(BALTIMORE, Md.) – The dean of the School of Pharmacy at Notre Dame of Maryland University was selected as a 2022 COVID-19 Hero in the Health Care Heroes awards by The Daily Record, Maryland’s source for business and legal news.
Dr. Anne Lin received honors for her leadership on several NDMU initiatives during the COVID-19 pandemic to protect and educate the campus community and residents of the greater Baltimore region. An outside panel of healthcare leaders selected this year’s Health Care Heroes, who represent organizations and individuals who have made an impact on the quality of healthcare in Maryland.
“Throughout the pandemic, Dr. Lin has made a significant impact to leverage the talents and resources of the NDMU community to support Baltimore and the state’s efforts to protect the public from COVID-19 infections,” said Dr. Marylou Yam, president of Notre Dame of Maryland University. “Her passion for community outreach and engagement helped to position the University as a leader in the region in supporting efforts to mitigate the impacts of COVID-19 in our community.”
At Notre Dame, Dr. Lin led the University’s effort to host on-campus mass COVID-19 vaccination clinics, in partnership with Safeway Pharmacy, for eight days in April 2021, fully vaccinating 3,800 people. After NDMU joined the Biden Administration’s COVID-19 College Vaccine Challenge in June 2021, the School of Pharmacy partnered with Safeway Pharmacy again to host several more on-campus clinics to vaccinate students from NDMU and surrounding colleges and universities. In addition, NDMU pharmacy faculty and students volunteered at community-based vaccination clinics with the Baltimore City Health Department and Safeway Pharmacy, administering tens of thousands of COVID-19 vaccine shots from January – May 2021.
Under Dr. Lin’s leadership, NDMU became a site to film the PBS documentary, “Vaccination from the Misinformation Virus,” which first aired nationally in July 2021, as well as in Baltimore and Washington, DC. In the film, Dr. Lin joins other national healthcare experts, including NDMU pharmacy faculty Drs. Matthew Shimoda and Ashley Moody, to educate the public about how vaccines work and save lives. NDMU pharmacy students also appear in the documentary.
At the start of the pandemic, pharmacy faculty and students facilitated educational sessions on COVID-19 and other chronic illnesses for community nonprofit groups, as well as LifeBridge Health’s community outreach program. The NDMU School of Pharmacy also hosted a Facebook Live event to discuss vaccine safety with the Latino community and developed educational videos answering vaccine questions in English and Spanish.
Dr. Lin also raised awareness about the disproportionately high COVID-19-related deaths among people of color and highlight racism’s impact on healthcare access, while serving as the 2020-21 president of the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy and a member of the American Pharmacists Association’s Task Force on Structural Racism in Pharmacy.
Established in 1895, Notre Dame of Maryland University (NDMU) is a private, Catholic institution in Baltimore, Maryland, with the mission to educate leaders to transform the world. Notre Dame has been named one of the best "Regional Universities North" by U.S. News & World Report.
