On this episode of White Coat Radio, we’re joined by Dr. Debbie Byrd, Dean of East Tennessee State University Bill Gatton College of Pharmacy. She discusses the latest news regarding state funding and reduced tuition, the college’s 20th anniversary, her philosophy for overcoming challenges, and answers questions from student pharmacists Dean Byrd is celebrating her 10th anniversary as dean of Gatton this year. In March, she was named a Distinguished Fellow of the Pharmacy Academy by the National Academies of Practice (NAP), a prestigious honor that recognizes excellence and leadership in interprofessional health care. TRANSCRIPT: Dean Debbie Byrd I also view challenges as opportunities because I've seen that play out that when we do have those obstacles, many times they have resulted in some of our greatest successes. Michele Williams Welcome to White Coat Radio, a podcast from East Tennessee State University Bill Gatton College of Pharmacy in Johnson City, Tennessee. Each episode, we cover a wide range of topics about the pharmacy school experience, from study tips to deep dives with faculty and students pharmacists. I'm one of your hosts, Doctor Michele Williams, assistant professor and director of academic success. Stephen Woodward And I'm Stephen Woodward, marketing and communications manager. On this episode, we chat with Doctor Debbie Byrd, dean of ETSU Bill Gatton College of Pharmacy. This year, Doctor Byrd is celebrating her 10th anniversary, coming to Gatton as Dean in 2016. In March, she was named a Distinguished Fellow of the Pharmacy Academy by the National Academies of Practice (NAP), a prestigious honor recognizing excellence in leadership and interprofessional health care. Stephen Woodward Learn more about Doctor Byrd on our website e-t-s-u dot e-d-u slash pharmacy. Now let's get to our interview. Well, Dean Byrd, welcome to White Coat Radio. Dean Debbie Byrd Yeah. Thank you for having me. Glad to be here. It's great to have you here. Stephen Woodward We'll start by telling us what is a typical day. Being a dean look like. Dean Debbie Byrd You know, there's not a typical day. But I think that's probably one of the things that I enjoy most is just the variety and, you know, the work that I get to do internal to the college, which you know, most in the college would be, you know, very familiar with and, but there's also a lot of external work at the university and then even beyond the university. Dean Debbie Byrd So, a lot of my time is spent problem solving. I've described myself as a fire chief sometimes, putting my fire hat on putting out fires. But it's it's usually not to that, that level, but it's, a lot of serving as a, as a soundboard for people. It's been a lot of time in meetings. And that's where a lot of that, you know, problem solving and coaching and, and just, you know, hearing what, what others have in mind to do. I know when I was new to this position, I was very taken aback by all the meetings or how much time I was spending in meetings. And I remember, talking to my boss at the time, Wilsie Bishop. And I said, you know, when I've just. I'm in meetings all the time. I went, when does. When will I do my work, you know, as these, and this is my first job as a dean, and she, you know, paused and smiled and looked at me and said, this is the work that is that is the work which is very different from what I had done previously. But, you know, whether it's meeting with, members of the leadership team or executive committee individually, or, you know, as a group, with the faculty council, we have the dean student advisory Committee today. I was kind of I had to think about it a little bit because there are so many different things. But, just all of the stakeholders within the college, and our alumni here, those, those meetings go on on a, on a pretty regular cadence. But then at Etsu, there are a number of different councils that I serve on the university council, academic council, deans, council meeting, council deans meet on a regular basis. So, you know, all of those things are, you know, trying to make things better, whether it's here at the college or at the university that, you know, even beyond the university, there's opportunities to, you know, work on behalf of the profession or the college in terms of advocacy with legislators. College has been very active with the Johnson City, Washington County Chamber of Commerce. So, yeah, there's just so many, folks to to meet with. And then there's lots of events that we have, at the college. And so I just represent the college in a lot of different, arenas. Stephen Woodward Great. Thank you for sharing. Michele Williams So the college's, of course, celebrating its 20th anniversary this academic year. What do you think are some of the biggest challenges the college is facing? Dean Debbie Byrd You know, that's a great question. And I can say I think that, you know, Gaten is facing any challenges that are unique to us that are really any different than other colleges or schools of pharmacy or, or just higher education, in general. But challenges in general, I do think are accessibility and affordability for our students, is really paramount. Dean Debbie Byrd The perception of the value of higher education, I don't think that that pharmacy faces, that as much as maybe other, degree programs, because the return on the investment for, a doctor pharmacy degree is pretty clear. You know, it's was life changing for me as a first generation college student. You know, really, generational change can come about, for those students who have those opportunities. And that's why that accessibility and affordability is so, important. Yeah. For us to focus on, I also have a philosophy which I would say is something that has developed, especially since becoming a dean is, I used to have the perspective of, I could prevent problems, you know, if I planned well and and that's true to a degree. But you can't plan away all the potential problems that that pop up. And so that perspective has changed as I've gotten wiser. But I also view challenges as opportunities because I've seen that play out that when we do have those obstacles, many times they have resulted in some of our greatest successes. That's so true as a college. And that's not at all how I used to think about problems. So I think it's important, important to have that mindset of just not that we like problems, but just embracing them. But they inevitably pop up and think of them as opportunities to, you know, make something better for someone. You know, face them with optimism and creativity because you might as well, and just roll up our sleeves and, and get to work. Michele Williams That's, that's one of the things that I really love about working here and working with you is that when a problem comes up, there have been times when you come to my office and said, what are we going to do about this? Dean Debbie Byrd Yeah, I, I love that. Yes. Like, oh, okay, let's problem solve us figure it out. So yeah. Yeah. Because it's not an option you know not to address the problem. It's that way. So we might as well. ...Yeah. And and I certainly don't have all the answers. And so, you're not the only person that I, that.... Well, what do you think about this? Yeah. You know, our, thinking about this. What do you think about that? To try to get to the best solution for whatever it may be? Stephen Woodward Well, kind of along those lines, what are some of the those opportunities that you see for the college? Dean Debbie Byrd Yeah. You know, I think there's no question that excellence is an important part of our culture here. So, we're always looking for ways to improve things, to make things better, whether that's, you know, for students or faculty or staff, you know, how do we just just make things run smoother in some cases, take something that's that's good and make it great. But we have made the most of some of our challenges here at the college. But I think some of the things, thanks are thanks are, are. My gosh, I probably should not go it, you know, we don't have any major, major things going on right now. We've had some major initiatives that the college is, is, you know, kind of bringing to fruition now a major curricular revision as one example, where I do want to give, you know, faculty and staff major kudos for that work because, you know, not only did they, you know, revise the curriculum, which happens periodically everywhere, but something that our faculty did really combined, you know, that academic excellence piece and, and thinking about student success, but they also really considered well-being in that and well-being in the perspective of, you know, what's the best combination to help our students perform at their very best? And to that end, you know, we looked at a lot of data and found that our curriculum at that time, before we revised it, had more credit hours than most programs in the country. And, and at that time, our students weren't performing where we would like for them to have been. We were thinking about the now flex. We were more, you know, just around the average or maybe just slightly above average. And so part of that we felt like, maybe it's just too much and there's a point of diminishing returns. And I think we can reach that with our students, that we were just overwhelming them in terms of just information and time. And, and so they were very thoughtful. The faculty were in really bringing it back to the essentials of, of what do our students need, to be the best pharmacists and to perform at their very best and to, to really, you know, learn and retain everything. It's not, you know, if you're just you can give them everything. But if they're only going to retain a third of it, what what's the point? And they've really given that a lot of considerat
