AAPP Summit 2023

Debalina Das, MD, MPH, FACP
Associate Professor, Associate Program Director
Quillen College of Medicine
East Tennessee State University
Johnson City, TN

Debalina Das, MD, MPH, FACP is a practicing internist in Johnson City TN, located in the beautiful northeast Tennessee surrounded by the Appalachian Mountains. In my role as associate Professor and Associate program Director of Internal medicine, I am entrusted with teaching and preceptorship of medical students and residents all year round. I work in a traditional setting where I primarily work outpatient in the ambulatory setting and occasionally in inpatient setting where I participate with students and trainees in daily clinical rounds and hands on clinical teaching. In my administrative role, I participate actively in resident recruitment and evaluations while being a part of several committees for ACGME accreditation.

On the personal front, I am blessed with a wonderful family with three kids and my wonderful husband who is a practicing oncologist with ETSU. My middle son who has four legs and a tail, a Labrador retriever, is often the one who accompanies me on my daily walks and sits through the multiple re-runs of ‘The walking Dead, Monk, and the King of queens’. My hobbies include gardening with mainly flowering annuals and perennials, and I am currently trying my hand at some vegetable gardening. I also love to travel, watch movies and read mystery novels with Agatha Christie always being a staple.

I am passionate about the mental health and well-being of my patients, that I believe is an important as physical wellbeing. I am excited about the joint endeavor between psychology/behavioral health, pharmacy and primary care medicine. I am an ardent believer that mental health should be an intrinsic right of every individual irrespective of age, gender, race, economic standing or gender affiliations. We are hopeful that with this joint venture we are able to project our findings to the greater world among our esteemed colleagues, so that mental health is not just a whisper, but a shout out from the rooftops.

As I say…’after all, we are all a bit crazy.’

Sarah T. Melton, PharmD, BCPP, BCACP, FASCP
East Tennessee State University Gatton College of Pharmacy
Professor of Pharmacy Practice
Johnson City, TN

Lacey J. Vann, PharmD, BCPP
Mental Health Clinical Pharmacist Practitioner
Ralph H. Johnson VAMC
Hinesville, GA

Dr. Lacey Vann is a Mental Health Clinical Pharmacist Practitioner who has been working for the Veterans Affairs since 2012; most recently for the Ralph H. Johnson VA at a community-based outpatient clinic in Savannah, Georgia. She received a bachelor’s degree in Biology at the University of Georgia and received her Doctor of Pharmacy at South University. She completed her PGY1 residency training at the Northern California VA Medical Center and her PGY2 Psychiatric Pharmacy residency training at the Palo Alto VA Medical Center.

She is board certified in Psychiatric Pharmacotherapy and practices in outpatient Mental Health and Primary Care Mental Health Integration. She serves as a Mental Health Subject Matter Expert and Standardization Workgroup co-lead for the Clinical Pharmacy Practice Office, a lead for the VISN 7 Psychopharmacology Committee and Champion for the Psychotropic Drug Safety Initiative.

Rosana Steavenson, PharmD, BCPS, BCPP
Program Manager, Pharmacy Clinical Resource Hub
Mental Health Clinical Pharmacy Specialist
Veterans Integrated Service Network 17
San Antonio, TX

Dr. Rosana Steavenson completed her Bachelor of Science in 2010 and her Doctor of Pharmacy in 2012 from the University of Connecticut. She then accepted PGY1 pharmacy practice and PGY2 psychiatric pharmacy residency positions at the South Texas Veterans Health Care System (STVHCS) in San Antonio, TX. She remained at the STVHCS where in 2014 she began her career as an outpatient Mental Health Clinical Pharmacy Practitioner and in 2018 transitioned to the role of Program Manager for Mental Health and Pain Clinical Pharmacy Programs. Dr. Steavenson has served as mental health subject matter expert, consultant, and mentor with the Veterans Affairs National Clinical Pharmacy Practice Office. She currently co-chairs the Veterans Integrated Services Network 17 Clinical Pharmacy Practice Council and the South Texas VA Mental Health Community of Practice. She was selected as a 2021 Board of Pharmacy Specialties Ambassador, has maintained active volunteership with AAPP, and has presented to various audiences on the role of pharmacists in suicide prevention efforts.

Benjamin Chavez, PharmD, BCPP, BCACP
Clinical Pharmacist
Salud Family Health 
Arvada, CO

Benjamin Chavez, PharmD, BCPP, BCACP practices as a clinical pharmacist at Salud Family Health Centers, an FQHC with thirteen locations across Colorado. He practices as a clinical pharmacist and serves as the Director of Behavioral Health Pharmacy Services at Salud Family Health Centers. He graduated with a PharmD from the University of Florida in 2004, and completed a psychiatric pharmacy residency at Nova Southeastern University. He is board certified in both psychiatric pharmacy and ambulatory care pharmacy, and has practiced in a variety of settings, including inpatient and outpatient psychiatry. His current focus is in outpatient primary care and behavioral health, at Salud Family Health Center. There he practices under Collaborative Practice Agreements to treat depression, anxiety, bipolar disorder, as well as chronic disease states such as diabetes and hypertension.

