female family medicine physician, right. So again, making those collaboration opportunities between pharmacists and physicians. In North Carolina, they were at the Avant, I believe the Avant Institute or the Avant Pharmacy, which is owned by Dr. Amina Abubakar. Through that leadership with Dr. Houston, we were there, and then we were in San Diego in California. We were out kind of in the burbs…and we were out in DC with Dr. Alsean Bryant who actually really kind of led a lot of what was syndicated. It was very unique in the sense that there was a lot of syndicated information that was broadcast to everybody, but then there were also beignets of local individuals, that provided education and provided engagement. So, we were really thrilled about that. We had some celebrity co-hosts, I'm honest, I can't think of them now. But shout out to them. They did great.

Madison: We’ll put the link in so folks can take a look at it.

North: Okay, and you can still go to print it out. I think it's PrEPandAMP.com. What we were really trying to do, the essence of it, was to educate pharmacists and the community about PrEP, number 1, so pre-exposure prophylaxis to prevent contracted HIV, but they also PEP, so post-exposure. So one, just educating about that, but then, 2, also to advocate for pharmacists roles as access points to getting PrEP products or treatment, and then also PEP. Depending on what state you live in, a pharmacist may not be identified as providers, so then therefore they have to have collaborative practice agreements with physicians or other providers in order to do that. It was really a way for us to advocate that we get this education and training in school, and we are basically ready to be access points today. So it was it was somewhat twofold. So, we had a lot of attention centered around it. We had a former White House deputy on HIV policy that not only attended there, but is in the Congressional Black Caucus reception that we had in DC. So maybe we'll talk a little bit about that during our time. In order for us to do those 2 things, right one, to just educate about what PrEP is, a lot of people are unaware. We talked about anything that’s bad for Black communities is at the bottom. There's a huge stigma around HIV-AIDS and prophylaxis treatment in the Black community. So one, just making sure that we're able to destigmatize some of that. You and I are doing some work with these.

Madison: We are both on the health equity advisory board. We’ve seen each other more in-person in the last year in a half than I think we saw in the first 3 years that we know each other. We’ve definitely been able to do some impactful work. Before we wrap up, though, I really do want to chat a little bit about the NPhA annual meeting, and what kind of offerings you have at the meeting this year. And then also, and I know this is probably, you may not have been prepared for this, but what do you feel like is going to be your lasting legacy as you leave your position?

North: Oh wow. So really interesting. Let me answer the first question before I really tackle thinking about the last. Our national convention, our annual convention is the NPhA, student NPhA. So we are the parent organization to SNPhA, the student NPhA, which is an amazing group of students that do a lot of things. We will be convening in Los Angeles, California, August 9-12. We have some amazing sponsors, so shout out Cencora, who is our first-time sponsor as Cencora but a third time sponsor as a company, because they are the company formerly known as AmerisourceBergen. It's really interesting, their name is centered around the heart and what it means in different in different languages. So, it's an amazing rebrand that I really love.

Madison: That's a great partnership.

North: So Cencora has been amazing. And they've been our platinum sponsor, and at this convention, they‘ve stepped up; they're going to have some advocacy and some legislative training and engagement that's going to be sponsored by Cencora as our platinum sponsor, as well as some other things they will be sponsoring as the platinum sponsor. We have Moderna, that is a medal sponsor, as well as Xavier University of New Orleans, Louisiana. So Xavier, and Dean Kennedy, who serves on that same committee with us have stepped up and they'll be serving as our silver sponsor. We have other sponsors that we're still discussing with, and you can see them all on our website at NPhA.net/conventions.

Madison: There’s all kinds of public health offerings, though, there's lots of stuff around vaccinations. And like HIV, all the latest around sexual health and preventative care, so there's a ton of different offerings.

