NSU Distinguished Alumna, Nilda Banchs (Pharm. D., ’01) Leads A Career Of Service Through Puerto Rico’s Toughest Times

Dr. Nilda Banchs is the President of Farmacia El Tuque in Ponce, Puerto Rico, and co-owner of the pharmacy’s parent corporation, ServiFarma, Inc. She is a proud NSU Distinguished Alumna from the NSU College of Pharmacy.

Farmacia El Tuque is a 16-year old community pharmacy where Banchs oversees a staff of 20 employees. They serve a community of 50,000 residents, most of whom live in significantly underprivileged conditions.

Among her employees are NSU alumni Juan Santos Olivares (Pharm. D. ’05) and Nichole Arcelay (Pharm. D. ’17), and current intern and NSU Pharm.D. candidate, Melanie Pacheco.

“We operate as a community pharmacy… we offer special prices, sometimes sacrificing profit margin, to make our products more attainable for our community, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic,” Banchs mentioned.

Banchs and her staff have served the Ponce community through the aftermath of Hurricane Maria in 2017, the earthquakes in southwestern Puerto Rico at the end of 2019 and into 2020, and now during the COVID-19 pandemic. “We have learned to adapt to rapidly changing, and sometimes dangerous, conditions to continue to serve our people,” said Dr. Banchs.

Banchs’ staff is facing what they refer to as “a different concept of their profession.”

They continue to serve their community now with protective gear, acrylic barriers, patient holding areas in tents outside of the pharmacy, taking all patients’ temperature, and practicing social distancing all-around inside the building.

Dr. Banchs remembers her years at NSU as the experience that taught her to be a new and more compassionate mentor and pharmacist. “NSU guides the student, step-by-step, through components of science and compassion that I now instill in my own staff,” she said.

“This is a tough chapter in the history of Puerto Rico, after Hurricane Maria and the earthquakes, because it has surfaced pain and loss, but it is our people’s gratefulness and words of encouragement that keeps us going,” said Dr. Banchs.

Beginning in December 2019, several earthquakes ravaged parts of Puerto Rico including a magnitude 6.4 earthquake that struck the region on January 7, 2020. Through the NSU Cares Fund, Dr. Banchs and her team received emergency financial support to set up tents outside of their pharmacy to help victims and community members at no charge during the weeks following the earthquakes.

“Our patients often say, ‘gracias for being there, for your service, and for not closing your doors,’ and that means so much to us,” Dr. Arcelay added.

The NSU Cares Fund helps NSU students, alumni, faculty, and staff in the aftermath of natural disasters or traumatic events. To learn more, apply, or make a gift, visit nova.edu/nsucares.