Dr. Varner brings more than 22 years of pharmacist experience in hospitals such as Emory University Hospital, Emory Decatur Hospital, Emory Long Term Acute Care Hospital, Piedmont Hospital and Northside Hospital. She also has experience in ambulatory care, long term care consulting and geriatrics. During her residency, Dr. Varner researched, planned and provided strategic clinical and operational management for the Emory Decatur Hospital Anticoagulation Management Service, where she served as Clinical Pharmacist and Clinical Coordinator for eight years. Dr. Varner has thoroughly enjoyed serving as a preceptor for 21 years to Advanced Pharmacy Practice Experiences (APPEs), Introductory Pharmacy Practice Experiences (IPPEs) and PGY-1 Pharmacy Practice Residents.

Her background includes adult, geriatric and neonatal pharmaceutical care delivery, and her area of focus is geriatrics and adult critical care. Her experience includes clinical care of patients in the areas of adult critical care, internal medicine, surgery, neonatal critical care, emergency medicine and psychiatry. Her areas focus are management of pain, agitation, delirium and anxiety in the critical care setting as well as anticoagulation, and infectious disease management of adult and geriatric inpatients.

Dr. Varner enjoys serving as a mentor to pharmacy students who wish to pursue all areas of pharmacy and she has served as a mentor to many of her students who have pursued a PGY-1 Pharmacy Practice Residency and PGY-2 Specialized Residency. She teaches a variety of classes including Clinical Pharmacy, Integrated Therapeutics, Case Studies and she teaches all Geriatrics lectures as well as a Geriatrics elective which she designed and implemented. Dr. Varner also currently teaches APPE and IPPE students at Emory Long Term Acute Care Hospital where she is currently performing research on assisting patients from weaning from ventilators with pharmacotherapy to treat psychiatric related disorders.

Dr. Varner is the proud mother of an amazing daughter and son and places a very high priority on her faith, family and serving within her church. She considers her position as a pharmacist and professor a blessing because she has the opportunity to make a difference in the lives of future healthcare providers. She encourages every student to seek their highest level of academic achievement while always holding the highest professional standards and accountability.