A Monumental Undertaking: The Vaccine Rollout

Rina Shah, PharmD, is Group Vice President of Pharmacy Operations and Services at Walgreens. Her passion for pharmacy has been centered around transforming patient care to make an impact on patients’ lives as well as empowering those around her.In her current role, Rina leads a team that is responsible for pharmacy operations, services and specialty pharmacy across 9,000+ Walgreens pharmacies. In the last year, Rina has led Walgreens pharmacy response to COVID-19, including roll out of COVID-19 vaccines administered in long-term care facilities, in Walgreens stores, in partnership with local governments, employers and community organizations at non-traditional locations like sports stadiums, cruise ships and places of worship, and via a mobile bus tour reaching underserved areas. Prior to vaccine roll out, Shah led pharmacy operations in response to shelter-in place orders early in the pandemic, implementing changes such as waiving prescription delivery fees, initiating proactive outreach by pharmacists to vulnerable patients, and enhancing team member and customer safety protocols. Rina helped launch Feel More Like You in 2019, a health and beauty service available at no cost to help people living with cancer manage the medical and physical changes associated with cancer treatment. She also spearheaded the creation of a new team of dedicated pharmacists at Walgreens called Health Outcomes Pharmacists. Often outside of a traditional retail setting, these specialized pharmacists work closely with patients most at-risk of medication non-adherence to address barriers that could prevent them from taking their medications as prescribed. In 2020, Rina led the pharmacy team that secured the first enterprise-wide URAC accreditation in Specialty Pharmacy for more than 300 community-based specialty pharmacies. Often patients with life-changing health challenges need support from their pharmacy team in their local community, this accreditation assures patients of the high standards of care in place as they access their medications and understand their treatment.She began her career at Walgreens in 1998, where she held various pharmacy roles in store. In 2007, Rina joined the corporate support center to lead several pharmacy-specific initiatives across the organization, including the launch of the Walgreens immunizations program chain-wide. The program increased immunization rates among customers covering 7 million people. She has also led sales operations and client services within market access. Rina was recognized by Crain’s Chicago Business as one of “40 under 40” for her leadership at Walgreens, by Fierce Healthcare as one of 2020’s Most Influential Minority Executives, and by Drug Store News as one of the Top Women in Retail for her business excellence. Rina is actively involved with the UIC College of Pharmacy, APhA, NASP, the CDC and NACDS. She received her Doctorate in Pharmacy from the University of Illinois at Chicago in 2005.

Nimesh is President of Community Pharmacy and Health / Senior Vice President of McKesson Corporation. In his role, Nimesh is responsible for the community pharmacy and health business which includes, field sales and operations, the Health Mart Franchise, Health Mart Atlas, Consumer Packaged Goods, development and innovation, marketing, independent and national accounts and emerging pharmacy channels. Nimesh joined McKesson in 2018 as SVP and President, Health Mart. Previously, Nimesh led healthcare services for the Walgreen Co., where he spent 29 years in various leadership roles leading business development for pharmacy practice design, automation and technology, pharmacy operations, human resources and corporate operations. During this time, he drove the creation of market leading technology and design and earning numerous patents granted by the United States Patent and Trademark Office. He is respected as a credible voice in decision making, identifying and fostering strategic partners, and creating highly engaged and functional teams. He was featured on the cover as one of the “Champions of Pharmacy” in Drug Topics’ in May 2012. In addition, Nimesh has spoken at numerous events including HLTH and TEDx.Jhaveri earned an undergraduate and professional degree in pharmacy from Rutgers University and was a Rutgers Scholar. He also received an MBA in organizational behavior from Lake Forest Graduate School of Management and graduated as a Hotchkiss Scholar.Nimesh is on the Board of Directors for Northwest Community Healthcare in Arlington Heights, IL. He serves on the board of trustees for Rutgers University, Rutgers Research and Educational Foundation, the executive board of directors for Imerman Angels, a 1-1 cancer support organization and the pharmacy advisory and Innovation and Research External Advisory Boards for the Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science.

