Dr. Brian Cross grew up in a small college town like Johnson City in Morgantown, West Virginia and attended West Virginia University, where he received his first pharmacy degree. He remembers his youth as vibrant and lively when the students were there and peaceful during the warm summer days.
As an associate professor in the Department of Pharmacy at Gatton, the vibrant and lively town of Johnson City has become his new home. Cross gets a lot of enjoyment in training a new generation of young pharmacists. He believes that teachers enjoy teaching because they can speak to the “younger selves” of people and try to give them advice that they can take with them into the future.
Cross’s passion in life is to help other people get where they want to go, and to that end, his advice for his younger self is to listen to people that give you advice because they know what they’re talking about. He also added, get up on time and do what you said you were going to do.
“All the things that I would say to my younger self I try to tell my students every day,” said Cross.
Before taking a position at the Bill Gatton College of Pharmacy, the Cross’s lived in a small town in Mississippi. While there Cross commuted about an hour to teach at the University of Tennessee-Memphis. He was part of the faculty at UT Memphis’ College of Pharmacy for ten years. Then in 2005, he was offered a position in Kingsport with Holston Medical Group.
Five years later, the College of Pharmacy opened at ETSU and the Dean of the college, Larry Calhoun, requested that Cross become a professor at ETSU.
When he was in his doctoral program, he received the opportunity to travel to New Zealand for six weeks. He enjoys traveling almost more than anything.
Luckily for him, he is now a Fulbright Scholar recipient, which will enable to see even more of the world.
“It’s an opportunity to engage with another university in a different country and both teach to and learn from those people,” said Cross.
“I think being able to go to someplace that you’ve never been and experience people that you’ve never experienced is something that we enjoy as a family and try to give our daughter as much as possible.”
Cross will use his Fulbright to move his whole family to Dublin, Ireland for the 2018 fall semester.
