Elisa Hartman, a 2021 biology and biochemistry/molecular biology graduate, believes the critical thinking skills acquired as part of a Rose-Hulman degree are an invaluable part of any future career path. The Kalamazoo, Michigan, native puts her science degree to work each day as a quality assurance specialist III, production and operations, and before that, as a safety officer at Ossium Health.
As a quality specialist, Hartman leads cross-functional efforts between the quality, production and operations departments to ensure processes remain robust, compliant, and efficient. Specifically, she performs incident investigations, root cause analysis, corrective action/preventive action implementation, process validation, and technical documentation review for Ossium’s clinical hematopoietic progenitor cell (HPC), marrow and tissue products. As a safety officer, Hartman oversees the safety procedures of the office and laboratory areas, coordinates safety audits and drills, and responds to emergency situations that may arise in the workplace.
“Ossium is still a really small company, so no matter what position you have, you know you are making a huge impact on any patient’s life that receives our product,” Hartman said. “When I worked in production, I went into our cleanrooms to recover bone marrow and bone grafts from donor spinal tissue and process them into our HPC, marrow and tissue products. Knowing that one person’s gift could save up to four people’s lives and that I had played a direct role in that was extremely gratifying.”
Hartman believes her time as a Rose-Hulman biology major directly contributes to skills she uses in her job at Ossium.
“The higher biology courses required us to not only read, but write lots of technical documents,” said Hartman. “And since all the professors at Rose expect the very best from their students, you have to learn quickly how to analyze various research papers as well as utilize proper writing techniques in your responses and reports. This led to a high-quality, quality-first mindset when I began performing, then writing, and finally reviewing, policies and procedures at Ossium Health.”