Dr. Keri Hurley has been awarded the Natalie J. Smith, MD, MPH, Immunization Champion Award by the Board of Directors for the California Immunization Coalition.
“I’m deeply honored to receive this award,” Dr. Hurley shared. “It means a great deal to be recognized in the name of someone who dedicated her life to ensuring that vaccines protect everyone, especially the most vulnerable among us.”
The Natalie J. Smith, MD, MPH, Immunization Champion Award recognizes medical professionals and organizations that have spearheaded community initiatives to promote vaccine education and immunization access in California. Dr. Smith served as deputy director of the National Immunization Program, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and chief of the Immunization Branch, California Department of Health Services and was a founder of the California Coalition for Childhood Immunization.
In addition to teaching the next generation of pharmacists as a health sciences associate clinical professor in the UC Irvine School of Pharmacy & Pharmaceutical Sciences, Dr. Hurley is a practicing clinical pharmacist and chair of the Immunization Coalition of Los Angeles County. She also provides vaccine-related training to healthcare workers in collaboration with the California Pharmacists Association.
Through education, research, advocacy, policy development, and clinical practice, Dr. Hurley works to improve vaccine equity and access and address health disparities that impact vaccination rates. She has advanced the development of efforts to expand healthcare provider education and community engagement; investigated vaccination disparity factors, resulting in improved immunization programs; and shaped community health initiatives through evidence-based vaccine policies in collaboration with public health agencies, professional organizations, and community groups.
“Next year will mark only 30 years since the first US pharmacists were granted the authority to provide vaccinations, and in that short time, we have truly become America’s vaccinators,” she stated. “We represent less than 10% of the healthcare provider workforce in this country, yet we now provide a large and growing majority of adult vaccines. We rose to meet the challenge of millions of doses of COVID vaccines, and we continue to lead in community-focused and nationwide immunization efforts.”
The award was presented to Dr. Hurley at a California Immunization Coalition event on April 30. In her remarks, she expressed gratitude to UC Irvine School of Pharmacy & Pharmaceutical Sciences’ Founding Dean Jan Hirsch and former Director of Strategy & Operations Stephanie Dailey, along with her teams at the Immunization Coalition of LA County and Saban Community Clinic.
“I want to thank Dr. Jan Hirsch and Stephanie Dailey for nominating me,” she said. “Thank you also to the members and supporters of the Immunization Coalition of LA County, my research collaborators, and colleagues at the Saban Community Clinic. Anything I may have accomplished as an immunization champion would not have been possible without them.”
