Key Takeaways
- Integrating clinical expertise with administrative training creates holistic leaders capable of balancing patient care with operational efficiency.
In today's rapidly evolving healthcare environment, practitioners who can bridge the gap between clinical expertise and administrative acumen are becoming increasingly valuable. One such leader is Erin Ballentine, PharmD, MBA, MS, BCPS, a pharmacist by training and a rising healthcare administrator at Johns Hopkins Hospital. From her educational pursuits—including a PharmD, an MBA, and a Master's in Healthcare Management—to her dual-year residency in clinical and administrative pharmacy, Dr. Ballentine's journey exemplifies how an interdisciplinary approach can reshape pharmaceutical care on both micro and macro levels.
Below, we explore her academic background, the insights she gained through her residency and early career, and the strategies she employs to lead and manage one of the nation's most respected pharmacy teams. Whether you are an aspiring clinician-leader or a seasoned administrator looking for fresh perspectives, Dr. Ballentine's story offers valuable lessons on leadership, collaboration, and strategic thinking in healthcare systems.
Early in her career, Dr. Ballentine laid a strong educational groundwork that would inform and guide her professional path. She completed both her undergraduate and Doctor of Pharmacy degrees at Cedarville University, gaining a solid foundation in community pharmacy practices. During her time there, she also took the initiative to earn an MBA, recognizing the importance of blending clinical expertise with administrative insight.
"I went to Cedarville University for undergrad and then continued on for pharmacy school there at Cedarville as well. I also got my MBA while I was going through pharmacy school, so I had a little bit of background in administration through that role,"
This dual focus on pharmacy and business planted the seeds for a career that integrates patient-centered pharmaceutical care with operational efficiency. Far from viewing her administrative interests as tangential, Dr. Ballentine saw them as integral components of a holistic healthcare strategy—one that would eventually include a deep dive into leadership and management, with a focus on improving health outcomes and healthcare quality.
After completing her PharmD and MBA, Dr. Ballentine entered the highly competitive pharmacy match process and landed a two-year residency at The Johns Hopkins Hospital. This program was designed to combine a comprehensive clinical pharmacy year with a specialized second year in health-system pharmacy administration and leadership.
During the first year, she rotated through various patient care areas, building a robust clinical foundation and honing her skills in pharmacotherapy and medication therapy management. The second year focused on the administrative side: working with operations managers, supply chain leaders, formulary committees, and the executive leadership team. This unique structure gave her direct insight into how healthcare decisions are made at multiple levels—from optimizing medication delivery workflows to strategizing patient safety measures across the entire hospital.
"After that, I continued on at Johns Hopkins, staying with the pharmacy that I'm currently employed with. Now I'm an operations manager in our adult medicine pharmacy space"
This accelerated path not only sharpened her clinical skills but also expanded her capacity to think strategically about resource allocation, staff engagement, and interdisciplinary collaboration in healthcare systems.
One of the central themes in Dr. Ballentine's career is the recognition that clinical and administrative roles are deeply interlinked. She emphasizes that an administrator with firsthand clinical experience can enact solutions that more accurately reflect patient and provider needs, ultimately enhancing the patient experience and healthcare accessibility.
"Whenever we have a gap in our workflows, whether someone is leaving early or there's a scheduling shortfall, I usually volunteer to fill that role if I'm able to. Being out on the floor, seeing the issues that my full-time pharmacists see day to day, helps me understand how to make smarter decisions that serve our patients and staff."
By maintaining a foot in both the operational and clinical worlds, Dr. Ballentine has gained credibility among her team members. She is not simply making decisions from an office; she is experiencing the frontline challenges and gathering feedback directly from patients and clinicians. This approach ensures her administrative strategies are both pragmatic and empathetic, fostering healthcare innovation and optimization.
