University of Houston College of Pharmacy (UHCOP) Pharm.D. and M.S. students made waves on the Gulf Coast April 24-26, bringing in a tide of awards, scholarships and competition honors at the 2026 Texas Society of Health-System Pharmacy (TSHP) Annual Seminar at Moody Gardens Spa, Hotel & Convention Center in Galveston.
The annual meeting brought together pharmacy professionals, students, industry colleagues and technicians from across the state for professional development, networking, research presentations and recognition of excellence in health-system pharmacy.
Leadership Excellence
Among the student honorees, Pharm.D. candidate Megan Huang Frazier received the Glenda Lawson McRee Pharmacy Student Award. Huang Frazier has served as Student Society of Health-System Pharmacy president, Gulf Coast Society of Health-System Pharmacists (GCSHP) student representative, TSHP Student Section Executive Committee member, and American Society of Health-System Pharmacists Pharmacy Student Forum Advisory Group member. She earned the GCSHP Outstanding Student Award in 2024 and the TSHP Research & Education (R&E) Foundation’s GCSHP Leadership Scholarship in 2025.
Scholarship Honors
Four UHCOP students were awarded TSHP Research & Education (R&E) Foundation scholarships:
- Brinlee Freeman, Pharm.D. student, was awarded the Grace Dyan Coggin MSHP Memorial Scholarship
- Ashley Cao, Pharm.D. student, received the Micheline and Bourjois Abboud Scholarship
- Sadika Eslaminejad, Pharm.D., M.S. candidate and PGY2 resident at The University of Texas (UT) MD Anderson Cancer Center, received the GCSHP Leadership Scholarship
- McKenzie Erwin, Pharm.D., M.S. student and PGY1 resident at UT MD Anderson, earned the Richard Cadle Mentoring Scholarship for Pharmacy Leadership.
Competition Success
UHCOP students also demonstrated their clinical knowledge, research skills and leadership abilities across several competitive events organized by the TSHP R&E Foundation. Students Kristen Anbe and Sujin Jung earned first place in the P1 category of the Clinical Skills Competition, while Jannah Abdulmawjood and Qamar Dhafer received honorable mention in the competition’s P3 category. The competition is a team-based clinical scenario designed to strengthen student pharmacists’ direct patient care skills.
In the Disease State Management Competition, which calls for students to deliver comprehensive disease-state management from a patient case under time restraints while communicating with health care professionals, Dacia Esquell earned second place.
The team of Pharm.D. students Kalyn Chan, Emily Groeper, Sharmane Joubert and Tien Nguyen placed second in the Student Pharmacist Leadership Challenge Competition, a team-based event focusing on analysis, strategy and decision-making to develop and present solutions to problems and situations impacting areas such as operations and personnel.
Research Recognition
Two of The Houston Program’s UHCOP M.S. students/Houston Methodist Hospital residents won first place in the Research Poster Competition. Kristin Etuk, Pharm.D., claimed the PGY2 category title with her project, “Breaking the 24-Hour Cycle: A Mini-Batch Cart Fill Pilot.” The project was coauthored by UHCOP/THP alumnus and Houston Methodist colleague Sunny Bhakta, Pharm.D. (’16), M.S. (’18), BCPS. Priscilla Liu, Pharm.D., earned the PGY1 category award for her project, “Safety and Appropriateness of Digoxin Monitoring.” Among Liu’s Houston Methodist coauthors was UHCOP alumna Kay Yindeemark, Pharm.D. (’16).
In the Student category, Rachana Inteti received an honorable mention for her research poster, “Clostridioides difficile infection disease severity association with 30-day recurrence: A real-world observational cohort and scoping review.” Co-author on the research poster was UHCOP Research Assistant Professor Taryn Eubank, Pharm.D., BCIDP.
