Ewa M. Dzwierzynski traveled the world as a pharmacist and is now putting her expertise to work in the hospital where she was born, as director of pharmacy for Memorial Hospital of Rhode Island.

But Dzwierzynski will bring her professional skills wherever duty calls. In March 2010, she served as chief of pharmacy at a field hospital in Port-au-Prince after the Haitian earthquake. She also provided disaster relief closer to home, helping to vaccinate Rhode Island residents during the H1N1 epidemic.

In her current role, Dzwierzynski oversees an $8 million budget. She has implemented changes in purchasing and inventory that will save hundreds of thousands of dollars.

She initiated treatment changes in her previous position at Rhode Island Hospital that decreased risks and medical errors associated with anticoagulants.

Dzwierzynski has achieved a laundry list of professional accomplishments at age 38. The University of Rhode Island and Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Services graduate received an Army certificate of achievement, a Superior Performance Award and four outstanding-performance awards for her work at an Army medical center in Germany treating soldiers injured in the Afghanistan and Iraq wars. She also won an award while working with the Department of Veterans Affairs in Las Vegas. She is the only pharmacist in Rhode Island to be certified in both pharmacotherapy and nutrition support.

Dzwierzynski also teaches as an adjunct faculty member at both Rhode Island College’s College of Nursing and URI’s College of Pharmacy.

And on top of it all, she is Mrs. Rhode Island United States and will compete for the national crown in August. •