Despite her impressive credentials, Dr. Ballentine acknowledges the challenges of leading a team when you have less career tenure than many of your staff members. Pharmacy technicians, clinical pharmacists, and administrators sometimes have decades of experience, and bridging this experience gap requires a careful blend of humility, integrity, and accountability.
"I focus on how I can continue to build trust with the team members that I serve each day. That means if I say I'm going to do something, I do it. I also recognize when others in the room know more than I do. If I'm honest about that, they can see I'm genuinely there to learn and to make the best decisions for everyone involved."
By prioritizing trust and personal accountability—showing up when needed, following through on commitments, and giving credit where it's due—she avoids the pitfalls of "impostor syndrome." Rather than trying to prove her worth by clocking endless hours at the office, Dr. Ballentine opts for meaningful engagement: actively listening to staff concerns, staying visible on the floor, and demonstrating that her decisions come from a place of both expertise and humility. This approach has been crucial in enhancing medication safety and promoting patient empowerment through improved patient-provider communication.
Throughout her residency and early career, Dr. Ballentine has repeatedly highlighted the need for cooperation across healthcare disciplines. Pharmacists, nurses, physicians, physician assistants, and administrative staff must operate in close sync to provide seamless pharmaceutical care. By understanding the complexities of each discipline's workflow, an administrator can orchestrate solutions that enhance healthcare efficiency without sacrificing quality.
"Part of the beauty of administrative training is you learn how pharmacy intersects with nursing and intersects with doctors. It's one interconnected system, and an inefficiency or gap in one area often has ripple effects in another"
Under her leadership, team members are encouraged to share feedback across departmental lines. The result is an environment where challenges are met with collective problem-solving rather than unilateral decision-making. This approach has been particularly effective in improving medication adherence and enhancing patient education initiatives through pharmacist-physician collaboration and pharmacist-nurse collaboration.
Asked about the most common pitfalls for younger clinicians looking to advance into leadership, Dr. Ballentine underscores the temptation to overcompensate:
For those clinicians eager to transition into administrative or leadership roles, Dr. Ballentine's experience offers several practical strategies
Though she is deeply rooted in pharmacy, Dr. Ballentine's broader vision for healthcare leadership transcends any single department or profession. Her approach—combining technical know-how, operational intelligence, and a genuine commitment to patient outcomes—embodies a "big picture" mentality. In a complex ecosystem like healthcare, no single silo can function optimally without understanding and supporting the others.
Dr. Ballentine believes that the future of healthcare lies in multi-disciplinary collaboration and evidence-based decision-making. By bringing together clinical insights and administrative leadership, healthcare organizations can minimize redundancies, promote safety, and ultimately, provide more responsive pharmaceutical care to patients.
Dr. Erin Ballentine represents a new generation of healthcare leaders: grounded in clinical expertise yet fluent in the language of operations, management, and strategy. From her formative years at Cedarville University to her pivotal residency at The Johns Hopkins Hospital, Dr. Ballentine's journey underscores the importance of aligning patient-centered pharmaceutical care with efficient administrative practices. Her willingness to remain hands-on in clinical environments, coupled with her dedication to fostering trust and collaboration, offers a compelling model for any clinician aspiring to move "from bedside to boardroom."
In an era marked by rising costs, changing regulations, and ever-expanding patient needs, leaders like Dr. Ballentine stand out as catalysts for meaningful change in community pharmacy and broader healthcare systems. By staying humble, maintaining integrity, and actively bridging departmental boundaries, she has demonstrated that a pharmacist-turned-administrator can have a far-reaching impact on both patient outcomes and institutional success. For those seeking to follow in her footsteps, the key lessons are clear: never stop learning, never stop collaborating, and always remain open to the insights of others—no matter their job title or years of experience.
Through her example, Dr. Ballentine reminds us that the best healthcare strategies emerge from a synergy of clinical acumen and administrative foresight. Ultimately, her story is a testament to what can be achieved when passionate individuals embrace leadership roles with both vision and humility—a message that resonates across the entire spectrum of healthcare professionals looking to make a lasting impact on pharmaceutical care and overall health outcomes.
