Brooke Beavers Bernhardt, PharmD ’03, has a simple yet powerful mantra for young pharmacists: “Own Your Craft.” As the new Chief Pharmaceutical Officer for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis, TN, she leads by example, taking full ownership of the pharmacist’s vital role as the medication expert on the healthcare team at this nationally renowned hospital.
Bernhardt’s path to the top pharmacy role at St. Jude began while she was a young student at UGA. A native of Dalton, GA, she was unsure of her professional path when she entered UGA. However, a fellow resident at Brumby Hall shared her excitement for the pre-pharmacy tract, and after some further research, Bernhardt realized the profession was a great fit for her as well.
“I may have not been familiar with the field when I started at UGA, but my four years in the College of Pharmacy were transformative,” said Bernhardt, who was active in Lambda Kappa Sigma and Phi Lambda Sigma Honor Society. “I loved the more traditional science-based courses – pharmacology, pharmacokinetics, biochemistry, med chem, and the compounding lab.”
She credits faculty and her CoP experiences for her success as a student. “There were so many great faculty members at UGA,” she remarked. “A few who come to mind as being instrumental in my career direction include Sally Boudinot, Dr. Michael Bartlett, Dr. Henry Cobb, and Dr. George Francisco. While in pharmacy school, I worked in several different pharmacy settings as an intern to help identify my area of professional interest, including a traditional chain retail, an independent pharmacy under Jim Horton at ADD Drug in Athens, in a CoP lab with Dr. Cory Momany, and finally at Emory University Hospital during my P4 year. Each of these experiences gave me an appreciation for the different opportunities available to me as a pharmacist, helped me develop my career goals, and certainly opened doors to future opportunities.”
Along with faculty engagement, Bernhardt praised her preceptors as well. As an example, “Dr. Ellen Whipple Delbridge, BS Pharm ’93, PharmD ’94, was my first preceptor on my first rotation at the Shepherd Center in Atlanta. She was highly regarded by her physician and nursing colleagues and was one of the first pharmacists to help me understand the importance and ease of cultivating interprofessional relationships.”
The success Bernhardt experienced as a student quickly transferred to her professional endeavors. “After graduation, I completed a PGY1 Pharmacy Practice Residency at the University of Alabama at Birmingham Health System. Unsure of my final path but knowing how much I loved complex pharmacology, I completed a PGY2 in Critical Care at the University of Virginia Health System. About half-way through my PGY2, I realized that my love of pharmacology was also inherent to both pediatrics and hematology/oncology. I accepted my first-post residency position in pediatric hematology/oncology at Texas Children’s Hospital in 2005.”
Bernhardt spent 13 years at Texas Children’s Hospital, where her accomplishments included serving as the group pharmacist for Children’s Oncology Group clinical trials. “Those challenging roles really built my confidence and resilience as a leader,” she said.
In 2018, Bernhardt joined the faculty at Baylor College of Medicine, overseeing pharmacy efforts for the Texas Children’s Global HOPE program to improve pediatric cancer care in Sub-Saharan Africa. In addition, her research explored pharmacogenomic factors contributing to treatment disparities in Latino children with leukemia.