She went to the University of Florida and got her doctorate in pharmacy in 1992. When her husband was transferred to Columbia, S.C., she got a job as a clinical pharmacist in neonatal ICU at Baptist Medical Center. Doing rounds and researching treatment options gave Gilroy a taste of what it was like to be a doctor. She found it exciting, and it reminded her it was something she once thought she'd like to do. She always had come up with excuses, including that it was too time consuming.
Time is irrelevant.
It took me awhile to get the maturity that life is something you live, not something you wait for to happen. When she approached her husband, who was starting a pizza delivery business, about going to medical school, he said to go for it. Gilroy, then 26, did. I don't want to have any regrets. I thought this was neat, and this is what I want to do.