When Mollie Patton found out that she'd be inducted into the 2025 Gamecock Athletic Hall of Fame, she was in the middle of a work day, far away from the soccer field where she once made Gamecock history.
Her emotions ran from gratitude to honor and then to overwhelming joy, says Patton, who earned her pharmacy degree in 2013. “Being a Gamecock student-athlete is one of my greatest accomplishments.”
Patton’s journey to the College of Pharmacy was anything but conventional. Originally an engineering major, she switched to exercise science on her first day of orientation. A chance encounter with a friend of her grandfather altered her path again and led to a pharmacy career.
“One of his friends who I’d never met came up to me at his funeral and told me that my grandfather, who worked for Eli Lilly, thought I would make a great pharmacist,’” Patton recalls. “I had never even had that on my radar.”
Her teammate Mary Alice Foster connected her with Brandon Bookstaver, a pharmacy professor, and the rest is history.
Being a Gamecock student-athlete is one of my greatest accomplishments.
During her soccer career at USC, Patton was a two-time All- American who helped lead the Gamecock women’s soccer team to its first Southeastern Conference title. She still holds the program record for shutouts in a single season and was named team MVP in 2008 and 2009.
But there were challenges along the way. A severe concussion during her freshman year sidelined her for an entire season and required her to wear a helmet when she returned to play. The helmet almost ended her career early.
“I did quit soccer, I think, for a total of 12 hours until I accepted it,” she says.
Today, Patton serves as senior product manager at Kroger Health, leading five product teams that support nearly 16 million patients annually. She is one of four pharmacists on her technology team, bringing clinical expertise to digital innovation.
Patton maintains a deep connection to her alma mater, even from her current home in Cincinnati, Ohio.
“I love representing who we are,” she says. “I just love the education they provided and the support they’ve provided me even to this day.”
For current pharmacy students, Patton’s advice is clear.
“Be a constant learner. Stay open to what journey you might go on because you honestly never know. The connections you make along the way matter just as much as what you learn in the classroom.”
Topics: Alumni, Pharm.D. Program