For Pharmacy Professor, Fulbright Brings Dream to Life

How many times have you said to yourself, “If I only knew then what I know now,” or “I could never do that”? Those are thoughts Dr. Elizabeth (Lisa) Phillips has said to herself many times.

As an associate professor with the Department of Pharmacy Practice and Administration at the St. John Fisher University Wegmans School of Pharmacy, Phillips would often experience the duality of self-doubt while simultaneously encouraging her students and colleagues to pursue dreams and adventures that would allow them to achieve unimaginable goals or engage in an opportunity to share learned experiences.

Last year, Phillips finally took a dose of her own good advice, and she dared to dream that the impossible could be possible. She took the time to apply to the Fulbright U.S. Scholar Program, an international educational exchange program that provides grants for teaching, research, or professional projects in various countries with the goal of fostering understanding between the people of the United States and other countries.

Her application centered around a six-month collaboration in Western Kenya with Maseno University and Jaramogi Oginga Odinga Teaching & Referral Hospital (JOOTRH), with a focus in the Obama Children’s Hospital. Through Fulbright’s generous support, she gained the freedom and opportunity to explore living in another country, immersing herself in the local culture, and developing meaningful relationships through shared cross-cultural experiences. Phillips said that the relationships, both personal and professional, enabled teaching and research opportunities that allowed both her and those around her to grow.  

“My Fulbright experience did exactly what it is designed to do: foster cross-cultural collaboration between researchers,” Phillips said. “I learned a lot about the health care system in Kenya and the challenges they face in providing care, and I was able to bring my years of experience in clinical pharmacy to help share and implement common best practices.”

Research and Collaboration at Work

Her work with Maseno University and JOOTRH was born out of a professional relationship with Dr. Andrea Shaw, assistant professor of pediatrics, emergency medicine, medicine, public health, and preventative medicine, and director of the Center of International Health at SUNY Upstate Medical University in Syracuse, New York. Shaw connected Phillips with a colleague at Maseno University, Dr. Walter Otieno, who serves as the head of the Department of Pediatrics and Child Health at the Maseno School of Medicine and is a practicing physician training students and pediatric residents at JOOTRH. Shaw also connected her with Dr. Lucia Janovic, a pediatrician who was serving as a global health fellow.

Phillips spent fall 2024 in Kenya working with medical and pharmacy students and faculty from Maseno University’s School of Medicine, and collaborated clinically on interprofessional rounds with nurses, pharmacists, clinical officers (CO), medical officers (MO), and laboratory personnel at JOOTRH and the Obama Children’s Hospital. Janovic was in the United States at the time but continued to collaborate remotely. As a pharmacist, Phillips also spent time building relationships with leadership and colleagues in the Department of Pharmacy.  

Phillips’ primary teaching and research focus was on antimicrobial resistance (AMR).  According to the World Health Organization, AMR – or a bacterium’s ability to resist drug treatment – is among the top 10 global health crises. To combat this public health issue, health care organizations such as the WHO, Centers for Disease Control, and others around the world have created Antimicrobial Stewardship Programs (ASPs) designed to implement policies and practices that will help prevent or reduce AMR among patients.

In her first weeks in Kenya, Phillips met with physicians, pharmacists, nurses, and laboratory personnel to gain a deeper understanding of the clinical practice, the current ASP at JOOTRH, and how antibiotics are used with patients. In addition to collaborating with Janovic on her Fulbright research, Phillips also partnered with Kenyan colleagues including Dr. Neto Obala, clinical pharmacist; Dr. Silas Owour, medical microbiologist; and Dr. Rachel Nanjala, pediatric resident.

“Everyone I met and worked with was very open, teaching me about the processes in place, and they were receptive to my role as a consultant looking for opportunities to improve care and practice,” said Phillips. “It was such an inviting environment, and very collaborative.”

Phillips spent time on three major areas: (1) teaching and modeling antimicrobial infection prevention and control (IPC) procedures with the interprofessional medical teams, (2) creating a culture of culturing by reinforcing the importance of getting cultures before using antibiotics, and (3) working closely with the laboratory and pharmacy personnel.   

