Director, Specialty & Community Pharmacy

Pharmacy Enterprise, UMH

Michigan Medicine has exclusively retained Kirby Partners to support its search for a Director, Specialty & Community Pharmacy.

The Pharmacy teams at U-M Health, UM Health-West (Grand Rapids area), and Sparrow Health (Lansing area) do remarkable things every day, including caring for infants at C. S. Mott’s Children’s Hospital, for cancer patients in infusion clinic pharmacies, and for the critically ill in the intensive care units.

The responsibilities of the Pharmacy Teams are diverse and complex. They compound thousands of sterile IV products, provide high-quality clinical services directly to patients, assist patients in navigating specialty medications, fill and dispense prescriptions, counsel patients, manage drug shortages, conduct medication-related research, drive financial stewardship and teach our students and residents. They are integral members of the U-M Health care team.

The U-M Health Specialty Pharmacy has been serving patients since 2008. It operates from a state-of-the-art facility near Ann Arbor equipped for the unique needs of patients and their treatments.

The expansion of the Joy Road Service Center in Dexter, MI, allowed Michigan Medicine to more than double the number of prescriptions it fills each year through its existing in-house pharmacy.

Position Overview

The Director of Specialty & Community Pharmacy leads a premier, high-impact clinical and operational ecosystem within the University of Michigan Health System (UMH-AMC). This executive leader oversees a dynamic team of 300 professionals dedicated to delivering patient-centered care for medically complex populations.

The Director directly manages a leadership tier consisting of three Assistant Directors and three Pharmacy Managers. Together, this leadership team ensures the highest standards of medication access, safety, and therapeutic outcomes across all ambulatory and specialized networks.

Responsibilities

• Drive System Integration: Foster deep cross-functional connections through intentional leadership practices, including structured meetings, executive rounding, and regular town halls.
• Cultivate Innovation: Encourage creative problem-solving across all levels to build operational efficiencies, streamline workflows, and modernize pharmacy services.
• Optimize Human Capital: Maintain rigorous diligence to ensure pharmacists, technicians, and support staff operate at their full potential and highest scope of practice.
• Promote Values-Driven Culture: Champion a collaborative environment rooted in teamwork, consensus-building, and the grit required to overcome daily operational challenges.

Specialty Pharmacy Excellence

• Ensure Continuity of Care: Oversee the delivery, handling, and intensive monitoring of complex, high-cost specialty medications, including critical therapies for transplant care.
• Support the Patient Journey: Empower dedicated specialty pharmacists to provide personalized, comprehensive clinical support that drives medication adherence and patient education.
• Deconstruct Financial Barriers: Lead a team of Patient Financial Counselors focused on securing prior authorizations and navigating financial assistance programs to expedite therapy initiation.
• Streamline Operations: Optimize a bifurcated technician infrastructure, guiding call center technicians in managing refill communication and fulfillment technicians in executing home delivery and on-site pickups.

Community Pharmacy & Specialized Access

• Manage Niche Inventories: Direct UMH-AMC community pharmacies in sourcing and dispensing difficult-to-obtain, high-cost, and uncommon medications.
• Oversee Complex Compounding: Maintain oversight of specialized sterile and non-sterile compounding operations treating rare or severe disease states.
• Navigate Restricted Networks: Manage access within limited distribution networks to secure medications unavailable at traditional retail pharmacies.
• Unify Ambulatory Services: Partner closely with specialty pharmacy branches to grant patients unified, friction-free access to the full spectrum of ambulatory pharmacy services.

Michigan Medicine prioritizes a unified approach to healthcare leadership. The ideal candidate does not manage in a silo; instead, they collaborate across departments to establish system-wide best practices. Navigating insurance networks, limited drug distributions, and complex patient needs requires exceptional resilience. Michigan Medicine seeks a leader who brings daily passion and persistence to solving systemic healthcare obstacles.

Qualifications

Required Qualifications

• Doctor of Pharmacy degree (or equivalent) required.
• Licensure in good standing, or immediate eligibility for Licensure, as a Registered Pharmacist with an active controlled substance license in the State of Michigan, required.
• 5 to 10 years’ experience in Pharmacy Management directly involved in Financial, Human Resource, Operational, and Clinical oversight of a licensed pharmacy required.
• Experience in leading specialty or community pharmacies required; experience directing a specialty pharmacy preferred.
• Reasonable knowledge of finance and budgeting principles.

