Jordyn Norde has prescription for equity in her field

Jordyn Norde, the founder and president of Saint Louis Black Pharmacists Association, Inc., and the Pharmacist in Charge at Rx Outreach Community Pharmacy, is on a mission to educate underserved communities and bring more people of color into her field. 

The Black pharmacists group was created in June of 2022 so that Black students could see that this profession is available to them if they put in the work, Norde said. 

“I wanted to create something specifically for us by us,” Norde said. The association had its first scholarship reception in the Spring of 2023, where three $500 scholarships were awarded. The following year, the association awarded four $1,000 scholarships. “This was the best thing for me to see; this little idea I had as a student did make an impact.” 

Norde credits her mother for inspiring her to enter the medical field, even though she said becoming a pharmacist wasn’t the first option on her radar. At one point, she considered anesthesiology but she didn’t care for the gore of the operating room. So, after a field trip to the St. Louis College of Pharmacy where she learned some of the ins and outs of the business, Norde found her calling. 

“We read some of the technician training books, we counted Skittles, it was a fun interactive experience,” she said.

The following summer, Norde participated in the Walgreens Explorers Program. Kids in the program visited the College of Pharmacy campus a few times a week while getting hands-on experience at Walgreens. Norde values the time she had in the program because it introduced her to the retail side of the business.

Norde has been in the pharmacy space since her junior year in high school. She started working full-time in a pharmacy her second year in college, but her curiosity was piqued at home. She recalls seeing her grandmother’s pill bottles on the counter and wondering what they were for. Her passion for helping those in her community better understand their medication is a driving force in her career. 

“I started to see very early on in this field a lack of understanding and education,” she said. Customers didn’t grasp the explanation of their medical plan from their physicians, and Norde says part of her role is to fill in the gap by explaining what the medication is, side effects, or other medical alternatives. “My passion is the patient education piece, making sure they understand what they are putting in their bodies,” Norde said. 

Norde wants to see more Black people in pharmacy and she wants to expand access to more healthy options for Black and brown communities. From Norde’s experience, many people don’t know what to ask for when it comes to their health. She’s seen many times when patients don’t know how the medication is supposed to treat the problem. 

“That is my new mission to educate,” said Norde. And part of that education is representation. Norde hopes to encourage more Black people to become pharmacists. According to the American Pharmacists Association, in 2019, Black pharmacists represented about 2.3 % of the total number of pharmacists in the country. However, the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy report shows the percentage of non-white licensed pharmacists increased by 46%, from 14.9% in 2014 to 21.8% in 2019, with the percentage of Black pharmacists more than doubling, from 2.3% to 4.9%.  

Norde plans to continue the efforts of diversifying her field. When she attended pharmacy school, it was during the height of the killing of Michael Brown Jr., and all eyes were on her. It was her freshman year, and a civil rights uprising was happening in her hometown. She was on social media fuming from the racist comments made about the young teen’s death and the Ferguson Uprising. Instead of going back and forth with strangers, Norde took her parents’ advice: ‘You win by getting that degree’. She started the Black Student Union on campus.

“When I know people on the receiving side get quality care, that keeps me going,” said Norde. 

“This has just been amazing.”