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Narrowing focus provides career with impact

A 'Women in Packaging' interview with Laure L. Larkin – M.Sci., CPP, Associate Director—Global Stability, R&D Analytical Science & Technology, Ethicon, Inc.

From left to right, Gina Maroney, Corinne McGill, Dale Marcuccilli, and Laure Larkin around the Instron machine set up for a lid tensile test. (Missing: Binal Shah).
From left to right, Gina Maroney, Corinne McGill, Dale Marcuccilli, and Laure Larkin around the Instron machine set up for a lid tensile test. (Missing: Binal Shah).

Editor’s note: Women In Packaging is an occasional series reporting on the career challenges women in packaging face and the advice they have for other women building careers in the packaging function.

Healthcare Packaging: How did you come to occupy your current role?

Larkin: I was recruited into my current role by individuals who had heard me speak at industry events on the topic of Best Practices in Medical Device Stability Testing—(Product & Packages).

What challenges have you had to overcome in your packaging career?

Larkin: Like most of us who have been in industry for longer than we might care to admit, I have had to overcome a variety of challenges from a career perspective.Because I am a crusader and a change agent by personality, each of the challenges was in fact an opportunity to more clearly see where I could make a greater impact within my organization.

I joke that my undergraduate degree in Conservation Science formed the foundation for everything to come, even though it was truly my first challenge. When I was majoring in Conservation—defined in the traditional sense of preventing waste—(it was) at the very time where the skill was being devalued by the government.

With my degree in one hand and empty job prospects in the other, I made a choice to focus my crusading nature from saving the land, air, and water for future generations to obtaining an advanced degree with a focus in Food Microbiology.This would offer me the opportunity to save current and future generations from food poisoning.

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