West Virginia University Health Sciences concluded its 2026 Interprofessional Education (IPE) Month with an awards luncheon recognizing the often quiet, behind-the-scenes work of this year’s IPE champions.
“Everything we accomplish in Interprofessional Education at WVU is made possible by individuals who are deeply committed to collaboration, innovation and preparing our learners for team-based care,” HSC Academic Affairs Associate Vice President Louise Veselicky, DDS, MDS, MEd, said.
“We celebrate exemplary individuals and teams who model the very best of interprofessional practice, setting the standard for our students, our colleagues and the communities we serve across West Virginia,” Veselicky continued.
The following awards were presented:
Excellence in IPE Student Award.
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Fourth-year PharmD candidate Maegan Casimir received the 2026 IPE Student Award for her outstanding contributions to interprofessional education through an IPE Contraceptives Workshop. The workshop, which has just gone through its third successful year, began as a Student Innovation Challenge winner.
Through this workshop, participants explore the critical role of interprofessional collaboration, stay current on prescribing laws and build confidence in patient education and contraceptive prescribing.
Casimir’s leadership has been instrumental in partnering with family medicine clinicians and pharmacists. Her efforts have also been recognized nationally, as she was awarded the American Interprofessional Health Collaborative Individual Student Award for Interprofessional Collaborative Practice at the annual IPE NEXUS conference in 2024. In addition, she has a publication in the pipeline that highlights data collected through this workshop, further contributing to the scholarship of interprofessional education.
Excellence in IPE Faculty and Staff Award
Pharmacy faculty Ashleigh Barrickman, PharmD, BCACP, CTTS, Lena Maynor, PharmD, BCAP and Mary Stamatakis, PharmD, in collaboration with Dental Hygiene faculty Amy Funk, MSDH and Ashlee Sowards, MSDH, are the recipients of the 2026 Excellence in IPE Faculty and Staff Award.
For more than seven years, this team has been deeply engaged in advancing interprofessional learning, serving as simulationists, scholars and national presenters. Their collective contributions, including numerous national presentations and publications, reflect not only a dedication to teaching, but to shaping the future of collaborative practice through innovation and scholarship.
Their award-winning work is a longitudinal, six-semester simulation series that represents a truly innovative approach to IPE. By following a single patient, “Carl,” across multiple care settings over time, learners from pharmacy, dental hygiene, dentistry, nursing and physician assistant studies experience the realities of continuity of care, evolving health conditions and the critical importance of team-based decision-making.
To learn more about interprofessional education at WVU Health Sciences, visit health.wvu.edu/interprofessional-education.