Forever at Home in Western North Carolina

Dr. Greene Shepherd’s impact on the region he loves to call home

Story by Zach Read | Published January 16, 2024

During his long career in pharmacy, Greene Shepherd, PharmD, has made several stops: Baltimore, Maryland; Dallas, Texas; Augusta, Georgia; Asheville, North Carolina, among others. But for Greene, a clinical toxicologist and innovative educator committed to excellence in training future pharmacists, the North Carolina mountains have always been home.

A native of Wilkesboro, “where the mountains begin,” Greene moved 40 minutes east to Boone for college at Appalachian State University, where he studied chemistry and biology. No matter where he has lived, studied, and worked along his journey, western North Carolina has always called to him.

“Every time I’d come home and see the hills, my wife told me I’d get this goofy grin on my face,” Greene says.

In 2010, Greene received an offer he couldn’t refuse when the UNC Eshelman School of Pharmacy recruited him to direct pharmacy education at the new satellite campus opening in Asheville.

“Asheville has always been a great place for the practice of pharmacy, and they’ve done a lot of innovative things,” explains Greene. “They had a good infrastructure with Mission Health and a long history in the area of training and retaining healthcare professionals through the Mountain Area Health Education System (MAHEC).”

For a number of reasons, Greene knew the role would be the perfect fit. The position offered him the chance to provide pharmacy education for Carolina students in western North Carolina, helping increase the number of clinical pharmacists in the region while addressing the crisis of poisoning and overdoses in area communities through his teaching. Additionally, Greene had most recently been providing education in clinical toxicology at the University of Georgia’s satellite campus in Augusta. He had experience educating pharmacy students away from a school’s main campus and collaborating with faculty and administrators from a distance.

For Greene, while returning to North Carolina to provide opportunities for young students made good professional sense, it was also personal.

“The type of opportunity UNC provides in Asheville is one I wished I’d had as a kid,” says Greene, who received his PharmD from Campbell University in Buies Creek. “Being a kid from western North Carolina, when I decided to go to pharmacy school, I had to drive to the eastern side of the state. There was no opportunity to stay close to home, so when I received the offer, I felt some kinship to that. It was an opportunity I would have enjoyed as a young person.”

Greene began his tenure in Asheville as director of professional education. With his support and leadership, the School of Pharmacy launched its first class at the Asheville campus in 2011.

“It has been my job to make sure the students are having a good learning experience,” Greene says. “At the beginning, I was in the classroom teaching, but I was also planning, ensuring our needs were met and that we had adequate space and video conferencing connections. We focused on more small-group activities where a faculty person would work with a group of around eight students. This really helps with good learning ratios and gives students an environment in which they can ask questions and understand the material.”

The intimacy of the learning environment has allowed a unique depth of training that prepares the student for future cases. During his tenure, Greene has enjoyed challenging students with a case of the week, presenting a patient scenario and tasking the students with figuring out how to manage the case.

“They meet with faculty and explain their thinking, what they’re struggling with, and we help them figure out what to do to help the patient through,” he says. “As a faculty member, it’s a really rewarding class to teach.”

Greene shares a number of ways in which the Asheville campus has served the western part of the state since its launch more than a decade ago, including the vital role it has played in reducing the shortage of pharmacists in the region.

“We’ve managed to address the shortage,” he says. “It’s satisfying to go around town or in neighboring counties and see the results. I’ll stop by a pharmacy or a grocery store with a pharmacy and see former students making an impact on the region. Pharmacists are the most accessible healthcare professionals. You don’t have to make an appointment. You can drop in and ask questions. Providing access to them for people is valuable.”

Another accomplishment Greene is quick to point out is the partnership between the campus and the Buncombe County Public Health Department, which allows students to assist during public health emergencies.

“We’d been working on that for several years, and when the COVID-19 pandemic began, our students were able to go in and support the vaccine rollout efforts,” he says. “Every Friday our students relieved professionals from the health department so they could do their regular jobs for the department, help people in the community, or simply take a needed break. That was one of the most satisfying parts of my career—being able to be there and be part of helping people get through that period.”

After more than a decade educating students in Asheville and further developing pharmacy education in the region, Greene is preparing to retire from his role directing campus education. Although he will be stepping away from some of his responsibilities, he will continue to teach the area of pharmacy he is most passionate about: clinical toxicology and the areas of poisoning and overdose.

“Having knowledge of drugs helps you manage what happens when people take too much of something, whether intentionally or unintentionally, so I believe that all pharmacists are toxicologists because they need to make sure people are using medications safely and know what to do if there’s a problem,” he says. “Being able to provide expert information about these medications is really important.”

As his focus changes, Greene is looking forward to spending more time with his family, including his wife and three children, and visiting his family in Wilkesboro. It feels like yesterday when his interest in pharmacy began as a student at Wilkes Central High School. Greene remembers when local community pharmacist Rick Brame, a 1972 graduate of the School of Pharmacy, shared his career experiences with students at the school’s career day.

“He was working at the hospital part-time and his family owned the local drug store,” recalls Greene, who also credits his mom, a nurse, with setting him on his path in health care. “I was amazed with what he was doing and I thought, ‘This might be it.’”

All these years later, every time he’s in Wilkesboro, Greene finds himself dropping by Rick’s local drugstore, and his mom and all his family in Wilkesboro continue to use it for their needs.

With strong community pharmacies like Rick’s family’s and the increase in pharmacists in the region, Greene feels good about the practice of pharmacy in the region.

“The momentum and direction of things is where I want it to be,” he says. “The profession of pharmacy and UNC are both doing great things and really moving the practice forward so we can help people live better lives.”

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