By Ethan Quinn
The third-year doctoral student in pharmacy was recognized for her outstanding character, scholarship, leadership and service to the University.
When Raeanne Geffert earned her undergraduate degree and entered the workforce, it was May 2020 –– the height of the pandemic. After two years doing research in the pharmaceutical industry, she realized she wanted to have a bigger impact on the scientific world.
“I felt like I could contribute more to scientific research,” Geffert said. “When you’re a bench scientist, you generate all this important data, and then you pass it along to the next person who makes decisions on that data. I wanted to be someone who makes decisions on the data.”
Geffert, now a third-year doctoral student in the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy, is the recipient of the 2025 Boka W. Hadzija Award for Distinguished University Service. The award recognizes a graduate or professional student who exemplifies outstanding character, scholarship, leadership and service to the University.
Geffert conducts research in the lab of Klarissa Jackson, a faculty member in the Division of Pharmacotherapy and Experimental Therapeutics. She also serves as a teaching assistant and mentor to undergraduate students, organizes a journal club to engage students in scientific discussions, and volunteers as student leader for WinSPIRE, a campus organization dedicated to ensuring equal access to opportunities in STEM fields.
Geffert’s volunteer work with WinSPIRE includes helping organize a summer program for North Carolina high school students designed to give them exposure to careers in the sciences. Many of the students in this program have since enrolled as STEM majors at Carolina.
Her efforts to promote equality also extend to her scientific research. Geffert’s work aims to reduce disparities in health outcomes that result from genetic differences. She is studying the commonly prescribed antibiotic Bactrim, which can sometimes cause liver injury due to genetic and environmental factors that are not well understood. While this outcome is rare, it can be life-threatening, which is why Geffert hopes to better understand its cause and prevent it from continuing to impact people.
“We know that genes are different among different populations,” she said. “When we exclude people from a certain population – that could be any population – then we might miss a certain effect.”
Geffert expressed gratitude for her mentors and fellow students in the Eshelman School of Pharmacy. She is motivated by her concern for patients, and she believes her program is at the forefront of translational science –– ensuring that their research positively impacts patients. While she calls the University “the backbone of the research world,” she enjoyed directly experiencing the impact of her work on patients during her time in the pharmaceutical industry, where she hopes to continue conducting research after she earns her doctorate. “My greatest hope is that what we’re doing here in the lab will be seen by patients in the future,” she said.
For her exceptional scholarship and her dedication to supporting her fellow students and those who might follow in her footsteps, Geffert was recognized with the Boka W. Hadzija award. She calls the award “such an honor, and even more special because it’s in the name of someone so highly regarded from the school of pharmacy,” referring to the late Boka Hadzija, who served as a faculty member in the Eshelman School of Pharmacy.
“I feel so honored,” she said. “And it feels like a validation of all the work my team and I have done to make science more accessible to everyone.”