Issue: Spring 2018 | Posted: June 1, 2018
Ashley Pugh ('11)
Outstanding Young Alumna Award
Presented to up to three Union University graduates who are age 40 or younger with a record of significant accomplishment in professional life and service to Union University or the world.
Ashley Pugh, assistant professor of pharmacy practice at Union, said pharmacy gives her daily opportunities to serve other people.
Pugh graduated from Union in 2011 with a bachelor’s degree in chemistry and completed her doctorate in pharmacy at Union in 2014. She said because she was mentored well as an undergraduate and graduate student at Union, she is able to mentor her students better.
“Both undergraduate and graduate faculty members showed me what it means to be strong in the classroom, strong in your knowledge and strong in how you interact with your students,” she said. “Science is important, health care is important, but ultimately it’s about how you serve other people and serve the Lord through that.”
Pugh said Union’s emphasis on the integration of faith into learning and practice is what drew her to the university in the first place, and it is what made her want to teach.
“Faith is the foundation,” she said. “Science or art or whatever you are going to do as a profession is just an extension of that.”
As a professor of pharmacy practice at Union, Pugh spends about half of her time in the classroom and the other half practicing as a clinical pharmacist for Kroger. She said she is a relationship builder and communicator, and both teaching and pharmacy practice allow her to use those gifts.
“Pharmacy is a perfect for that because you get to use the knowledge that you have to directly communicate with patients to help them to use their medications well,” she said.
Pugh has received several pharmacy awards as both a student and a practitioner, and she received board certification as an ambulatory care pharmacist by the Board of Pharmacy Specialties in 2016. She is actively involved in the West Tennessee Pharmacists Association, the Tennessee Pharmacists Association and the American Pharmacists Association.
Pugh said being named an Outstanding Young Alumna is a great honor, considering the caliber of the individuals who graduate from the university.
“Union has a lot of phenomenal young alumni,” she said. “I think about my peers when I was on campus, and I am glad Union gave me the opportunity to build relationships with so many wonderful people.”