North: I think, for me, it's intentionality with like fun, right? So I always try to reel people in with the fun, these are the people that are involved, these are the players that are engaged in what we're doing, and then here's what we're doing. So we're having these continuing pharmacy education hours that we would hope and that we expect for the conversation to start there and to continue. So the panel that you served on that was sponsored by Viiv, it is like the next convention, and we still have members that are talking about that. We had a celebrity host, Darren Hayes, who is a sports anchor who –

Madison: Yep, I’m still in touch with him.

North: He was just completely amazed, because there were things that we were talking about that was so relevant and so needed for practicing pharmacists. So for practitioners that are pharmacists, but they're also for the masses, right. A lot of his takeaway was, we have to do more of this, right. So he's coming back. So he's going to be a celebrity, he's going to be our emcee for some of our events, and different things of that nature. Viiv is a sponsor again, so they'll be coming back and doing some things. So again, we would not be able to do any of this without the partnership of our sponsors. That's why I want to make sure that their names are shared, and there's some other non-metal sponsors; they are giving us the ability and the pathway to hold these conversations that allow pharmacists to one, give vital information, two, to meet the requirements of their continuing education for their licensure. And then to go back to their particular communities regardless of where it is within the country, and to do great work that is inclusive for everyone, regardless of race. So that is the conversation that we're having. So our convention theme is “our prescription for progress.” So again, we're talking about, what are the things that we need to progress our community? And our community starts with the Black community, but it doesn't end there. So if you're Black community is in a town or in a city, that town or that city is embedded in the state, and that state is embedded into the country, and all those things matter, right. So that is what we'll do at the convention, and we're going to have a lot of fun doing it, right. So we're going to learn a lot, we're going to interact with each other, and we're going to talk about these things transparently. So it's going to be lit, right? So that's what lit means.

Madison: I don’t know how you're going to top that drum line from last year. I’ve never seen that in my life.

North: The theme of the opening session was “Feel the Fire.” So for those of you who need a visual, I came from the back of the audience to Peabo Bryson,“Feel the Fire,” got a lot of questionable responses because it's really like a love song. But it was really, again, how we're…

Madison: It’s your love letter to pharmacy.

North: Right, our passion, right? So I want to feel the fire, and for me that fire and, particularly at that convention, but that fire is my passion for pharmacy. So that was the message with that. I have some thoughts. The DJ has already… I’m super excited.

Madison: Well, don't forget about me, don’t forget about your little sis over here.

North: Yes, so we have all those opportunities. I'm super excited because our opening session speaker, keynote speaker, is not really a “keynote speaker,” it's a performance. So it’s Griot B, who was someone who I know who takes history and lessons and puts them into rap, rhythm and other performances. So I'm super excited about that.

Madison: Like a spoken-word poet.

North: Yep. So this is a great opportunity for you to really come and have fun. And I think that is probably the answer to your question about legacy. There was something that got a lot of us involved in pharmacy, and if I'm being very, very transparent, we get into pharmacy, and then we somewhat get discouraged. But I think that it's because we've always just kind of gone into the box, right? I had another mentor, they got hired at one of the places where we worked together; we both no longer work there, but they were like an administrator that was like an informaticist. Not like really a pharmacist informaticist, but just a healthcare administrator informaticist. Simply because he had a pharmacy degree, the entity wanted to put his office – and wanted to put him – in the pharmacy box, not up in the C suite with everyone else with the other administrators. We have this idea that we have to be in this box. For me, I want my legacy to be: [find out] what is that passion and to reinvigorate that fire that was pharmacy at one point in our lives, to really go out and to build partnerships, to build relationships, to build collaborations. And I'm not saying that those things may not have been already in place, with the other organizations that we've been having. But what are we doing? Right, so another mentor from my Sirius XM is the late, great Joe Madison, who talks about, “What are you going to do about it?” The legacy is that I hopefully created an environment within the NPhA that was intentional, but fun, right? Or fun, yet intentional; and then we can come together and we can collaborate within our own sandbox, but then we can also go to other playgrounds, and we can play well with each other, because it's not really about us – us, the pharmacist, us the physician, us the nurse, us the dentist, us the whomever – it's really back to that patient, right? So in the work that I do in the professional space, I always tell the story about, if you think back to before you got into pharmacy school, and before your friend got into medical school, and before your friend got into dental school, we all took those core classes––

Madison: They’re all together. We were all in that O-Chem boat together.

