Jessica Auten, PharmD, BCOP, is the Residency Program Director - PGY2 Oncology and Clinical Pharmacy Specialist - Malignant Hematology at UNC Medical Center at Chapel Hill, NC. Jessica talks about what got her involved in HOPA, what drew her to become involved with the Annual Conference Committee, what mentors and leaders inspire her, and what advice she would pass along to others on their own journeys.

Tell us about your history with HOPA – how long have you been a member? What inspired you to get more involved?

My residency program leadership team and my preceptors encouraged me to be involved in HOPA, so that kind of started my resident membership year. I presented my resident research that year at HOPA as a trainee, and I really enjoyed Annual Conference that first year that I went as a PGY2. I was just really inspired by the close-knit community that I saw at Annual Conference – the networking opportunities but yet it still felt small enough that you could really get to know other people.

That really inspired me to apply to be on a committee as a new practitioner. I submitted by application through the VAC at the time, was selected for the committee, and over the years served on a couple of other committees – and I’ve really enjoyed all of my experiences so far and all of the connections through HOPA.

Can you please describe the HOPA committees you have been a part of and the roles you have played on these committees?

The first two committees that I was on, I was really just more of a member. My first committee was the Professional Development Committee. I was a new grad at the time, fresh out of residency, so I would say my role in that committee was very much the mentee. We didn’t have formal committee mentor/mentee roles at the time, but I really was trying to be as much of a sponge as possible, to learn from the other committee members and learn about the committee work and HOPA organization and structure.

I moved on from there to the Publications Committee. I was on that committee for a few years as a member. I really enjoyed scientific writing and thinking about content development, so I enjoyed my time on that committee.

But then, the last few years, I became involved in the Annual Conference Committee. I would say that, of my committee work so far within HOPA, I’ve found that to be very rewarding and engaging, and I feel like I’ve really been able to see a lot of the hard work that goes into Annual Conference planning.

I’ve served on that committee for two years and feel like I was really able to demonstrate my engagement and interest in that committee, and was lucky enough to be asked to come back next year as vice chair, starting over the summer. So this will be my first leadership role formally on a HOPA committee, and I’m really looking forward to be able to go from an informal leadership role, to maybe a more active committee member, to now a formal leadership role within a committee.

How has your involvement in HOPA positively impacted you?

The networking has been one of the most significant things. The community within oncology pharmacy is really special, and I think HOPA does a great job of highlighting that and connecting people that could benefit from thought sharing and collaboration. So for me, it helped my career because of the supportive nature and the resources. I’ve been able to participate in some HOPA grant-funded research early in my career. I was mentored by a more experienced clinician early in my career who was the PI on that project. And I think I learned a lot through that experience and have been able to take that with me now through my other HOPA activities.

It’s also facilitated my professional growth to be able to serve in other formal leadership roles outside of HOPA, just in my clinical practice but then also in project management and some of those other roles that pharmacists play in their own practices.

What is one of your most notable accomplishments as a leader within HOPA? What leadership skills did you feel were important for this accomplishment?

My most notable has been my experience on the Annual Conference Committee in the last few years.

My first year in the committee, I was just trying to understand everything that goes into planning and making sure that I was able to be an engaged and contributing team member for that committee. But then the second year, I had a year behind me and kind of knew what to expect, and I feel like I was really able to step up a little bit more and participate even more so than in my first year. I’m really proud of the work that our whole committee and team did for the general sessions, and we received a lot of really positive feedback at the conference for the sessions this year. That really continues to motivate me to want to serve more on this committee and continue to work to make Annual Conference Committee special year after year, like I felt that it has been for me.

For that work, collaboration and communication were essential, bringing together a committee with a bunch of different perspectives and visions for Annual Conference. I really got to work on my active listening skills and really learned to lean into people who have different experiences and perspectives, and make sure everyone has a voice at the table, so that all of our decisions are well-informed and all of our voices are heard.

Is there a part of the Annual Conference experience that you were particularly proud of?

