Sereda White is a clinical pharmacist who has worked at Jackson since 2002. She previously spent more than fourteen years as a pharmacist and manager at Walgreens.
Coming to Jackson from that corporate environment was a bit of a culture shock, says White, a high-energy, no-nonsense steward who has never been afraid to speak out when necessary.
White first got active out of frustration with a bad software program that had been implemented by a Jackson contractor that made pharmacy work much less effective and efficient.
“I got active when this outsource management company came on board because I couldn’t understand how JHS could let this company come in here and destroy what little control we had,” she recalls.
White’s activism on this issue brought her to the attention of Local 1991, and led to her becoming a steward.
Since then, White has been a leader on several issues, both inside the hospital and in local and state politics. She participated in the campaign to pass the Jackson bond referendum and traveled to Tallahassee to lobby legislators on Medicaid expansion and other healthcare issues.\
White is active in the community as well. She is a Big Sister and helped raise a niece, now in college at FAMU. She also started the Barbara White Foundation in memory of her mother, who died from pancreatic cancer.