In that role, Pearson works to meet the Troy clinic’s goal to serve the uninsured and underserved in Miami and surrounding counties. Each patient is so unique that it feels like a new puzzle with each one.
Some patients have a temporary healthcare need – for example, before their insurance kicks in at a new job. For others, the clinic offers continuing support.
Pearson, 36, has long been impressed and inspired by the clinic’s ability to provide outstanding care even as most of the items there are donated and the medications it acquires are either free or at a steep discount.
“We’re not going to give care that’s better than nothing,” Pearson said of the clinic’s aim. “We’re going to give high quality care.”
The St. Paris native was working as a sound engineer and pharmacy technician outside of Queens, N.Y., when he realized that he had an interest in becoming a pharmacist. Eight years of further education as a non-traditional student was at first unappealing, but he realized he could either enroll or look back in eight years and wish he would have.
So Pearson and his wife, Damaris, returned to Ohio, and he enrolled in Cedarville University. Before he graduated in 2021, he explored several different areas of pharmacy in six states and five tribes. That included helping to start the first cross-cultural service-learning experience between the school of pharmacy and the Navajo Nation in 2019.
Through his experiences, he found working with underserved populations particularly fulfilling.
“That’s when I seem to be unusually well-equipped to deliver value,” the Troy resident said.
It was during his time at school that he was introduced to Health Partners Free Clinic, first as a student volunteer and then as a pharmacy resident. At the end of the residency, he was asked to stay.
Nicolette Winner, the office manager at the clinic, nominated Pearson as a Dayton Daily News Community Gem. He is one of the critical staff members that help make the level of care at the clinic special, she said.
Some might think that because the care and medications received at the clinic are free, that the care is substandard, Winner said. Instead, the appointments are a little longer, and Pearson takes the time to speak with patients, learning about their lives and explaining how to use their prescriptions.
“It’s a pleasant surprise when they come here that they’re getting that kind of education about their medications,” she said.
Pearson said that when he worked in retail pharmacy, it pained him to see patients leave when they couldn’t afford medicine. Pharmacies typically don’t offer payment plans, but the free clinic is designed to connect those who need it with care and resources.
Pearson recalled a patient last year who had no insurance but needed a medication that cost $800 each month. That person was referred to the free clinic and got the needed medicine.
“They would have died,” Pearson said, “and they didn’t have to.”
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