VCU Women Changing the Face of Health Sciences

Local Legend Honoree: Dr. Eleanor Sue Cantrell

Sue Cantrell is the Dean of the University of Appalachia College of Pharmacy, and President of the University of Appalachia. Dr. Cantrell, a native of the Appalachian region, was born in Elizabethton, Tennessee, grew up in Jonesboro, Tennessee, and after high school graduation, completed pre-pharmacy studies at East Tennessee State University. After moving to Virginia, she graduated from the Medical College of Virginia School of Pharmacy in Richmond, VA. She married Gregory Cantrell, a native of Pound, Virginia, and they lived in Norton where Dr. Cantrell was director of pharmacy services for St. Mary’s Hospital in Norton.

She returned to the Medical College of Virginia, Virginia Commonwealth University, to obtain her Medical Doctor degree, and then completed a traditional internal medicine residency in Omaha, Nebraska. She and her family returned to southwest Virginia, where she opened her internal medicine practice in Norton. After several years in private practice, she accepted an offer to direct an occupational medicine practice back in Omaha, and they returned to that area for two years. This experience, along with previous work and exposure to general preventive medicine, sparked a greater interest in preventive health. In 1991, she accepted a position with the Virginia Department of Health (VDH) as district director of the Lenowisco Health District (Lee, Norton, Wise, and Scott counties), which she held until accepting the position at UACP. She completed a certificate course in management at University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, in 2000, offered jointly by the School of Public Health and the Kenan-Flagler Business School.

Dr. Cantrell’s ongoing professional interests are in improving the health of residents and communities in southwest Virginia by improving access to quality health information and quality health care. Her other interests are in educating patients and providers about the need to “treat to goal” when treating hypertension, diabetes, hyperlipidemia; educating “smart” healthcare consumers; and chronic disease prevention and intervention, including identification and reduction of risk factors for chronic diseases, primarily obesity, tobacco use, and lack of physical activity.

Read Dr. Cantrell's profile on the Local Legends website.

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