The Pharmacist Revolutionizing Patient Care at UToledo
When most people think of pharmacists, they picture someone behind a counter dispensing medication. Holly Smith ’01, ’17 saw something more.
The 2025 UToledo Distinguished Healthcare Provider Award winner isn’t just filling prescriptions, she’s rewriting the entire handbook for how pharmacists deliver care and the healthcare industry is taking notice of it.
The Problem She Couldn’t Ignore
Smith joined UToledo Health in 2012 as manager of the Medical Pavilion Pharmacy at The University of Toledo Medical Center, overseeing daily operations, staff, compliance, inventory and patient care.
Now as director of ambulatory care pharmacy, she launched a transition-of-care program that fundamentally changed the hospital discharge experience. Patients now leave with their medications in hand, clear education, and direct support from a pharmacist to ensure they understand their treatment and can continue it safely at home.
The impact? Better outcomes and fewer barriers for patients. But Smith didn’t stop there.
In a move that challenges traditional healthcare silos, she embedded ambulatory pharmacists inside UToledo Health clinics. Instead of waiting behind the counter, medication experts now sit alongside physicians and nurses as fully integrated members of the care team.
National Recognition for Local Innovation
In April 2025, Smith was named one of six pharmacy executives to watch by American Healthcare Leader.
Her oversight of four outpatient pharmacies, ambulatory pharmacy services, UTMC’s 340B program and the University’s employee prescription benefits program exemplifies a new model where pharmacists are clinical leaders, not just dispensers.
Smith’s innovations are doing more than improving care at UToledo Health. They’re elevating pharmacy practice across Ohio and beyond, demonstrating that pharmacists should be central to healthcare delivery.
“I firmly believe that when the academic and clinical environments support one another, we can
accomplish far more together than we ever could alone,” Smith said.
Finding Her Path at UToledo
Growing up in Monroe, Michigan, she wanted a pharmacy program that combined academic rigor with genuine community, and she found it at UToledo.
“I immediately felt at home,” Smith said. “The people, the environment the sense of community it all made it clear this was where I needed to be.”
That decision laid the groundwork for a leadership career that continues to shape pharmacy practice today.
“It was the everyday things that made UToledo feel special,” she said. “Our faculty knew us by name. My classmates became my support system. There was this feeling of possibility in those years.”
What UToledo gave Smith was a foundation. What she built afterward is her own vision.
Through her programs, leadership, and relentless curiosity, she’s ensuring her innovations outlive her tenure and continue to strengthen UToledo Health’s clinical excellence.
“The sky is the limit,” Smith tells today’s students. “Be curious. Ask questions. Stay open to the unexpected.”
She’s proof that curiosity, paired with determination, doesn’t just transform a career, it can transform an entire healthcare system.