When Hurricane Helene tore through western North Carolina in the fall of 2024, Allison Serdah Williams did not hesitate.
Williams, a 2012 graduate of USCʼs College of Pharmacy, was working with Harris Teeter Pharmacy when the storm hit. As the devastation became clear, her employer asked her to take on a different kind of assignment: move to Hendersonville, N.C., and run an emergency mobile pharmacy out of a trailer while the flood-damaged store was rebuilt.
“They knew I was crazy enough to do it,” Williams says with a laugh.
She arrived in early October to a community completely transformed by overwhelming destruction. Roads were washed out, homes were gone, and many local pharmacies and physiciansʼ offices had been destroyed or shuttered. With limited healthcare options available, Williams quickly found herself filling a role far beyond traditional pharmacy work.
Armed with emergency prescriptive authority for refills, she and a four-person team of technicians and nursing students administered flu vaccines, provided first aid, distributed food and water and offered comfort to patients who had lost everything. Thousands of patients came through in the six months she was there.
“There were days that I needed to be a bit more than just a pharmacy manager. I needed to be emotional support,” she recalls. “We didnʼt worry about metrics; we focused on patient care.”
The overall experience reshaped how Williams approaches her work. Back home in Charlotte, N.C., she says Hendersonville gave her a new frame of reference for daily stressors and a renewed sense of purpose.
“Hendersonville reminded me that everything we do matters,” she says. “You donʼt always get to see the good you do as a pharmacist, but what matters at the end of the day is taking care of the person in front of you. Everything we do matters.”