North: That’s right. And we all wanted to do one thing, right? Help the patient. And somewhere along the lines, accomplishing these achievements separated us so much, right, that now I want my legacy to really be like, how do we really come together? Right? How do we really coalesce together, and there's no, big eyes and little yous, and different things of that nature. It's all about the patient. So I hope that I've done that over the 2 years. I've been able to travel and be a part of a lot of conversations with a lot of associations. I mean, we talk about the alphabet soup of pharmacy organizations, so if I start one, I'll just have to start eating the alphabet soup. I won't do that. They know who they are, right? It's not about dissolving one organization, or merging, it’s about the conversations [and being united]. And I would hope that that is what the legacy that I leave. And I still have things to do; for some people, NPhA and becoming the leader of NPhA would be the pinnacle of their career. I like to think of affinity groups as super important, and is where we build our muscle, right? My advocacy of my work is about the profession of pharmacy, but it still dovetails with an emphasis on how it affects the Black community. So I've worked in NPhA and I've built muscle, right, I've learned how to grow up, show up, and all those things that Dr. Robin tells us to do within her “Prescription for Life” for me to then see where it takes me.

So I'll tell you, I'm more interested in how students, and how we, become who we are. So that's why I'm in the academic space. And I have interest in leadership in the academic space. But I think, just like, at the end of the day, when I wake up, there's one thing for sure, that I talk about as a Black man, there's one thing for sure, when I wake up: it's that every day I wake up, I’m going to to be a Black man, right? And then there's another thing that's for sure, is that every day I wake up as a Black man, I'm going to be a pharmacist, right? So regardless of whether I'm practicing in a pharmacy, or whether I am leading an association, or standing in front of a classroom, or sitting, leading maybe an institution like an HBCU institution, I don't know. I'm going to always wake up with the experiences that I have as a Black, male, pharmacist, right? That has been committed to what we can do together versus what we can do in our individual silos. I will hope that's truly what my legacy is; is that I helped increase awareness of the NPhA. We're 77, 78 years old, but many people don't really know much about us, right? It's unfortunate.

Madison: I think, as an n-of-1, I'm an n-of-1, I will say that my association with you outside of your leadership position really led me to getting more involved, because I didn't know about the organization until you became president and really started showing up and talking about it more. I definitely think that that's part of your legacy, is the brand awareness and awareness of the organization. But obviously, part of the reason why we're doing this podcast is because I want there to be more awareness of different types of pharmacy organizations, and that the heart of us as a profession is utilizing our professional networks. And those professional networks are much easier to develop when you have a structure of a state or national organization. That's why I always tell folks to get involved, whether that's at your state organization, or at the national level. Being part of a pharmacy association will accelerate your professional prospects, because it's all about who you know and whether or not somebody could give you that warm handoff that may lead to your dream job. You and I have connected and have been able to kind of help each other as far as getting connected to other groups. And you never know who someone may know, right? That's why I think having these opportunities for networking, having these opportunities to kind of experience a new avenue of pharmacy. I went to the history of NPhA and SNPhA, and there were mostly students in the room. But I will tell you, I learned so much from attending that presentation, because I didn't know. I didn't know the history, I didn't know it had been around so long. I had no idea that at one point in time, it was actually part of the National Medical Association. And like, even just understanding, as a profession, like, how did we get to these silos? And I think once you understand the history, then that's how we move forward, right? What's our prescription for progress? Our prescription for progress needs to be understanding our past in order to inform our future.

