2025 Health Care Champions Specialty Provider: Brandi Bowers

Brandi Bowers serves some of the community’s most vulnerable members in her role as a pharmacist and clinical associate professor with Mercy’s MSU Care Clinic on campus at Missouri State University. She also works to equip future health care providers to do the same.

“The health of a community depends on the health of its individual members,” she says.

Bowers works with Springfield-area patients in myriad ways: She’s a board-certified ambulatory care pharmacist, for example, providing medication therapy services. In this aspect of her job, Bowers meets one-on-one with patients to adjust their medications, offer education and help each patient set and achieve personal health goals.

MSU Care is a partnership between MSU and Mercy Springfield Communities. It aims to serve populations who may be left out of current health care structures, such as uninsured adults with incomes below 200% of the federal poverty level.

Another aspect of Bowers’ work is her faculty role with the University of Missouri-Kansas City as a clinical associate professor at the School of Pharmacy at MSU, where she is also an adjunct faculty member teaching at the McQueary College of Health and Human Services. All of the work supports those who graduate from the UMKC School of Pharmacy at MSU: She says 80% go on to practice in Missouri, and 70% in southwest Missouri.

“These graduates are truly the future of health care in the Ozarks,” she says.

Colleagues say Bowers prioritizes patients and students.

“In addition to her clinical work, Dr. Bowers is a passionate educator,” says Justin Gassel, practice manager of Mercy’s MSU Care Clinic. She encourages students to take the lead in patient visits while ensuring that every aspect of care is addressed. Dr. Bowers teaches and provides care with deep compassion and consistently puts patients at the center of her work.”

Meanwhile, her role doesn’t end with day-to-day clinical practice or teaching efforts. “I actively work to share the lessons learned within our clinic with other providers locally and nationally through scholarly efforts,” she says.

Bowers has also presented at state and national pharmacy conferences on improving pharmacy education, addressing health misinformation with patients and expanding vaccine access.

“By sharing lessons learned at MSU Care in professional forums through scholarly work, I am able to champion the role of the pharmacist in improving the health of the community using my work in the Ozarks as a foundation,” she says.