A Conversation with Jeremy Yount, CPhT, PTCB

Tell us a little bit about yourself, your family, where you grew up, and where you live now.

I was born and raised in California and have always lived in Northern California. My family moved frequently—about 15 times by the time I was 14—but the longest place I lived was a small town called Dairyville, California, where my parents still reside. As soon as I turned 18, I moved to San Francisco, and I have lived here ever since, for a total of 12 years. I honestly can’t imagine anywhere else my spouse and I would live, at least within the United States.

Tell us more about your spouse.

My spouse and I met on Tinder in 2014 and have been together ever since—nearly 11 years. We have been married since 2017, and they are genuinely amazing, smart, and kind. They hold two master’s degrees in Marketing/Advertising and International Law and currently work in marketing and advertising for a large tech company, which requires frequent travel.

What do you like about living in San Francisco?

So many things: convenience and the fact that most people are genuinely kind. Where I grew up, there wasn’t much diversity—it was very non-diverse, close-minded, and egocentric. In contrast, I find San Francisco to be incredibly welcoming. The Bay Area in general embraces anyone and everyone, and you can find your own little cliques and niches. We have a very nice bubble in the city, which is a bubble to the rest of the world, and I think it's good to acknowledge that bubble, but I'm more than happy to accept it any day.

Food is another huge draw; there's a restaurant on every single corner. There are so many options.

I live in SOMA (South of Market), and we got lucky moving in during COVID, when rates were better. We’re a block away from Costco and a block away from Trader Joe’s, so there’s really no need to have a car—we can walk everywhere. One of my favorite little things is seeing people with their small buggy carts carrying groceries; I always think it’s just so cute!

 

What do you find fulfilling about being a Pharm Tech in the SMS?

By way of background, I’ve worked as a pharmacy technician for about 10 to 11 years. For eight of those years, I worked in specialty pharmacy, where I managed people with pre- and post-exposure HIV, with additional crossover into oncology, transplant services, and pediatric growth hormones—basically anything that's high cost, high touch, and insurance plans don't want to take over or take care of.

My whole goal is to make sure that the patients get the best care possible, as quickly as possible, for the lowest cost.  I mean, we all know how privatized healthcare system is. It can be very cost-prohibitive to our patients, and [insurance] benefit navigation, especially, to make it sound very dull and boring, is a complete and utter bureaucracy.

I'm very grateful for my team. The SMS is the best team I've ever worked on. Everyone's so kind. Everyone listens to each other. But I think the most fulfilling part is making sure that patients get the care that they deserve. This sounds really cheesy now that I say it.

You're also going to school at the same time as working full-time. Remind us what degree or certificate you're working towards, and what do you hope to complete do after you complete your schooling?.

I’m currently in school to become a nurse. As I mentioned, I’ve worked in pharmacy for a long time, and while I’m more than happy with what I do, I’ve wanted to do something different—and something more. I’ve thought about it for years, but it’s easy to stay comfortable with your position—it’s that background motivation and complacency that can hold you back.

The nurses I’ve worked with truly inspired me to take this step, and I want to give a specific shoutout to Joe Gonzalez. Even though I’m a pharmacy technician, I report to Joe, and our one-on-one check-ins helped push me to return to school and even supported me through getting into the program.

I’ve always loved working in the medical field; it’s what I’ve always wanted to do. I waited so long largely because living in San Francisco is expensive, and I didn’t feel I had the financial ability to sustain both school and everything else. Joe recommended the program I’m currently in and has been my number-one advocate, helping me balance full-time work with full-time school. It truly feels like the stars aligned—cheesy as it sounds, but I think I’m a cheesy individual!

Our program requires travel for clinical rotations. The school’s main location is based in Utah, but California state law requires nursing programs to have a primary location in California in order to complete clinical rotations here. Because of this, the school partners with medical facilities across the country, from Alaska to Florida. Some students complain about the travel, but one thing I love about this department—and healthcare in general—is how it puts your own life into perspective. For me, it makes you more humble. There are people who have it worse than I do, and while that doesn’t diminish your own feelings or experiences, it truly helps put everything into perspective.

Once you get your nursing degree, what do you hope to do?  Do you hope to stay in palliative care as a nurse?

I would like to stay with UCSF unless something truly unexpected happens between now and then. Ideally, I would love to transition my current role into a nursing position in palliative care. I really, really enjoy everyone on my team—not just saying that—and, as you likely know, the nurses are incredible: smart, competent, and kind. The same is true of the clinicians and prescribers.

If that were not to occur, I would love to go back to infectious disease because I worked in it for so long. I think that a big reason is not only familiarity, but also, there's still such a large stigmatization associated with HIV, especially within the LGBTQ plus community. While HIV is not as prevalent as it was in the 80s and 90s, luckily, there's still that major stigmatization with people in my community. Even though you look at the World Health Organization, there are more heterosexual individuals living with HIV than those who are homosexual. And I think the numbers are that there are more women and men, which is a whole different conversation.

But for my own self-centeredness, maybe dermatology. Give me the fillers and give me the creams, make my skin nice!

It doesn't sound like you a lot of time outside of work in school, but what kind of activities or hobbies are you passionate about outside of work and school?

That’s a great question. When I have free time—and this may sound generic—I really enjoy traveling. My spouse is from France, and before I started school, we traveled to Europe three to four times a year to visit family and explore different countries. Since starting school, that has had to slow down a bit, but we recently took a trip to Cabo and are heading back to France in December to visit family.

Beyond travel, I’m very into plants. Oh my god, do you guys want some plants? If you want some plants, let me know. I have too many plants. I'm a major plant person. Indoor plants only. Not outdoor plants. I used to do propagate a lot more prior to school. It's slowed down a bit, but we easily have over 50 plants in our apartment.

Favorite place to travel?

I would have to say broadly within Europe, especially within Western Europe.  France is honestly great. We've traveled all around the different regions and it's just a beautiful, beautiful country. A lot of the stereotypes of egocentric, aggressiveness are not true. And I just want to candidly say my French is horrible, but luckily, my spouse is French. I have a personal interpreter.

What is something your co-workers would be surprised to learn about you?

I honestly don't know, as I'm very open about all aspects in my life. And if anyone asks anything, I'll basically answer it. So I think we just need to be more open and free giving with info that's not HIPAA. I love ooky, spooky horror everything and occultism stuff, like tarot reading. I'm not into the metaphysical crystal energies, but I like jewelry, gemstones, and the meanings behind them. Horror movies are my favorite genre because they are so ridiculous that they are often funny!

If money was no object, what would you be doing?

If money was no object, what would I be doing? Probably for the first month, absolutely nothing. Just being an absolute couch potato - have zero little to no obligations. 

I would love to just be able to travel more. Travel to locations we haven't been to. I would love to go to Canada, all over Europe. We talked about going to Korea and Japan at some point.

Also, a dog rescue would be great! Somewhere where people can adopt senior, disabled, or neglected dogs. If they aren’t ever adopted, they could stay with us and live their best lives!

Where would you live?

I think one house in the Bay Area would be great. Have you ever seen that video of Zedd’s house? They did a tour of their house on YouTube, and I'm like, I want that house, but like in the Bay.