North: That's right. And there's several things that you say that I just want to touch on. That's why, for me, going to the White House was [an] amazing experience. And I think it was for a lot of my counterparts to see. But historically, members of the NPhA were invited to give testimony, because they were connected to the representatives in areas that they that they lived in, and many of them went to high school and went to college with those individuals. When there were issues that happened in the community, they went right to them. Whether they were, Black pharmacists, or Black physicians, or whatnot, they went to the to them specifically, right? I would hope that, if there are individuals from Congress or from the House of Representatives or from the White House, is that that's something that's a standing invitation, not that we have to come for, you know, “Pharmacist Day at the Capitol.” We were able to sit at a table and to have dedicated conversation, as opposed to just a single appointment on a legislators, on a legislative calendar, right? So that's important to note. And that there are so many affinity associations that I always tell students and pharmacists, that there are at least 4 organizations.

And I say at least because I'm a part of so many more, so 4. But there are 4 that you should be a part of, at least, consider being a part of, and that is your pharmacy school alumni association. And listen, my pharmacy school experience I shared at the beginning wasn't all peachy keen and roses, right? Even at an HBCU pharmacy school, it was completely night compared to the day that I had in my undergraduate experience. But I still support, I'm still a part of our alumni association, I served as the president for a very long time of the alumni association, because at this point, it's not about me, it's about those students that are coming up and ensuring that they don't have the same experience that I had. But it also connects you to opportunities. So there's so many opportunities that the experiential director will send me an email and say, “hey, somebody sent me this email about such and such, do you know anybody that's interested?” So even though they're asking me if I know somebody that's interested in this particular opportunity, I'm still learning about the opportunity too, right? So I knew about the opportunity too. So if it's something that I'm interested in. So being a part of your alumni association.

Next is your state association. I don't know if we talk about our state associations as much, but ––

Madison: Oh no I definitely do. I've had several on the podcast.

North: So I'm excited because we – under my leadership – we established a memorandum of understanding, so we're now associated with NASPA, the National Alliance for State Pharmacy Associations with doctor-attorney Krystalyn Weaver. It's super important because depending on what state you work in, it's going to determine your work environment, what you do as a pharmacist, and what you're able to do with the credentials that you have. Being a part of your state association is daunting, right? And truth be told, if you're Black or another underrepresented minority group, you're probably going to be that n-of-1, right? But you get your friends involved, and it's going to be uncomfortable, the first couple of times you come, telling you from lived experiences, you're going to have some daunting experiences there, but you keep showing up because the conversation changes, and you learn so much from being in the room about the profession. So your state association is the next.

And then a national organization. So whether it's APhA or ASHP, depending on your work environment.I'm a part of both. I'm a little bit biased, I think that everybody should be a part of APhA, just like I think everybody should be a part of their state Association. I don't know if this…that's my bias. I'm a part of APhA, but I pay my money, and I support ASHP, but there are other national organizations.

And then the last is an organization that really kind of speaks to who you are. So for me, that is the NPhA, but there is a National Women's Pharmacy Association, there's a Aational Nigerian Pharmacy Association, there's an Asian Pharmacy Association. I was on a call, and I found out that there was a Haitian American Pharmacy Association, so there is probably an affinity organization for you, and you can use that as your sounding board. So if I go to a mentor, a member, or members of NPhA, and I share my experience, and they don't agree with me? Then maybe there's something wrong with me, right? So it becomes my sounding board to my experience. So that's what the NPhA has been for me, I've been able to create, really,I use the word intimate. I had a person that was corporate in a chain pharmacy, that when I graduated, and I had my experiences working for a corporate chain, that at 10:30, when I got off work, I can text, or I can call this person and vent, right? And they were able to mentor me through my experiences; luckily, they didn't work for the same company, because I may have gotten fired for some of my some of my thought processes at the time, but they were able to again, grow me up, right, to mature me up and my thought process. I don't know if I would have gotten that from another group or out of another association, but just the mere fact that I connected with them through the NPhA, through the National Pharmaceutical Association, I think, for me, lets some of those walls that become barriers down. When I had those experiences, I took them up on. “If you ever need anything, reach out to me!” I reached out. And I think that you can get that from whatever that group is for you. There are some faith-based affinity groups.

