Dr. Michelle R. Easton
Dean and Professor
University of Charleston School of Pharmacy
KATLIN SWISHER
Photo by Brock Burwell/University of Charleston.
DR. MICHELLE EASTON moved to West Virginia in 2005 in
pursuit of greater challenges. A New Orleans, LA, native and
graduate of Xavier University of Louisiana, she worked in a
community pharmacy for five years before returning to Xavier
for her doctor of pharmacy degree. After completing a psychi-
atric pharmacy residency program at the Medical University of
South Carolina, she pursued a career in academic pharmacy.
This led her to the University of Charleston (UC) School of
Pharmacy, where she served as an inaugural member of the
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new pharmacy program’s leadership team and was eventually
named the pharmacy school’s dean in 2009.
Easton’s draw toward academic pharmacy stems from the
joy she gleans from mentoring students, seeing the light bulb
go off when they’ve mastered a difficult concept and watching
them become meaningful contributors to society. As dean, she
hopes to engrain in her students the role pharmacists play in
their communities, especially in rural places like West Virginia.
“Pharmacy students think they are only being trained to