7/19/19
I am in Washington D.C. for the APhA-ASP Summer Leadership Institute and I am so excited to be here! I flew in Thursday evening and went straight to a dinner with several other regional officers at Matchbox, followed by an ice cream outing at Milk.
This morning, we headed to the Capitol for hill visits! I was with a group of Georgia student pharmacists representing all four colleges of pharmacy in the state. After a photo in front of the Capitol, we headed into the Rayburn building for a quick briefing on what to expect during visits with legislators.
Georgia students
Then we headed to our first meeting of the morning with Representative Rob Woodall’s office. He is my district’s representative and I have met with him and his health policy staff several times and was excited to advocate on behalf of student pharmacists again.
2 members of the district! 
After an escort through the tunnels from the house to senate side, our second meeting was with Senator Johnny Isakson’s office where we spoke with another staffer familiar to me from my past few visits to DC.
We stayed in the senate building for a meeting with Senator Perdue’s office, who is actually co-sponsoring the Phair Pricing Act that we came to advocate on behalf of! His awesome staff graciously escorted us all the way back to the house side as well.
We finished up with a meeting with Representative Buddy Carter’s office. He is the only national legislator who is a pharmacist, and he is our biggest advocate on the hill. Meeting with his office is always encouraging for us as future pharmacists!
After we wrapped up our whirlwind morning of meetings, we headed back to the Washington Plaza Hotel where we officially checked in for SLI and began our afternoon meetings. We heard from Bill Ellis, the executive director of the Board of Pharmacy Specialties, and had media training from the ever impressive Marciniak power couple.
We wrapped up just in time to head to APhA headquarters for a delicious dinner out on the terrace on the top floor. I can never resist that beautiful view!
Finally, the evening wrapped up with a tour of the National Mall guided by the National Executive Committee.
What an inspiring start to my first SLI!