<p>whatever kind of healthcare leadership role you find yourself in it's going to be valuable that you're you're thinking about Healthcare and how your department impacts the other departments in the healthcare [Music] picture hello this is Zach with the American Journal of healthcare strategies welcome to the clinicians and Leadership podcast series where we focus on empowering clinicians from bedside to boardroom today I am joined by a very esteemed guest Dr Aaron Balentine Dr Valentine why don't you take a second to introduce yourself and just tell us a little bit about your experience well of course well thank you so much for having me what an honor to to be a part of the podcast and to share a little bit about my experiences with you all here today yes I'll walk you through a little bit about my background and kind of what's brought me here today uh by trade I am a pharmacist so that is what has brought me into health care and and the path that I followed I went to Cedarville University for undergrad and then continued on uh for pharmacy school there at Cedarville as well I also got my MBA while I was going through pharmacy school so had a little bit of background and administration through that role uh but then following pharmacy school I went through the pharmacy match process and matched at a two-year pharmacy residency program at the Johns Hopkins Hospital that 2-year Residency program had a clinical first year where I learned a lot about um clinical Pharmacy in the hospital setting doing a lot of different rotations in different patient care areas and then the second year was focused more in administration so focusing on different rotations with our operations managers our supply chain of leaders our executive leaders um all the different administrative roles that we see in the health system Pharmacy setting I did a lot of projects in that work as well as a lot of committees so a lot of administrative training that came through that second year of The Residency program um after that I continued on at John's Hopkins um staying with the Pharmacy that I'm currently employed with and now I'm an operations manager in our adult medicine Pharmacy space that's awesome well I'm I'm I'm excited to uh just I was excited for this interview for a number of reasons um one you walk through your experience and you you've got a lot of unique experiences and and and have accomplished quite a bit both in a in a vocation occupation setting and and in an educational setting at at a at a younger age and that's that's impressive and the other reason I'm excited is um you mentioned you graduated from Cedarville University I graduated from Cedarville University as well so it's fun to get to interact with the another Cedarville uh Alum and um and so I'm excited and thrilled to have you on today and so um I'm I'm interested to learn a little bit more about this John John's Hopkins administrative residency this this program that you you applied through and went through can you can you just tell me a little bit more about that absolutely yes so to give a little bit more background about pharmacy residency in general uh we have one to twoe programs that you can complete as a pharmacist so after you graduate pharmacy school you go to those residency programs and the first year is typically a general clinical experience so you'll have rotations in many different areas of of Patient Care Learning the ins and outs of clinical Pharmacy and then in that second year you would specialize in a specific area of Pharmacy so that could be cardiology or oncology and for me it was specifically Health System Pharmacy Administration and Leadership uh so again walking through different rotations with many different leaders of our executive team our formulary team um our Med safety team um our operations managers and really kind of understanding the different managers and Executives that we have in the department of pharmacy at our hospital and the roles that they play and and learning and training from them um so a lot of great experience uh because especially in pharmacy school you you don't have a lot of administrative training baked into what you're learning you're learning the the foundation of medicine and the ins and outs of how to care for patients in that way and so um that residency training was was very integral and preparing me for the role that I have uh today well and it sounds like a unique combination of clinical and administrative experience and you just you just walked us through that and that that seems like a a fantastic opportunity especially to do it through such a reputable organization and system that is the John's Hopkins um system that they've got there and so I'm something else that I'm I just am curious and you've walked through this you have your farm D your MBA and you've completed this this administrative residency with with a masters from John's Hopkins and and any individual one of those is is is an incredible accomplishment on its own um and and you've got all three and so I'm I'm I'm curious just to know like uh you know you you you started off in pharmacy school and then ended up getting your MBA and now got your masters from John's Hopkins when did you know you wanted to pursue or serve an administrative role um and and why pursue a fellowship um having already graduated with your farm D um do you mind speaking to that a little bit Yeah Yeah well and Zach you're very kind um but yes I what really got me interested in the administrative side of things uh was dates back to pharmacy school and when I was learning and and training as a