PharmacyNOW: You’ve been called a foremost mentor in Pharmacy. What makes you such an effective mentor?

Dan Ashby: I think there are a couple of things. As I look back, there were points in my career that somebody provided guidance ... somebody made a difference in the direction that I took. In my mind, a part of mentoring is doing for people the same things that have been done for me. It’s an opportunity to pay the debt forward. It’s also a way to build the profession from within. I think pharmacy does better than most professions in terms of using mentoring to make a difference in people’s lives.

Given your busy schedule, how do you find time to mentor?

What a resident wants most from a mentor is time. It’s about access. It’s the opportunity to sit and explore, and create. You have time for what you make time for. The resident wants to have that genuine feeling that you care about their development and growth. It’s the opportunity to make time for people that they most value. Probably the person who understands that best is my wife Barbara. She’s been very tolerant of those times when I am working later than expected!

You have two boys, who are now grown. How did you handle the balance between being a good husband, father, and pharmacist?

Keeping that balance is a challenge, and something you have to keep in the forefront all of your life. The most satisfaction I’ve had are the opportunities I’ve had to be with my family… to be with my sons. I tried as much as possible to be there for significant events in their life. We tried to have dinner every night. And most of that success is due to Barbara.

You’ve mentioned Barbara a few times ....

Yes. Probably the nicest thing that has happened to me in my life is that she said "yes." She’s a very special person – she’s a nurse. She has genuine care and concern for people and relates very strongly with them.

Did you and Barbara have a plan for making time for your family?

We did. Could it have worked better? Probably. But I worked with Dr. William Green, an exceptional pharmacist and clinician, and he had a very strong family orientation. He was very productive, very capable, but he knew when it was time to go home and spend time with family. I learned how to strike that balance from him. The contributions you make at work diminish over time as staff turns over. But what you give to your family lasts a lifetime.

You grew up in Central PA. Your father was a building contractor and your mother was at home. What lessons did you take from that experience?

I worked in a family-owned business starting when I was eight years old. I learned if you wanted it done, you had to do it yourself. And I learned quite a bit about customer service, and how to treat people, from that experience. My father’s feeling was if it’s worth doing, it’s worth doing right. My decision to go into pharmacy was precipitated by my dad. He brought home an article from Consumer Reports that talked about community pharmacy – and two weeks later I decided that’s what I wanted to pursue.

You’ve mentioned to me that teaching was a possible career path before you chose to be a pharmacist.

Yes. My father was a teacher before he started to build homes. Teaching offers an opportunity to give something back to people. To feel that reward of watching people succeed. That’s what I liked about teaching ... and pharmacy has offered me countless opportunities to teach and mentor wherever I’ve worked.

You keep coming back to people ... what do you feel passionately about?

The most passion goes to the patient. They are at the center of everything we are trying to do. Passion for me rests with the ability to provide the services a pharmacy can provide and to do them all well. I find more joy now out of watching others succeed. If I can help five others provide service and skill, then that will reach five times as many patients.

What’s the best advice you ever received?

Ronald Turnbull (one of my mentors) never reacted negatively. He always took the positive approach. His message was clearly to be positive and nice to everyone. I’ve had truly great friendships develop once the adversarial, and artificial, atmosphere of competition was dropped. You never know who your best friends are going to be ... and his advice was very sound.

Where does competition fit?

Competition can be good when it helps drive a department forward, doing something better, and helping everyone succeed. When it exists for self-advancement, it becomes a problem. People need to feel comfortable enough with themselves to realize that somebody else doesn’t need to fail for them to succeed. There’s so much that needs to done in pharmacy that everyone can win. That’s what needs to happen with competition.

What’s your polished stone?

One of the nicest things I’ve found in life are those opportunities where you have a chance to provide some unexpected act of kindness for somebody else. Whether it is the people you work with, or somebody that is looking to you for leadership or mentorship. Maybe it’s a stranger whom you’ve never seen before. If everybody, everyday, could do one unexpected act of kindness for somebody else, this would truly be a better place to live.

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