Erica Wang
Erica Wang
Clinical Pharmacy Specialist – Cardiac Surgery
Profile submitted by: Ishan Chaudhari
Brief description of role or responsibilities
Dr. Erica Wang is the Clinical Pharmacy Specialist in Cardiac Surgery at St. Paul’s Hospital.
Describe how the individual or team made a positive contribution to patient care or their pharmacy department:
One of my earliest vivid memories of Erica was from 2021 when I reached out for advice on how to write a PAM mentor profile. If her out-of-office haikus weren’t evidence enough, her everyday thoughtfulness and conciseness made her the first person that came to mind for writing advice. The guidance that followed has continued to be a fixture of her mentorship; commit to authenticity and remember your own voice.
(In case you were wondering, her other writing advice was start to with “when I first met them, I thought…”)
Over the years, what followed was a mentorship that encompassed sage dog care wisdom, invaluable career advice, candid conversations about family and friendship, several books that took me far too long to return and countless of the world’s most helpful FYI emails. In many ways, Erica exemplified qualities I desperately wish I had. I admired her consideration of others, the depth and conciseness of her thoughts and how she could be so candid yet so kind. Perhaps through osmosis I hoped to leech some of those qualities. But what Erica taught me about mentorship is while it can be easy to identify elements that are missing from yourself, it is often harder to recognize which parts of you aren’t shining through.
She taught me that navigating the pressure of conformity and the human need for authenticity requires courage, self-awareness, and the support of those around you. A great mentor doesn’t need to be someone that mirrors you perfectly. Perhaps they are the ones holding the mirror, and with an extra bit of imagination help you sift through what you see.