Karen Smykaj:  

After graduating from South River High School in 1973, I spent the next years of my life furthering my education at Virginia Polytechnic Institute & State University (a.k.a., Virginia Tech) where I earned my BS in Biology in 1977. I would have preferred to remain in Virginia where my heart was, but alas, opportunities were few for microbiologists in southwest Virginia, so I returned home to South River. I often wish I had remained in Virginia after graduation, but my life took a different path than what had been planned. My first job was an internship as a medical microbiologist at St. Peter's Medical Center in New Brunswick. I loved hospital work, but there were college loans to pay and romantic dreams of the future, all of which required a regular income. Therefore, when an opportunity arose to work at E.R. Squibb & Sons (now Bristol-Myers Squibb Co.), I reluctantly left the hospital and began my career in the pharmaceutical industry which lasted 32+ years. Beginning as a quality control microbiologist, I held subsequent positions of increasing responsibility in various functional areas within BMS until I settled in the Regulatory Affairs department, eventually taking on the challenge of conceptionalizing, organizing and staffing the export labeling group as its Director - quite different from my initial microbiology aspirations, but there was a logical progression. I have had rewarding experiences ushering new drug candidates thr...Expand for more