Alberto Augsten, PharmD, MS, BCPP, DABAT
Pharmacy Clinical Manager of  Long-Acting Therapy Clinic (LAT),  PGY2 Psychiatric Pharmacy Residency Director, Board Certified Clinical Toxicologist
Miami, FL

Dr. Alberto Augsten, PharmD, BCPP, DABAT is the Pharmacy Clinical Manager for Behavioral Health and Emergency Department. He is also the founder and director of the Long-Acting Therapy (LAT) Clinic at Memorial Regional Hospital, and the Co-Creator of the Mothers in Recovery (MIR) and Medication Assisted Treatment (MAT) Programs at Memorial Healthcare System. In 2019, he launched the first Spravato clinic in South Florida for treatment-resistant depression. Dr. Augsten is passionate about innovation in healthcare and optimizing patient care with collaborative approaches to treatment—as evidenced by his multiple clinics and specialized programs.

In addition to his various administrative and clinical duties, he is a mentor and advocate for his profession. In July 2016, he started a PGY-2 Psychiatric Pharmacy Residency at Memorial Regional Hospital Department of Behavioral Health. He is also an adjunct faculty member for Nova Southeastern University teaching pharmacology to Speech Language Pathology Doctoral students since 2010.

In December of 2017, he earned his Master’s in Pharmaceutical Sciences, concentration Clinical Toxicology with a Certificate in Forensic Drug Chemistry from the University of Florida. He is a board-certified clinical toxicologist earning his Diplomate of the American Board of Applied Toxicology (DABAT) in September of 2016. Dr. Augsten has built on his DABAT by serving as a forensic toxicology expert witness on several legal cases. He also provides consultation and education services for different pharmaceutical companies and serving on numerous Advisory Boards and Speaker Bureau’s. Finally, he serves as an Expert Panel Member at the Florida Medicaid Drug Therapy Management Program for Behavioral Health—providing his expertise on Best Practice Psychotherapeutic Medication Guidelines for Adults.   

Dr. Augsten lives in South Florida with his family and three children. The best part of his day is always the moments he gets to share with his family.

Bridget Bradley, PharmD, BCPP
Clinical Pharmacist
OHSU Primary Care at Beaverton
Hillsboro, OR

Bridget Bradley graduated with a doctor of pharmacy degree from Oregon State University College of Pharmacy and completed residency at the Roseburg VA Healthcare System and then Avera Behavioral Health Center in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. She is current an ambulatory care clinical pharmacist within primary care at Oregon Health & Science University. This position allows Bridget to practice at the top of her license along with working within a health-system that is billing for clinical pharmacy services. She currently practices with collaborative practice agreements for treatment of diabetes and hypertension. She also services as resource for psychiatric medication within her clinics.

Rachel L. Bauer, PharmD, BCPS, BCPP
Salt Lake City George E. Wahlen Veterans Affairs Medical Center
Salt Lake City, UT

Dr. Bauer is a clinical pharmacy specialist at the Salt Lake City George E. Wahlen VA with clinical practice areas on the acute inpatient psychiatric unit and in mental health pharmacy transitions of care. She earned her Doctor of Pharmacy degree from the University of Tennessee Health Science Center College of Pharmacy (UTHSC-CoP) in 2013. She then worked for a year as a community pharmacist in Memphis, TN. After that, she went on to complete her PGY1 residency in Managed Care with UTHSC-CoP and the Tennessee Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services (TDMHSAS) in 2015 followed by her Psychiatric Pharmacy Practice PGY2 residency at University of North Carolina Medical Center in 2016. She then worked for a year as a clinical pharmacy specialist at a local psychiatric hospital in Salt Lake City before landing her dream job in mental health transitions of care.

Dr. Bauer has served on the SLC VA’s Suicide Prevention Oversight Committee (SPOC) for several years and chaired the committee from 2020-2021. In addition, she serves on the Mental Health High Utilizer Workgroup review committee evaluating possible interventions for veterans with frequent acute care encounters.

Dr. Bauer also teaches Introduction to Neurochemistry and Pharmacology at the University of Utah College of Social Work.

Beth Darnall, PhD
Professor, Stanford University School of Medicine; Department of Anesthesiology, Perioperative and Pain Medicine; Director, Stanford Pain Relief Innovations Lab
Palo Alto, CA

Beth Darnall, PhD is Professor at Stanford University School of Medicine, Department of Anesthesiology, Perioperative, and Pain Medicine where she directs the Stanford Pain Relief Innovations Lab. Her pain treatment research is funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute. Her work involves brief, digital, scalable and home-based analgesic interventions. She is creator of Empowered Relief, an evidence-based 1-session skills-based intervention for acute/surgical pain and chronic pain that is delivered in 22 countries and 7 languages. Darnall has three times briefed the U.S. Congress and the FDA on patient-centered pain care, opioid stewardship, and iatrogenic harms from forced opioid tapering. She is a scientific member of the NIH Interagency Pain Research Coordinating Committee, and served as a scientific member of the CDC Opioid Workgroup (2021). She is Chief Science Advisor for AppliedVR, serves on the Board of Directors of the American Academy of Pain Medicine and is on the Medical Advisory Board of the Facial Pain Association. Her work has been featured in outlets such as Scientific American, The Guardian (Australia), NPR Radio, BBC Radio, The Wall Street Journal, The New York Times and Nature. She has authored five books for patients and clinicians. In 2018 she spoke on the psychology of pain relief at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.