U of T Pharmacy alum recognized as emerging leader in making pharmacy practice more inclusive

Tiana Tilli aims to make the pharmacy a safe environment for underserved populations, and support other pharmacists as they do the same

When Tiana Tilli (1T7) was considering her career options in pharmacy, the professors and lecturers at the Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy demonstrated to her the many directions she could take. Through opportunities to work in different settings and with different populations, Tilli was inspired to advocate for a more inclusive pharmacy profession and improve the patient experience for underserved populations. She was recently recognized for her efforts with the Faculty’s 2021 Emerging Leader in Pharmacy Practice Award.

“Their career paths showed me what was possible, and I could take parts that I admired and adapt them to my own practice,” she says. “I valued the opportunities I had through the faculty members, and they really ignited a passion in me and influenced my practice.”

Tilli started her PharmD at the Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy in 2013. While she was a student and working part-time in a community pharmacy, she saw first-hand the importance of creating an inclusive environment. She once saw an interaction between a pharmacist and a masculine-presenting patient with a prescription for birth control that the patient indicated was for themselves, which left the pharmacist visibly confused and the patient ultimately leaving the pharmacy without their medication.

“Many pharmacists might not have had the opportunity to learn about or get much exposure to working with diverse patients,” she says. “I honestly don’t think that pharmacist meant any harm, but they didn’t have the training on how to create a safe environment, and they ended up adding another barrier to care for that individual who likely had already faced many barriers in the health care system.”

She reflected on her own knowledge gaps in working with diverse patients and organized a speaker series for pharmacy students that invited individuals from marginalized populations, including a transgender woman, an Indigenous man, and a woman who had experienced homelessness, to share their experiences related to pharmacy. She also helped vulnerable people access care by volunteering at the Yonge Street Mission, where she led group pharmacy appointments for clients, and at the IMAGINE Clinic, an interprofessional student-run community health initiative in downtown Toronto.

“Through these experiences I realized that there is so much I don’t know, and if I don’t know it, I’m sure other people also don’t know it,” she says. “I became interested in how I could support other students and pharmacists and myself in continuously learning and unlearning.”

Tilli aims to be strong advocate for pharmacy profession

After Tilli graduated from the Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy in 2017, she completed a one-year residency at St. Michael’s Hospital and continued to learn about and raise awareness of issues facing different populations. While working at Whole Health Pharmacy Partners, a banner of independent pharmacies, she organized webinars and conferences for pharmacists that included diverse speakers. She also partnered with the student group Pharmacy Awareness of Indigenous Health to develop and distribute infographics to increase awareness of a federal program that covers certain over-the-counter medications for Inuit and First Nations peoples. In a survey of approximately 100 pharmacy professionals who accessed the infographics, 83 per cent agreed or strongly agreed that the information was relevant to their practice, and 75 per cent of respondents knew about the program after reviewing the infographics (compared to 32 per cent before).

In 2021, Tilli moved to Vancouver and joined the University of British Columbia’s flagship Pharmacists Clinic as a clinical pharmacist and lecturer. In this role, Tilli divides her time between clinical practice, experiential teaching and practice innovation projects. Highlights in her current work include caring for medically complex patients with neurological or psychiatric conditions, co-creating clinical pharmacist services with the BC First Nations Health Authority to meet the self-expressed needs of First Nations communities, developing a community-based opioid stewardship service for patients with chronic non-cancer pain and enhancing the pharmacist-led group appointment model for patients living with common chronic conditions.

“I want to share everything the profession has to offer. I feel like patients and the health care system don’t entirely realize what we can do, and I want to be an advocate and raise awareness of the profession.”

Tilli has served as a preceptor for a number of pharmacy students and is a course coordinator for the Professional Practice Lab in the Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy’s International Pharmacy Graduate program, where she helps internationally trained professionals build pharmacy practice skills.

“I want to share everything the profession has to offer. I feel like patients and the health care system don’t entirely realize what we can do, and I want to be an advocate and raise awareness of the profession,” she says. “I also want to help shape the future of the profession and where we’re going and be involved in improving things as much as I can.”

Four years out from graduating with her PharmD, Tilli has made a significant impact and plans to continue working to make the pharmacy profession more inclusive. She says that receiving the Leslie Dan Faculty of Pharmacy’s Emerging Leader in Pharmacy Practice Award affirms that she is taking her practice in the right direction.

“This award means that pharmacy leaders and my peers see what I’m doing, and they appreciate and support the direction I’ve taken,” she says. “It gives me a lot of encouragement to continue this work.”