PQA Announces Leadership Appointments and Staff Promotions

The Pharmacy Quality Alliance (PQA) announced two senior leadership appointments and additional promotions to support its work as the nation’s preeminent medication use quality organization. Key changes, which are effective May 1, include the promotion of Lisa Hines, PharmD, CPHQ, to Chief Quality and Innovation Officer and Richard Schmitz, MA, to Chief Engagement Officer. Both join PQA’s senior leadership team.

Additional promotions within the PQA team include:

• Loren Kirk, PharmD, to Senior Director, Strategic Partnerships;
• Christina McCloskey to Senior Director, Operations and Human Resources; 
• Megha Parikh, PhD, MS, to Senior Research Scientist; and
• Ben Shirley, CPHQ, to Director, Performance Measurement.

Mel Nelson, PharmD, CPHQ, transitions to PQA’s operations team as Director of Program Management, where she will coordinate enterprise-wide solutions for PQA’s work across quality measurement, research, education and convening. Chris Kotschevar, PharmD, CPHQ, PQA’s 2020-21 Executive Fellow, will join PQA full time June 1 as Associate Director of Stakeholder Engagement.

“Over the last year, our organization has experienced tremendous growth, adding eight new team members amid a worldwide pandemic,” PQA CEO Micah Cost, PharmD, MBA, said. “Since joining PQA, I have been fortunate to get to know and work with our skilled and talented staff, and these experiences have confirmed what was shared with me prior to joining PQA. The members of the PQA team are one of our organization’s greatest assets. With rapid growth comes the need to align our structure, leadership, and management with our mission and core pillars.”

April 24 marked PQA’s 15-year anniversary. The staff promotions and appointments recognize PQA’s recent achievements and positively position the organization to achieve its mission and address opportunities ahead.

“PQA is a strong and vibrant organization driven by our members and our mission,” Cost said. “Our value is recognized through the ability to bring diverse stakeholders together to build consensus around optimizing medication use quality. These changes will position PQA to address the current and future needs of PQA members, patients, providers, plans, and the broader healthcare system as it relates to medication use quality.”

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SOURCE: Pharmacy Quality Alliance