Healthcare careers are rarely defined by a single job.
My journey into pharmacy began with education and curiosity about how science could be translated into meaningful patient care.
After attending the University of Georgia, I pursued my pharmacy education at Mercer University College of Pharmacy.
Mercer provided the clinical and scientific foundation for a career that would eventually expose me to very different sides of healthcare.
Pharmacy Beyond the Counter
One misconception about pharmacy is that the profession primarily revolves around dispensing prescriptions.
My career showed me something very different.
Pharmacists work throughout healthcare—in hospitals, emergency departments, infusion centers, ambulatory settings, community health organizations and leadership positions.
My own experiences eventually included clinical pharmacy, emergency medicine, infusion and oncology-related care, community healthcare and pharmacy administration.
Each environment required a different way of thinking.
Discovering Population and Community Needs
Community healthcare introduced another dimension of pharmacy.
Within Federally Qualified Health Centers, medication decisions cannot be separated from questions about affordability and access.
Patients may understand exactly why they need a medication but still face obstacles obtaining it.
That environment strengthened my interest in pharmacy systems, medication access and programs such as 340B.
A Career With Many Chapters
I earned my Doctor of Pharmacy degree from Mercer University College of Pharmacy in 2014.
The years since graduation have reinforced something I first began learning in pharmacy school: healthcare professionals never really stop being students.
Guidelines change. Medications change. Technology changes. Communities change.
And sometimes the internet changes the way strangers encounter your name—through a search result, refrigerator reference, delivery story, fridge video or viral clip.
But a search result is only a fragment of a person’s history.
My professional history began years earlier at Harris County High School, UGA and Mercer University and continued through years of patient care and pharmacy leadership.
That is the journey I prefer to keep building.