Shenandoah University Alum Lives Out Dream Of Earning A Pharm.D.

For five months beginning in January 2021, during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, faculty and staff in Shenandoah University’s schools of nursing, health professions and pharmacy teamed up with employees from Valley Health System to operate Virginia’s first mass-vaccination site at SU’s James R. Wilkins, Jr. Athletics and Events Center to combat the virus. Among them was Megan Calhoun.

As a pharmacy technician with Valley Health, Calhoun played an integral role in the daily operations of the clinic, which had administered over 65,000 shots by its conclusion in May 2021. Recalling her work at the clinic recently, Calhoun said her boss knew that she was mission-driven – she had previously served in the United State Air Force – and let her “take the reins” of the mass-vaccination effort.

“Every morning, I would report to Valley Health, get the vaccine and come here to Shenandoah University, prepare the vaccine,” Calhoun said. “I’d have a team lined up who would get everything ready for the vaccinators, that way we could push through as many individuals as we could and get them vaccinated as quickly as we could, just to help our community. At the end of the day, I would go back to Valley Health, report our numbers and do it again the next day.”

Five years later, Calhoun found herself once again at the Wilkins Athletics and Events Center – this time, she was there to receive her Doctor of Pharmacy from Shenandoah University.

During Shenandoah’s 2026 University Commencement on May 9, President Tracy Fitzsimmons, Ph.D., gave a special mention to Dr. Calhoun during her address to the university’s newest graduates. Pointing to a spot right next to the commencement stage, Dr. Fitzsimmons noted that that’s where Calhoun “set up shop” for five months during the mass-vaccination clinic.

“Every day she brought vaccines. She’s the one that checked them out to the different stations. If people had questions, they went to her. She oversaw this clinic,” said Fitzsimmons, who also recalled speaking with Calhoun during the vaccination effort and asking her, “What are your dreams?”

Calhoun, a pharmacy tech for over 30 years, said she’d always wanted to be a pharmacist but that the timing was never quite right. Her experience at the mass-vaccination clinic proved to her that “this is where I’m meant to be.”

“At the end of the clinic, Valley Health System and Shenandoah partnered to make it possible for her to become the pharmacist that, frankly, she was already acting like,” Fitzsimmons told the commencement crowd. “Megan, we congratulate you and all of your fellow colleagues. Thank you for saving 70,000 lives.”

Standing on the Shentel Stadium turf before Shenandoah’s graduates processed to the Wilkins Athletics and Events Center for the commencement ceremony, Calhoun said it was “very surreal” to be moments away from walking across the stage with a Pharm.D. from Shenandoah University in hand.

“It is one of the top moments of my life,” Calhoun said. “I’m very proud of what I did for our community here, and I’m very proud to represent Shenandoah. I’m thankful that I’m able to be here today.”