pharmacy student I was very involved with the pharmacy organizations that we had on our our student campus um had a lot of leadership roles throughout a number of those organizations and and really in those capacities had mentors point out to me areas where I had um just really strong skills in in not only leading my peers but in putting together projects walking through um leading meetings and events and and just the administrative side of things that would go alongside with those organizations and being a leader in those spaces and so then when I started my my final year of pharmacy school we start to do rotations in different areas of Pharmacy practice um and I was starting to get a little bit more experience with uh rounds and clinical Pharmacy and seeing the roles that pharmacists play there in the hospital setting I me I enjoy I enjoyed that a lot you know I enjoyed interacting with patients but I found what was really intriguing to me was the opportunity to impact Patient Care on much more global scale uh through the role of Administrators and and the roles that they play in making decisions that impact patient care that impact the workflows of how we get medications out the door and seeing the impact that those leaders have that does impact patient care and does have a direct impact on how we're able to you know efficiently and effectively care for patients that come into the door uh was very intriguing to me and and just seeing the the skills that I had been able to work on and develop a little bit through pharmacy school with those organizations and how I could leverage those skills in that setting um was very intriguing to me and so that is why I started to pursue the MBA and then later this Residency program with the the Masters in Healthcare Management as well oh that's that's phenomenal and and kind going off what you just said I'm I'm curious to to hear a little bit more about how your your clinical experience you know serving serving as a pharmacist and then that education and and getting that clinical year at in that John's Hopkins Residency program how how has that affected your your current approach to now your you know administrative roles and positions that you serve in how how has that clinical um expertise allowed you to to solve problems or Implement effective changes that that others without that same training might have missed absolutely that's that's a really great question I think in in two ways firstly the the clinical experience that I was able to get during that time just continues to to provide greater perspective on Healthcare in general and how you know pharmacists interact with nursing interact with doctors and PAs and whatnot and and how those interactions happen because in pharmacy school you focus just on Pharmacy and you get a little bit of that interdisciplinary you know connections but it's not the same as true experience and so being able to to be in a clinical pharmacist role and understand the impacts that pharmacists have um in the healthc care setting with with a number of different folks there um is very valuable when we start to think about how we're going to design workflows and projects and processes that complement and help uh get medications out the door to be able to serve those patients I think the other way that that clinical experience really spoke to me is it showed me um very humbly how much I don't know um about very specific patient populations and how much how complex medicine really is and I think in my role now um especially early on in this role what I've really learned is how to leverage the resources of the clinical pharmacist on my team that do know a lot more about these specific patients and uh a lot of times when we're trying to fix workflows or or change processes that impact specific patients I found myself reaching out to those clinical Pharmacists and saying hey what do you know about you know this process or these medications that we need to be considering when we're building this workflow and I think just knowing that there's a lot I don't know in that area um has been really helpful in in knowing when and how to leverage those resources oh my gosh yeah and and kind of going off a little bit of what you just said there I'm I'm uh and and and you answered this next question a little bit already but I'm curious if you have any other thoughts um how do you stay connected to the the clinical side of Medicine and in Pharmacy while while still focusing and and doing and and accomplishing your administrative and Leadership responsibilities well because we we need both the the administrative leadership portion to to be solid but also the the clinical side needs needs to be solid and if if either one of those components suffer or isn't isn't as up to par then then the other one will suffer as a result and so I'm I'm curious you've mentioned already just you know connecting with other pharmacists that know more and asking them questions but how how what are some other ways you stay connected to the clinical side absolutely yeah great great question and great point there I think for me whenever we have a gap in our workflows um whether we have a pharmacist leaving early or somebody's coming in late or we just have a gap in in covering um a certain area I I usually volunteer to fill that role if I'm able to I think that helps me keep my uh skills sharp but it helps me to to be out on the floor to be learning from the team to to see the issues that my um full-time pharmacists are seeing daytoday and to learn from those um by by being there and being able to see those issues