Pharmacist is happy to be working where she lives

HARTINGTON — A small-town girl growing up, Kara Lippert found her way back to familiar environs when she settled into Hartington as the new pharmacist at Steffen Drug late last year.

Wife to Hartington native, Zach Lippert, Kara began working in town, leaving her job in Vermillion, S.D., where she spent the past four-plus years at the Medical Clinic Pharmacy and before that in a similar capacity at K-Mart.

Now, she is where she wants to be as her future moves into the present.

“I wanted to be in the medical field, but I saw an opportunity to be a medical provider without being a doctor per se,” Lippert said. “I feel like as a pharmacist you are a liaison between doctor and patient. There are a lot of things we can offer to patients. We can offer a cheaper medicine that can do the same thing, or we can offer to save hundreds of dollars with savings cards and sometimes even making sure they are monitoring their labs.”

Lippert is a graduate of South Dakota State University, Brookings, S.D., where she received her Doctor of Pharmacy, and before that she got her undergraduate degree in biology from Dakota Wesleyan University, Mitchell, S.D.

She has always liked medicine, however, she never entertained the idea of becoming a surgeon since she hates the idea of putting her hands into someone medically.

“I leave that to Zach, he’s a nurse,” she said.

But being a pharmacist keeps her busy, as she can also help customers avoid dangerous combinations of meds. She also tries to help when someone is not feeling well.

“We don’t diagnose or treat, but we are kind of the middleman,” Lippert said.

The idea of coming to Hartington appealed to the family of six, as Lippert is now expecting the couple’s fifth child.

“We had little kids and I wanted to be back in a small town,” Lippert said. “I used to live in a small town in South Dakota (Mount Vernon) and the opportunity presented itself.

“I love it: It’s a small town with big-city opportunities, everything you need is here,” she said. “There is a big sense of community, big families and faith and family based.

Local residents have been very nice to her.

“They’ve been very welcoming to me here. The transition has been a good one,” she