Angelic Henson-Ervin

A bay area native with humble beginnings. I attended California State University, Hayward and in conjunction received my pharmacy technician education and licensing. I began my pharmacy career as a pharmacy clerk for Rite-Aid Drug Store who graciously funded my education to become a licensed pharmacy technician. From there, I continued to attend college and climb the pharmacy career ladder while juggling family life. I transitioned into hospital pharmacy by joining the ranks of University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) Department of Pharmaceutical Services. My initial role at UCSF started as an IV Additive Service compounder. After acquiring the skills to safely compound sterile hazardous drug IVs, I was cross trained into several other areas of the department to further broaden my skill set. It kept my job interesting, but I still desired more.

I took on a WOS position with the School of Pharmacy providing first-year students with clinical knowledge surrounding the aseptic technique and hazardous drug safe handling. Soon after, I got into sterile compounding quality improvement and compliance by way of being a training analysis for our department, a role I applied for and was awarded. While in the training role, I saw a gap. With all the changes on the horizon within the sterile compounding arena, I needed to find a way to line our department up with what was expected in the new sterile compounding requirements. I began to work with our leaders to revamp our policies and set achievable standards. I had stepped out of the scope originally intended and began to focus more on regulatory compliance. This was the spark that ignited my current role. I requested reclassification to better match my new assumed role and became the Sterile Compounding Quality Improvement Specialist – Compliance. Proof that there are leadership roles for pharmacy technicians in all aspects of the pharmacy practice.