Her research was, and remains, a collaboration with health care team members, focused on creating a “culture of culturing” at the institution, especially in pediatrics, with the outcome of developing an antibiogram, a chart that includes a list of bacteria and antibiotics to determine resistance patterns of the bacteria to various antibiotics. Antibiograms are unique to each hospital and community and allow physicians to make evidence-based decisions about which antibiotics will be most effective for their patients. Phillips said this research poses a significant challenge for health care professionals in Kenya, who face limited resources; hospitals often lack the necessary supplies to take cultures, and they also experience shortages in antibiotics.

“Antibiograms can be critical to developing infection control procedures, particularly in health systems that experience medication shortages,” Phillips explained.

A Full Circle Moment

Phillips has been a pharmacist for over 30 years and a university educator for nearly 20 years. She has seen and been an active part of the evolution of pharmacy in the United States and the developing role of clinical pharmacists. Her experiences helped her transition to a new country with a developing health care system. Many of the challenges she saw were memories from her past; allowing her to provide guidance and recommendations to improve care, address issues, and train in the best practices. This marked the full circle moment for her, where she often felt grateful for her training and experiences, and made her feel as if she had stepped back in time with the ability to share the knowledge she had accumulated.

Some of the challenges, however, highlight the importance of global health initiatives, especially around AMR. AMR issues and the importance of appropriate antibiotic utilization are not issues isolated to JOOTRH and Kenya. Phillips explained that AMR is a global health threat because inappropriate utilization of antibiotics causes collateral damage globally.

“Resistant bacteria are the ultimate survivors, knowing no borders,” she said, adding that knowledge is power, and that she hopes her efforts in Kenya will provide the necessary knowledge (antibiogram), support (strengthen laboratory capacity and advance AMS pharmacy initiatives), and training (education, both clinically and didactically), to enable wise antimicrobial choices and improve care. 

Phillips learned a great deal from her colleagues in Kenya. Of course, coming from Upstate New York, tropical medicine is not a common subject in her day-to-day practice. She spent a lot of time researching disease states and treatments. Malaria, cholera, malnutrition, sickle cell, and seizures were common ailments that required relearning. She also gained a deep appreciation for the culture she was immersed in.

“What I learned the most and took away from my experience was the passion of the people, their resiliency, a strong sense of family, the preservation of life, and faith,” she said.

Creating a New Circle

Phillips said she made life-long friends and colleagues in Kenya, and looks forward to continued collaboration and connection. As a testament to this, she returned to Kenya in May 2025 to continue work on the research project (antibiogram development and creating a culture of culturing) and advance the partnership between Fisher and Maseno.

An abstract of her ongoing research is being presented at the Infection Prevention Network Kenya (IPNET-K) conference in Mombasa, Kenya in September. Additionally, Phillips and her Fisher colleagues, along with the dean at the Meseno School of Pharmacy, are creating a virtual Preceptor Development Program for Kenyan pharmacy preceptors. Launching in fall 2025, the preceptor program is supported through grant funds from the Wegmans School of Pharmacy.

Phillips also aims to establish a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Maseno University and an affiliation agreement with the JOOTRH Department of Pharmacy, enabling continued collaboration and the offering of a rotation for Fisher pharmacy students to visit Kenya, with the hope that the exchange can be reciprocal.

Phillips will continue to collaborate with Shaw at SUNY Upstate, as she advances medical efforts in JOOTRH and Obama Children’s Hospital through the involvement of SUNY Upstate medical students and faculty. Shaw is working to send internal medicine, emergency medicine, and OB/GYN physicians to Kenya to support medical students and residents who go to Kenya, and to train Kenyan medical colleagues and students.

Currently, Phillips and colleagues from the AMS committee at JOOTRH and the department of pharmacy are working to apply for various grants to support AMS efforts as well as advancing pharmacy services. For example, they hope to develop an intravenous admixture program, where the pharmacy makes intravenous medications, initially starting with the most vulnerable pediatric and neonatal patients. They also aim to develop a clinical pharmacokinetics laboratory where pharmacists can order and obtain drug levels of medications to optimize dosing, efficacy, and safety. Phillips said that these are expected parts of care in developing countries that need to become an expected part of care in other middle-income countries, as such efforts are known to improve care and save lives.

“All countries’ citizens deserve optimal and efficacious care,” she said.

Phillips said she is proud to continue her work and values the support of Fisher and the School of Pharmacy to do so. Although funding will be a challenge, she will employ the same resiliency she saw in the Kenyan colleagues and never miss the opportunity to make the impossible possible.