From Iraq to Baltimore, School of Pharmacy Grad Remains a Trailblazer

By: Erik Pedersen, Senior Communications Manager

BALTIMORE – When Dr. Reem Abdullah D’16 first arrived in the United States with her two young daughters as an Iraqi refugee in 2009, she had a clear goal in mind.

The prospect of starting a new life in a foreign country might have seemed daunting, but Dr. Abdullah was focused on putting herself into a position to help others. Her priority in life was to provide medical assistance to those who needed it the most, and the School Sisters of Notre Dame (SSNDs) and Notre Dame of Maryland University both played a key role in helping put that goal in motion.

Dr. Abdullah’s first experience with the SSNDs was through the Caroline Center, a nonprofit workforce development organization serving women in Baltimore. The Caroline Center was founded in 1996 by Sister Kathleen Feeley, SSND ’50, president of Notre Dame from 1971-1992, while Sister Patricia McLaughlin, SSND ’66, the current chair of NDMU’s Board of Trustees, served as the center’s director until 2018.

Dr. Abdullah enrolled in the Caroline Center’s pharmacy technician program shortly after entering the country, starting a process which would ultimately lead her to NDMU. After graduating from the School of Pharmacy in 2016, she now works as a clinical pharmacist for both the Baltimore Convention Center Field Hospital (BCCFH) Task Force and Mercy Medical Center, while adding additional assistance to the community as a retail pharmacist at Giant.

“When I was home in Iraq, I was working in the medical field,” Dr. Abdullah said. “And I always felt like my purpose in life was to provide patient care to underserved communities. Four weeks after arriving in the states, I started the pharmacy technician program, and within four months I had the certification needed to work as a technician at Giant.

“Enrolling at the Caroline Center was the best educational, social and life transforming experience in my life,” she continued. “Sister Pat and the other members guided me through the transition phase of moving to the United States, and made me feel welcomed in a loving, warm environment.”

Dr. Abdullah’s time at the Caroline Center gave her the educational and practical skills needed to succeed as a technician. It also served as her first introduction to NDMU, and when she had completed all of the education requirements needed to enroll in a Pharm.D. program she was immediately drawn to Notre Dame’s School of Pharmacy.

“Notre Dame’s mission and vision fit with my goals,” Dr. Abdullah said. “My main focus is public health, and I saw firsthand the innovative ways that Notre Dame was giving back to the local community. They don’t just prepare you to become a successful pharmacist: they are setting you up to use those skills to benefit society.”

After transitioning from a technician to a pharmacist in her work at Giant, Dr. Abdullah has dedicated significant time to running wellness clinics for local citizens. At the clinics, she obtains blood pressure, sugar and cholesterol levels to spread awareness on the dangers of cardiovascular diseases and the importance of exercise as part of a healthy lifestyle.

Dr. Abdullah has also used the knowledge originally gained from the School of Pharmacy to expand her areas of clinical expertise while working at Mercy. She has assisted in several different areas, including the intensive care unit, neonatal intensive care unit and transitional care unit. She has served cancer patients in Mercy’s oncology center, and she obtained her anticoagulant pharmacist certification to provide inpatient and outpatient anticoagulant service.

In recent years, Dr. Abdullah’s primary efforts to give back to the Baltimore community have focused on the COVID-19 pandemic. She received some of the earliest COVID patients in her role as a clinical pharmacist at Mercy, and she added a new position on the frontline when the BCCFH opened downtown in March 2020. When the hospital at the Convention Center closed in June 2021, Dr. Abdullah joined the newly formed BCCFH COVID Task Force to continue the ambulatory missions of vaccinating, testing and providing outpatient treatment of COVID-19 infections.

When she wasn’t at Mercy or the Convention Center, Dr. Abdullah would support mass vaccination and testing initiatives across Baltimore, assisting with initiatives organized by CASA Baltimore and volunteering at several churches in the city. Her work today for the task force includes prescribing Paxlovid to newly infected high-risk COVID patients.

Dr. Abdullah has been a trailblazer throughout her professional career, dating back to her time in Iraq. When the United States helped form the Iraqi Radiological Source Regulatory Authority (IRSRA) during the war, she was the lone woman working in her department. It was through that role that she was able to bring her family overseas after obtaining a Special Immigrant Visa.

In the present day, Dr. Abdullah hopes to continue breaking new ground as an advocate for her profession, encouraging pharmacists to expand their influence in healthcare.

“There are so many things that pharmacists can do, and we’ve shown that during the pandemic,” she said. “Most of the vaccinations done in Baltimore were performed by pharmacists. I want to pave the way for pharmacists to have more of a role in public health. We have the knowledge – it’s just a matter of applying the knowledge. That, of course, is also dependent on your skills, and that’s when the quality of the pharmacy program comes into play.”

For Dr. Abdullah, NDMU’s Pharm.D. program gave her all of the tools needed to excel in her profession.

“It’s challenging, but it prepares you to become a successful, compassionate clinician in the field,” she said. “The program was well built, and most importantly it continued to evolve through the implementation of new education techniques and new opportunities to learn. Especially in healthcare, the more things you see, the more knowledge and experience you’ll have.”

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.