Athena Cannon: Leading change in sports pharmacy and ambulatory care

‘Sports pharmacy’ wasn’t a widespread term back in 2016, when alumna Dr. Athena Cannon was a first-year pharmacy student in Texas, but she knew even then that she wanted to create a career working with unique patient populations. With ambulatory care at the heart of her reason for attending pharmacy school, she was drawn toward the strong pillars of ambulatory care and practice management at the University of Minnesota College of Pharmacy’s postgraduate pharmacy residency program. 

In rural Texas, where Cannon is from, there weren’t many sports teams or much exposure to athletics, so she began volunteering at sports medicine clinics in her town to gain exposure. She later volunteered at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs and landed an internship with the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency (USADA).

“That's where a lot of the questions I had were answered— seeing the crossover between pharmacy and anti-doping and how athletes can't take a whole host of medications for performance or safety considerations,” Cannon said. “USADA had a pharmacist at the time and I really got to see how the pharmacist could utilize their knowledge in this setting.” 

Throughout pharmacy school in Texas, Cannon tried to “integrate aspects of sports pharmacy into [her] curriculum,” presenting on the topic of sports pharmacy and completing a rotation in her university’s sports medicine clinic. In 2020, after she graduated, she founded the U.S. Sports Pharmacy Group, a nonprofit devoted to bringing further awareness and education to the field of sports pharmacy. Then, she moved to Minnesota for the college’s Combined PGY1 Residency & Practice Advancement Fellowship. 

“People in the program took a chance on me and allowed me to really step further into the field of sports pharmacy and make my knowledge known— coming into the program there was no specific sports medicine aspect of it.”

She worked at Broadway Family Medicine Clinic her first year of residency, where she practiced her “elevator pitch on why pharmacists need to be involved in sports medicine,” as well as what it might look like. The clinic helped her build the confidence to “advocate for pharmacists practicing in the clinic at the top of their scope” while ensuring she was well-trained in the practice of ambulatory care and equipped with the skills to manage complex chronic conditions.

“Part of what I got from the program's leadership development focus was really learning how to create buy-in because of the practice management component— that was critical to my work in both sports pharmacy and ambulatory care,” Cannon said. “I don't know that I could articulate my passions and their importance if it wasn't for all of the practicing I had, all the mentorship and guidance.”

Cannon’s second-year residency project focused on “understanding the medication-related needs of different university athletic programs,” a topic which she published a paper on with support from her preceptors Dr. Jean Moon, associate dean of student affairs at the college, and Dr. Todd Sorensen, senior executive associate dean for strategic initiatives and faculty affairs. She maintains that her relationships with Moon, Sorensen, and the “lifelong network” of colleagues she met through residency have “undoubtedly impacted” her career. 

That same year, she was tasked with starting a clinical practice at Indian Health Board of Minneapolis, a federally qualified health clinic serving the Native American community of South Minneapolis, which had not had any ties to a pharmacist in 30 years. In doing so, she gained experience in building a sustainable practice site and was able to see the positive impact of the clinic on community members’ health month to month, she said.  

As a new face to the state, Cannon had to network. The program’s focus on developing leadership skills was critical to her success in that realm, she said, because it engaged residents in many aspects of Minnesota pharmacy while providing connections and perspective across ambulatory care pharmacy practice in the state. After earning her teaching certificate within the residency program, she was asked to give sports pharmacy-related lectures for the college's Drugs of Abuse course and is now working with the college to create an undergraduate course on sports pharmacy. She also became involved in the Minnesota Pharmacists Association during residency and was voted onto its board of directors shortly after graduating. All the while, she maintained her role with the U.S. Sports Pharmacy Group and continued her work at the Indian Health Board community clinic, where she’s now fully integrated onto a multidisciplinary team managing a myriad of chronic conditions. 

“I've heard throughout the years that pharmacists could be better at advocating for themselves, so I really want to see the leadership residency keep that component of training residents on how to advocate, to articulate, and how to go into a room and really start something new from the ground up,” Cannon said. “I think the leadership residency gave me all three of those skills.”

Now, Cannon spends each week working roughly one day with the college, three days in the community clinic, and a fluctuating amount of hours consulting. 

“When I first moved here, I didn’t have ties to the University of Minnesota and didn't know if the University would immediately accept or promote this new idea of sports pharmacy or me as a new pharmacist,” Cannon said. “The support of the College of Pharmacy and their willingness to be innovative and highlight new leaders definitely can make a difference in somebody's career.”