Debbie C. Byrd, Pharm.D., MBA
Managing Conflict: Conversations for Effective Communication and Negotiation
![](/images/people/imis/1952982_90_120.jpg)
Debbie C. Byrd, PharmD, MBA has served as Dean and Professor of East Tennessee State University Bill Gatton College of Pharmacy since 2016, and currently also serves as Interim Dean of East Tennessee State University College of Nursing, both in Johnson City, Tennessee. As Professor of Clinical Pharmacy and Pharmacy Practice, formal leadership roles over the previous two decades at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center College of Pharmacy and Auburn University Harrison College of Pharmacy included Associate Dean of Professional Affairs, Campus Assistant Dean responsible for Academic and Student Affairs, and Director of Experiential Learning. In addition, Dr. Byrd established and directed two PGY-2 Residency Programs in Primary Care and Rural Primary Care. Dr. Byrd has served the ACCP Leadership and Management Academy as faculty since 2014. She has been a Dean Mentor for the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy (AACP) Academic Leadership Fellows Program since 2016, served as Dean Facilitator for Cohort 16, and was elected Chair of the AACP Pharmacy Practice Section in 2014.
Dr. Byrd’s practice focused on both inpatient and outpatient care as Clinical Professor of Family Medicine at the University of Tennessee Graduate School of Medicine and Clinical Associate Professor of Family Medicine at the University of Alabama School of Medicine. Her research focused on pharmacist-physician collaboration and expanding pharmacist services and funding models. With more than $5 million in funding during her career, Dr. Byrd’s current research led to a new Center for Pharmacy Education, Advocacy and Outreach at East Tennessee State University, and her advocacy efforts resulted in a recurring annual appropriation of over $2.5 million to support pharmacy education in rural and underserved areas of the Appalachian Highlands.
She has received the AACP Lawrence C. Weaver Transformative Community Service Award and AACP Pharmacy Practice Section Anne Marie Liles Distinguished Service Award, as well as the NACDS Diversity Scholarship Award, U.S. Public Health Service/Interprofessional Education Collaborative Public Health Excellence in Interprofessional Education Collaboration Award.
A graduate of the University of Tennessee College of Pharmacy, Dr. Byrd completed a Pharmacy Practice Residency at the Regional Medical Center at Memphis followed by a Primary Care Specialty Residency at the National Institutes of Health. She holds a BS in Chemistry from Middle Tennessee State University and an MBA from Tennessee Tech University, and she is a graduate of Harvard University’s Graduate School of Education Management Development Program and the AACP Academic Leadership Fellows Program.
Dr. Byrd is proudest of her marriage of over three decades and her two adult children.