Memorial Medical Center Names 2025 Mercy Award Winner: Traci White

LAS CRUCES, NM (May 6, 2025) – Memorial Medical Center recently announced that Traci White, PharmD, PhC, BCGP, BCOP, has been recognized as the facility’s 2025 Mercy Award winner. The Mercy Award recognizes one employee from each of Lifepoint Health’s facilities who profoundly touches the lives of others and best represents the spirit and values on which the company was founded. The award is considered the highest honor a Lifepoint employee can receive.

Traci has superbly and selflessly served as Clinical Pharmacy Specialist in Oncology and Palliative Care since 2019, where she works closely with cancer patients, physicians, nurses and support staff at Memorial Medical Cancer Center.

Last year, Traci became one of only seven pharmacists nationwide to be double Board-certified in Oncology and Geriatric Pharmacy. Not only is her expertise and knowledge in oncology and palliative care second to none, but she is also widely regarded as one of the most caring and compassionate people you will ever have the pleasure of knowing.

“To say our hospital, Cancer Center and community are blessed to have Traci is an understatement. Her heart is truly one in a million,” said Dennis Knox, CEO of Memorial Medical Center. “We are incredibly proud of Traci, we are thrilled to bestow this honor on her, and we know she will represent MMC extremely well at the national level of this award process.”

As her Mercy nomination reads, “It is not unusual for Traci to round on and connect with every patient receiving cancer treatment on any given day. She remembers names, treatments, diagnosis, family names and the issues they are facing. Traci will sit and hold a patient’s hand as they are discussing end-of-life decisions. Traci has such a calming effect on our patients and knows just what to say to them at these times.”

Realizing a great need in our community and region to improve the care for serious and/or terminal illness through her prior work at a local hospice agency, Traci started the Palliative Care Program at MMC. There are numerous profoundly impactful stories detailing how Traci has personally helped countless people with her knowledge of palliative care in instances where individuals have progressed to hospice care.

One such story detailed in Traci’s nomination recounts how she was a true beacon of light for a cancer patient who suffered a major stroke. This patient was scared, aphasic, and had difficulty communicating her needs and wishes. Due to the bond Traci had forged with this hematology patient over the years, Traci was able to discuss difficult end-of-life decisions when the patient was not willing to speak to anyone else. Because of Traci’s willingness to always go the extra mile, this patient was able to be discharged from a skilled facility as she wished, be with those that she loved, and passed away peacefully with dignity and the support of hospice care.

In addition to providing daily high-quality, compassionate patient care, Traci has served on numerous boards and has volunteered for many committees, including local and national organizations that encompass advancing pharmacy practice and palliative care throughout the years. She consistently gives local, regional and national presentations to varied audiences related to supporting patients with serious illness.

Traci has served as the Chair of the Las Cruces Palliative Care Coalition since 2022, an organization of which she was a founding member. She recently served on the Community Advisory Board for the New Mexico State University Cancer Outreach Core and is a regional leader for the Network for Collaborative Oncology Development and Advancement. She has served on the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists Advisory Group on Pain Management and Palliative Care and on the Development Committee for the Society of Pain and Palliative Care Pharmacists.

Helping shape the future of healthcare, Traci has been an Assistant Professor of Pharmacy Practice for the University of New Mexico (UNM) College of Pharmacy since 2009 and has served as the Southern Regional Coordinator of Experiential Education and Assistant Director of the UNM/New Mexico State University Cooperative Pharmacy Program. She is a clinical instructor for second- and third-year UNM Doctor of Pharmacy students in the areas of ethics, cancer pain management and end-of-life care. She is also a preceptor for fourth-year students and pharmacy residents. She is a hub team member for the UNM Palliative Care Project ECHO Program as well as a board member of the New Mexico Medical Cannabis Program. Traci has a true passion for lifelong learning in many capacities and is currently completing a certificate program in Clinical Ethics through the UNM Institute of Ethics.

She does all this while working at the MMC Cancer Center full time: seeing patients, prescribing medications, implementing new pharmacy practice services, providing patient education, working on survivorship, developing treatment care plans, and overseeing the oncology pharmacy.

Each facility winner, including Traci, will be considered for Lifepoint’s 2025 companywide Mercy Award. The companywide winner will be announced this summer and honored during a ceremony in Nashville, Tenn., in August.