Clinical Professor Anita Jacobson honored for passion, commitment to substance use education and advocacy
University of Rhode Island College of Pharmacy Clinical Professor Anita Jacobson is the 2025 recipient of the Generation Rx Award of Excellence from the American Pharmacists Association. The recognition is among the national organization’s top awards, recognizing “a pharmacist who has demonstrated a commitment to the mission of substance abuse education.”
Jacobson—who teaches a variety of subjects in the college’s Doctor of Pharmacy program including physical assessment, substance use disorders, mental health, health disparities and more—plays an active role in patient care and substance use disorder, specifically battling the opioid epidemic. She is the director of the Community First Responder Program on URI’s Kingston Campus, focusing on harm reduction, overdose education, and naloxone outreach. The program serves as the hub of the Northeast Rural Opioid Technical Assistance Regional Center.
Through her work, Jacobson has broadened the reach of educational efforts including stigma reduction; has empowered individuals with the tools to respond effectively in emergencies through the distribution of lifesaving naloxone; and has helped decrease barriers to treatment of substance use disorders, according to Clinical Professor Jeffrey Bratberg, who nominated Jacobson for the award.
“Her passion for service to the most vulnerable and marginalized in American society—people who use drugs—is only equaled by her desire to train anyone and everyone as a ‘Community First Responder’ to ensure people are always available, and armed with knowledge, compassion and naloxone, at every opioid overdose,” Bratberg wrote in his nomination. “Anita’s programs have educated thousands of people across the region and likely have resulted in a significant number of overdose reversals and lives saved. I am humbled to be her co-worker, research partner, and friend in her on-going journey of training, discovery, and service to the people of New England.”
As program director of CFRP, Jacobson has secured more than $5.5 million in state and federal grant funding, and leads an interprofessional team of social workers, pharmacists, student pharmacists, and pharmacy technicians to offer accredited training programs on the use of naloxone. She and her team distribute more than 55,000 naloxone kits each year in Rhode Island, with an additional 3,000 kits sent via mail to rural New England residents.
“I am so grateful for all the support and hard work of my colleagues Tammy Whan, Brad Thibodeaux and Katie Ahern, who make CFRP run on a daily basis and are constantly moving us forward in new and innovative directions to reach people who need naloxone and overdose response training,” Jacobson said. “I hope this award will help bring awareness of CFRP efforts throughout New England so that more people will find the free training and naloxone at URI.edu/ROTA-R. It is only by ensuring all communities in need are saturated with overdose response tools, and the knowledge to use them, that we will start to see a decline in the staggering number of lives lost each year to overdose.”
Jacobson is also the coordinator of URI’s Pharmacists’ Patient Care Process Laboratories, which center around case-based learning, patient simulation, motivational interviewing, objective structured clinical examination, and patient counseling. Her teaching, scholarship, and service has centered on developing and expanding innovative practice roles for pharmacists, enhancing cultural sensitivity training for students and healthcare professionals, and barriers to treatment of substance use disorders with a focus on vulnerable patient populations.
In addition to CFRP and her teaching role, Jacobson maintains a clinical practice site at Eleanor Slater Hospital, which is part of the Rhode Island Department of Behavioral Healthcare, Developmental Disabilities and Hospitals. She has developed a specialized training course for law enforcement officers designed to foster a compassionate and informed approach to overdose situations, conducted seminars in K-12 schools, and designed overdose education programs for older adults with the Rhode Island Geriatric Education Center. She is a consistent advocate for pharmaceutical issues through her work with the state Board of Pharmacy, the APhA House of Delegates and the Rhode Island Pharmacists Association.
“She uses her deep knowledge of what works in overdose prevention and response to craft, advocate for, and implement policy solutions, in addition to her sustained and frequent commitment to community service and education,” Bratberg wrote. “There truly is no one more qualified for this high honor.”