New Mexicans to Know: Dr. Lex Garcia takes over executive directorship at NMPhA

By Wende Schwingendorf – Managing Editor, Albuquerque Business First
January 7, 2025

Dr. Alexandra “Lex” Garcia has some big shoes to fill. As the new executive director of the New Mexico Pharmacists Association, she takes over from her predecessor, who held the post for 34 years.

She is the first executive director in the organization's 96 year history, whose primary mission is to advance, protect, and promote high-quality pharmacist-provided patient-centered care in New Mexico, who has her Doctor of Pharmacy degree, and the first woman to hold the post.

“My predecessor, Dale Tinker, has laid an incredible foundation over the last three decades. I am very excited to step into this role to expand upon that strong foundation with a new perspective and bring along my experience of being a practicing pharmacist. I'm hoping to bring a boots-on-the-ground approach to the organization and continue to further our impact throughout the state.”

Garcia is a 13th-generation New Mexican from Peñasco. She received her undergraduate degree from New Mexico State University and her doctorate from the University of New Mexico. She says she “has healthcare in her blood” and is the granddaughter of Mardoqueo Chacon, the founding member of El Centro Family Health, a group of health clinics in the northern part of the state. It was his lifetime of service to expanding access to care in rural New Mexico that first inspired her to enter the profession.

Following graduation, she went into retail pharmacy, where she learned the importance of cultivating relationships with her patients. She then joined a telehealth startup, which got her interested in healthcare innovation and pharmacy regulations. Her interest in advocacy work piqued when she witnessed a friend who successfully changed access to prosthetic and orthotic coverage in New Mexico by working with the state legislature. These combined experiences fuel her passion for healthcare reform.

Albuquerque Business First recently visited with Garcia to learn about how she discovered advocacy work, her new role at the NMPhA, and what lies ahead.

Albuquerque Business First:

Talk a little bit about some of the things you have going right now, not just legislatively but within the profession.

Dr. Lex Garcia: One thing I’m excited about is a work group we've established between NMPhA, the UNM College of Pharmacy, the Board of Pharmacy, state health systems pharmacists, federal pharmacists, and other stakeholders in order to find common ground within our profession and go into our advocacy work aligned and stronger together.

The NMPhA will be speaking in support of several bills impacting pharmacists and pharmacies. More than 90% of pharmacists that graduate from UNM stay and practice in New Mexico; this exemplifies how dedicated our pharmacists are to serving their communities.

What we are seeing is that the monopolistic practices of pharmacy benefit management (PBM), combined with low reimbursement rates, are driving our pharmacies out of business and leaving New Mexicans without a place to get their medication.

Albuquerque Business First:

What are some of the national trends you’re seeing now?

Dr. Lex Garcia: What we’re focusing on now is utilizing pharmacists’ abilities to their full scope. The curriculum of pharmacy is robust. Any pharmacist in practice now either has a Doctor of Pharmacy degree or at least 20 years of experience, and what we’re starting to see is that we’re not taking full advantage of the training, knowledge, and skills of our pharmacists.

New Mexico led the charge on pharmacists’ prescriptive authority. In 1993, the Legislature passed the pharmacist clinician certification, which allowed pharmacists to get additional hands-on training in order to prescribe in our state. For example, a pharmacist can take this certification along with 300 additional patient encounters, establish a protocol with a physician, and they are then able to treat a patient in the same way a nurse practitioner or physician assistant would.

I'd love to see a future where our pharmacists, our medication experts, will be able to help expand access to care in New Mexico by prescribing laboratory tests and medications. Pharmacist prescribing not only reduces the time you have to wait to get an appointment with a provider, but lightens the load for the entire healthcare system.

Albuquerque Business First:

Is there anything else important that you’d like to talk about?

Dr. Lex Garcia: I'm excited about the work we are doing to give pharmacists the ability to treat common conditions. For example, if someone tests positive for COVID, if trained to do so, their pharmacist can prescribe medication on the spot rather than requiring the additional step of getting a prescription from their doctor or an urgent care clinic.

We recently worked with the Medical Board to set up a protocol for uncomplicated urinary tract infections that can be treated directly by a pharmacist.

A national statistic shows that 88% of Americans live within five miles of a pharmacy, highlighting the critical role that pharmacists play in our communities. By empowering pharmacists, we can strengthen the trust and relationships they build with patients, enabling them to go beyond dispensing medications to prescribing and managing care.