Enabling Diversity in Biotech: Interview with Tia Lyles-Williams

Darshan: Hey, everyone. Welcome to another episode of DarshanTalks. I had actually promised not to show my face when I was talking to Tia a few seconds ago, but I seem to have forgotten all about that. I have a very special guest. I have Tia. You guys met her, I want to say a couple of weeks ago. We had her on the podcast and it was a hit, and we're welcoming her back. Tia is entrepreneur extraordinaire. Narrator: This is the DarshanTalks Podcast. Regulatory guy, irregular podcast, with host Darshan Kulkarni. You can find the show on Twitter @darshantalks or the show's website at darshantalks.com. Darshan: She's going to tell you all about herself, but what I do like to point out is, she's breaking boundaries. She is leading the way for black and brown entrepreneurs in Philadelphia, and in the East Coast, really, for advancement in the life sciences. So, Tia, tell us more about yourself before we jump into the conversation today. Tia: First, thank you for having me, Darshan. Founder and CEO of LucasPye BIO, as well as HelaPlex. LucasPye BIO is a medicine manufacturing company. HelaPlex is the first life science co-working space with a built-in accelerator. So, I have 20 years in the biotech industry, myself. Working my way up literally from, I guess you say the benchtop, and rolling patients into clinical trials as a intern, to, senior manager was my last title as far as being an employee in big pharma. Then, now I have my own two companies as a, I guess you call it C-suite executive. So, [inaudible 00:01:41]... Keep going? Darshan: Keep going. I mean, I love hearing about you, because I [crosstalk 00:01:44]. Tia: Keep going? I am a HBCU graduate of Howard University. I got my bachelor's in biology from there. Later on, I went back and got my master's in entertainment business from Full Sail University. I actually have a chronic condition myself. I thank about two-and-a-half years off, and during that time, I ended up following my friends to LA. They're all in music and film, so I got into the music area as far social media marketing and all that stuff when it was super, super hot, and at the beginning of Twitter's hype and all that stuff at that time. Then, when I was cleared by the doctor, I went back to biotech. In that time, I got my second master's in regulatory science from University of Southern California. Regulatory science is the study of taking food, medical devices, and drugs, of course, from benchtop, or research, or another country, for food perspective, and bringing it into the commercial market, whether it's in the US or any other country around the world. So, that's a bit of background around me. I love science. I've been science nerd since day one. I got [inaudible 00:02:47] nerd out on biotech feature, bioconference, a few years ago. Darshan: Oh, I love it [crosstalk 00:02:54]. Tia: Happy to be here, and glad to speak with you today, Darshan. Darshan: Thank you again, Tia. So, Tia, we're actually going to have... We're both in Philadelphia, and we've been dealing with some riots and some protests in the last few days. We're going to tangentially get into that, but I want to use this opportunity to actually have a discussion about how to... Actually, you phrased it better than me. Say it again about what our discussion's going to be, because I was like, "Yes, that is exactly what I want to talk about." Tia: Got you. So, our topic of discussion today is to, as entrepreneurs, or any other business, how to attract people of color for employment. More specifically, how to retain them, and more specifically than that, how do you retain and attract African-American men into these respective roles, and how do you go out and search for them?