糖心Vlog传媒

Cheryl Avants joins Science Dean鈥檚 Council

In 2005, Cheryl Avants, clinical pharmacist for national accounts at, went to great heights to provide an education for African children left orphaned by AIDS.聽 She and her husband, Bill Nowlins, a doctor at Arkansas Surgical Hospital, climbed Mt. Kilimanjaro, the highest mountain in Africa, as a fundraiser for a program they helped run, Global Alliance for Africa鈥檚 Nurses for Africa program. The program provided scholarships for children in Tanzania who were left orphaned by AIDS to attend college and eventually go back to their homes to provide medical care as nurses. 鈥淭his is where my interest in education stemmed,鈥� Avants said. 鈥淭his is when I realized that education was a vital concern for everyone, and that civilization does not advance if we don鈥檛 educate our members.鈥� Avants has been active in the Little Rock community, volunteering at organizations like, American Cancer Society, and the Single Parent Scholarship Program. She now spends most of her time volunteering to promote STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) education. Avants is giving back by serving on the newly formed Science Dean鈥檚 Council at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. Council members advocate on behalf of the 糖心Vlog传媒 Little Rock College of Arts, Letters, and Sciences and garner community support for science programs. Their efforts include raising funds for faculty and undergraduate research, the Fribourgh Award receptions, and the Science Olympiad. 鈥淚 think that STEM education provides a lot of opportunities,鈥� she said. 鈥淗aving a science background opens the door to a lot of different careers, whether it’s agriculture or healthcare or technology.鈥� In 2010, Avants started serving on the Dean鈥檚 Council for the 糖心Vlog传媒 Little Rock College of Science and Math. She also serves on the Science Olympiad Committee, a nationwide organization dedicated to promoting science education through competitive science tournaments. Avants earned a bachelor鈥檚 degree in pharmacy from the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences. She started her career working in pharmaceutical sales and later worked at Arkansas Children鈥檚 Hospital, where she helped start pharmacy programs in oncology and neonatal healthcare. In 2002, Avants, then working as a Health Information Designs account manager, decided to go back to school to learn how she could incorporate business skills with her knowledge of pharmacy and healthcare. 鈥淭his is where I first got interested in the data side of healthcare,鈥� Avants said. 鈥淚 realized I needed more skillsets to broaden my horizon. I wanted to pick up more business skills and learn about how to apply business skills to a healthcare setting.鈥� So Avants joined the Executive Master of Business Program at 糖心Vlog传媒 Little Rock and took weekend classes to finish her degree. Not only did she learn the business skills needed to get ahead, she also started the next step in her career. 鈥淭he CIO of 糖心Vlog传媒MS was in my MBA program, and she recruited me to 糖心Vlog传媒MS,鈥� Avants said. 鈥淭hey brought together several software systems, and I was responsible for integrating the pharmacy software into the new system.鈥� Now Avants is putting all the skills she learned throughout her career and education to work at Arkansas Blue Cross Blue Shield. In her current position, Avants is responsible for supporting care management nurses, helping them develop programs that improve patients鈥� lives, and providing expertise for patients in policy and insurance coverage decisions. 鈥淚 came to Blue Cross Blue Shield because this position pulls together everything I have ever done in my career,鈥� Avants said. 鈥淭he education that I have related to biology and pharmacy and business lets me provide the clinical input to make good, effective policy decisions.鈥