and um so I think that that has been really valuable um and and helps to you know continue to build relationships with my team members as well um I think secondly I I've continued to stay very involved with different Pharmacy organizations um ac across the board um as a pharmacist and I think that being able to to leverage um conferences and events and and C opport ities that those organizations provide has been very helpful as well Dr Balentine I want I want to Pivot here uh for for a little bit and and talk about another topic and we we kind of touched on it a little bit earlier um but in talking through your experience and thus far we we know you're you're accomplished both educationally as as well as in in your experience-wise and um the various roles that you've had um I mean like we already mentioned it farm D uh MBA and this masters from John's Hopkins all incredible accomplishments on their own and and as someone I'm curious to know if you have any unique insights to this as as someone who is very accomplished but but still on the on the younger side of your career just just getting started um have done a lot already and still have have a lot of done a lot of impressive things already and I'm excited to see where your career ends up um have you faced any um opposition due to being on the younger side of your career and and I'm I'm interested to know I guess more specifically how do you approach building confidence in in others about about your abilities to serve and to lead and to perform your job well being on on the younger side of your career that's that's a really good question and definitely something I've spent quite a bit of time thinking through um it's your right and uh thinking about the people that report to me now one of them um has been working at Hopkins for twice as long as I've been alive so that is very humbling for sure uh so definitely something I've thought a lot about and I think for me uh how I approach this role and how mentors have encouraged me to approach this role is to to just focus on how I can continue to build trust with the team members that I serve each day um and and thinking about you know um the best way to build trust is to build that Integrity to build that accountability um when I say I'm going to follow through with something doing that exactly ly and and following that is the way to to build that trust with your team members and I think once um my team members have been able to see that I am you know willing to follow through on on the tough things that come up and willing to ask the questions to to learn more about those processes I think that that um speaks volumes and has allowed me to still be successful in this role um I think something that we've talked a little bit about here you know in some of the previous questions but just continuing to stay humble in that role as well you know um I'm very proud of the accomplishments and the degrees that I have and those experiences but I know that the way to to build trust with my team is is not to to flash those in front of them and to say well I have these experiences so I I can make the best decisions here but to recognize when um others in the room know more than I do and and have greater insights that I need to leverage if I'm going to make smart decisions here that are going to impact the team as a whole um so I think just staying humble continuing to ask questions and learn more I think has been ways that I've continued to to be successful in this role even though I'm on the younger side and learning a lot um I think just really kind of leaning into that and and being transparent with that has helped me to be successful yeah well and just some other things you've mentioned that that I think I would would go far with with a lot of a lot of individuals is is I mean your your willingness to step in and fill gaps where there are gaps um whether that's in in Staffing or someone needs an extra hand you're you're you're not someone that is is sitting back saying that's not my job anymore you're you are stepping in to fill those gaps I would imagine that goes a long way as well with with your your team members and and the people that you are managing and and ultimately I mean that that benefits the the team and which benefits the patients and that's that's that's encouraging just to just to hear you share some ways that you um despite you know not having maybe as much experience as that other individual who has been at John's Hopkins for twice as long as you've been alive but have still been able to make an impact um and it's encouraging to to other I'd imagine that's encouraging to other younger uh professionals that are seeking to be in similar roles as you are um so we we've talked a little bit just now about how to approach you know building confidence as as a younger professional um I think something else that's just as important to discuss is what are some some pitfalls and some some some common you know mistakes or or issues pitfalls I think is a better word that that your younger professionals your your either your younger clinicians your younger administrators um individuals that are similar or wanting to be in a similar spot that you're in what are some pitfalls that they they must be careful to avoid to to to avoid you know completely um like just destroying that trust um does that that question make sense yeah yeah no that's yeah really great question I think something that I I see sometimes my peers um struggle with at times is um impostor syndrome is you know a big thing for for new practitioners especially walking into leadership