‘We Were Instant Friends’: From White Coats to Wedding Vows

For MCPHS Manchester alumni Megan and Joel Brown, pharmacy school sparked a love story that came full circle on campus.

Though they had talked about marriage, Megan Robillard and Joel Brown’s first trip to look at rings was memorable—just not exactly smooth.

Megan still grins when she thinks about it. Joel, meanwhile, just shakes his head and laughs. “I was being a jerk,” he says now. “We don’t need that story on the record.”

Megan, of course, is busting at the seams to tell it. But holds back.

That dynamic—playful back-and-forth layered over deep affection—has followed the couple, both members of Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences (MCPHS) class of 2012, from pharmacy school to marriage, parenthood, and shared careers in oncology. And on Valentine’s Day, their love story feels especially right: one built not on grand romantic gestures, but on shared purpose, resilience, and a bit of chaos.

Especially on the day Joel proposed.

Nervous Energy and a Very Long Walk

Megan felt something was off from the start.

They'd come back to Manchester to pick up their race packets for the Manchester Half Marathon, walking the same streets they used to hit back in pharmacy school. Joel was quieter than usual. Nervous. His energy, she says, was “off.”

Megan couldn't figure out why Joel pulled over several blocks away from the hotel where they were supposed to pick up their race gear. Instead, he chose a spot closer to the MCPHS campus.

“Why are we walking this far?” It was cold. She was annoyed.

“This doesn’t make any sense.” She knew traffic wasn't that bad.

Joel, meanwhile, was internally unraveling—rehearsing the moment, making sure the ring in his pocket stayed hidden.

They cut across the campus, toward the courtyard where they had once spent countless hours as students in the accelerated PharmD program. Megan still didn’t see what was coming.

“I had zero idea,” she says. “I was just irritated.”

Until Joel stopped.

A Love Story that Started in a White Coat Line

Their relationship began years earlier, not with sparks, but with proximity.

Joel and Megan met on day two of pharmacy school—standing next to each other in line at the white coat ceremony on the Manchester campus. Both were older students on second career paths, both runners, both serious about the work ahead.

Megan had a degree in biochemistry from the University of New Hampshire. She had just come back from 15 months in Baghdad as a chemical officer with the Army during Operation Iraqi Freedom. Joel had a PhD in neuroscience and decided he wanted to work more directly with patients. Pharmacy was a deliberate pivot for both.

“We were instant friends,” Megan says. “But we were also in full school mode.”

The accelerated PharmD program left little room for romance. They studied, trained, ran, and leaned on their tight-knit cohort. Even when they did their clinical rotations together at Concord Hospital, spending all day side by side, the relationship stayed firmly in the friend zone.

“There was no time for dating,” Megan says. “It was rotation, then studying.”

Their first official date—if you can call it that—came just before graduation: lunch at 900 Degrees, an Italian restaurant behind campus. Instead of romance, the conversation centered on jobs, geography, and life plans.

“We were at that point where everything felt high-stakes,” Joel says. “We cared about each other, but we also knew we had both worked too hard to let uncertainty derail our professional lives.”

Eventually, Megan followed her heart, turning down a hospital job she had lined up in South Carolina.

“I knew Joel was someone worth changing plans for.”

Her leap of faith paid off. They both landed clinical pharmacy jobs at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, a serendipitous stroke that gave their relationship room to grow.

But getting there wasn’t easy—especially for Megan.

Cancer, Courage, and Choosing Each Other

Megan was still in pharmacy school when doctors told her she had breast cancer. She was just 27. Later, standing in front of her fellow graduates as the student speaker at the 2012 Commencement, she shared that the disease scared her more than anything she’d faced—even combat. It changed her, inside and out. It changed things with Joel, too.

They dated through the end of her treatment, including months of immunotherapy. Joel drove her to appointments. Together, they faced tough talks about fertility, the future, and the unknowns that come with survivorship.

“They were real conversations,” Megan says. “About whether this life worked for both of us.”

It turned out, it did. And not long after, Joel brought her back to the Eugene Ronshagen Alumni Courtyard—the spot where everything began—and asked her to marry him.

A Proposal, a Wedding, a Brick

The courtyard was quiet that November day. When Joel finally proposed, everything clicked into place for Megan—the long walk, the jittery nerves, the parking choice.

“Yes,” she said. Immediately.

They would return to that same courtyard to marry six months later on May 4, 2013, keeping the ceremony to immediate family. They even ran a race together the morning of their wedding, wearing Bride and Groom T-shirts, before exchanging vows officiated by Megan’s brother. That night, they shared their first dance to “A Thousand Years” by Christina Perri.

Months before the wedding, they added their names to a brick in the courtyard—just a little piece of their story, set in stone.

Today, they are raising three children—Jack, Carter, and Madeline—while working in oncology-focused roles. Megan is a senior director at Pfizer Oncology, focused on improving access to genitourinary cancer therapies. Joel is a medical science liaison at Novartis, supporting breast cancer research and education.

They still mentor MCPHS students, still give back to the school that supported them through some of life’s hardest moments.

And they still have the same easy chemistry they did in school.

“One cute little thing about us is that we both work remotely, which means we share an office,” Megan says. “We see a lot of each other—and you have to have a strong relationship to work with or near someone every day.”

Back to the Bling

Ask Megan now about that first ring-shopping experience—the one Joel would prefer erased—and she laughs.

Ask her about the proposal, the long walk, the cold, the nerves—and she laughs again.

But when it comes to the ring itself, there is no debate.

“It’s beautiful,” she says. “He did a good job.”