News

Stephen Rasimas (MBA’24) didn’t have to wait long to affirm his decision to return to school. Only a few months after his courses began in 2019, the District Manager of pharmacies in Alberta and Saskatchewan was called on to help his company pivot. Like all pharmacy-based businesses, they were asked to give COVID-19 vaccinations to the public and expand the role of their pharmacists.

A pharmacist himself, Rasimas says “people had difficulty accessing the healthcare system, and patients needed pharmacists to provide continuity of care. We had to adapt to a continuously evolving situation and provide a safe environment for healthcare delivery.”

As he prepares to graduate, he appreciates how the MBA program helped him discover what he wants to do most.

Frontline to advocate

Rasimas is now the Senior Director, Pharmacy Professional Affairs for Shoppers Drug Mart in Western Canada. His role involves working in conjunction with provincial pharmacy associations to advocate for services that pharmacists can provide to patients.

“I really enjoy doing what I can to make an impact on healthcare,” says Rasimas. “Pharmacists have a bigger role to play and [the pandemic] showcased what pharmacists can do.”

Flexibility of the program

What drew Rasimas to Dalhousie’s MBA program was the flexibility to learn at his own pace, and to balance his education with his professional life. He liked the model of online learning balanced with in-person workshops.

That proved important early in his program.

Rasimas appreciated being able to take a couple of semesters off during times of crisis before returning to the program.

“I needed to be there for my teams and it was nice to take that pause and focus on providing extra support,” says Rasimas.

Concepts in the real-world

One of the defining attributes of Dal’s MBA program, according to Rasimas, is how his professors connected their course concepts to what students were encountering in their careers.

He liked how professors built checkpoints with their students to keep them engaged and to encourage them to apply concepts to their work.

For example, learning about change management gave him better tools to lead his teams through a time of upheaval in the healthcare sector.

Different perspectives

Much of that learning happened in collaborative group settings.

One of Rasimas’ highlights was coming together with classmates at in-person intensive classes. They were hosted in cities across Canada, and he thrived off the challenge of approaching real-world business scenarios with peers from a variety of industries.

“It helped me understand there are lots of ways to look at a problem and to think through all potential perspectives and solutions,” says Rasimas.

His advice to students starting the program? Build connections with classmates right away, so you can benefit from that diversity in experience.

Rasimas (centre) visiting one of the pharmacies he supports.

Making the biggest impact

Rasimas says that being enrolled in the MBA program helped him reflect deeply on what he was passionate about.

“It pushed me to seek out a position where I'm more involved in strategic decision making,” says Rasimas. “I feel like the MBA better prepared me for this type of role.”

Working behind the scenes in his current role, instead of directly with patients, means he sometimes misses that one-on-one interaction.

What reassures him is that he can create broader change by putting his new skillset into practice.

“I became a pharmacist to help people, and in this role I can do that on a larger scale,” says Rasimas.