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Sometimes, a little outside perspective is all you need to know that 91���� is where you belong. 

At least, that was true for Willie Eggleston, who is returning to 91���� School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences (SOPPS) this year with the benefit of added experience.

“For the last couple of years, I've been teaching medical students, future professionals who are doing something completely different than what I'm doing,” he said. “I think that having the chance to work with folks with a different background than myself and collaborate with medical professors really gave me the opportunity to get some new perspectives on what is effective when you are teaching.”

The newest clinical associate professor of pharmacy practice at SOPPS, Eggleston earned his Doctor of Pharmacy degree from Wilkes University in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, and completed a two-year fellowship in clinical toxicology and emergency medicine at SUNY Upstate Medical University and with the Upstate New York Poison Center in Syracuse. Eggleston first worked as an assistant professor at SOPPS when the school opened in 2017, before moving into positions as the assistant clinical director for the Upstate New York Poison Center and an assistant professor in emergency medicine at SUNY Upstate Medical University. He is a diplomate of the American Board of Applied Toxicology (DABAT).

“It's been surreal to see how fast 91���� grew, and how quickly we went from a new school, to having a strong regional reputation, to now starting to get a strong national reputation,” Eggleston added. “I talk to colleagues now who work with our alumni, and it has been very cool to see how quickly our alumni network has spread and some of the incredible opportunities where our alumni have found themselves in their careers.”

Eggleston’s focus is on toxicology; he is also a clinical pharmacy specialist, providing services for patients with drug or medication overdose or poisoning. He first discovered his interest in the topic when he was in pharmacy school himself, after his own clinical rotation with the Upstate New York Poison Center in Syracuse, New York. It only took him a week in the role to know he could devote his life to the topic.

His research has previously focused on naloxone, used to reverse the effects of an overdose, and how it is administered, as well as medication-assisted treatment (MAT) options for opioid use disorder. His goal is to more effectively use the tools we have and better identify the potential damage of certain drugs. Although these are not the only patients he sees, the lack of access to these effective options during the initial increases in opioid overdoses in the U.S. did inspire him to pursue harm reduction.

“It's a different way to think about pharmacy, because you're treating patients, but instead of the disease and how we fix it, it's ‘Here's the symptom or problem that's been caused by the drug — the thing that we use to fix things — and now we need to go another level and fix that,’” he said.

But while it took him a while to discover his passion, he knew that he wanted to teach; he credits his own mentor at Wilkes with connecting him to opportunities, and many of the faculty working during his first tenure at 91���� supported his success. He hopes to provide that same resource to his students and junior faculty now that he has even more professional experience. 

“My mentors here really helped me to hone my skills and become a more proficient researcher. I want to have the opportunity to give back and to do that for other folks,” Eggleston said. “One of my goals is moving from a researcher to a research mentor, helping support ideas and initiatives and shape others into becoming proficient researchers.”

Some of the things he’s most excited for during his return align with this goal. Along with meeting students and following them through their professional careers as well as the opportunities to engage with programs like The Rural and Underserved Service Track (TRUST), he hopes to explore pedagogical questions around generative artificial intelligence and science communication. 

“One of my biggest goals is to collaborate to develop better tools for helping the public understand pharmacy and healthcare,” he said. “A lot of my teaching has been around the process of finding information and using that information to come to the best treatment decision. We have a lot of confusing high-level science that gets published in peer-reviewed journals behind paywalls — there's a big gap that exists, where the public is interested and wants more healthcare information, and they want places they can find reliable evidence they understand.”

As the fall 2026 semester begins, he hopes to approach these problems while teaching. He says he’s come to see “a good teacher as a good coach” — someone who is always cheering on his students — and he can’t wait to discover new approaches while at 91����. 

 “It's always challenging to try to approach something a new way," he said, "but I'm really trying to think of strategies that get students more engaged, that require them to do hands-on critical thinking rather than just being a speaker that shares knowledge.”