15 Years Advancing Psychiatric Pharmacy

As we begin 2026 and look ahead to celebrating the 15th anniversary of the AAPP Foundation, it is an opportune time to reflect on the past year and celebrate the many accomplishments of our professional community. Since its founding, the AAPP Foundation has remained committed to advancing psychiatric pharmacy through research, scholarship, and practitioner development. In recent years, that commitment has taken tangible form through significant investments in projects that expand practice, generate new evidence, and support the advancement of our profession. It has been incredibly exciting to see this work come to life over the past few years, and the AAPP Foundation Board of Directors are proud to share highlights from 2025.

A major milestone was the investment of $500,000 by AAPP and the Foundation to support large, multi-site research examining the impact of psychiatric pharmacists on patient care. The second half of this funding, totaling $250,000, was awarded in 2025, and we extend our congratulations to Dr. Nathaniel Rickles (UConn School of Pharmacy), Dr. Wilner Samson (Hartford Healthcare), and Dr. Charles Caley (Western New England University College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences), the 2025 award recipients. Their project titled “Alternate Prescriber Type - Depression Management (Trial APT-DM): Impact of Psychiatric Pharmacist on Major Depressive Disorder in Primary Care”, will commence this year. 

The Foundation was also proud to award the first-ever Practice Expansion Grant, providing $25,000 to support an innovative project focused on expanding the integration of psychiatric pharmacists within clinical care. We are pleased to recognize and congratulate Dr. P. Brittany Vickery for her project titled, “The Hendersonville Free Clinic Practice Expansion via Flexible-Schedule Telepsychiatry Provided by a Clinical Pharmacist Practitioner.” This program reflects our commitment to advancing meaningful practice innovation, particularly for efforts that have the potential to transform care delivery but require early investment to move forward. 

Lastly, the Foundation remains committed to supporting individuals at all stages of professional development, from student registration grants that enable attendance at the AAPP Annual Meeting, to Collegiate Chapter Impact Grants that expand student-led initiatives, and the Defining the Future Research Grant Program which supports early-career investigators and practitioners. Together, these efforts help build the pipeline and support the next generation of psychiatric pharmacists.

On behalf of the AAPP Foundation Board of Directors, I would like to extend a big thanks to our members, donors, staff, and volunteers whose support makes this work possible. We are grateful for your continued generosity and dedication to advancing psychiatric pharmacy. We look forward to continuing our momentum in 2026!

Clayton D. English, PharmD, MS, BCPP, FAAPP
2026-2027 AAPP Foundation President

2025 Impact

Advancing Psychiatric Pharmacy By Expanding Research Support

Image: Defining the Future Recipient Rebekah Torchon, PharmD, MS, poses in front of her grant-supported project at the 2025 AAPP Annual Meeting!

Research support has been a core tenet of the AAPP Foundation's mission from the beginning. In 2025, we embraced research support even more by increasing our financial research support. More awards with larger grant budgets became a recurring theme in 2025. Our longest-standing grant program, the Defining the Future Grants awarded nearly 150% more in grant support, totaling $14,650 in 2025. Ratcheting that up even more, the first-ever Practice Expansion Grant was awarded in the amount of $25,000. In partnership with AAPP, this grant program supports quality improvement projects that support the integration of psychiatric pharmacists into mental health care teams. The 2025 grant was awarded to a project seeking to expand access to care by a BCPP at multiple clinics through telepsychiatry! 

Finally, in 2025,the Foundation awarded its second, significant Outcomes Research Grant in the amount of $249,786 to the project, “Alternate Prescriber Type - Depression Management (Trial APT-DM): Impact of Psychiatric Pharmacist on Major Depressive Disorder in Primary Care.” The co-principal investigators are Dr. Nathaniel Rickles (UConn School of Pharmacy), Dr. Wilner Samson (Hartford Healthcare), and Dr. Charles Caley (Western New England University College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences).

The longevity of our grant programs speaks volumes about our goals and our committed donors. These programs could not continue without this generous support, and we are incredibly appreciative of every donation we receive. Thank you, donors!

Funding our Mission

The AAPP Foundation continues its progress in advancing the core mission areas of research, scholarship, and practitioner development through the distribution of grants and project/initiative sponsorships.

Growing and Flourishing Because of Donors Like Lawrence Cohen

The AAPP Foundation wouldn’t exist without generous donors such as Dr. Larry Cohen who has been a supporter since the Foundation’s inception. The Foundation caught up with Dr. Cohen to ask about his philanthropic support.

What motivates you to donate to the AAPP Foundation? 

“AAPP, and its previous iterations, has been my professional home since the early 1990s, when a small group of us met to discuss forming an organization to meet the needs of pharmacists who specialize in treatment and research in psychiatry and neurology. I have been extremely fortunate throughout my career and have always supported organizations and institutions that support understanding the needs of our patients and improving their care. The AAPP Foundation is one of those entities that I am proud to support.

