Dean and Professor
University of Charleston School of Pharmacy
Photo by Brock Burwell/University of Charleston.
By Katlin Swisher
Dr. Michelle Easton moved to West Virginia in 2005 in pursuit of greater challenges. A New Orleans, LA, native and graduate of Xavier University of Louisiana, she worked in a community pharmacy for five years before returning to Xavier for her doctor of pharmacy degree. After completing a psychiatric pharmacy residency program at the Medical University of South Carolina, she pursued a career in academic pharmacy. This led her to the University of Charleston (UC) School of Pharmacy, where she served as an inaugural member of the new pharmacy program’s leadership team and was eventually named the pharmacy school’s dean in 2009.
Easton’s draw toward academic pharmacy stems from the joy she gleans from mentoring students, seeing the light bulb go off when they’ve mastered a difficult concept and watching them become meaningful contributors to society. As dean, she hopes to engrain in her students the role pharmacists play in their communities, especially in rural places like West Virginia.
“Pharmacy students think they are only being trained to provide medications, immunizations and health care information to their patients,” says Easton. “They don’t realize they are uniquely positioned to be a helpful surveillance officer of the community’s public health, that they may become the sole interaction for their elderly widower patients and that a simple smile, word of encouragement or act of compassion and love can change the trajectory of someone’s life.”
This commitment to teaching kindness spills over into other areas of Easton’s life. She believes community service and philanthropic contributions are not just for meeting community needs but are critical to living.
“I’ve found that in giving back, a by-product of the effort yields opportunities I didn’t plan on receiving, like learning new skills, building connections and becoming more empathetic through learning someone else’s perspective,” she says.
Supporting organizations like African-American Philanthropy in Action, the Alzheimer’s Association, Highland Hospital, Kanawha Communities That Care, the Roark-Sullivan Lifeway Center, Union Mission and Grace Bible Church, Easton strives to target her philanthropy toward organizations that address challenging issues in society. She volunteers her time and provides financial contributions in different ways, such as coordinating free health screenings, giving health and wellness presentations, helping with community clean-up events and participating in community-focused church outreach.
“I wholeheartedly believe, as Marian Wright Edelman stated, that ‘Service is the rent we pay for being. It is the very purpose of life and not something you do in your spare time,’” says Easton.
Since moving to the Mountain State, Easton has been overwhelmed by the kindness of West Virginians and has truly embraced it as her new home.
Her move came only two months before Hurricane Katrina reached landfall, and she watched the levees break on national television while talking on the phone with her family as they evacuated. When seven feet of water flooded her parents’ home, they traveled to Charleston to live with Easton for the next 17 months.
“There was an outpouring of kindness from my new co-workers at the University of Charleston, the church community and total strangers in the grocery store who learned we were from New Orleans,” she says. “The genuine human kindness and love on display by West Virginians still emotionally overwhelms me and easily brings tears to my eyes 13 years later.”
Through her leadership at UC and in the community, Easton aspires to continue identifying ways to strengthen West Virginia’s health education, health services and communities.
“I chose to live and work in West Virginia because I feel like my contributions make a difference, are impactful and help leave whatever environment I am in better than I found it,” she says. “There are a lot of bad comments and reputations connected with the state and its citizens, but I can say without hesitation that the people of West Virginia are the nicest, kindest and most giving people I’ve ever known.”
1993 Graduated with a bachelor’s degree in pharmacy from Xavier University of Louisiana
1993 Licensed as a pharmacist in the state of Louisiana
1997 Graduated with a doctor of pharmacy degree from Xavier University of Louisiana
2002 Appointed by Virginia Gov. Mark Warner to the Virginia Board of Pharmacy
2005 Hired as associate professor and assistant dean at the UC School of Pharmacy
2009 Named dean of the UC School of Pharmacy
2011 Graduated from Leadership WV
2013 Appointed to the Martin Luther King Community Center After School Program’s advisory boar
2017 Appointed by Gov. Jim Justice to the WV Medical Cannabis Advisory Board
2018 Received the WV Women’s Commission’s 2018 Lena Lowe Yost Educating Women Award
