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Principal Scientist | Eli Lilly and Co.
Paula Angarita Rivera is principal scientist for the bioproduct research and development organization at Eli Lilly and Co. In her role, she supports the development of test methods that generate data for the FDA approval of Lilly’s medical devices and the design of engineering studies to support the drug product manufacturing process. She joined Lilly as part of the Leadership Development Program—a rotational program that focuses on developing diverse talent in technical roles—after struggling to find a job immediately out of college and then again once she finished her master’s degree. She began as a senior scientist and was promoted to principal scientist within a year. Rivera also serves as vice president of Region 6 for the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers, whose mission is to empower the Hispanic community to make an impact in the world through STEM. She manages a team that oversees nine states with more than 50 chapters.
Proud moment in your career? She implemented a data acquisition application that does not require the scientist/engineer to monitor the experiments. Instead, the application is automatized to collect the data. “This implementation increased the productivity of the scientists/engineers because now they can set up the experiment and work on other tasks while the experiment is running,” she said.
Givebacks? In addition to her work with the Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers, she was appointed by Mayor Joe Hogsett to serve on the Metropolitan Board of Zoning Appeals Division III. She’s also a youth group leader for St. Mary’s Catholic Church.
What have you learned about yourself since joining the workforce? “I am a generalist, which means that I like to understand the big picture first before getting into the nitty-gritty.”
Most-used social media platform? Facebook. She closed her Instagram, Twitter and Snapchat accounts about three years ago.
Morning person or night owl? “Night owl, 100%.”•
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