Buies Creek, N.C.-Retail pharmacist Mitchell Watts, of Charlotte, N.C., delivered the Campbell University School of Pharmacy commencement message at a hooding ceremony on Friday, May 8, at the John W. Pope, Jr. Convocation Center . Watts also received the honorary Doctor of Science degree during the event. The hooding ceremony was part of Campbell University’s 123rd graduation exercises held May 8-9.
In his commencement message, Watts implored graduates to put patients first.
“You as doctors of pharmacy are the most knowledgeable and accessible of the health care attendants,” he said. “Learn to be a good listener. Make sure each one of your patients feel like they are the most important.”
A graduate of the University of North Carolina School of Pharmacy, Watts is known for his professional activism concerning legislative issues affecting the pharmacy profession. He began his career at Medical Center Pharmacy in Concord, N.C. In 1965, Watts moved to Charlotte where he worked with ER Squibb & Sons as a pharmacy representative with the responsibility of networking with local physicians and hospitals engaged in nuclear medicine. In 1970, Watts returned to Concord and to the Medical Center where he acquired ownership in his first retail pharmacy. In the decades that followed, he launched nine more pharmacies and a medical equipment company.
Perhaps Watt’s single most important professional accomplishment, however, is his work on behalf of the Pharmacy Network of North Carolina, an organization he helped establish in 1986. When the network expanded into a multi-state pharmacy benefit management company, it became Pharmacy Network National Corporation. Under Watt’s leadership, the Pharmacy Network, has funded numerous scholarships and provided financial support to pharmacy schools in North and South Carolina.
Watts is married to Linda Hall Lanier Watts of Lake Wylie, S.C. They have four children.
The Campbell University School of Pharmacy conferred 95 Doctor of Pharmacy degrees at the hooding ceremony on Friday, May 8.
Photo Copy: Mitchell Watts delivers the commencement address at the Campbell University School of Pharmacy hooding service held Friday, May 8. (Photo by Bennett Scarborough)