Which AAPP Foundation initiative(s) motivate you the most?

“All of the current initiatives are near and dear to me in different ways. First, the AAPP Outcomes Grants and Practice Expansion Grants are essential in order to demonstrate, document, and publish results that prove psychiatric pharmacists as team members improve treatment outcomes, provide cost-efficient care, and are the most knowledgeable pharmacotherapy experts, while also understanding how to work on interprofessional teams. Collegiate Chapter Impact Grants are a great means of growing interest among students, especially early in their training. As a Former Faculty Advisor for a Collegiate Chapter, and a donor directly to some Pharmacy schools/colleges AAPP Collegiate Chapters, I know how meaningful such funding can be. The Student Registration Grants provide another type of support, reinforcing students’ interest in becoming future psychiatric pharmacists. I am proud to say that I have received several emails from students who will be attending the 2026 AAPP meeting because of Student Registration Grants.

Defining the Future Research Grants are another means of supporting students, post-doc residents, and early career practitioners to explore research as a career path. Competing for research funding in today’s environment is extremely challenging, and it is great to see the AAPP Foundation’s support in this area.

Lastly, while I am not as familiar with the efforts underway through the DEI Grants, a common attribute among many psychiatric pharmacists is their compassion, curiosity, and interest in understanding the needs and challenges among individuals from different cultures, geographies, places in society, and degrees of current and past life challenges. As a person who has participated in research projects on a global basis in the past, this is an essential area of research and practice in psychiatric pharmacy.”

Is there anything else you would like to share regarding your commitment to the Foundation?

“I have worn many hats within CPNP/AAPP as one of the CPNP founding members and a Founding member of the Board of Directors, Committee Chair, and Member. Importantly, I also had leadership roles in the groups representing psychiatric pharmacists before there was CPNP, through ASHP, and then ACCP. I remember well our discussions regarding forming a Foundation to support CPNP initiatives, and I am so proud to see the AAPP Foundation flourish and grow. It is through my previous roles and experiences that I am proud to contribute to the AAPP Foundation and hope that my participation will help in some small way to support the psychiatric pharmacists of tomorrow and the education and research necessary for the benefit of our patients.”

Will you join Dr. Cohen in supporting research, scholarship, and practitioner development?

Through kind gifts like yours, the AAPP Foundation can continue to advance psychiatric pharmacy, and ultimately, the care of those living with mental illness.

Donations can be made online at aappf.org/donate or by mail to AAPP Foundation, 8055 O Street, Ste. S113, Lincoln, NE 68510

Donate now!

Recognizing Our 2025 Donors

The following individuals and organizations made gifts to support the AAPP Foundation’s mission between January 1, 2025, and December 31, 2025:

2025 Board of Directors

We thank the 2025 AAPP Foundation Board of Directors for their service.

	Mary C. Borovicka, PharmD, BCPP President Clinical Pharmacist-Dept of Psychiatry MetroHealth Medical Center Cleveland, OH
	Clayton English, PharmD, BCPS, BCPP, BCGP President Elect   Assistant Professor University of Washington School of Pharmacy Seattle, WA
	Brenda K. Schimenti Secretary AAPP Foundation Lincoln, NE
	Jill Reynoldson, PharmD, BCPP Treasurer Clinical Pharmacist Practitioner Dwight D Eisenhower VA Medical Center  Leavenworth, KS
	Michelle Geier, PharmD, BCPP AAPP Liaison Psychiatric Clinical Pharmacist Supervisor San Francisco Department of Public Health San Francisco, CA
	Toya Bowles, PharmD, MS, BCPP Principal Medical Science Liaison Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies of Johnson & Johnson Miami, FL
	Austin Campbell, PharmD, BCPP Clinical Associate Professor UMKC School of Pharmacy Columbia, MO
	Ericka Crouse, PharmD, BCPP, BCGP, FASHP, FASCP, FAAPP Associate Professor Virginia Commonwealth University School of Pharmacy Richmond, VA
	Phillip Lai, PharmD, BCPP Senior Medical Science Liaison Axsome Therapeutics Austin, TX
	Megan Maroney, PharmD, BCPP Clinical Associate Professor Ernest Mario School of Pharmacy at Rutgers Long Branch, NJ
	Michael McGuire, PharmD, BCPP Associate Professor of Pharmacy Practice Belmont University Nashville, TN
	Susie H. Park, PharmD, BCPP Clinical Pharmacist Behavioral Health Riverside University Health System Riverside, CA
	Chris Paxos, PharmD, BCPP, BCPS, BCGP Associate Professor of Pharmacy Practice Northeast Ohio Medical University Rootstown, OH
	Mark Watanabe, PharmD, PhD, BCPP Psychiatric Clinical Pharmacist San Francisco Department of Public Health San Francisco, CA