Using the pharmacy counter as a front line for advocacy and care for marginalized people
Age: 30
Job Title: Team Lead and Clinical Pharmacist at Mint Communities
When Jaanek Grewal started pharmacy school, she couldn’t imagine a career that looked any different than dispensing pills at a drugstore. Then, a student job placement with Edmonton’s Adherence and Community Engagement team — the ACE team — put her on the front lines, delivering health care to people living in extreme poverty. “I really got to know the people, build relationships and see their resilience, humour and the way they care for each other, even with so little,” Grewal says. “I thought, ‘How could I not be here?’”
Now as the ACE team’s leader, no two days look the same for Grewal: One might involve starting someone on life-saving treatment, another helping someone replace lost ID and another simply being a good listener to someone with a difficult yet important story to tell. Success looks different for every person — whether that’s finding shelter for the night or taking the first step toward long-term healing.
“Outreach is about meeting people where they’re at — physically, emotionally, culturally, socially,” she says. “Health care is a human right, but it only works if we build care around the person, not the system.”
Grewal once saw pharmacy as one-dimensional, but the dynamic nature of community care pushed her to want more from her work and do more as a pharmacist. Her career today, she says, is equal parts social work, health care, advocacy and human connection. “The profession is really what you make it and where you want to take it.”
“I’m inspired every day by my team, other frontline workers and the community members themselves. Even in the hardest moments, they look out for each other,” she says. Such moments don’t just motivate Grewal to keep going — they push her to strive harder. “It’s impossible not to want to do better.”
This article appears in the November/December 2025 issue of Edify
