Woller is recognized nationally for a career spent enhancing pharmacy practice through leadership
By Katie Ginder-Vogel
Tom Woller (BS ’84, MS ’86) was already well into pharmacy school when he began to entertain the idea of practicing pharmacy.
He’d enrolled at the University of Wisconsin–Madison School of Pharmacy with the intent of pursuing a career in research, spurred by an interest in chemistry and biology while attending Neenah High School, where a teacher — Mrs. Westphal — mentioned that pharmacy combines those interests.
At the School of Pharmacy, he dove into lab work.
“As an undergrad, I did heavy duty bench research with Dr. Bill Porter and his research team,” Woller says. “I got to use high-level chemical pharmaceutical analysis to try to create new compounds as an undergraduate.”
But in his third year of pharmacy school, while on clinical rotation at UW Hospital, he was captivated by pharmacists’ role in patient care. Woller quickly pivoted his career focus and after graduation went on to go beyond participating in patient care: He now leads teams of pharmacists to innovate and improve practice, as system vice president of pharmacy for Advocate Aurora Health.
Woller’s leadership in pharmacy management and administration has earned him national recognition from the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists (ASHP): the 2020 John W. Webb Lecture award.
“I would describe Tom as a transformational leader, who is also authentic and compassionate, yet strongly goal- and results-oriented,” says ASHP CEO Paul Abramowitz, who was Woller’s supervisor for almost a decade. “I am very proud of Tom and absolutely thrilled that he has been honored with the Webb Lecture Award. I look forward to continuing to see the many future ways that Tom will continue his exceptional work on behalf of his patients and our profession.”
“I look forward to continuing to see the many future ways that Tom will continue his exceptional work on behalf of his patients and our profession.”
—Paul Abramowitz
Woller sees the honor as an award for his team at Advocate Aurora, including the teammates who have since retired.
“So many passionate, smart, motivated individuals went above and beyond every day to do the little things and occasionally the big things,” says Woller.
Developing the skills
Although his career ultimately led him away from the bench, Woller says the organic lab work he completed as an undergraduate taught him how to look at issues from different viewpoints to see where there might be a less obvious solution.
“That drives home the importance of diversity of thought when trying to solve problems,” Woller says. “I was fortunate to learn that in my experience at the School of Pharmacy.”
After his enlightening clinical rotation at UW Hospital, Woller went to the office of Stan Kent (MS ’80), then a supervisor in the hospital’s pharmacy department, to express his doubts about a career in research.
Kent, now the chief pharmacy officer at the University of Michigan, suggested Woller consider a job like Kent’s — a supervisor at a large university teaching hospital. Kent reminded Woller that there are training programs to go into administration. Ninety minutes after walking into Kent’s office, Woller emerged with a new plan that would allow him to shape pharmacy practice and patient care.
Woller applied to pharmacy administration residency programs across the country and had a flurry of interviews.
“I’d fly out, get in late, get up early, interview, and so on, for a whole week,” Woller recalls. “I don’t regret a minute of it. My network was instantly larger, and I had no idea how much I would use that network.”
“I’ve always had a passion for training future leaders and residents and have been able to do that throughout my career.”
—Tom Woller
Ultimately, he matched with UW Health, one of the top health-system pharmacy administration residencies in the nation, which is paired with a master’s degree program at the School of Pharmacy.
“I had a terrific opportunity to learn from some of the best people in the business, spread my wings, make mistakes, and learn,” he says. “I took classes with MBA students, while also getting first-hand experience in running a large pharmacy department populated by the best leaders in the country.”
During Woller’s residency, he volunteered to join an ASHP working group focused on programming and issues around pharmacy purchasing, materials management, and distribution. He was appointed as the group’s only resident and found himself among health-system pharmacy luminaries.
“The list was like a who’s who of national leaders,” Woller says. Not only did this strengthen his network, but it also directly led him into his next role.
