Amy Hanson, PharmD, BCPS AQ-ID is an Infectious Disease & Antimicrobial Stewardship Pharmacist. Dr. Hanson was recently selected as the Top Pharmacist of the Year for 2022 by the International Association of Top Professionals (IAOTP) for her outstanding leadership and dedication to the Pharmacy Profession. She recently started a new position at Pfizer as an Anti-infective Field Medical Director covering Illinois and Wisconsin, which is Pfizer’s terminology for essentially a Medical Science Liaison, providing medical drug information, tool and resources and gaining clinical insights from healthcare professionals mainly in the Chicagoland area.
Inclusion with the International Association of Top Professionals is an honor, and only a few individuals in each discipline are chosen for this distinction. These special honorees are distinguished based on their professional accomplishments, academic achievements, leadership capabilities, research publications, skills, affiliations and contributions to their communities and professional societies. All honorees are invited to attend the IAOTP’s annual awards gala at the end of this year in Las Vegas for a night to celebrate their achievements. www.iaotp.com/award-gala
With more than12 years of professional experience as a Clinical Pharmacist, Amy has certainly proven herself as knowledgeable and she is an expert in her field. Amy specializes in Infectious Disease and Antimicrobial Stewardship, with experience in the Hospital, Public Health and Industry, and in each role has promoted health, wellness and infectious disease treatment and prevention. Amy is a dynamic results-driven leader who has demonstrated success and advancement throughout her entire career. Prior to joining Pfizer, Amy was the Medical Science Liaison for IDbyDNA, Inc, a Precision Metagenomic Next-Generation Sequencing Infectious Disease Diagnostic company.
Her impressive repertoire of prior roles includes her role at the Chicago Department of Public Health (CDPH) as a Project Administrator in Antimicrobial Stewardship where she led several CDC-funded Antimicrobial Stewardship Collaboratives in 78 Chicago Skilled Nursing Facilities and 500 Outpatient Clinics, including Primary Care, Urgent Care and 200 Dental clinics. She assisted the CDPH Medical Director Dr. Stephanie Black on co-leading an Antimicrobial Use and Access workgroup of the Presidential Advisory Council to Combat Antibiotic Resistant Bacteria (PACCARB) that produced a White House Recommendations & Action Plan with an emphasis on a One Health approach to decrease antimicrobial resistance in June 2021. During COVID, Amy on-the-job trained into the first Infection Preventionist (IP) to join the Chicago Skilled Nursing Facility COVID-19 Response Team led by the Hospital-Acquired Infection Coordinator and onboarded several other IPs throughout the pandemic. Amy oversaw operations for the 3 Pharmacies that participated in administering COVID vaccines for Chicago’s Skilled Nursing Facilities residents and staff.
She served as the Clinical Pharmacist in Internal Medicine and Critical Care at AdventHealth (previously AMITA) La Grange Hospital between her time at Rush and CDPH, and worked as needed (weekends) there during her time at CDPH. Prior to that, Amy worked at Rush University Medical Center for 7 years and served as the Clinical Pharmacy Specialist for Infectious Diseases and Antimicrobial Stewardship. She was the first promoted Clinical Coordinator for the Department of Pharmacy. She also received the Departments first “Einstein Award” for well-rounded clinical patient care accomplishments, research and administrative contributions. Amy was selected as Preceptor of the Year her first year after completing residency at Rush. In 2018, Amy submitted more than a 100 document application to achieve the Infectious Disease Society of America’s (IDSA) Center of Excellent 2-year designation for Rush’s Antimicrobial Stewardship Program paid for with her fund money at Rush. The IDSA reviewer commented, “Congratulations, Amy, Rush’s application was the best of cycle #1!”
Amy is highly skilled in Clinical Pharmacy, Infectious Diseases, Molecular Diagnostics, Clinical Microbiology, Metagenomic Next-Generation Sequencing, Precepting, Public Speaking, Team Building, Patient Safety, Clinical Research, Public Health, Healthcare Management, Vaccines, Anti-infective Pharmacotherapy, Strategic Planning, Medication Therapy Management, Antimicrobial Resistance and initiating and developing comprehensive Antimicrobial Stewardship Programs.
