If Torquelia Wynn, PharmD, sets her mind to something, it’s going to get done.
The Thomasville, Georgia, Genoa Healthcare site manager grew up in Ashburn, Georgia – a small town 150-miles outside Atlanta with only three stoplights. As a pharmacy technician her senior year of high school, Torquelia saw working behind the counter as her chance to make a difference for others – and for herself.
“I knew I had to be the one to get out, and go, and move and do,” she said, adding that she was the first in her family to go to college and earn a degree. “I wanted to do something different and make an impact.”
In 2007, when her son was 6, Torquelia enrolled in a 3-year accelerated pharmacy school program in Columbia, South Carolina, to give them both a better life.
“It was so challenging, but that was my motivation back then: my son,” she said. “Every time I’ve taken a chance on myself, I’ve just been determined to make it work.”
Torquelia Wynn, PharmD, went to pharmacy school in 2007 to give her son, pictured left, and herself a better life. Today, she works as a site manager for the Genoa Healthcare pharmacy in Thomasville, GA.
Since joining Genoa in 2020, Torquelia’s goals have only grown. She has completed both Genoa’s Masters and UnitedHealth Group’s McKinsey Essentials Leadership programs, two programs that train nominated team members to advance their leadership skills.
“The ability to make an impact is what got me into pharmacy – within the company, with my peers, with providers and consumers,” she said. “At the end of the day, it’s all about making sure the people we serve are taken care of.”
When asked about a story that stands out during her time at Genoa, Torquelia looks up at a bulletin board featuring thank you cards from her consumers. After hearing a consumer couldn’t afford the copay for his specialty medication, she and her team connected with a drug representative to see what they could do.
They learned about a foundation program, gave them a call and helped him enroll, bringing the consumer’s copay down to $0.
“His family was so thankful for our hard work and today he has his life back,” Torquelia said. “I’m just like: we did that.”
Moments like this make her sacrifices worthwhile.
“That’s the big reward,” Torquelia says. “That’s what it was all for.”
