By Seth Humble, PCCA Digital Content Specialist

Chances are that if you go looking for Deborah Clark on a weekend, you will find her striding among the natural parks and trails that curve and fork across the American landscape like a circulatory system. Deborah is a PCCA Clinical Compounding Pharmacist with a BS in pharmacy from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. A proud Tar Heel and daughter of the region, she laughs and proclaims proudly that her neighborhood sat between two tobacco fields, what used to be the staple crop of North Carolina.

“I grew up all over the Carolinas,” she says. “My dad and mom are both from the mountains of North Carolina, and the majority of my family still lives there, but at the age of two, we moved to Greenville, South Carolina. Then we headed to a little town called Mint Hill, North Carolina, a suburb of Charlotte. Then, when I was in the seventh grade, we moved to another small town — Knightdale. And that town was absolutely as small as it sounds.”

I’m a sucker for regional accents, and Deborah’s is a delight. Her laugh is a joyful flourish.

“Why so many moves?” I ask.

“We moved around a lot because of my dad’s job. He was a manager of a trucking terminal. He started out as a truck driver. He and my grandfather used to run coal out of Kentucky and West Virginia. My mother was a registered nurse who worked in the OR, but eventually became a staff nurse for an infectious-disease doctor. And she always told me, ‘Do not become a nurse.’”

Deborah laughs, remembering.

“My mom loved to take care of people. And that’s something she instilled in me. My parents taught me and my brother to be considerate and take care of people. They were very involved with their church community, always visiting shut-ins to make sure those people weren’t alone. They were the embodiment of Southern Hospitality.”

“What does 11 years at PCCA mean to you?” I ask.

“I can’t believe it has been that long. It seems like I started just yesterday. Time flies when you are doing something you love. I feel like I’ve been doing something good with my life, that I can help people and help the ‘fur-sons,’ as Chris Simmons, PCCA’ Vice President of Creative Developments and pharmacist , refers to the animals we help through vet compounding,” she pauses. “And let me just say that everything I’ve learned about vet, I’ve learned from Chris. I would not be the veterinary compounder I am today without the many things I have learned and continue to learn from him. I work with HRT, pain, derm compounding, lots of them, but working with vet compounding is my passion.

“I believe that PCCA, as a company, is my work family. I can name so many people in the company that I know by name and really treasure what we are able to do to help patients. We do a lot of good. We stand up for the patient,” she says, impassioned in what is clearly her true belief that the patient is at the end of a long chain that PCCA participates in to do meaningful medical work in the world.

“As an example,” she continues. “There are so many autistic children, with special needs, and a compounding pharmacist can truly affect the quality of life for those kids. That’s an incredible gift, to be a part of the patient-pharmacist-physician triad. We can make a huge difference. And I have a child, so I deeply relate to that profound idea.”

I always like learning about challenges that our Clinical Services team members have faced. It provides an insight into their dedication and vast experience in problem-solving health challenges one patient at a time.

“One of the most challenging situations I ever had —” she says without missing a beat when I ask her, “— we had a situation with a beluga whale who was kept at an aquarium after being rescued, and we had to figure out how to deliver an antibiotic to treat an infection. We decided on making a suspension that could be put inside a fish and then fed to the whale. We did not have a culture and sensitivity, so we had to research what would be the best choice for this particular organism. So we worked with the whale’s keepers to develop a whole process of timing and flavoring, just build the entire process of delivery from the ground up with them.”

Again, she pauses and laughs. “That was a fun one. We had to think outside the box, like with all animals — always a unique challenge. And that’s how I’d sum up my time at PCCA in a word: fun.”

This is Deborah Clark.

A PCCA Clinical Compounding Pharmacist who delights herself in the vast, open landscape of the American wilderness. Joyful and grateful for her time at PCCA, she makes clear that this is some of the most fun and meaningful work she’s ever done during her time in compounding. The Clinical Services team is equally grateful that she’s one of their own.