Though her grandmother dabbled in herbal remedies, no one in Papatya Tankut’s family was ever a health care worker. But even as a little girl she knew she wanted to be involved in the field of medicine. And she did that by becoming a pharmacist.
Born in Cyprus, Tankut lived in England until the age of 15, when her family moved to the United States. Just one year later, the high school student landed her first job working at an independent pharmacy in Maryland where she lived.
“As soon as I started working there, I knew I wanted to be a pharmacist. There was no doubt in my mind,” she said. Later, while studying pharmacology at the University of Maryland, Tankut became an intern at CVS – now CVS Caremark Corp. – and knew she had found her home.
”We hired Papatya right out of college, and that was 14 years ago,” said Gordon Howard, area vice president for CVS, which fills more prescriptions than any other pharmacy in the country. “She has a tremendous work ethic and rapidly moved up within the company. One of the many things she does at the corporate headquarters is recruit pharmacists for CVS. Actually, she wears many hats.”
Tankut started working as a pharmacist “on the bench” and found she loved being able to make a difference in the lives of the people who came to her with prescriptions. “Medication can be very complicated. Pharmacists are the most accessible medical professionals and people really depend on them. I find that very rewarding,” she said.
Today, she manages four departments, while heading up recruiting for the 6,300 CVS/pharmacy stores in the United States. Howard said Tankut has all the right qualities for the responsibility.
“She’s dynamic, she has great people skills, and she’s not afraid to ask as many questions as she has to for safety reasons when it comes to filling prescriptions,” Howard said.
Tankut said she sometimes misses the customer contact, and in fact, she stays in touch with many customers at the store where she used to work in Maryland. Though she has moved, she feels the work she does at the corporate headquarters still makes a difference. “I’m just dealing with medicine on a larger scale now,” she said.
“She’s very involved in representing CVS on college campuses, and offering others the benefit of her experience and often acting as a mentor for young people going into the field. She has really excelled in her field,” Howard said.
“At this point, I have so many wonderful options available to me. The work is just as interesting as I always thought it would be,” said Tankut.
And while there isn’t any family history in medicine, she and her younger sister, who is also a pharmacist, may be paving the way for generations to come. •
