In a quiet clinic tucked within Memorial University’s School of Pharmacy, a door opens onto one of the most innovative public health programs in the province.

Inside, patients speak candidly about addiction, students take notes with care and Dr. Leslie Phillips listens closely — not just to symptoms, but to stories.

It’s here, in the subtle combination of conversation and compassion, that Dr. Phillips has built her legacy.

Born and raised in St. John’s, Dr. Phillips trained as a pharmacist at Memorial University before completing her doctorate in pharmacy at the University of British Columbia. After a post-doctoral residency at Riverview Hospital in Port Coquitlam, B.C., she returned to St. John’s in the early 1990s, driven by a desire to combine clinical care, education and research.

She joined the School of Pharmacy at Memorial in 1994 and has remained there ever since.

What followed was a transformation in how pharmacists are trained, how health care is delivered and how universities can support communities beyond the borders of campus.

At the heart of her work is the Smoking Cessation Program, a clinic she co-founded that offers personalized, evidence-based support for individuals looking to quit smoking.

The program has become a model for interprofessional learning, where pharmacy and psychiatry students work side by side, learning not just from faculty but from the real experiences of their patients.

Through her leadership, Dr. Phillips has helped thousands of people begin their journey toward quitting, all while guiding a new generation of pharmacists toward a deeper understanding of the human dimensions of care.

In a province where smoking-related illness costs the health-care system millions each year, her work has had profound public impact. But she remains uncomfortable in the spotlight, more focused on collaboration than taking credit.

 

Karen Brown, who successfully completed the Smoking Cessation Program, and Dr. Leslie Phillips in 2014. Photo by Heidi Wicks from the Gazette.

 

As an educator, she’s celebrated. Her classroom is known not only for its rigour but for its empathy. Students describe her as someone who meets them where they are, much like the patients she sees.

In 2010, she received Memorial’s President’s Award for Distinguished Teaching and, in 2014, the Faculty of Medicine Academic Teacher Award. She’s also been honoured with the School of Pharmacy Award for Teaching Excellence on eight separate occasions.

Yet her influence extends beyond the classroom. Her research has explored how pharmacists can support mental health, reduce stigma and provide accessible care to vulnerable populations. She has published widely, advocated publicly and mentored faculty across disciplines.

Dr. Phillips’s approach to teaching and care is deeply rooted in her belief in the power of conversation. Whether she is helping a patient, guiding a student or presenting at a community forum, her focus remains the same: to understand before acting, to connect before instructing.

Now an associate dean and a respected leader within Memorial, she continues to shape both curriculum and culture. Her work has made the university more outward-facing, more community-driven and more attuned to the lived realities of the people it serves.

Her success is perhaps best expressed in the changed lives of people celebrating the anniversaries of their quit dates or in students who leave her courses seeing the world — and their role in it — a little differently.

She has built a reputation as a formidable force inside a quiet presence. But her quietness is not the same as silence. It’s attentiveness. It’s patience.

It’s the sound of someone making space for thought, for care and for change.