In this episode of CPhT Connect, host Mike Johnston, CPhT-Adv, sits down with Eve Preciado, CPhT-Adv, a pharmacy technician educator and supervisor at University Health, to trace a career that started in a high school cafeteria and eventually came full circle into a role built around mentoring the next generation.
Eve shares the winding path from getting certified in high school, to a heartbreaking stretch of job rejections right out of school, to over a decade rising through the ranks at Walgreens—including being one of the first techs put on a manager career track. She opens up about the culture shock of transitioning into hospital pharmacy at University Health, what it meant to “start over” on a new career ladder, and how she turned her own chaotic, sink-or-swim onboarding experience into the foundation for a training program that now gives new hires the structured, supported start she never had.
In this episode, we discuss:

• Full Circle Beginnings: How a passionate high school teacher inspired Eve into pharmacy—and how she now plays that same role for the next generation of technicians at University Health.
• Persistence Pays Off: Eve’s story of relentless follow-up after repeated rejections early in her career, and the tattoo that reminds her to never give up.
• The “Shoots and Ladders” of Career Growth: Why starting over at a new organization isn’t a step backward, and how to reframe lateral moves as part of a longer career journey.
• Turning Chaos Into a System: How Eve transformed her own rough onboarding experience into a full week of structured training for new hires—and why proper orientation is critical to technician retention.
• Building a Pipeline: Eve’s work co-founding University Health’s paid pharmacy technician training program and developing 25+ SOPs to improve consistency and staff development.

About Our Guest:
Evonne “Eve” Preciado, CPhT-Adv, is an advanced certified pharmacy technician with a passion for leadership, education, and professional development within the pharmacy field. She holds advanced certifications through both PTCB and BPTS, and is currently pursuing a bachelor’s degree in Business Management. After a decade in community pharmacy at Walgreens, Eve moved into hospital pharmacy at University Health, where she has helped pilot a pharmacy data entry role, co-founded the pharmacy technician training program, and created more than 25 standard operating procedures to strengthen consistency and training across ambulatory pharmacy locations.

Listen now to hear Eve’s advice for anyone who feels stuck or worried they don’t have enough experience to get started: never give up.