March 24, 2015
The pharmacy career of Stephanie Gardner, PharmD, EdD, began at an Eckerd Drug in Durham in 1983. That year was her first as a student at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and that store was where she discovered that pharmacy was the perfect fit for her.
“I knew from a young age that I wanted to be in health care, but my first year at UNC was when I decided to pursue pharmacy seriously,” she says. “It was when I had been at the Eckerd Drug for a short while that I was really sold.”
Gardner received her BS in pharmacy from the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy in 1987 and her doctor of pharmacy in 1989. She has spent more than twenty years as a clinician and educator and will take her next big step this June when she becomes the provost at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences.
“My new role as provost will give me opportunities I never dreamed possible,” she says. “I enjoy building new programs, and I will have the ability to facilitate collaboration between our campus and other campuses, agencies and foundations to improve health care.”
Gardner joined the UAMS College of Pharmacy as an assistant professor in 1991. “I was motivated by the idea of combining teaching, research, and clinical practice so I could make an impact in many different areas,” she says.
After five years as an educator, she found that she was attracted to the idea of academic leadership. She earned a doctorate in education with an emphasis in educational leadership from the University of Arkansas at Little Rock in 2001.
She has served as dean of the UAMS College of Pharmacy since 2004 and was named associate provost in 2013.
“The most rewarding part of my job is being in a position to help faculty and students accomplish their goals,” she says. “Whether I am talking with a student about career options or trying to get a research instrument needed by a young faculty member, I feel that I’m doing meaningful work.”
Gardner has served on several committees with the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy and was elected as chair of the Women Faculty Special Interest Group for 2005–2006. She has also served on the UAMS campus as chair of the Committee on Clinical Research and as chair of the Council of Deans.
Gardner also serves as a member of the Board of Directors of the Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education and was elected as its president in 2014.
She is the recipient of numerous awards including the 2004 Pharmacist of the Year Award from the Arkansas Pharmacists Association and the Dale Bumpers AHEC Leadership Award from the UAMS College of Pharmacy.
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