On a recent Thursday morning, members of the pharmacy team from Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt started their day cooking breakfast at the Ronald McDonald House in Nashville. Kellie Pearson, senior program manager for Pharmacy at Monroe Carell, organized and participated in this pharmacy event serving the families of patients at the hospital.
When Pearson got to her office after the volunteer shift, she launched into a variety of tasks: She submitted a facilities ticket for a protruding nail that had nearly snagged someone at the retail pharmacy; worked with desktop support to implement a touch-screen system for pharmacists to verify prescription accuracy and safety; received delivery of a filter for one of the pharmacy clean rooms and scheduled its installation; and met with talent representatives to discuss pharmacy job postings, recruitment strategies and interview scheduling — all before 11 a.m.
“It’s interesting all day long, every day,” Pearson said of her role as the sole staff member providing administrative support to the 170-person Monroe Carell pharmacy team.
For her tireless dedication to the success of all pharmacy team members, Pearson received a Credo Award at the October Leadership Forum.
She said she was overwhelmed when the award was announced during one of the team’s daily huddles. “I told them they didn’t need to award me anything special for just doing my job, but I am so honored.
“I always tell the team: ‘You take care of the babies; I can take care of the rest of this.’ Our pharmacists and technicians shouldn’t be worried about calendars, facilities tickets, nails at the registers or supply requests; they need to focus on what’s most important — which is serving our pediatric patients,” Pearson said.
“What would the pharmacy department do without Kellie Pearson? I can confidently say that every member of our pharmacy team knows that our jobs would be less enjoyable if she were not part of our team,” Elizabeth Humphreys, PharmD, executive director of Pharmacy at Monroe Carell, wrote in a Credo Award nomination letter.
There are five pharmacies at Monroe Carell: the core inpatient pharmacy, which operates 24/7; the outpatient retail pharmacy; a perioperative pharmacy; a clinic pharmacy; and a satellite inpatient pharmacy.
Pearson started working at Monroe Carell in November 2014 as an administrative assistant directly supporting Humphreys. She had previously worked as a Human Resources coordinator for YMCA of Middle Tennessee, and with her HR skills and organizational talents, her role at Monroe Carell quickly expanded.
She still directly supports Humphreys, and now she also provides administrative support to the full leadership team of 30 individuals. She manages the onboarding process for all new employees; answers any questions that come up for any team member; compiles and distributes the department’s “Weekly Update” newsletter; and “owns” many of the tasks that increase engagement and morale, including the annual Pharmacy Week celebration held nationwide during the third full week of October. Pharmacy Week recognizes the important contributions of pharmacists and pharmacy technicians to patient care.
“It’s a great role to be in,” Pearson said. “I enjoy organizing and being organized — I have three screens going all the time — but the best part of my job is the one-on-one interactions with everyone on the team. They are the ones who make my job so enjoyable; it’s a great team.”
Multiple nominators wrote about how Pearson “makes every single person on our team feel like they are her priority” and how she “puts in hours and hours of planning to make Pharmacy Week special, exciting and memorable, often coming in on her days off to get everything ready.”
Outside of work, Pearson enjoys time with her family. Her husband, Mike, just retired and is working for himself now — a new adventure that’s going well, she said — and their two children, Finn and Emma, are both students at Samford University.
“They are my main focus. And just like I’m there for my family at home, I am here for my pharmacy family,” Pearson said.
“For me, she is the ‘mom’ of the pharmacy,” wrote Hunter McIlwain, CPhT, MMHC, program director of Gene and Complex Therapies, in a Credo Award nomination letter. “Kellie always makes sure we have what we need to be successful. That’s a tall order for a busy pharmacy with a large number of employees. The number of tasks she juggles to keep the pharmacy running smoothly is enormous, and the fact that she does it so well is nothing short of impressive.”
Watch Kellie Pearson’s video from Leadership Forum.
If you are a VUMC employee, you can nominate a colleague for an Elevate Credo Award, C. Wright Pinson Leader Award, or Team Award. Visit the Elevate website to fill out a nomination form. Employees demonstrate credo behaviors when: they make those they serve the highest priority; respect privacy and confidentiality; communicate effectively; conduct themselves professionally; have a sense of ownership; and are committed to their colleagues. Elevate award nominations are accepted year-round. If a nomination is received after the cutoff for an award selection period, the nomination will be considered for the next period. VUMC VOICE will post stories on each of the award winners in the weeks following their announcement.
