Gatton College of Pharmacy welcomes Class of 2025

JOHNSON CITY (Aug. 13, 2021) — East Tennessee State University Bill Gatton College of Pharmacy welcomed 65 student pharmacists in the Class of 2025 during an orientation week that culminated with a traditional White Coat Ceremony today at the new ETSU Martin Center for the Arts. 

“This is a day that has been long in the making for the students on this stage,” said Dr. Debbie Byrd, dean of Gatton College of Pharmacy, during her address at the ceremony. “For them, it began with a desire to seek a profession in health care and culminated with their decision to pursue the practice of pharmacy and admission to pharmacy school.”

The iconic white coat signifies a student pharmacist’s status as a health care professional and a tradition of humanistic care.

Gatton’s Class of 2025 was cloaked by Byrd and special guest, Dr. Troy Trygstad, executive director of Community Pharmacy Enhanced Services Network (CPESN USA), a clinically integrated network of community-based pharmacy networks.

In addition to being a community pharmacist and a health economist, Trygstad serves as the vice president of pharmacy provider partnerships for Community Care of North Carolina, an organization providing wrap-around population health management support for nearly 2,000 primary care practices. Trygstad has more than 15 years of experience with multi-disciplinary care teams and intervention development under alternative payment and support models. He is the project director for a Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation Award that tests new models of payment and pharmacy connectivity to primary care providers and the medical neighborhood that includes over 250 pharmacies in North Carolina.

Trygstad practices in a community pharmacy setting on nights and weekends and serves as a board member for the American Pharmacists Association Foundation and the Pharmacy Quality Alliance, as well as editor-in-chief of Pharmacy Times.

Other speakers included ETSU President Dr. Brian Noland; Dr. Kimberly D. McCorkle, provost and senior vice president for academics at ETSU; and Kacey Lefevers, president of Gatton’s Class of 2024. Thomas Brewster, president of Gatton’s Class of 2022, administered the oath of a pharmacist.

Because COVID-19 prevented the Class of 2024 from having a White Coat Ceremony in 2020, their ceremony will be held on Saturday, Aug. 21, at 10 a.m. at the ETSU Martin Center for the Arts. The keynote speaker will be Dr. Michael Hogue, dean and professor at Loma Linda University and immediate past president of the American Pharmacists Association. Other speakers include Byrd, Noland, McCorkle and Jonathan Holan, president of Gatton’s Class of 2023. Brewster will administer the oath of a pharmacist.

Gatton College of Pharmacy was founded in 2005 by the community to train student pharmacists in order to fill a need in the region. Over the last decade, the college has grown and matured to a national presence and enrolled high-quality students from across the country. The college’s faculty, student pharmacists and student organizations are the proud recipients of national awards and accolades for service, scholastic achievement and clinical training.

Learn more at www.etsu.edu/pharmacy.