Helping people live better lives has always been a desire for Ryan Pinto since he was a child in school.

It took him a while and a few stops to get there, but now Dr. Pinto has reached his goal, and Community Health Northwest Florida is the proud recipient of his dedication.

Dr. Pinto recently completed his PGY1 Community Health Northwest Florida/FAMU College of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences Residency program last month and joined the CHNWF Pharmacy team as a Clinical Pharmacist.

To be sure, Dr. Pinto has been a tremendous asset to Community Health.

During his residency, Dr. Pinto in January received a $5,000 highly competitive research grant that will be used to help patients in underserved rural North Florida using antibiotics to treat infections.

He is one of only eight people in the country to receive the American Society of Health System Pharmacists Foundation (ASHP) Pharmacy Resident Research Grant.

After earning his Doctor of Pharmacy for Auburn University, Ryan worked for one year at Community Health as a resident as part of Florida A & M University College of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, Institute of Public Health. (CoPPS, IPH).

Dr. Pinto still found time to give back to the community. During Community Health events, Dr. Pinto volunteered doing blood pressure checks and helping patients with their healthcare needs.

“I like doing what we do here at Community Health,” he says. “We give back to the community I grew up in, and we help the people that really need it.”

Pinto’s path to Community Health Northwest Florida led him through some interesting places.

Born in Memphis, Tenn., Dr. Pinto moved to Pensacola in 1996 with his family when his father received a transfer duty as a Marine.

In middle school at Bellview, Dr. Pinto dreamed of becoming a genetic scientist.

“This may sound corny, but this is how God touches the world and changes little things,” he says. “That’s what I pursued.”

After graduating from Pine Forest High School, Dr. Pinto enrolled at Florida State in 2001. He partied more than he studied, he says.

“They told me to go home,” Dr. Pinto says, laughing.

This temporary setback gave him time to redirect his energies and drove him back to his studies and goal to get his degree.

Dr. Pinto buckled down and earned a biology degree from then Pensacola Junior College, a bachelor’s degree in molecular biology and master’s in software engineering from the University of West Florida.

During college, he wanted to do cancer research, and worked in a lab with a UWF professor doing research with fruit flies related to genetic components of Alzheimer disease.

After graduating In the midst of a recession in 2009, Dr. Pinto says he applied for jobs everywhere and ended up at the Florida Department of Law Enforcement as forensics technologist.

Lots of friends worked in law enforcement and helped him get this job, doing biology testing for evidence and crime scenes.

“I like the fact that I got to put bad guys in jail,” he says. “I like contributing and helping people behind the scenes.”

Almost a decade later, Dr. Pinto’s love of science and to satisfy his desire to help people led him to the pharmacy field.

Back to school again, he enrolled at PSC to catch up on science classes, took the PCAT (pharmacy entrance exam) and got in Auburn University’s four-year program at the University of South Alabama in Mobile.

He finished and moved back to Pensacola for pharmacy school rotations, shadowing pharmacists at Sacred Heart, Lakeview and a few times in Mobile.

Dr. Pinto believes he’s found his place in healthcare, and Community Health is the perfect place to fulfill his dream of working in science and helping others.

“One of the key roles of a pharmacist is reaching and touching people,” he says. “They say we’re the most approachable employees in the healthcare system because we’re knowledgeable and give good advice.”