Emily Hancock
2025 Distinguished Pharmacy Alumni Awardee
Emily Hancock
Retired Manager of Policy and Program Integration, State of Indiana Office of Medicaid Policy and Planning
Entering the Purdue PharmD clinical rotations with 15 years’ experience as a hospital pharmacist was a distinct advantage because I was comfortable with hospital logistics and systems of patient care, including medication protocols. What I appreciated and valued the most were the Purdue-based faculty teaching in the Wishard Memorial Hospital inpatient and ambulatory settings because of their daily sessions of active learning that included enhanced critical thinking with on-your-feet narrative responses and, above all, the essentials in all phases of researching, writing, and editing collaborative scientific articles.
BS 1976, Pharmacy, Ferris State University
PharmD 1992, Purdue University
MPA 2008, IUPUI
- Gained proficiency with intake, research, resolution and knowing when and how to refer the client for further care when answering calls to Michigan’s Poison Control Center.
- One of 12 associates chosen from 6,000 employees to form the Advance Health Team, which determined the core business of St. Vincent Hospital.
- Designed the concept and wrote the basis of what became Indiana’s Aging Reform Agenda in 2006. The ARA resulted in changing Indiana’s long-term care delivery model from institutional to home- and community-based care.
- Developed, chartered, and operated Indiana’s Medicaid Fraud Stakeholders Group, which examined and determined new methodology and processes to define, identify, report, track and evaluate Medicaid Member Fraud and to advise the Family and Social Services Administration in policy options.
- Led a team that revised Indiana’s Restricted Card Program into the Right Choices Program, a program for Medicaid members who are overusing services, such as prescription drugs.
In high school, Emily Cramer thought she was bound for engineering school. After attending Pharmacy Career Day at Ferris State University, she knew at that moment: “I want to go to pharmacy school!” In 1976, Emily graduated from FSU College of Pharmacy, and she accepted a position as a staff pharmacist at St. Lawrence Hospital in Lansing, Michigan. Following her marriage to Bruce G. Hancock, the couple relocated to Indianapolis, Indiana and Emily accepted a position as staff pharmacist at St. Vincent Hospital. Emily’s first day of employment after orientation was the blizzard of 1978, and she cross-country skied to work. Emily was a 26-year associate of St. Vincent serving as both Senior Pharmacist and then Director of the Institute on Aging. Emily teased that PharmD would become the terminal degree when she was 85 years old driving her speedboat around Florida. But it was happening now in her mid-30s. Emily entered Purdue University’s PharmD program for post-BS students and graduated in December of 1992. Emily joined the State of Indiana, Office of Medicaid Policy and Planning in 2003 as the Director of Long-Term Care. During Governor Daniels’ administration, Emily served as the OMPP Senior Policy Advisor and Manager of Health Policy Research from 2005 through 2008. Concurrently, Emily attended Indiana University Indianapolis from 2003 graduating in 2008 with a master’s degree in public affairs. Emily transitioned to the role of OMPP Clinical Pharmacist, Manager of Policy and Program Integration in 2009 until her retirement in 2020.