2012 Outstanding Alumna Award Winner
The Distinguished Service to Pharmacy Award is presented to an individual, organization, or corporation in recognition of their service to the pharmacy profession. This year’s award is bestowed upon Dr. Barbara Wells.
Becoming a pharmacist was solidified for Wells in the eighth grade.
Some might even say a career in pharmacy was in her DNA. Her maternal grandfather and her father were community pharmacists.
“When I was very small, I used to nap in a small laundry basket in the back of my father’s pharmacy,” she said. “For my first job, I was a soda jerk at the pharmacy. I’ve never had a job outside of pharmacy.”
Now retired, Dr. Wells, the former dean and professor of the School of Pharmacy at the University of Mississippi and executive director of the Research Institute of Pharmaceutical Sciences, received her bachelor’s degree in pharmacy and her doctor of pharmacy from the University of Tennessee Health Science Center.
After completing a residency in psychiatric pharmacy at UT and the Memphis Mental Health Institute, Dr. Wells served on the faculty of her alma mater for more than a decade in the roles of vice chairwoman of the Department of Clinical Pharmacy and director of Mental Health Pharmacy Programs. She also has served as chairwoman of the Department of Pharmacy Practice at Samford University School of Pharmacy and dean of the College of Pharmacy at Idaho State University.
An expert in the areas of psychiatric pharmacotherapy and women’s health, Dr. Wells’ work has focused on leadership in health professions, pharmacy education, and advocacy for the profession. Her research has examined drug-drug interactions of psychotropic medications and the clinical management of depression, anxiety disorders, and schizophrenia.
Her tenure as dean at two universities to serving as president of the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy and the American College of Clinical Pharmacy are moments Dr. Wells is proud of because they aided in the advancement of the pharmacy profession.
She says, “I have been blessed to work with remarkable educators, researchers, public servants, and leaders to advance our profession, to advance pharmacy education, to support and grow research programs, and to serve patients and students.”
Although Dr. Wells and her husband of 48 years, Richard (UTHSC ’63) have moved from Mississippi to Bentonville, Ark., to be closer to family, Dr. Wells maintains her ties to the pharmacy profession as co-editor of three commonly used pharmacy education textbooks published by McGraw-Hill Medical Publishers.
Having written more than a 100 peer-reviewed articles and book chapters, Dr. Wells has enough awards and accolades to fill up a book of her own. She is the recipient of the Gloria Niemeyer Francke Leadership Mentor Award from the American Pharmacists Association and the Career Achievement Award from the College of Psychiatric and Neurologic Pharmacists Foundation. She has served on the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s Psychopharmacologic Drugs Advisory Committee and the National Institutes of Health’s Advisory Committee on Research on Women’s Health.
“By far my proudest accomplishment is raising two great kids who are great parents in their own right,” says Dr. Wells, who still hopes to mark a visit to Australia off her bucket list.
She lives her life inspired by Geronimo’s quote: “I cannot believe that we are all useless, or else why would God have created us. And the sun, the darkness, and the wind are waiting to hear what we have to say.”