roles but I think with that comes almost a mentality that you need to almost prove yourself um right out of the gate there you know you're new in this role you know you want to succeed you want your team members to be able to rely on you and um so how do you kind of prove yourself in that space that that you are you know able to to manage and lead the team well I think for me um what I have uh been advised by mentors and has found to be really helpful here in the first few months that I've been in this role um has been realizing that I don't need to prove myself in some of the ways that I think we sometimes think you know um staying at work and working 60 hours a week isn't necessarily the best way to to prove myself and to be effective for my team you know it it's going to burn me out quicker and and it has other consequences as well I think when you know your team sees you always in the office working very late hours there there almost comes this pressure where if if you leave early for the day you know is your manager going to kind of look down at you for doing that and you know today uh we talk about you know mental health and work life balance and things that we know that are crucial and critical um for all professions but especially for healthcare just knowing the the demands that that field has on um providers and um those who work constantly in that area I think it's just something that is again something that we need to be aware of and just um for that reason you know being okay and being comfortable to say I'm I'm going to be done for today I'm going to go home and I don't need to stay here super long hours just to to prove that um I'm working hard for the team here um yeah so I I think that that's a big thing that that I try to keep in mind is you know people are watching how I work in the office and I don't need to to be doing extra things like that just to to try to send a message that might have messages that I'm not trying to send as well to those members as well well and and to go back to what you said earlier I mean you in in building that trust bu being a person of Integrity following through and and and very on the flip side of that not being a person of Integrity not falling through pretty quick way as well to to just to to to destroy any trust or or credibility that you have with with your team especially from in a leadership position and so um Dr Balentine as as we get ready just wrap up the this interview I'm I'm interested in in your insights on on for for younger clinicians who aspire to transition into an administrative role um what are some some habits some some resources some some some some books or some some things that you would recommend that they can do um now to better prepare for that transition absolutely that that's a really great question um I I think honestly just continuing to get experiences with different opportunities is keeping yourself doors open and you know taking advantage of those opportunities is very helpful I think back to my journey and um when I was in pharmacy school I worked as a medication history technician and so uh worked with technicians and and worked on that side of things and then having the different experiences in different types of clinical rotations and administrative rotations through residency I continue just to to continue to see different areas of Health System Pharmacy um healthc care in general and just continuing to learn from different SE settings and I've seen how just building that perspective and that repository of you know experiences really has been beneficial when I start to think about my role more globally and I think you know whatever kind of healthcare leadership role you find yourself in it's going to be valuable that you're you're thinking about healthare and how your department impacts the other departments in the health care picture and so just being able to use experiences that you have even if you don't think they'll directly lead to administrative role you don't know how maybe some of the experiences or perspectives or just opportunities that you get in those positions could be very beneficial for you in the long run with with building that overall perspective I think also leveraging organizations that you're able to and just continuing to network and build those connections um I again I I've stayed involved with very a number of Pharmacy organizations um through my time as a student and now and I've just continued to see how making those connections with people even if they work in different areas of Pharmacy have been beneficial and maybe they know somebody that can connect me with somebody else further down the line um and it's it's amazing to see how that snowballs I I think even early on in my career I can see how those networking those connections can really kind of snowball things for you as as you just continue to show up and meet new people and and to be around and um people are looking for for those who are are looking for opportunities to to succeed and to to um help contribute to teams and so um definitely has been very beneficial for me to be involved with those organizations as well well Dr Valentine we really appreciate you being willing to come on and be a guest and be interviewed um for the clinicians and Leadership podcast series and so um we're we're I I really enjoyed this conversation um I think that anyone that gets a chance to listen to it will as well um and uh we wish you the best going forward absolutely thank you so much for having me what an honor thank you</p>
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