By Tessa Schnelle, PharmD, MPH, DPLA
Growing up in rural Iowa, I was surrounded by my “farmily”—a group of farmers and their families that exchanged chickens for labor and passed on tips for producing the best yield over a cup of coffee at the local café. I was a part of a team that passed on valuable tips and tricks from generation to generation. When I approached high school, I was blessed with a mentor who dedicated his time and efforts to showcasing how each of us, despite our youth, could impact our community and leave a legacy.
When it came time to go off to college, these community-minded values traveled with me as I followed the yellow brick road and started new in Kansas. Quickly I found a series of influential mentors as I embraced my first career in human resources. These leaders taught me how to quickly assess the strengths and opportunities of those under my leadership and how to practice radical candor while being kind.
Although I truly loved my career in human resources, I felt like something was missing. That is when my pharmacy journey began and my legacy building continued.
Finding my niche
As I embraced my new profession at The University of Kansas School of Pharmacy, I started listening to the stories, connecting people with opportunities, identifying new mentors, and fully embracing my new “pharmily.” Following the completion of my PharmD degree in 2020, I became an APhA–ASP New Practitioner Mentor and gathered my co-op of past University of Kansas chapter leaders to join me. Over cups of coffee at the local café, we passed on tips and tricks for producing great patient care events, assisted with reestablishing previous community connections lost to virtual only events, and worked together to increase opportunities for student pharmacists and new practitioners to have pathways to leadership, mentorship, and impact early in their careers.
It wasn’t long before my supervisor placed me in charge of precepting even though I was terrified and was still looking over my shoulder every time someone said “Dr. Schnelle …” This was where I found my niche at the intersection of my previous and new career. Identifying the gaps between academia and practice, I developed a unique and challenging “choose your adventure” rotation. The first students spread the word, leading to the precepting of 50+ students over the last 5 years.
Over time, I realized that the leadership positions that I held and doors that opened should be shared with my students. This began what we called the “Immersion Pharmacy Practice Experience,” where students could choose to spend a month living with me and my family with a free ticket behind the scenes of my pharmacy leadership life, attending all of my various events and meetings as my guest. This small group of brave souls named themselves “Tessa’s Tots,” each one having developed a unique mentorship experience not only with myself but with each other. As I’ve watched them spread out across the country, nothing brings me more joy than watching them all succeed on their unique journey.
“If you build it, they will come” in action
With how great my precepting experience was going, I began to use my positions of influence to develop more mentorship and development opportunities, creating the PrePharm to PharmD program at my rural critical access hospital. We have recruited all of the Cass Country pre-pharmacy students in a longitudinal internship lasting 6 to 8 years strengthening our rural workforce for decades to come.
We have a saying back home: “If you build it, they will come.” That is what early legacy building is about. The time and effort spent today will shape the future in unimaginable ways. You just have to give yourself permission to build.
Tessa Schnelle, PharmD, MPH, DPLA, is a director of pharmacy for Cardinal Health practicing at Cass Regional Medical Center in Harrisonville, MO, and 2026–2027 chair of the APhA New Practitioner Community. She is a public health champion for improving rural health care outcomes and an advocate for substance use disorder education in Kansas. As a state association pharmacy leader and president of the Kansas Pharmacy Foundation, her greatest impact is in the development of current and future pharmacy leaders across her home state.