I’m a clinician at heart, so I love all of the clinical sessions. But for me, selfishly, I was really excited about the keynote this year – the Global Health Initiative – and being able to bring more light to the work that many clinicians and many organizations are doing to optimize cancer care in under-resourced areas. I think that’s something that a lot of people are interested in, but they’re just not sure how to get started. So I was excited to see that as the keynote and excited to hear more people talking about what they could do at their institution and work with others to continue those efforts globally.

What aspect of your leadership within or outside of HOPA have you found most fulfilling? What are you most proud of?

For me, I’m most proud of the mentorship role that I’ve been able to play for a lot of oncology pharmacists. I was really inspired to be involved in residency leadership, because of my own RPD and preceptors as a resident. I came to a new position at a new institution, and had a lot of great mentors, and I wanted to serve in that role myself.

So, for that reason, I volunteered to be a HOPA committee mentor for the first time this year and an Annual Conference buddy for the first time this year – I thought that was really fun. As an RPD, it’s so exciting to come back to HOPA every year and see my past graduates now being leaders at their own institution, giving HOPA talks, performing research and presenting at HOPA, and mentoring their own learners.

I think it’s been really great, as a mentor both through HOPA and outside HOPA, to see how your work and the connections you’ve made in that mentor/mentee relationship have evolved over the years. I really value those relationships and enjoy Annual Conference every year because I get to see so many of my past residents and colleagues.

What role has mentorship played in your career and leadership development so far?

Within HOPA, on various committees, I’ve found that a lot of the HOPA committee team members have been great mentors. My colleague Katie Morgan was the chair for the Annual Conference Committee this past year. Being a new committee member two years ago, I really looked to her to see what she did within the committee, the leadership skills she portrayed, and how she adapted and adjusted over the course of the years when new things came up.

Even though that’s not a formal mentor/mentee relationship, there are just so many opportunities to mentor others within HOPA, within your own practice. I think that sometimes the best mentorship relationships come up naturally. It’s not a matched pair or some formal relationship, but rather seeing someone who you feel you could learn from and would help you continue to develop. Those have been the most meaningful relationships to me.

Who has been an inspiration that has influenced your style of leadership?

A pharmacist named Jill Bates practiced at UNC when I came here. She’s with the VA now, and I think that relationship was very influential for me because I got to see not only what an excellent clinician she was and a role model there, but then also I was able to work on HOPA grant-funded research with her. She just provided a lot of opportunities for me as a new clinician, and I think that’s something that I try to emulate for my new team members, for my new residents, when the opportunities are there to share. From her, I really took away a lot more project management and time management. She was the most efficient person, and I really try to pride myself on organization and efficiency, so that’s been crucial.

One of my co-workers now is actually my director for our oncology department here at UNC: Kamakshi Rao. She’s on the HOPA board now currently, and she’s been influential in my leadership style as well. Before her director of oncology role, she was over in the residency programs here at UNC, and she was a great role model and mentor through residency leadership for me for several years. She really pushed me to think strategically and pushed me in terms of problem-solving, big-picture thinking, whereas I was more, as a new clinician, in the weeds of the details and thinking of task-oriented things. From that perspective, it’s really changed how I approach my residency program director role and also as I take on any other formal leadership role, thinking big picture and how we move the needle forward in terms of culture shift or strategic thinking.

And then really my co-workers. I think that we continue to learn the most and grow every day through the people we work with, whether they’re in a mentor role or not. Just learning from doing. I have a really big team of co-workers in my current position, and we encounter new challenges every day, and I think they’ve all inspired my leadership style in some way.

What advice would you give to HOPA members who are looking to make a difference through informal or formal leadership roles?

I tell my residents this a lot every year: Just get started. Submit the form. Put your name down. Sign up for something. I think a lot of people have kind of paralysis; they’re not sure how to get started or what to do. But sometimes the best thing to do is just put your name out there. If there’s a call for a volunteer, sign up. It doesn’t have to be something big or formal. I think a lot of people think the only way to get involved is through a formal leadership role or being on a committee, but you can sign up for something really small and get experience and continue to see what things you like and what things you’re good at and where you might want to challenge yourself to grow.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.