Thank you for your interest in the Norton Children’s Hospital pharmacy residency program. Our pharmacy residency program offers PGY-1 and PGY-2 opportunities accredited by the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists.

Our program provides residents with a comprehensive experience that focuses exclusively on the pediatric population, from newbors to young adults, across all specialties.

About Norton Children’s

As Kentucky and Southern Indiana’s only full-service, free-standing pediatric hospital, Norton Children’s Hospital, along with its predecessor hospitals, have cared for children for more than a century without regard to their families’ ability to pay. The 300-bed hospital is Louisville’s only Level I Pediatric Trauma Center and serves as the primary pediatric teaching facility for the University of Louisville School of Medicine. Specialists offer comprehensive pediatric care, including a full range of services for congenital and acquired heart disease, cancer care, neurosciences, spine and orthopedic care, and neonatal care.

• Level I Pediatric Trauma Center has more than 60,000 visits annually.
• Level IV neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) has 101 beds and cares for more than 1,500 babies annually.
• Congenital heart surgery program is ranked two stars by The Society for Thoracic Surgeons.
• Transplant programs include heart, solid organ, stem cell and bone marrow.
• The hospital has pediatric and neonatal extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) capabilities.
• Home to a 34-bed pediatric intensive care unit (PICU).
• Has the oldest continuously accredited children’s oncology program by the American College of Surgeons’ Commission on Cancer and a part of Children’s Oncology Group.
• Comprehensive suite of specialty services, including infectious diseases, pulmonology, nephrology, orthopedics, neurology and neurosurgery.

Program Structure

PGY-1

The pharmacy residency is a one-year experience that offers extensive exposure to all aspects of pediatric pharmaceutical care. The resident will be responsible for providing direct patient care by daily participation in multidisciplinary rounds and patient counseling. Hospital and department policy development opportunities include medication-use evaluations, staff inservices, and pharmacy and therapeutics committee meetings.

PGY-2 Critical Care

Norton Children’s Hospital Pharmacy offers one of only a few specialized pediatric critical care pharmacy residencies available in the country. The one-year experience offers extensive exposure to all aspects of pediatric critical care. The resident will be responsible for providing direct patient care through daily participation in multidisciplinary rounds, will carry a code pager and participate in trauma resuscitations.

PGY-2 Oncology

Norton Children’s Hospital initiated a PGY-2 in pediatric oncology providing support for the Norton Children’s Cancer Institute, affiliated with the University of Louisville, and the Addison Jo Blair Cancer Care Center. This one-year program provides the resident with a broad range of experiences in pediatric hematologic and oncologic diseases, as well as young adult cancer care.

Additional Duties

Daily activities for all residents include, but are not limited to, participating in multidisciplinary rounds, providing drug information to other health care professionals, consulting on pharmacokinetics, conducting nutritional evaluations and medication safety management, counseling patients and their caregivers, and topic and/or patient discussions with pharmacists. Norton Children’s Hospital is structured as a decentralized pharmacy where residents will be embedded team members in the units.

Research opportunities are abundant, as residents have the opportunity to become involved in the pediatric pharmacology research unit.

Pharmacy leadership

Brian Yarberry, PharmD – Director of Pharmacy

Matthew Casper, PharmD, MBA – Pharmacy Manager

Shannon Mayes, PharmD, BCPS – Clinical Pharmacy Manager

Residency leadership

Allison J. Jones, Pharm.D., BCPPS – PGY-1 Residency Director

Joshua J. Elder, Pharm.D.,  BCOP, BCPS – PGY-2 Oncology Director

Cynthia Zoeller, Pharm.D., MBA, BCCCP- PGY-2 Critical Care Director

Kyle Franco, PharmD, BCPPS – PGY-1 and PGY-2 Residency Coordinator

Taryn Mancarella, PharmD, BCPPS – PGY-1 and PGY-2 Residency Coordinator

Residency preceptors

Ashley A. Casper, Pharm.D. – PICU/ID/Med-Surg Clinical Pharmacist

Heather N. Damhoff, Pharm.D. – CICU Clinical Pharmacy Specialist

Joshua J. Elder, Pharm.D., BCOP, BCPS – Hem/Onc Clinical Pharmacy Specialist

Kyle Franco, Pharm.D., BCPPS – Hem/Onc Clinical Pharmacist

Sarah Jacobson, Pharm.D. – NICU/ID/Med-Surg Clinical Pharmacist

Allison J. Jones, Pharm.D., BCPPS – NICU Clinical Pharmacist

Taryn Mancarella, Pharm.D., BCPPS – PICU/CICU/NICU Clinical Pharmacist

Tristan Murray, Pharm.D., BCPS –Med-Surg Clinical Pharmacy Specialist

Madeline F. O’Bryan, Pharm.D., BCPPS – NICU Clinical Pharmacy Specialist

Stephanie F. Simms, Pharm.D. – Heme/Onc & Med-Surg Clinical Pharmacist

Sarah R. Smith, Pharm.D. – Clinical Research Pharmacist

Drew Stahl, Pharm.D. – ID Clinical Pharmacy Specialist

Ivy C. Tiu, Pharm.D. – Clinical Research Pharmacist

Cynthia Zoeller, Pharm.D., MBA, BCCCP – PICU Clinical Pharmacy Specialist