RODRIGO MARTINEZ is Chief Marketing & Experience Officer at CIC Health, a COVID testing and vaccination company. He is a creative business leader and entrepreneur with 20+ years of diverse international experience across life sciences, digital health, health care, and wellness sectors. Previously he was Chief Marketing & Design Officer at Veritas Genetics. Prior to that he was Life Sciences Chief Strategist at IDEO, the global design firm, and a Principal with The Boston Consulting Group. Rodrigo's work has won awards including Fast Company Most Innovative Cos and World Changing Ideas, CNBC 50 Disruptors 2x, MIT Tech Review's 50 Smartest Cos 2x, a Webby. He has appeared in HBO, NPR, CBS, CNBC, LA Times, WIRED, EDGE-Serpentine Gallery, and several books. He has been on the stage at: TED Unplugged, DENT, World's Top 50 Innovators, Summit at Sea, ARC Fusion, Near Future Summit, multiple TEDx events. Rodrigo was a World Bank Scholar at Harvard where he received his MPA/ID. He serves on the Board of Advisors of GBH and the Board of Advisors of Neo.Life. He lives with his wife and daughters in Massachusetts. Rodrigo is a freediver with a breath hold time of 5 mins 10 secs. You can follow him on Twitter at @RodrigoATCG

Karen S. Guice, M.D., M.P.P., was the Acting Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs. Dr. Guice assisted in the development of strategies and priorities to achieve the health mission of the Military Health System, and participated fully in formulating, developing, overseeing and advocating the policies of the Secretary of Defense.Dr. Guice also acted as a liaison for other offices within OSD, the Military Departments, Congress, and other Executive Branch agencies to develop, coordinate and integrate health care policies with departmental priorities and initiatives. Additionally, Dr. Guice oversaw Congressional and legislative activities for the OASD(HA), as well as guided the office’s public affairs and communications programs. The Office of Health Affairs is responsible for providing a cost effective, quality health benefit to 9.6 million active duty uniformed Service Members, retirees, survivors and their families. The MHS has a $50 billion annual budget and consists of a worldwide network of 59 military hospitals, 360 health clinics, private-sector health business partners, and the Uniformed Services University.In addition, Dr. Guice served as acting Military Health System Chief Information Officer. In this position, she supported the assistant Secretary of Defense (Health Affairs) and DoD medical leaders on all matters related to information management and information technology.Previously, Dr. Guice served as the Executive Director of the Federal Recovery Coordination Program, a joint program of the Departments of Defense and Veterans Affairs. Dr. Guice graduated from the University of New Mexico School of Medicine and completed her general surgery training at the University of Washington. She has been a member of the surgical faculties at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston, the University of Michigan, Duke University, and the Medical College of Wisconsin. She was promoted to Professor of Surgery during her tenure at Duke University.Dr. Guice received a master’s degree in Public Policy from Duke University and was selected as a 1997-1998 Robert Wood Johnson Health Policy Fellow. Dr. Guice served as a staff member of the Senate Committee on Labor from 1998-1999, and as the Director of Fellowship Services at the American College of Surgeons (1999-2001). She was the Deputy Director for the President’s Commission on Care for America’s Returning Wounded Warriors (Senator Bob Dole and Secretary Donna Shalala, co-chairs, 2007).Dr. Guice has been a funded investigator for over 10 years, receiving grants from the NIH and the Emergency Medical Services for Children Program. Her basic science research included the scientific investigation of pancreatitis related respiratory failure and her health services research focused on the development of a national trauma registry for children and outcome evaluation of children’s trauma-related care. She has served on NIH Study Sections and EMSC grant review panels. She authored or coauthored over 60 peer reviewed publications and nine book chapters.Dr. Guice is a member of several professional societies and was elected President of the Association of Academic Surgery in 1993. She received the Association of Women Surgeons Distinguished Member Award in 1999 and the W.W. Coon Surgical Residents Award for Teaching Excellence at the University of Michigan in 1988. In 1993, she received the Outstanding Alumna Award from the College of Arts and Sciences at New Mexico State University. She received an award for Outstanding Achievement from the office of the Secretary of Defense in 2007 for her work on the President’s Commission, and received a Commendation from the Department of Veterans Affairs in 2009.