The chair of the working group, Paul Abramowitz, is now ASHP CEO. At the time, he was the associate director of pharmacy at the University of Chicago. As Woller was completing his residency, Abramowitz was leaving Chicago for the University of Minnesota. He applied, got an interview, and called Abramowitz to tell him.
In that conversation, Abramowitz let Woller know that there would also soon be an open position at Minnesota.
“This is how these things happen,” says Woller. “I ended up not taking the Chicago job, and instead took a job at Minnesota, where Paul was the director, and I had lots of great opportunities. I got to learn from Paul, a dynamic leader, and others, and we got to do a lot of innovative things.”
“I was extremely fortunate to have recruited him into a manager position at the University of Minnesota Hospitals and Clinics immediately upon completion of his master’s degree and residency at the University of Wisconsin,” says Abramowitz. “From the very beginning, Tom’s abilities and leadership potential were apparent.”
Becoming a leader
On Abramowitz’ team, Woller and his colleagues dedicated themselves to expanding the role of pharmacy technicians, which would help free up pharmacists’ time to practice at the top of their license.
“We were early adopters on all that,” says Woller. “I volunteered to take that on, so I got to be at the front end of it.”
Abramowitz asked Woller to look into Graduate Medical Education (GME) pass-through reimbursement for residency programs, which could provide funding through Medicare to expand the hospital pharmacy residency program.
“We got the funding, and my digging into that made me one of the most knowledgeable people in pharmacy about GME pass-through,” Woller says. “I still get calls most weeks about this topic, 30-some years later.”
Woller spent nine years at the University of Minnesota, moving up the ranks from supervisor to assistant director to associate director.
At that point, he felt it was time to pursue a director of pharmacy role, and in 1995, he landed a role at what is now Aurora St. Luke’s Medical Center in Milwaukee, during the early stages of Aurora Health Care.
“We’re fortunate in our profession to be in the position where we get to help people get better and feel better.”
—Tom Woller
“Tom and I worked together for about 10 years at Minnesota before he went on to obtain a director of pharmacy position in Milwaukee,” says Abramowitz. “Tom’s achievements in pharmacy and healthcare are numerous and exceptional.”
“The move to Milwaukee was really good timing for me,” Woller says. “Aurora Health Care was out in front on things like organizational structure. The president at Aurora restructured the organization to operate like an integrated health system.”
That gave Woller the opportunity to have two hospital campuses and two ambulatory care pharmacies under his direction. Soon, Woller’s oversight grew to cover the entire six-hospital metro region of Aurora. A few years later, his responsibility grew to include oversight of inpatient pharmacy services for all 16 Aurora hospitals, and then took on the additional responsibility of overseeing Aurora Pharmacy Inc., the retail pharmacy division of Aurora.
Two years ago, Aurora merged with Advocate Health Care, and Woller was selected to be the system vice president for the merged organization and has been working on the integration ever since.
“We’re fortunate in our profession to be in the position where we get to help people get better and feel better,” Woller says. “As you move up into leadership roles, you get further away from that, but I’ve always been able to regularly reflect on the importance of the role of the leader in terms of creating the environment for frontline clinicians to do their work.”
Webb recognition
Woller says his biggest accomplishments are the teams he’s pulled together, matching employees’ passions with organizational needs.
“For me, in particular, this is a recognition of the teams I’ve been able to build and develop and the effectiveness of those teams over the years,” Woller says. “I’ve always had a passion for training future leaders and residents and have been able to do that throughout my career.”
As part of the award, Woller will deliver the Webb lecture at a spring 2021 meeting at Northeastern University, which co-sponsors the award, and he gave an abbreviated version at the Virtual ASHP Conference for Pharmacy Leaders in October. His speech, titled “The Pharmacist as Provocateur,” makes the case that the profession of pharmacy and individual pharmacists have an obligation to assertively advocate for new ways to contribute to patient care.
Now that he’s earned the Webb Lecture Award, Woller’s success has grown, although he stays focused on what matters most.
“I went into pharmacy to take care of patients and help people, and you can do that in a leadership role at a broader level,” says Woller. “To me, that’s satisfying.”