Smiling your way to the top
Joseph Washington approaches each social interaction with care, and it’s served him well.
link and you’ll miss Putnam Hall. The sleepy, one stoplight town between Gainesville and Palatka is home to about 150 people and a family-oriented atmosphere. This is where Joseph Washington developed his pleasant, good-natured attitude and work ethic that have opened so many doors.
The small-town grocery store clerk-turned-pharmacy student began his term as the president of the Student National Pharmaceutical Association, or SNPhA, in July 2020. In reflecting how he got where he is today, Washington said, “In a small town you recognize everyone as family and that affects your interaction with the world. You treat people the way you want to be treated.”
SETTING HIS SIGHTS ON PHARMACY
Health care runs in Washington’s veins. As a child he asked his mother, a nurse, a hundred questions: “Can I listen to your necklace (stethoscope)? Why do you take vitals? Can you take my vitals?”
As a high school student, he observed retail pharmacy as the most accessible to patients. Grocery store pharmacists were able to communicate life-improving information to those who could least afford a medical visit; they advised patients, who could not pay for a prescription, on readily available over-the-counter medications.
While he was working at Harvey’s Supermarket in nearby Keystone Heights, he was given the opportunity to transfer to Winn-Dixie with the hopes of being placed in the pharmacy. Instead, he was placed in the seafood department.
He didn’t much care for his work area’s frigid temperatures, but his luck soon changed. An elderly couple who had interacted with Washington while he was at Harvey’s, wondered what happened to their favorite, neighborhood grocery clerk. They asked his previous manager where he ended up and got his phone number.
It was through this couple that he landed a job working in the pharmacy at the Millhopper Publix in Gainesville. That experience turned into a pharmacy technician license and gave him the letter of recommendation he needed to get into the University of Florida College of Pharmacy. “If I hadn’t interacted with every customer the way I should, I might still be pricking my fingers on shellfish without any pharmacy experience,” Washington said.
Joe Washington’s job at Harvey’s Supermarket in Keystone Heights unexpectedly set him on a path to a career in pharmacy.
THE PATH TOWARD THE PRESIDENCY
It all started during a conversation with fellow Pharm.D. student Andrew Asante. The summer of 2019 was setting in, and campus became largely vacant as Gator pharmacy students were pursuing their summer interests. Asante’s comment, “I hope our peers are taking advantage of this time to add value to themselves,” resonated with Washington, who thought, “Wow, I got to get on that.”
Washington envisioned expanding his involvement as a Gainesville chapter member of SNPhA to a national position: public relations liaison chair. The elected position, with votes cast at the organization’s national meeting in Houston, was a longshot considering he had never attended a regional, let alone a national conference.
Before flying to Houston, he interviewed with Darian Allen, SNPhA’s now past-president. At the time, Allen was putting together her board in preparation for starting her term as national president. The two hit it off and shared a similar vision for the organization. Instead of public relations liaison, she suggested he run for president-elect. “It took me aback,” Washington said. “Then I thought about it: ‘why not?’”
ELECTION TO SNPHA’S PRESIDENCY
Washington arrived in Houston full of dreams, but empty on name recognition. He set out to get his name out there. The first event of the evening was a rap battle. Washington doesn’t rap, but he does dabble in poetry. The event organizers saw no problem with adding a little slam poetry to the mix, so he signed up and they slated him to perform last.
As the only poet in a room full of rappers, he stood out. He got his name out there, and as the final performer, “Joseph Washington” remained in attendees’ minds long after.
The next day, presidential candidates rose to the same stage to share their vision for the organization’s next few years. Founded in 1947 as a result of minorities being excluded from participating in the American Pharmacists Association, the National Pharmacists Association, or NPHA, and its student organization founded in 1972, SNPhA, focused on programs geared toward the improvement of the health, educational and social environment of minority communities.
Speaking of his plans for the organization, Washington said, “It is my hope to perpetuate and maximize this organization’s effectiveness and the quality of the care we distribute around the world. Keeping in mind the ideology of Benjamin Franklin: ‘Without words like progress and growth, words like improvement, achievement and success have no meaning.’”
SNPhA’s delegates voted and made Washington the first, in recent memory, UF College of Pharmacy student to serve as president of a national organization.
A FUTURE IN PHARMACY
After graduation, Washington hopes to impact communities across the country and populations around the world as a health economics outcomes researcher or health policy expert for a federal health agency.
When he was accepted to the UF College of Pharmacy, he shared his good news with fellow classmates at Santa Fe College. Chuck Clemons, the vice president of advancement at Sante Fe College, sat Washington down in his office, congratulated him and instructed him to reach a hand back to others striving for similar goals.
He has already pulled many hands up thus far as he enters his fourth year of pharmacy school. Now through SNPhA, Washington will have the opportunity to reach thousands through health advocacy and with his persistent smile.
