Heather Cox Hall, PharmD, is a Clinical Assistant Professor in the Division of Infectious Diseases (ID), and Pharmacy Clinical Coordinator for Infectious Diseases, with responsibility, in collaboration with ID’s Amy Mathers, for UVA Medical Center’s antimicrobial stewardship program. She also serves as director for UVA’s PGY2 Infectious Diseases pharmacy residency program. Heather, a native of New Brunswick, Canada, completed a B.S. in chemistry at McGill University in Montreal, and a Doctor of Pharmacy (PharmD) degree at Nova Southeastern University in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. Residency training in infectious diseases and antimicrobial stewardship at Wake Forest University followed. She joined the UVA faculty in 2005.
Heather, husband Joe Hall (PGY 3) and baby Charlie.
I hail from Saint John, New Brunswick — not to be confused with St. John’s, Newfoundland; some might be familiar with Saint John as the city you drive through after crossing the Maine border on the way to Prince Edward Island or Nova Scotia. Although I was supposed to grow up loving hockey like any other self-respecting Canadian, my younger sister and I were instead immersed in music lessons, ballet, and basketball. (My father actually played with the Canadian national basketball team in the 1970s, so the interest in basketball was probably inevitable.)
My husband, Joe Hall, is a third-year resident in internal medicine at UVA, and we live in Crozet with our son, Charlie.
Why medicine? Why infectious diseases and pharmacy?
I always loved math and science, but wasn’t drawn to engineering like others in my family. As I transitioned from an undergraduate chemistry degree to my pharmacology training, I became fascinated by the interplay of drug, microbe and host. As a student pharmacist, I completed a clinical clerkship in HIV pharmacotherapy, at a time when we had significantly fewer treatment options; too many of our patients would succumb to resistant virus, for which we had little to offer. This helped shape my professional interest in understanding antimicrobial resistance and working to preserve the efficacy of existing therapies for future generations of patients. It is a rapidly evolving field with formidable challenges — but it is at the center of modern hospital safety, and that makes it exciting.
Heather and son Charlie.
What brought you to UVA?
During residency at Wake Forest I trained with several alumni of UVA’s internal medicine and infectious diseases programs, and they spoke highly of their experiences here. I was thrilled to have the opportunity to begin my career in our revered ID division, where I could work alongside leading experts in the field. I also felt Molly Hughes and I were BFFs by the end of my interview, and Dr. Rein offered to adopt me that same day. I was only slightly crushed when I heard him make the same offer to someone else several months later. The warm hospitality of Charlottesville and its residents reminds me of home in the Canadian Maritimes (sans the harsh winter).
Proudest achievement outside the professional realm?
Together with Joe, becoming parents to baby Charlie in January 2015.
What are you usually doing in your spare time?
Virginia Consort: Heather is in the middle row, third from right.
I’ve been fortunate to sing as an alto with the Virginia Consort for the last 10 years, which continues a lifelong involvement with music. I also love to cook and watch college basketball. These days, I’m more likely to be chasing around a busy almost-one-year-old (if I’m lucky, at a winery or cidery).
If you could learn to do anything, what would it be?
Play the guitar — which I might have pursued long ago had I not been limited by tiny hands and an aversion to calloused fingertips.
What’s one thing you always have in your fridge?
New Brunswick maple syrup. My grandfather was part owner of a maple syrup camp, where we loved eating maple candy off of the snow.
Where are you going on your next vacation?
Every summer we go to my parents’ cottage on Magaguadavic Lake in rural New Brunswick, where we live off-grid with no wi-fi and no U.S. cell service. I don’t see my family as often as I would like, so this is a time to reconnect with them while enjoying stunning views in all directions and every outdoor activity you can imagine.
Words to live by?
Seek first to understand, then to be understood (Stephen Covey).
What about you would surprise us?
I worked as a bilingual telephone operator for the New Brunswick Telephone Company (a summer job after high school). Along with providing directory assistance and placing collect calls for inmates at the provincial correctional center, I became adept at deflecting marriage proposals from strangers, saying goodnight to nursing home residents who called every evening before bed, and convincing callers that it was difficult to help them read handwriting over the phone.
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