Share the Experience

Our students are our biggest fans.

Mena Gaballah, PharmD ’18, JD ‘18
Litigation Practice Associate
Paul Hastings, LLP

Mena Gaballah, PharmD, is an associate in the Litigation practice of Paul Hastings and is based in the firm's New York office. His practice focuses on complex litigation with an emphasis on intellectual property and patent matters in the pharmaceutical and life science fields. Mena represents major pharmaceutical companies in cases arising under the Biologics Price Competition & Innovation Act (BPCIA) and the Hatch-Waxman Act. 

As a first year pharmacy student, Gaballah competed in the National Community Pharmacist Business Plan Competition. Over several months, he and three other students developed an opioid and controlled substance insurance plan. Also while a pharmacy student, Gaballah co-authored an opinion piece in the Baltimore Sun calling for tighter regulation of improperly used over-the-counter substances. Co-authors of the article included D. Neal Reynolds, MD, co-director of the Multi-Trauma Intensive Care Unit at the R. Adams Cowley Shock Trauma Center, and Thomas Scalea, MD, physician-in-chief at Shock Trauma. 

Authoring this timely essay alongside key members of Shock Trauma’s leadership team speaks to Gaballah’s maturity as a student. It also demonstrates the profound influence that his fourth year critical care rotation at the R. Adams Cowley Shock Trauma Center had on his overall experience as a pharmacy student. He points to attending pre-rounds, seeing very complicated multi-trauma patients, and collaborating with the medical team as some of the highlights of his academic career.

“My PharmD was integral to both landing and excelling at my job. Having a strong clinical and scientific background allows me to grasp concepts quickly and put to use what I learned in pharmacy school,” Gaballah says.

Shelby D. Reed, BSP ‘93, PhD ‘98
Professor, Departments of Population Health Sciences and Medicine
Duke University School of Medicine

As a young pharmacy student at the University of Maryland, Reed was encouraged to continue her studies at the PhD level, particularly by her then-professor, Natalie D. Eddington, PhD ’89, FAAPS, FCP. She applied and was accepted to the PhD in PHSR program.

At the time, she wanted to evaluate the value of health care interventions to inform policy. She still purses that interest today, though it has evolved, as a professor in the Departments of Population Health Sciences and Medicine at Duke University School of Medicine, as faculty director for the Center for Informing Health Decisions, and as director of the Preference Evaluation Research Group at the Duke Clinical Research Institute.

“Now, 20 years later, I continue to believe this is critically important work to ensure that health care dollars are spent efficiently,” she explains. “My research has broadened more recently to include patient preference research to ensure that our economic evaluations and their application to guide health policy and payment decisions more broadly account for treatment experiences and outcomes that are important to patients and their families. My training in pharmacy and pharmaceutical health services research provided me with a superb foundation to engage in multidisciplinary research.”