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Familiar Face Ushers In New Era At Umatilla Drug Store

    A familiar face has returned to the counter at the Umatilla Drug Store.  Morgan Byrd, who was on staff at the drug store from 2011-2018, has returned to serve as the full-time pharmacist after a stint in the Publix corporation.
    “It’s so nice to be back serving my community,” Byrd said this week, as she greeted former customers and settled back into promoting the pharmacy’s hallmark of ‘neighbor to neighbor caring’ level of service.
    An area native and 2003 graduate of Umatilla High School, Byrd became a practicing pharmacist in 2011, joining the staff at Umatilla Drug Store and learning from the late Richard Greer.  Returning now, after Greer’s recent passing, has afforded Byrd a chance to pick up where her mentor left off.
    "I'm looking forward to getting back to having a more personal relationship… being able to get to know the customers," Byrd said.  She looks forward to more frequent chances to sit down with customers review their medicinal situations and provide greater levels of support.
    “My hope is I can do more clinical work… be able to sit down with patients and go over all their medicines with them,” to both educate and support better health.
    The mother of two, who still lives in the Umatilla area, said the family environment fostered by the Greer family since the pharmacy’s founding nearly 20 years ago helped draw her back to the pharmacy.
    "I really missed having the time to spend with my patients in a one-on-one setting."
    Byrd's return to the drug store is part of a series of changes at the facility designed to ensure its long-term place in service to the Umatilla community, with further announcements expected in the near future.
    Umatilla Drug Store is located at 901 N. Central Avenue, and can be reached at 352-669-1166.