LEADING WITH CARE!
Submitted on June 23, 2026
MANDI BOYKIN MCCOY ‘11
By Mindy Hamlin ‘91, Hamlin Communications
Over the past few decades, the role of the pharmacist has evolved. No one demonstrates this change more than Mandi (Boykin) McCoy ’11. A PharmD, she is part of a growing segmvent of pharmacists who provide direct patient care and comprehensive medication management.
Based in Morrisville, North Carolina, McCoy, a Licensed Clinical Pharmacist Practitioner (CPP), is a pharmacy coordinator for UNC Health, the state’s largest academic health system.
“When many people think of a pharmacist, they imagine a traditional retail pharmacist, not realizing that we have the knowledge base and skillset not only to dispense medications but also to help treat, monitor, and improve an individual’s health,” explained McCoy.
As a CPP, McCoy is approved by the North Carolina Pharmacy and Medical Boards to collaborate with physicians and other health professionals to coordinate and improve patient outcomes.
“My team and I work under collaborative practice agreements with physicians,” McCoy said. “We have the authority to prescribe and manage medications for certain conditions, monitor patient health, and assist them between appointments to help them reach their goals.”
McCoy and her team also provide virtual population health support for UNC Health’s patients.
“Sometimes we get referrals from doctors, and sometimes we identify higher-risk patients who can benefit from more one-on-one interaction,” said McCoy. “We schedule 30-to-60-minute targeted visits in which we go through a patient’s medications and home readings. From here, we make informed decisions about next steps, which we communicate to the patient’s provider.”
McCoy’s favorite part of the job, she said, is using her knowledge to help patients meet their health goals by managing and monitoring their medications for chronic conditions, including diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and weight management.
“It’s really rewarding to empower people and to see them become more confident and empower themselves,” she explained. “I currently help some of my patients with weight management using injectable weight loss drugs. To see the change that the medications have made in their lives, how much more confident they are, and how they are able to build healthy lifestyle habits, is amazing to be a part of.”
“Pharmacists are a valuable resource, and there are many ways pharmacists benefit patients,” she said. “Our ultimate goal is to help patients become the healthiest version of themselves through lifestyle and medication management.”
McCoy graduated from high school in Ironton, Ohio, as a track and field star and the state division champion in the 100-meter dash. While Georgetown College recruited her, she decided to run track at a D-1 school and committed to the much larger University of Cincinnati. By her sophomore year, she realized she needed a smaller college environment that fostered teamwork and student-professor relationships.
“There are 30,000-plus people on the Cincinnati campus; Georgetown has a total of around 1,200,” she pointed out. “Georgetown was more like my hometown, and it offered me more hands-on experiences, more engagement, and more attentiveness to me as a student and an athlete.”
At GC, she joined the women’s basketball team and continued her studies that would lead to a career in pharmacy.
In track, McCoy participated in individual events. One of the things that attracted her to GC was the opportunity to play basketball and be part of a team. It was also on the team that she learned to adapt her style and approach to the team she was playing with and to her teammates’ needs and strengths. She uses these skills every day in her career as a pharmacist.
“I learned in basketball to ask myself, ‘How do I motivate this person and how do I approach them to meet them where they are,’” she said.
In the classroom, McCoy also found the one-on-one interaction she sought with her professors.
“Georgetown was a good fit for me,” she recalled. “I felt that the professors embraced the students more than I had experienced before. I was one in ten instead of one in a thousand.
For example, if I wasn’t in a class, the professor could text me.”
Her senior year, McCoy received the Dean’s Honor Award for academic excellence and began applying to pharmacy school with the help of her Associate Professor Jean Kiernan, who she had for nutrition and science courses.
“I tore my ACL going into my senior season that summer, and Dr. Kiernan was just super supportive and accommodating,” she recounted. “She and Georgetown really set me up for success by preparing me for and helping me get accepted into pharmacy school.”
It was at Georgetown, she says, that she became herself, someone who enjoys being on a team and working closely with others.
“Playing basketball, I was part of a team, unlike in track, which can be more of an individual sport,” she said. “That’s what I thought I also wanted in a career as a pharmacist. At GC, I realized that I do better and am a better leader when I am part of a team.”
For more great stories like McCoy's, read the Spring 2026 Issue of GC Moments: The Georgetown College Alumni Magazine
