Dr. Linh Lee Helps to Establish Ralphs Grocery – Pharmacy Endowment to UC Irvine School of Pharmacy & Pharmaceutical Sciences

Dr. Linh Lee, a 1997 graduate of the UC Irvine School of Biological Sciences and current Director of Pharmacy for Ralphs, has helped to establish a $50,000 endowment to support student pharmacists in the Doctor of Pharmacy (PharmD) program in the UCI School of Pharmacy & Pharmaceutical Sciences!

“For years after graduation, I heard about UCI potentially having a School of Pharmacy & Pharmaceutical Sciences,” Dr. Lee shared. “When I first heard that the school was being built, I got excited and connected with several faculty members in advance.”

Dr. Lee has worked with faculty in the UCI School of Pharmacy & Pharmaceutical Sciences to create opportunities for student pharmacists to learn and work within Ralphs pharmacies. Additionally, she has plans to join the Dean’s Leadership Council, serving as an advisor to Founding Dean Jan Hirsch.

The Ralphs Grocery – Pharmacy Endowment will support the education of aspiring pharmacists at UCI. In particular, Dr. Lee hopes the funds will go to the next generation of community pharmacists.

“The scholarship is designed for a student that has leadership qualities and is looking to take that to the community pharmacy,” she stated.

By being one of the most accessible sources of healthcare, community pharmacists provide essential services for the people in their neighborhood.

“I’m really hoping to change people’s perception of community pharmacists,” said Dr. Lee. “We want people to see community pharmacists as people who have the ability to offer vaccines and recommend vaccines and people who can sit down and have really meaningful conversations.”

She hopes to change the idea of community pharmacists not only in the public’s eye but also in the eyes of student pharmacists. She acknowledged that she entered pharmacy school with her own misconceptions about community pharmacists: “I always thought that I would end up working in a hospital because that was where the buzz was supposed to be, but I fell in love with community pharmacy during my third year in pharmacy school because I had really great mentors.”

Community pharmacists in Ralphs are accessible healthcare experts, serving the needs of people throughout Southern California. The location of pharmacies in the grocery chain gives Ralphs pharmacists a unique opportunity to promote complete healthcare for their patients — especially through lifestyle changes that incorporate nutrition and medical care.

“Our motto is ‘Food as Medicine,’” said Dr. Lee. “We ask, ‘What can we do to help a patient?’ ‘How do we incorporate food into our overall health?’”

One of the ways that Ralphs pharmacists have promoted comprehensive healthcare for their patients is via guided walks through the grocery store that highlight healthy food choices, an initiative that is geared mainly toward the education of people with diabetes.

“It’s about making sure that, if someone has diabetes, I don’t want you to be on your diabetic medication for your entire life,” Dr. Lee explained. “If we can change the way you eat — if we can help you choose the right foods for you and your particular disease state — maybe we can get you off those medications. That’s really the concept that we’re trying to embrace. Our pharmacies are in a grocery store setting, so that’s a perfect place to start.”

Dr. Lee and the Ralphs Pharmacy team have also worked with the UCI Basic Needs Center to provide essential services to students. Their initiatives include helping with the mobile food pantry; offering screenings for blood pressure, BMI, and diabetes; and setting up a clinic that will provide vaccines for HPV and other viruses.

Through these efforts, Ralphs Pharmacy has furthered their goal of promoting healthy lifestyles in which nutrition and pharmacy intersect. This approach extends to the work that Ralphs Pharmacy has done to foster the education of PharmD students, including the Ralphs Grocery – Pharmacy Endowment to the UCI School of Pharmacy & Pharmaceutical Sciences.

“We’re trying to expose students to all the things that we do — not just the standard vaccines, not just the standard ‘how to fill a prescription,’” said Dr. Lee. “We want our pharmacists to use the different spaces within the four walls of the grocery store — how do you help a patient understand what they may need to do to help their overall health?”

Sonia Batra, Director of Development for the UCI School of Pharmacy & Pharmaceutical Sciences, expressed gratitude for the Ralphs Grocery – Pharmacy Endowment on behalf of school leadership and students: “We are incredibly thankful to Dr. Lee and Ralphs Pharmacy for their commitment to our school and our student pharmacists. The Ralphs Grocery – Pharmacy Endowment will have an everlasting impact on future generations of UCI-trained pharmacists.”