Jenkins Selected as Wal-Mart Community Pharmacist of the Year

Wikipedia defines a pharmacist as a "health professionalwho practice[s] the art and science of pharmacy."Beyond that, however, a pharmacist also is a counselor,an advisor, a friend, and a community member, amongmany other roles. One pharmacist, Amanda Jenkins, pharmacymanager of Wal-Mart store 1193 in Monroe, Louisiana, has founda successful combination of the above, earning her the 2007Wal-Mart Pharmacist of the Year Award.

Jenkins began working for Wal-Mart in 1996 when she wasa pharmacy student at the University of Louisiana at Monroe.Through her demonstration of excellent leadership qualities, shewas quickly promoted, and today, she is the pharmacy managerof Wal-Mart store 1193 and also serves as pharmacy areamanager in her northeast Louisiana district. Her responsibilitiesinclude ensuring proper staffing to guarantee the utmost customerservice, teaching and leading her associates by example,handling personnel issues, as well as the everyday pharmacyduties of filling prescriptions, performingdrug reviews, and counseling patients.

Amanda Jenkins

In addition to her day-to-day responsibilities,Jenkins manages to findtime to be an outstanding member ofher community through volunteer workin various organizations.For example,Jenkinsorganized and hosted the "Market242 Shots for Tots Bowling Tournament,"attended the statewide Shots for Totsevent in New Orleans, and representedWal-Mart in an informational booth at theevent. Perhaps one of her most outstandingefforts was represented by a fundraiserfor the Northeast Louisiana FoodBank, where she organized the Wal-MartMarket 242 fundraiser to "adopt" 150seniors on the food bank waiting list. Through this fundraiser,she actually motivated associates at 11 other stores in her marketby challenging their fundraising efforts—in total, the stores inher market raised $36,000 in 2 weeks for the local food banks.In fact, enough money was left over to help begin a back-packprogram for needy children to receive weekly food assistance.

Leading by Example

Through all of her volunteer efforts, Jenkins also is the drivingforce to get other associates involved and passionate about thecause, mostly by her motto—always lead by example. "I lovepeople and love to lead by example," said Jenkins. "One thing Ihave learned is that leading by example is the best way to lead,and it causes your followers to want to follow and makes thembecome leaders themselves."

Jenkins' Wal-Mart supervisors recognized this spirit in her fromthe beginning. Her success in these endeavors, as well as herdependability and leadership as pharmacy manager, promptedDistrict Manager Devin Richardson to nominate Jenkins for thecommunity pharmacist award. "Amanda has really becomemy go-to person for any help that I need in the district,"said Richardson. Robbie Henslee, Market 242 manager, adds,"Amanda is not only an asset to store 1193, but she is makinga tremendous impact throughout the entire Market?. Amandatruly exemplifies what a good corporate citizen should be."

Jenkins was presented the Wal-Mart Community Pharmacistof the Year Award at the Wal-Mart annual meeting on January23, 2008, in Kansas City, Kansas. This was an honor for her tobe chosen from the 260 pharmacistswho were nominated for the communitypharmacist award (one pharmacistis selected from each district), and to beinvited to the annual meeting.

Mike Adloo, divisional manager for theSoutheast, presented Jenkins with theaward and was amazed at her abilityto multitask in her roles as mom, wife,daughter, and pharmacy manager, andto do all of these extremely well. "Threethings were very evident to me—herenthusiasm, attitude, and smile," Adloosaid. "I can see how she motivates othersto get things done, because shegrabs you in to accomplish a wide rangeof things. It is amazing how influentialand unforgettable she is—you will never forget her."

Making an Impact

Jenkins was very excited to receive the Wal-Mart CommunityPharmacist of the Year Award. She takes her role as pharmacistvery seriously but enjoys it tremendously because of the impactshe has on patients. "With every customer I counsel and everyhand I shake, I hope that I am making my mark on this earth.Working as a pharmacist for Wal-Mart just capitalizes on that.Wal-Mart is a company that focuses on making lives better, andthat is what I love about the company," she said.