Mindful Chat With Dr Swathi Integrative Pharmacist

https://www.doctorswathi.com/
I had always been passionate about integrative health but never thought a Western Medicine-trained pharmacist, like me, could be a part of it.

This all changed when I had the chance to work with Dr. Pam Tarlow, one of the best (if not, the best, my opinion!) Integrative Health Pharmacist, with extensive experience in many practice settings spanning over forty years. We forged a professional partnership to create the first-ever PGY1 Integrative Health Pharmacy Residency (IHPRx) program in the country. As the co-founder and inaugural resident, I specialized in nutrition, botanical medicine, and leadership/entrepreneurship. As a fluent Spanish speaker and experience founding my college of pharmacy’s first volunteer program at a local free clinic, I trained at both an independent natural pharmacy and integrative HIV clinic–where I  implemented its first bilingual medication therapy management (MTM) program.

As you can probably tell, my colleagues have never described me as ‘conventional.’

When looking at my experiences, from majoring in Spanish then taking a year to work as a graphic designer and event coordinator at my college, to researching a broad range of projects in pharmacy school (including a Phase II clinical trial on cannabis use), to working at a medical device start-up, and now writing for multiple online and print publications... I guess they could be right. 

Dr. Swathi received her Dr. of Pharmacy (PharmD) from the Medical University of South Carolina College of Pharmacy (Charleston, SC) and her Bachelor of Arts in Spanish from Carleton College (Northfield, MN). She is certified in Plant-Based Nutrition from Cornell University.

As a leader on both a local and national level, she was elected to the National Board of the Student National Pharmaceutical Association (SNPhA) while in pharmacy school. As a pharmacist, she was selected to be a part of the 2019-2020 cohort of the California Pharmacists Association (CPhA) Leader Development Institute (LDI) and currently serves on the CPhA Pharmacy Leadership Networ