For Paco Lei, a career in pharmacy began with something simple: helping his grandmother manage her medications.
Growing up, Paco would help her split pills and accompany her to the pharmacy to pick up prescriptions. Years later, those early experiences would become the beginning of a career he never expected to build.
In secondary school, Paco chose pharmacy for a careers assignment. After starting at the University of Waterloo in 2014, he began looking for opportunities to gain real-world experience. With no pharmacy experience to his name, he walked into pharmacies throughout the Kitchener-Waterloo area asking if they were hiring.
It took months of applications before he got his first opportunity. In June 2015, Rexall gave Paco his start in pharmacy.
“I was raised primarily by my grandmother, who instilled in me some pretty old-fashioned values: work hard, stay humble, and don’t expect opportunities to simply fall into your lap,” he says.
The Impact of Mentorship
At Rexall, Paco found mentors who helped him see pharmacy, and his own future in the profession, in a new way. His first pharmacy manager, Lisa Canham, taught him to look beyond the prescription and understand the person standing in front of him. Working in community pharmacy showed Paco how much he valued the human side of patient care and the opportunity to help people through unpredictable and often challenging circumstances.
Another colleague introduced him to the work of pharmacy technicians at University Health Network (UHN), opening his eyes to a career path he had not previously considered.
“That was when everything clicked,” Paco says. “I realized that becoming a pharmacy technician aligned with what I wanted from a career: working with patients, being part of a healthcare team, and making a meaningful difference in someone’s care.”
He went on to study in the pharmacy technician program at Centennial College, where professors including Julee Joseph, Clara Wong, Cindy Teng, Brian Lam and Elizabeth D’Addetta became additional mentors and role models. They helped him develop not only the technical skills required of an RPhT, but also a vision for the kind of professional he wanted to become.
After graduating and becoming a licensed pharmacy technician, Paco set out to discover just how far he could go in the profession. His first position as an RPhT at UHN’s specialized Transplant Outpatient Pharmacy gave him the opportunity to work with high-cost medications and help patients from across Canada navigate drug access during their transplant journeys.
He later moved into public health practice, where he now supports the regulatory oversight and delivery of immunization programs through vaccine distribution, cold-chain compliance, and adherence to public health standards for York Region. Along the way, he also found another way to give back: education.
Leading the Next Generation
Today, Paco is a professor in the pharmacy technician programs at both Humber Polytechnic and Centennial College. For him, teaching is an opportunity to give back to the institutions and mentors that helped shape his own career, and to help the next generation of pharmacy technicians see the possibilities available to them.
“I want my students to see the possibilities that exist beyond graduation and understand that being a pharmacy technician can lead to so many different paths,” he says. “Most importantly, I want them to embrace their profession, take pride in the RPhT title, and know that they are capable of more than they may realize.”
That belief is also at the heart of Paco’s approach to patient care. He sees pharmacy technicians as playing an important role in both the human and technical sides of the health-care system: building trust with patients while ensuring the medication-related work behind their care is completed with precision and accuracy.
From medication preparation and dispensing to documentation, calculations, inventory management and medication safety, much of a pharmacy technician’s work happens behind the scenes. However, Paco says, those technical responsibilities are inseparable from patient care.
“Every detail matters because ultimately, there is a person depending on us.”
Advocating for a More Expansive Future
Receiving the OPA Pharmacy Technician of the Year Award has reinforced Paco’s commitment to making those contributions more visible. He sees the recognition not as an individual achievement, but as a reflection of the many pharmacists, technicians, educators, mentors, colleagues and friends who have supported him throughout his career.
“My career has never been a one-person show,” he says. “Every person who took the time to teach me, encourage me, challenge me, or simply believe in me has helped shape the pharmacy technician I am today.”
Professionally, the award has also given Paco a larger platform to advocate for pharmacy technicians and the possibilities within the profession. He hopes to contribute to changes in professional practice, education and curriculum development, while encouraging students and new technicians to explore opportunities beyond traditional roles.
That sense of possibility extends to his vision for the future of pharmacy. Paco is excited by the profession’s continued evolution and conversations around expanding the roles and scope of practice for pharmacists and pharmacy technicians. He points to examples from other countries, where technicians have taken on broader responsibilities, as a glimpse of what may be possible in Canada.
For Paco, the future is not simply something to observe; it is something pharmacy professionals can help shape through practice, education, leadership and advocacy.
“I’m excited about a future where pharmacy technicians have more opportunities to use our knowledge and skills to their full potential, while continuing to improve how we support our patients and contribute to the healthcare system.”
