Bethea '92 to give keynote address at White Coat

Johnny Bethea ’92 has parlayed his pharmacy degree into a successful career spanning many paths. A senior level pharmacy and clinical services executive and a licensed pharmacist in both North Carolina and South Carolina, he has worked in pharmaceuticals, medical research information, community pharmacy, academia, and industry.

He will give the keynote address at the MUSC College of Pharmacy 2023 White Coat Ceremony welcoming the incoming class. The ceremony is August 11, 2023 in the Drug Discovery Building on campus.

Bethea’s career began at McLeod Regional Hospital as an inpatient staff pharmacist. He joined Eli Lily as a pharmaceutical representative before being recruited to Pharmaceutical Product Development, Inc. (PPD), a contract research organization that provided expertise to large pharmaceutical companies on topics like clinical trials development and management.

He worked as director of pharmacy for Care Management Technologies, Inc, where he helped provide clinicians actionable information for individual patient care to be more effective and cost efficient. After a stint as pharmacy manager with Harris Teeter, he joined North Carolina Central University as pharmacy manager for student health and counseling services. There, he developed and implemented policies, procedures, process guidelines, and protocols to ensure safe administration of medications throughout Student Health Services.

Currently with Relias Behavioral Health Solutions, he is a partner and director of pharmacy for clinical services where his duties include acting as liaison between the business intelligence, decision support team and clinical services teams with respect to behavioral and medical health content and development, quality indicator specifications and dosage determination. 

A founding member of the MUSC Building Leadership Committee and currently serving on the Dean’s Advisory Council, Bethea has been a long-time advocate and leader for the MUSC College of Pharmacy.