Winter 2011 [pdf] - University of Kentucky - College of Pharmacy

The Divine Experience
A PATH OF DIVERSITY
As a young girl growing up in the small Western Kentucky
community of Dawson Springs, Holly Divine loved being
outdoors riding four wheelers, fishing and just about
anything that was sports related and allowed her to
get out and do different things. It wasn't until she was in middle
school that she began to think about choosing pharmacy as a
career and perhaps even owning her own pharmacy someday.
Holly Divine, PharmD
Clinical Associate Professor
Divine, clinical associate professor in the
Department of Pharmacy Practice and Science
at the University of Kentucky College of
Pharmacy, comes from a long line of business
owners in her family and one day during
her middle school years her grandfather
suggested that she ought to think about
going into pharmacy, perhaps due to her
strong interest in science. That suggestion
led Divine to UK and on to a career path
that has fostered her love of diversity, both
in her career and in her personal life.
In 1993 when Divine had just finished her first
year of pre-pharmacy classes, , her grandfather
unfortunately died of an adverse drug reaction.
His death reinforced to her the valuable
role of the pharmacist in identifying drug
therapy problems and educating patients.
"My first job was in a small pharmacy in
Princeton," Divine said. "I loved community
pharmacy and the relationships with
the patients in my community. I also
had an interest in teaching, and once I
entered pharmacy school, I learned about
opportunities to provide patient care and
teach student pharmacists. I took that
passion for teaching and pharmacy and
ended up on an academic career path."
And the rest, as they say, is history. Not so
for Divine.
Upon graduation from the UK College of
Pharmacy in 1998, Divine's first position with
the college was as adjunct assistant professor
at Kentucky Clinic North, now known as the
Polk-Dalton Clinic, where she administered
patient assistance programs and provided
patient education. However, as her time in
the clinic progressed, she started to notice
the large number of patients with diabetes
and she naturally migrated to diabetes
patient education. Her work with patients
with diabetes and her own experience with
diabetes in her family further piqued her
interest in pursuing diabetes care leading to
her certification as a diabetes educator in 2001.
Soon thereafter, a new opportunity opened up
that allowed Divine to return to her community
pharmacy roots and further explore teaching
opportunities in the newly-developed UK
College of Pharmacy Residency Program.
In 2001, Divine was hired to design and
implement the Community Pharmacy
Residency Program. Currently, there are sites
at the Kroger Pharmacy Patient Care Center
and American Pharmacy Services Corporation
(a cooperative of independent pharmacies
based in Frankfort) with Wheeler Pharmacy in
Lexington and they have taken residents at the
PharmacistCARE site as well. As director, Divine
coordinates learning experiences and precepts
residents at all sites as well as oversees the
entire program. She remains director of the
Community Pharmacy Residency Program
but the responsibilities of the job have not
stopped Divine from pursuing other interests
offered through the College of Pharmacy.
Divine never lost her passion for working
directly with patients and another opportunity
to do just that opened up in 2002.
continued on page 12
Faculty Spotlight
Winter 2011
11