Alumni Profile - Dr. Bill Reay

Dr. Bill Reay Notched Wins from the Hockey Rink to the Hospital Floor

BY MICHAEL DHAR

From NCAA champion to clinical pharmacy pioneer, Dr. Bill Reay, PharmD ’87, has played many roles. Now five years retired, Reay attributes his success in a “long and adventurous career” to a willingness to keep growing.

“You must be a continuous learner. . . . You need to have a package of skills that you can bring to the table,” he said. “Don’t be afraid to look at another opportunity. Because with each opportunity, you learn [a lot] not only about that role, but about yourself.”

When Reay came to UIC in the mid1980s, he was already a practicing pharmacist with a family and a BS from the University of Wisconsin–Madison. He took advantage of UIC’s then-new Continuation Curricular Option (CCO), which provided working pharmacists a path to a PharmD. After earning his doctorate, Reay took on director of pharmacy roles at three hospitals, championing what’s long been a cause of UIC Pharmacy: bringing pharmacists to the hospital floors.

Dr. Bill Reay

“I would label my career as liberating pharmacists from the basement up into the patient care area,” he said. “It’s very common today, but in 1985, that was not common. . . . I was able to do that in three organizations.” (That’s United Hospital in North Dakota, St. Mary’s Medical Center in Minnesota, and Mercy Health System in Wisconsin.)

Long before building that varied resume, however, Reay had already proven himself exceptionally capable. He became one of the few UW–Madison students to graduate pharmacy school as an NCAA Division I athlete, playing right wing for the 1973 championship hockey team. (Reay’s hockey roots reach to Chicago, too. His dad, Billy Reay, coached the Blackhawks from 1963 to 1977.)

Reay continued updating his skills after UIC, earning master’s degrees in management and healthcare administration. Having developed interests in managed care, along with pharmacoeconomics and pharmacoepidemiology, Reay then changed careers, moving to managed care. All told, he spent about 10 years as a clinical pharmacist, 10 years directing hospital pharmacies, and 15 years in managed care, finishing his career with a leadership position at a medicationadherence startup.

Having come to UIC as a working professional, Reay said he appreciates the career-planning advice he got from professors, including Drs. Jerry Bauman, Jim Fischer, and Keith Rodvold.

“The vision of the college has been tremendous, and the leadership has been just unbelievably good,” Reay said. “It’s not until you experience it do you understand how strong that program is.”