Southeastern Community College (SCC) is excited to announce a partnership with the University of North Carolina (UNC) at Chapel Hill.

SCC received a visit from representatives of the UNC Chapel Hill Eshelman School of Pharmacy on August 24, 2022.

Betsy Sleath, Ph.D, RPH, the Regional Associate Dean for Eastern North Carolina and George H. Cocolas Distinguished Professor, Eshelman School of Pharmacy and Jana Thompson, MA, Director of PharmD Recruitment, met with SCC to discuss careers in pharmacy. This visit was coordinated by Mrs. Mary McNeill Hooks, RPh, Vice-President and Director of Clinical Services, Liberty Medical Specialties, Inc., a Columbus County local pharmacist and longtime supporter of SCC.

This visit marks the beginning of an exciting partnership between SCC and UNC’s Eshelman School of Pharmacy.

“I’m thrilled for our school to be able to work with SCC and their students on recruitment into our Pharmacy School,” said Angela Kashuba, PharmD, DABCP, FCP, Dean, UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy.  “A PharmD degree provides our graduates with access to over 100 different jobs.  We would love to see more North Carolinians in our school and provide them with these flexible future careers.  Additionally, pharmacy technicians are critical to our North Carolina workforce, and we are excited to see SCC’s expansion of their programs!”

To recruit more students from eastern North Carolina into the UNC Pharmacy program, the college will partner with Dr. Sleath and Ms. Thompson to host awareness events in the community. Specific attention for recruiting students will be given to the college’s Pharmacy Technician students and plans are being made to take students in that program on a campus visit to UNC’s Pharmacy school.

Students living in rural communities are less likely to apply to UNC’s Pharmacy School. To encourage more students from Columbus County to consider a pathway to UNC’s Pharmacy School, SCC will develop pathways for students interested in pharmacy school to include opportunities for students to begin taking some of the pre-pharmacy courses while in high school.

“SCC is excited about this new partnership with UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy and looks forward to working with industry partners like Mrs. Mary McNeill Hooks to develop pathways for students into the pharmacy technician program at SCC and to the Eshelman School of Pharmacy,” said Kimberly Fine, Dean of Nursing & Healthcare Technologies.

Pharmacy technicians are also in high demand in our region according to Mrs. Mary McNeill Hooks and often those pharmacy technicians have the skill sets to pursue a degree in pharmacy. The college will begin offering more pharmacy technician courses to meet the demand in our region. And students in the pharmacy technician courses will have an opportunity to meet representatives from the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy during the classes as well as take a class trip to the UNC campus to tour Eshelman School of Pharmacy.

SCC will also work with Columbus County Schools and Whiteville City Schools to develop a pipeline of students interested in pursuing a career in pharmacy. The result will be a strong pharmacy workforce in Columbus County and eastern North Carolina. 

“I am excited for this partnership between UNC and SCC! We have many talented students in our rural counties that think a career in pharmacy is out of their reach,” said Mrs. Hooks. “Hopefully this initiative will give the students interested in becoming a pharmacist and those students who want a career as a pharmacy technician a boost in their career path. There is a great need for both in rural North Carolina. It is wonderful to know that our local students have this opportunity at SCC.”