So again, consider those 4 groups. Your pharmacy school alumni association, your state association –– many of us might be licensed in multiple states; I think it's obvious, it's the state that you're probably working in right now, or the state that you're considering moving to in the near future. So you can be involved and up-to-date about what's going on in the state that you're working in, or the states that you're going to be working in. And then a national association, similar to APhA or ASHP. And then an affinity group hat aligns with how you show up, regardless of whether that is based off of your race, your gender. The fact that you are a mother because even though it may not be…

Madison: Oh yeah, pharmacist moms’ group.

North: We have a pharmacist moms’ group. So whether it’s your sexual orientation, your gender identity, there are all these different affinity groups that you can choose one, or more than one, to be a part of.

Madison: I mean, ACTP was my professional home. I mean, that's where I got a lot of mentorship, especially because of all the stuff that they do with residency programs. So I think there's tons of options out there and I'm glad that you brought those up. As we're coming to a close here, I do want to make sure that those who are listening, or those who are watching, know that if they want to reach out to you or if they want to learn more, what would be the best means of communication, and if you would like to share your social media handles or any websites, we would definitely be happy to include those in the show notes for today.

North: Yeah, so thank you for that. So yep, you can find me all things #IKnowFrank. So it's a trending hashtag. My Instagram is @DrFrankRPh. So DR, Frank – F-R-A-N-K – RPh. So @DrFrankRPh. That's my Instagram. You can find me on Facebook, although I don't really do a lot of Facebook interaction anymore. I need to. I have FrankNorthPharmD on Facebook. I'm on LinkedIn, I'm just Frank North on LinkedIn. But if you go in and you put the URL in, it’s LinkedIn, forward slash, Frank North PharmD, so you do have to put the PharmD at the end of that.

Madison: We're going to include all these.

North: I created another Instagram, @NPhApresident, so I'll be transitioning that to the incoming president when I leave, but then you can follow NPhA, @NPhApharmacy on Instagram, and you can follow our SNPhA, I think it’s @SNPhAofficial but I'll get you that as well to see the awesome things that the students are doing. So I hope that that was concise. But if you're on Instagram, you can just #IKnowFrank and I should come up. You'll see my love-hate relationship with running. So if you don't see recent posts, then send me a DM to get to running.

Madison: Well, Frank, this has been a lovely conversation. I think we're a bit over our typical time. Knowing knowing that my friend and colleague is very explanatory, I think others will understand and will be fine with the extended duration of this episode. With that being said, again, this has been a fantastic conversation. I’m so excited to hear about the initiatives that NPhA is doing, focusing on HIV prevention, focusing on educating the community, leading with community I think is really important. I always say, there's nothing about us without us. I think having folks that look and sound like us as part of the conversation is really important, and I'm glad that that is a priority that you've made in your personal and your professional life. So thank you again for your time today. And I hope that for those who are able to attend, that they're able to either attend a live in-person meeting, or there's other opportunities for virtual. I know you guys have different zones, and you guys do lots of different virtual presentations at different times all over the country. We'll include the website, so you can check out all of the different offerings. And really just, again, encouraging folks to get involved and know that this is not something that's specifically like, we're only focusing on Black people, it's just that we want to be part of the conversation and we want to make sure that we're not being forgotten and not being one of those many, many negative statistics that are talked about when we talk about health outcomes. This has been another incredible episode of Public Health Matters, part of Pharmacy Times: Pharmacy Focus podcast series, and again, I am your host, Dr. Christina Madison, also known as the Public Health Pharmacist. And remember, public health matters.