Dr. Stephanie Pherrell Gardner
Stephanie Gardner was born in Wilson, N.C., a humble tobacco farming community. Role models in her life helped propel her to a college degree and life in medicine. After decades serving in various roles at UAMS, she is now their chief strategy officer.
There is getting away from it all and then there is getting away from it all. The small Dutch Caribbean island of Bonaire floats in the Caribbean Sea north of Venezuela. Thousands of miles away from Little Rock, Bonaire’s main attraction sits just offshore — the underworld galaxy of colorful fish and coral reefs, a prize sought out by scuba divers.
Stephanie Gardner, chief academic officer and the first chief strategy officer of the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, is an admitted scuba diving fiend, getting away from it all when she can. Pictures from her undersea excursions — porcupine fish, clown fish and more — adorn her UAMS office walls.
“Being underwater is a putting yourself in a different world,” Gardner says. “It’s so peaceful. If you don’t believe God exists, you need to be 70 feet underwater. I am mesmerized by everything underwater.”
The contrast of Gardner’s quiet dives to her day job couldn’t be more striking. As one of UAMS’ top administrators, Gardner helps oversee a large, complex operation with more than 11,000 employees including 1,200 physicians who provide care to patients at the main campus in Little Rock along with its statewide network of regional campuses. UAMS is the largest public employer in Arkansas.
A native of North Carolina, Gardner started out at UAMS as an assistant professor in the College of Pharmacy. She planned on returning to her home state a few years after taking the job in Little Rock. Those plans kept getting pushed back.
“I am passionate about the mission of UAMS,” Gardner says. “I feel so good about the work here. I would have never guessed I would have had leadership opportunities that I have had. What we do here is important to people that live around the state. Our work has real meaning.”
One big part of Gardner’s work is to make sure UAMS continues well into the future. As chief strategy officer, she is responsible for seeing UAMS’ Vision 2029, a 70-page forecast for the best road ahead for the health system, through to completion.
“Stephanie Gardner is that rare combination of someone with a servant’s heart, a brilliant mind and a dedication to making everything she touches better,” says UAMS Chancellor Cam Patterson. “She is an incredible person and leader who makes those around her feel included and valued. It was indeed a fortunate day for UAMS and the state of Arkansas when Stephanie left her home state of North Carolina and decided to settle here. Through her leadership and hard work, she is making an enormous impact on our goal of ensuring better health and health care for all Arkansans.”
QUIET READER
Wilson, N.C. — sitting approximately 45 minutes east of Raleigh — has a population of about 40,000. Tobacco farms are prevalent around the town, which in the 1800s was called ‘The World’s Greatest Tobacco Market.’
Gardner was born and raised in Wilson. She had the opportunity to work a couple of summers in the tobacco fields.
“At the end of the day, you would be covered by this sticky tar by pulling the tobacco leaves off the stalks,” Gardner says.
“It would take lye soap to get the tar out. I never smoked but working in the tobacco fields didn’t take any mental stress. It was just what you did in the summer. It wasn’t the worst job. It was just different.”
Wilson might have been a town of some size but Gardner’s world when she was young was small and manageable. She could ride her bike to school. With her two parents and younger sister, Gardner’s family stayed close.
“We were in [the United Methodist Church] whenever the church was open,” Gardner says. “My parents instilled a deep faith in my family. We would go to youth group on Sundays. Even when we were on vacation, we would find a church to attend.”
Gardner’s father managed a hardware store and her mother worked at a local bank. Even though both her parents had jobs, Gardner notes her family had “dinner together every night.”
Describing herself as a ‘quiet child,’ Gardner spent many childhood days lost in the world of books.
“The family joke was that I read every book on the first floor of the library,” Gardner says. “There was a rule that you could only check out 10 books every week, but I checked out that amount every chance I got.”
SCHOOLBOOK ROMANCE
For Gardner, the early grades in elementary and middle school were routine and fairly easy to master. It wasn’t until Gardner reached eighth grade before she found a classroom and a teacher who would offer an inspiring learning environment and become a role model.
“The teacher for my eighth grade class was Eleanor Workman,” Gardner says. “She was the first teacher I had who truly challenged me. She taught us to be critical thinkers and to think about why we believe what we believe. She also taught us in a way where we had to learn how to study. She made a big impact on me.”