Before embarking on her professional career path, Amy earned her Doctor of Pharmacy from Drake University in 2010 where she minored in Religious Studies and played Division One Volleyball. She was a PGY-1 Pharmacy Practice Resident at Mercy Hospital and Medical Center, and she was a PGY-2 Infectious Disease Pharmacy Resident at Rush University Medical Center. Amy also worked as a Pharmacist Intern for Walgreens throughout high school and college.
Throughout her illustrious career, Amy has received awards, accolades and has been recognized worldwide for her expertise within the Pharmacy Profession. This year she is being considered for a feature article in Top Industry Professional (TIP) Magazine and for the Empowered Woman of the Year Award given by the International Association of Top Professionals (IAOTP). She will be honored for her distinction as Top Pharmacist of the Year for 2022 at IAOTP’s Annual Awards Gala being held at the Bellagio Hotel Ballroom in Las Vegas this December, conveniently directly after a large Pharmacist meeting, ASHP Midyear, also in Las Vegas.
The President of IAOTP, Stephanie Cirami, stated “We are honored to have Amy as part of the IAOTP family. She is brilliant at what she does, has tremendous foresight and her skills and accomplishments are unmatched. We felt she would be an amazing asset to our network of professionals. We are looking forward to meeting her at the Annual Awards Gala this year.”
Looking back, Amy attributes her success to her Christian Faith, determination, her passion for helping people, her unique understanding of Medicine, and all the amazing mentors, bosses and colleagues that she has had a pleasure to work with and learn from over the years. A special thanks to having incredible former bosses while working as an Infectious Disease Pharmacist (Dr. Christopher Crank, Dr. Ishaq Lat, Dr. Stephanie Black and Dr. Ben Briggs) and currently a trailblazer in the Pharmaceutical Industry, Malcolm Boswell. When not working, she enjoys traveling and spending time with her family. For the future, Amy will continue her interest in advancements within the Pharmacy Industry, Infectious Disease, Antimicrobial Stewardship and COVID-19 Pharmacotherapy.
Amy and her Husband, Jeff, are passionate about donating to the Adalyn (“Addie”) Rose Hanson Foundation established at Rush University Medical Center’s Department of Philanthropy for NICU providers and nursing continued education and fundraising for March of Dimes. Amy & Jeff Hanson’s first daughter, Addie, was a micropreemie that fought for almost 6 months in the Neonatal ICU (NICU) at Rush while Amy worked as an Infectious Disease Pharmacist. Amy donated 40 gallons of breastmilk after Addie passed away, and the lactation specialists said it would feed a NICU of 23 babies for a month. An article was published around Mother’s Day telling their story in 2016: https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-breast-milk-bank-met-20160506-story.html. At that time, Amy was pregnant with her rainbow baby, Kylie Rose Hanson, a spunky now 1st grader and has another rainbow baby, Hunter Scott Hanson (almost 2 years old). Her second and third children arrived healthy and are doing well. Each year on Addie’s Birthday, March 15th, her family releases the number of balloons that she would be in Heaven, this year was the 7th year of this tradition. Amy is passionate about helping March of Dimes researchers prevent and treat severe pre-eclampsia, the reason that she had to deliver her baby 3 months early in 2015.
For more information on Dr. Amy Hanson please visit: https://www.linkedin.com/in/amy-hanson-pharmd-bcps-aq-id-11ab58168/
About IAOTP
The International Association of Top Professionals (IAOTP) is an international boutique networking organization that handpicks the world’s finest, most prestigious top professionals from different industries. These top professionals are given an opportunity to collaborate, share their ideas, be keynote speakers, and to help influence others in their fields. This organization is not a membership that anyone can join. You must be asked by the President or be nominated by a distinguished honorary member after a brief interview.
IAOTP’s experts have given thousands of top prestigious professionals around the world the recognition and credibility that they deserve and have helped in building their branding empires. IAOTP prides itself to be a one-of-a-kind boutique networking organization that selects only the best of the best and creates a networking platform that connects and brings these top professionals together.
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