For customers of Walgreens #21314 in Wilmington, Delaware, pharmacist Jacqueline C. Tanzer, R.Ph., is a familiar face, having worked at the location since March 2001.

With almost 40 years in the field, which has seen her pioneer immunization programs, mentor pharmacy students, and remain dedicated to her patients, Tanzer has been given the 2022 Lifetime Achievement Award.

Tanzer’s storied pharmacy career could have turned out quite differently, had it not been for a personality test suggesting she’d be “either a good dentist or a good pharmacist.” After exploring both options, she quickly realized that the customer-facing side of pharmacy would be the best fit. 

“I had tried other types of pharmacy,” Tanzer says. “I did long-term care; I did hospital. But retail is where I really found my calling, where I could connect with the most people.”

As for her commitment to patient care, Tanzer credits her mentor, Jack Murphy, R.Ph., whom she worked with early in her career at Happy Harry’s, a drugstore chain that was acquired by Walgreens in 2006. 

“I try my best every day to emulate the care and concern he showed for his customers, to treat them with kindness and empathy and to actively listen to them,” Tanzer explains. “I do my best, in turn, to mentor my students, staff pharmacists, and technicians to do the same.” 

Tanzer’s dedication to pharmacy has been recognized on several occasions over her career, from winning the peer-voted 1999-2000 Harry Levin Spirit Award to receiving the 2020 Delaware Pharmacist Society Excellence in Innovation. Alongside her work in retail pharmacy, she also teaches on a number of subjects, including immunization, travel medicine, and compounding.

We spoke with Tanzer about her commitment to her patients and her long career.

What drives you to go above and beyond for your patients?

I always try to think of my customers as being my mom, and I would want someone taking care of my mom to have her best interests at heart. My customers need me to do whatever I can to help them be the healthiest they can be.

I am a people person so I have a lot of compassion for my customers. Some of them have serious illnesses, and I want to be part of their lives and try to help them get through it. In some cases they can’t get through that, so just being a compassionate listening ear is something that gives me a lot of fulfillment.

Video by Deep Dive Films

As a pharmacist, what can you do to support patients on a community level? 

We do a lot of flu clinics out in the community. I have a great relationship with a special assisted living/nursing home. They primarily serve adults who have cerebral palsy and they have called on me to come over and vaccinate their patients for flu, COVID-19, and pneumonia. I like that they feel comfortable that I can come into their facility and take care of their special needs patients. 

My customers need me to do whatever I can to help them be the healthiest they can be.

I’ve also done group speeches with different AARP groups. Sometimes they’ll ask me to come and explain Medicare Part D to them when it’s time to renew their Medicare. Other times I go and talk to them about the importance of getting a pneumonia or a shingles vaccine. 

What’s the most rewarding part of your job?

Being able to connect with people, whether it’s my customers or my teammates, or people in the corporate world of Walgreens is the most rewarding. And so is being a mentor to my students and helping them to develop their skills, helping my teammates to develop their skills, and just helping people.

Tell us more about being a mentor to pharmacy students.

Mentoring pharmacy students is one of my favorite parts of my job. I’ve always had a lot of pharmacy students and many have gone on to become my partners and then gone on to become pharmacy managers on their own. 

There was a time when all the pharmacy managers in my district were meeting and we had a new HR person. She said, “Could someone just raise their hand and tell me about who their mentor is?” One of my former students, who is now a manager, raised her hand and said, “Jacqi was my mentor.” The next thing you know, there are five different former students all raising their hands to say the same. I was like, “Oh boy!”

Do you have a moment in your career that you’re most proud of?

A couple years ago, I was nominated by the Delaware State Pharmacist Society to receive the Excellence in Innovation Award. And that was really touching to me because that was a peer-voted award. 

Being able to connect with people, whether it’s my customers or my teammates … is the most rewarding.

They recognized that through my career, I had always promoted immunization and had started at my pharmacy just doing immunization on demand before it became a thing that every pharmacy does. So that was really a moment that really touched me.

What does this nomination mean to you?

I was very touched to find out that I was nominated by one of my patients. That just meant the world to me. It’s like, “Wow, I really am making a difference in people’s lives that they would think of me in that way.” To go out of their way and take the time to do that, that’s huge.