As a self-professed ‘introvert,’ in high school Gardner didn’t necessarily seek out opportunities that would put her in the spotlight. She enjoyed her home economics classes, which led to her becoming a chapter president for the Future Homemakers of America. The introvert soon found herself a state officer for the organization.
“I had to travel to other parts of the state and run meetings,” Gardner says. “It was helpful in my development as a leader. All the things I do today, I started with the FHA.”
Everybody is aware of storybook romances — opposites attracting despite making no sense or couples overcoming ancient family feuds. Gardner had a schoolbook romance and it proved to be strong. She notes that her future husband was in class with her from kindergarten through eighth grade. Though she can’t say for certain because time has made her memory fuzzy, she is pretty sure the first date happened when Alan was too young to drive and rode his bike to her house.
We were friends before we were girlfriend and boyfriend,” Gardner says. “We always shared the same values and we enjoy being together. We were married when I was 18 and we just celebrated our 40th anniversary. We have a son and daughter who are grown.”
CHAPEL HILL
Going to college after high school was an unspoken assumption with Gardner and her parents. When looking for a college, Gardner only had one place in mind and it was close to home.
“The saying in my house was that the happiest day of my life was when I got into Chapel Hill [the University of North Carolina] but the happiest day of my father’s life came later when I got a scholarship.”
During her first semester at UNC, Gardner signed up for a heavy load of math and science courses. Her advisor took notice and recommended applying for a job at a pharmacy that was close to Duke University, only 10 miles away from the UNC campus. Gardner got the job and discovered her calling in life at the same time.
“Cliff Butler [the pharmacist and owner] made me think that owning my own pharmacy would be a terrific experience,” says Gardner. “He was somebody to admire. Customers would tell him their problems and he would help. He was triage for that community.”
The real world experience in a pharmacy for Gardner was invaluable. She looks back at that time now and understands she had a lot to learn.
“Cliff was a good teacher and was patient with me,” Gardner says. “I did some stupid things. I was 19 and didn’t always know what the customers were asking me to do. A young girl came in and wanted a sponge. She was asking for a contraceptive, and I handed her a sponge to wash a car with. At that pharmacy, I learned how to communicate.”
NOT ONLY A PHARMACIST
For a while there, it looked as if Gardner would complete the doctor of pharmacy program at UNC or open up her own pharmacy there in North Carolina. She took another path thanks to exposure to a cardiac unit in a hospital in Chapel Hill.
“I spent a month working with a team at that hospital,” Gardner says. “This team of doctors was trying to solve big problems. What a terrific job our instructor had. She had the best interactions with the patients and built those relationships. Then she gets to teach. That is what made me want to go back and get my doctorate in pharmacy.”
When it came time to apply for teaching jobs at medical schools, Gardner planned to visit schools in Cincinnati, Charleston, Salt Lake City and Little Rock. Gardner confesses that she “didn’t plan to come to [UAMS] but wanted to practice my interview skills.” The plan backfired.
‘Everybody made me feel welcome and made it feel like family and not just coming in to work,” Gardner says. “I thought I will only be in Little Rock a couple of years and then we’ll move back home to North Carolina. I kept calling my parents saying I would be coming back. Of course, that never happened. We found a church that we loved. Our children thrived here. It wasn’t the pathway I would have guessed at the start.”
Gardner has now been at UAMS for 32 years, serving 12 years as dean for the UAMS College of Pharmacy before becoming provost in 2015. In 2019, Gardner was named the first chief strategy officer for UAMS. In this role, she coordinates institutional strategy and strategic initiatives, which include implementation and management of the UAMS Vision 2029 strategic plan.
Dr. Debra Fiser, former UAMS chair of pediatrics and former dean of the College of Medicine, can attest to the qualities that have made Gardner, a friend and former colleague, so crucial to UAMS.
“[Stephanie] is such a wonderful, genuine human being,” Fiser says. “What you see is what you get. There is no pretense with her, which you don’t often see with somebody as successful as she has been. She has a personality where she doesn’t ever get ruffled or anxious. She is a loyal friend. She is a determined and creative problem solver.”
Gardner is the first to say that there are many stakeholders involved in Vision 2029 and that “some days in the journey are harder than others.”
However, the optimism and determination so many see in Gardner is apparent in what she says about the road ahead for UAMS.
“We are striving to ensure that Arkansas is one of the healthiest states,” Gardner says. “I am confident our plan will come to fruition.”