The new CVS at the corner of Grand Park Boulevard and Ind. 32 held a ribbon cutting Oct. 8. Although the building is new to Westfield, the pharmacy manager is not.
Caitie Wood O’Dougherty lives just down the road from the new CVS on land her family has farmed for decades. In fact, the house where her father, Craig Wood, lived as a little boy was just across the street where a Speedway convenience store is now. Not only that, her mother, Sandy Wood, worked for 30 years as a pharmacy technician at the old Westfield Pharmacy on Union Street.
“Watching my mom all those years 100 percent influenced my desire to become a pharmacist,” O’Dougherty said.
A graduate of Westfield High School, O’Dougherty excelled in math and science. However, when she struggled more than she expected in organic chemistry at Butler University, she decided to change her major to psychology. She moved out of state and worked in the corporate world for several years after graduation. Eventually, she realized she still wanted to be a pharmacist.
“I’m a planner to a fault,” O’Dougherty said. “The hardest part of the whole process was just deciding to take that leap.”
In 2013, she quit her corporate job and went to work for CVS as a pharmacy tech. In 2018, O’Dougherty received a Doctor of Pharmacy degree from Butler University and accepted a position as the staff pharmacist at the CVS at 4721 E. 126th St. in Carmel. Within a couple of years, the pharmacy manager at that store retired, and O’Dougherty stepped into the managerial role.
“I’ve always wanted to open a store,” O’Dougherty said. “It’s a unique experience to be able to establish the environment.”
Westfield has grown since the days when O’Dougherty would walk to Westfield Pharmacy from school and beg her mother for candy money. In 2003, when she graduated from WHS, she had 234 students in her class. Today, her son has more than 600 students in his eighth-grade class at Westfield Middle School.
O’Dougherty also recognizes that the new Westfield store will serve a higher-traffic area than the CVS where she previously worked. Already since the store’s opening, she has filled multiple prescriptions for people who are in town for tournaments at Grand Park and left a prescription at home.
Still, her goal as a pharmacist is to provide accessible healthcare for people in the community.
“I want to make this a community pharmacy,” O’Dougherty said. “As much as I can, I want to be someone who knows my patients.”
The CVS at 730 E. Ind. 32 is open 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. every day, and the pharmacy is open 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Friday and 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. For questions, call 317-399-3079.
