2012 Outstanding Alumna Award Winner
The UT College of Pharmacy Alumni Association is pleased to honor Pam Phillips with the Outstanding Alumnus Award. The award is the alumni association’s highest honor given in recognition of service to the college and community; leadership in local, state, or national health or non-heath related organization; and teaching or research.
Phillips was in the 10th grade when a neighbor recognized her smart wit. “You should go to pharmacy school,” he suggested to her. The advice of the pharmaceutical representative stuck. She received her bachelor’s degree in pharmacy in 1982 from the University of Tennessee Health Science Center. She also earned her master’s of business administration degree from the University of Memphis.
“I thank God that I have loved every job I have had,” Phillips says. “I had so many career choices. My degree and the education I received at the University of Tennessee have opened lots of doors for me.”
As a senior executive therapeutic specialist for GlaxoSmithKline, Phillips says, “I approach my job as one of educating physicians about new drugs. They cannot know about everything that is coming to the market all the time.” She is currently working with neurologists and psychiatrists, introducing them to new drugs for the treatment of epilepsy and other disorders of the central nervous system.
“The University of Tennessee taught me how to care for patients, not just stand behind a counter dispensing drugs,” says Phillips, who has also managed two pharmacies and served as a pharmacist for Baptist Memorial Hospital in the Memphis area.
She says staying involved in the pharmacy community and professional organizations is her “B12 shot.”
Along with her service on the College of Pharmacy Alumni Board, Phillips is also involved in a variety of professional organizations, including the Memphis Area Pharmacist Society, the Tennessee Society of Hospital Pharmacists, the American Pharmacists Association, and the Memphis Area Pharmacist Society.