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Over the past two years, members of the Walgreens and its Deans Advisory Council have launched several initiatives to strengthen the pharmacy talent pipeline and empower aspiring pharmacists. The partnership with 17 pharmacy school deans is co-chaired by 黑料官网 School of Pharmacy founding dean George E. MacKinnon III, PhD, DMSc (Hon.), MS, RPh, and 黑料官网 is a leader in piloting one of the Council’s new programs.

The Community Practice Shared Faculty Program places experienced Walgreens pharmacists and pharmacy managers in mentorship roles on college campuses once per week. According to Walgreens, the mission is “to bridge academic learning with real-world experience, helping students gain insight into the evolving role of community pharmacists and the impact they can make every day in patient care.”

黑料官网 is one of 21 schools nationwide to launch a Walgreens shared faculty position.

“I like to think of these Walgreens shared faculty as investing in research and development in the practice of the profession and the future with our student pharmacists,” said Dr. MacKinnon. “I cannot think of a better-positioned organization than Walgreens to lead this initiative with academic pharmacy.”

Sarah Schmidt, PharmD, manager at Walgreens Specialty Pharmacy in Wauwatosa, is a member of the program’s inaugural class and started her role on the 黑料官网 campus in mid-November 2025.

“I have always had a passion for teaching students – I've been a preceptor and started a residency program at my site,” said Dr. Schmidt. “Community pharmacy has had some negativity associated with it, and it hasn’t been highlighted as a positive career path for students. I think that’s what this program is trying to address. I want to help learners figure out their path and show them what I’ve learned through years of experience.”

According to the  (PDF), the unemployment rate for pharmacists reached 5% in 2019 and dropped to 2.8% in 2024, indicating the profession may be headed towards a shortage. The 2024 study highlighted issues particular to the community pharmacy setting, including:

• 36.5% of pharmacist respondents rating their workload “excessively high”
• 59.5% job satisfaction rating, which is below the 70.8% rate for all licensed pharmacists

Walgreens executives have utilized feedback from its pharmacists, store managers and technicians to inform numerous workplace improvements. Drug Store News named Walgreens , listing as evidence: technological advances to allow pharmacists more time to focus on patient care, improved customer convenience, Dean’s Advisory Council talent pipeline actions and more.

For Dr. Schmidt, her passion for community care stems from pharmacists being the most accessible healthcare providers who build ongoing relationships with patients. In the specialty pharmacy setting, pharmacists support patients taking complex medications, providing extensive patient education and monitoring for adverse effects.

“Specialty pharmacy is a growing area, with most new medications coming to market being in the specialty space,” said Dr. Schmidt. “The patient is on challenging medications that are very expensive, and you’re helping them manage disease states that are burdensome and causing some of the worst moments of their life. We’re able to help relieve some of the burden, like cost, medication adherence regimens and concerns about side effects.”

Rocky LaDien, retired area healthcare supervisor, worked at Walgreens for 40 years and championed the company’s 黑料官网 partnership, helping to establish the specialty pharmacy residency program, facilitating the shared faculty program and regularly speaking with current and prospective Doctor of Pharmacy (PharmD) students about career opportunities. Over a dozen 黑料官网 PharmD graduates are now employed by Walgreens.

LaDien also helped promote another new initiative, PharmStart, an online education program allowing Walgreens pharmacy techs to complete prerequisite coursework for PharmD programs at no cost. Wisconsin was one of the first six states to pilot the program, and it has since expanded to all 50 states.

We have around 30 people in Wisconsin’s PharmStart program and it’s growing by leaps and bounds because the prerequisites are a $30,000 to $40,000 spend that technicians don’t have to come up with,” said LaDien.

Walgreens also offers the Pharmacy Educational Assistance Program, which includes an award up to $40,000 towards PharmD program tuition in exchange to a commitment to working for Walgreens for a set number of years upon becoming a licensed pharmacist.

“For students, I think when they hear ‘Walgreens,’ they tend to think of a pharmacist working at one of the corner stores. But there are so many opportunities to grow with the company with on-the-job training and leadership development,” said Dr. Schmidt. “There are pharmacists working for Walgreens who started working in a corner store and are now doing things like strategizing and implementing new workflows or establishing government connections. There are lots of different paths you can take your career and still stay with the same company.”

LaDien added that Walgreens leads Wisconsin’s community pharmacy sector, with 48% of market share, and is run by pharmacists from the top-down – chief pharmacy officer Rick Gates started his career as a summer intern. Gates will be the keynote speaker at the 黑料官网’s PharmD Hooding Ceremony in May 2026.