Michigan Medicine is one of the largest health care complexes in the world and has been the site of many groundbreaking medical and technological advancements since the opening of the U-M Medical School in 1850. Michigan Medicine comprises over 30,000 employees, with a vision to attract, inspire, and develop outstanding people in medicine, sciences, and healthcare to become one of the world’s most distinguished academic health systems. In some way, great or small, every person at Michigan Medicine helps to advance this world-class institution. Work at Michigan Medicine and become a victor for the greater good.

Michigan Medicine is one of the largest academic health care organizations focusing on clinical care, research, and education, including:

• U-M Health  – the clinical care arm, including the Academic Medical Center in Ann Arbor, UH-Sparrow in Lansing, and UH-West in Grand Rapids, along with associated medical staff practice groups.
• University of Michigan Medical School – one of the nation’s largest biomedical and health science research and education facilities
• Michigan Health Corporation — a 501(c)(3) established to respond to the dynamic healthcare landscape through partnerships, affiliations, joint ventures, and other projects that support the tripartite mission.

Michigan Medicine opened a new landmark adult hospital, the D. Dan and Betty Kahn Health Care Pavilion, that includes 264 private rooms capable of converting to intensive care, state-of-the-art operating rooms, advanced imaging, and high-level, specialty care services. The hospital opened for patient care in November. Further clinical expansion is continuing with U-M Health’s new state-of-the-art specialty center in Oakland County, the Frances & Kenneth Eisenberg Troy Center for Specialty Care, slated to open in the spring 2027.

The University of Michigan has evolved into a leader in innovative research, groundbreaking scientific discoveries, world-class education and training, and the operation of an academic medical center at the forefront of health and patient care. Michigan Medicine’s tripartite mission of health care, research, and education is further strengthened by integration with the University of Michigan and collaborating across its various schools, colleges, centers, and institutes.

Honors and Awards

• Top 25 Universities in the World by Times Higher Education for 2026
• University of Michigan Health named one of the World’s Best Hospitals in 2026, and #12 in the United States, by Newsweek and Statista
• Michigan Medicine recognized as one of America’s Best-in-State Employers for 2025 by Forbes
• University of Michigan was recognized in Crain’s 2025 Best Places to Work in Southeast Michigan
• Michigan Medicine named one of America’s Best Employers for New Grads 2025, among the top 10 Michigan employers evaluated by Forbes and Statista
• U-M Health named to the nation’s Honor Roll of Best Hospitals by U.S. News & World Report, the #1 hospital in Michigan, ranked among the nation’s best in 11 different specialties for 2025
• Michigan Medicine C.S. Mott Children’s was recognized as one of America’s Best Children’s Hospitals 2025 by Newsweek and Statista
• University of Michigan Health-Michigan Medicine earned the Top 25 Environmental Excellence award from Practice Greenhealth for 2025 & 2026
• Michigan Medicine named one of the Best and Brightest Companies to Work For in metropolitan Detroit in 2024 by the National Association for Business Resources
• Nationally recognized for work/life effectiveness by WorldatWork

About Ann Arbor, Michigan

An Urban Oasis

Located 40 miles west of Detroit along the banks of the Huron River in Southeast Michigan, Ann Arbor is a premier college town with 67 walkable blocks. Known for its lush landscape, the area offers year-round opportunities for outdoor activities. From kayaking, canoeing, tubing, and paddle boarding in the summer to cross-country skiing, snowshoeing, and ice skating in the winter, there is plenty to do.

A Great Place for Families

U.S. News & World Report ranks Ann Arbor as one of the top 20 places to live and has ranked four schools among its best high school rankings.

Centrally Located

Ann Arbor is about 45 minutes from the large metropolitan area of Detroit, and within a 4-hour drive of Chicago and Toronto, as well as other major U.S. cities.

Procedure for Candidacy

Final candidates should expect two interviews with Kirby Partners recruiters (including a video conference interview). You may be asked to complete our “Executive Profile” and submit references to be considered for presentation to the search committee.