In sports, it’s called a hat trick. In academia, it’s called amazing. For the third consecutive year, the University of Colorado Skaggs School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences saw a faculty-student pair accepted into the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy (AACP) Aspiring Academics cohort.The school is one of only five schools nationwide to see such an accomplishment. This year’s pair of Associate Professor Sara Wettergreen, PharmD, and third-year PharmD student Elise Reinke are excited to join a prestigious cohort designed to facilitate a deeper understanding of career paths in academic pharmacy.
Program design
The Aspiring Academics program engages selected PharmD students over the course of the next year through asynchronous learning modules, mentorship, networking, a group project, involvement with AACP, and attendance at Pharmacy Education 2026 and the Teachers’ Seminar in Grapevine, Texas.
By the end of the program, students will be familiar with the process for career advancement in pharmacy academia; recognize the knowledge, skills and attitudes needed; and understand the expectations of a pharmacy faculty member regarding scholarship, teaching, and service. Most importantly, their newly developed network of peers and mentors will serve as an important resource to advancing their potential careers in academia in the years to come.
“I am interested in academia, but I don’t really know what that looks like from a faculty standpoint,” explained Reinke. “I also am interested in mentorship. I’ve always been told that I would be a good teacher, but I never wanted to be an elementary school teacher, and I didn’t think about pharmacy education or higher education. This allows me to explore that as a career.”
According to Dr. Wettergreen, who has been a mentor in this program before, the program starts this fall and Reinke will have two mentors; a home mentor (Wettergreen) and a program mentor. As the home mentor, Wettergreen will go over education modules, discuss the content, and share how it applies to CU Pharmacy.
“We go over things like how to plan for promotion, certain academic pillars,” she explained. “Something we also do at CU Pharmacy is have our student mentee meet with leaders of our school to learn about areas of expertise, such as department chairs, or chairs of university committees.”
Wettergreen explained that as the year progresses, Reinke will begin a project and work closely with her program mentor and students in the program, culminating in a poster presentation and attendance at the AACP annual meeting next summer.
What makes a good pair?
The beginning of the application process starts with the student.
Reinke saw her friend, unofficial student mentor, and fellow PharmD student at the time, Kiri Carmody, accepted into the Aspiring Academic Program in 2024. With Carmody’s encouragement, Reinke decided to apply for the 2025 program.
“I saw all that Kiri was doing, and I also worked with her in other student organizations,” Reinke said. “I wanted to have that experience.”
She approached Wettergreen, who was more than happy to dive into the application process together.
“I look at the students' individual goals. Academics tend to wear a lot of hats, so seeing if the student is able to thrive in an environment balancing different roles. It is often more project-based, or longitudinal type of work. Academia is probably the best fit for someone who thrives when wearing lots of hats, and I see that in Elise,” Wettergreen said.
Wettergreen said she also looks for a student to have an interest in research, something Reinke was at first resistant to.
“I thought I hated research,” she laughed. “I didn’t want to be in a lab. But then I realized that research is more than sitting in a chemistry lab. I found clinical research, I did a project on vaccine hesitancy in student populations and realized that community and population-based research are where my interests are.”
Pay it forward
Eventually, Reinke wants to get to a place where she can give back. Inspiration comes from all places, and for Reinke, her pharmacy inspiration started when she was a teenager.
“The pharmacist that I worked for when I was in high school... that experience led me to consider pharmacy for a career, and I worked in that pharmacy for five years. He really taught me so much,” Reinke said. One day, she hopes to do the same, either in a classroom or in a clinical setting.
With Reinke and Wettergreen now joining the ranks of CU Pharmacy’s cohort honorees, the school continues to demonstrate its strength in cultivating the next generation of academic leaders. Three consecutive student–mentor pairs earning acceptance into the prestigious AACP Aspiring Academics Program is more than a milestone; it’s a testament to the culture of mentorship, scholarship, and innovation that defines CU Pharmacy.
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