Q&A: The Reason Behind Lilly's Pennsylvania Facility

Karianne Gelinas, vice president of Talent Strategies at the Lehigh Valley Economic Development Corporation (LVEDC), discusses how Eli Lilly is moving forward with its $3.5B manufacturing investment in the Lehigh Valley of Pennsylvania, regional workforce developers are working to ensure the local talent base can meet the facility's technical demands.

Watch the 2-part video interview with Gelinas:

Part 1: Why Eli Lilly Chose Pennsylvania for its $3.5B Facility

Part 2: How the Lehigh Valley Is Building Lilly's Workforce

PharmTech: What Makes the Lehigh Valley Well-Positioned to Support a Pharmaceutical Manufacturer Like Lilly?

Gelinas: The region has a long history as a manufacturing hub. Sixteen percent of the Lehigh Valley's gross regional product comes from manufacturing, compared to 11% at the national level, so building a workforce for a pharmaceutical manufacturer was an extension of what we already do. We have 11 colleges and universities in the region, including 2 community colleges and 3 career and technical schools, all of which already have curriculum oriented toward skilled and technical manufacturing roles.

How Did LVEDC Demonstrate That the Talent Pool Existed to Support Lilly's Needs?

We use a lot of data when responding to company inquiries. Within an hour's commute from where the Lilly operation is being built, we could document specific volumes of people already employed in engineering, quality control, and chemistry technician roles. We're also an hour from Philadelphia and two hours from New York City, within the biopharma and biotech belt. That geography gives us access to commuter populations, people who are currently commuting out of the region for biopharma roles could potentially be retained here with a position at Lilly.

What Role Did Community College Programming Play in Lilly's Decision?

A significant one. Lehigh Carbon Community College was planning and beginning the full renovation of its facilities and curriculum when Lilly was evaluating the region. The school had won an NSF [National Science Foundation] grant and was partnered with Wake Tech as its mentor institution. Lilly holds Wake Tech as a gold standard for workforce preparation, particularly its BioWork certificate and articulation agreements with four-year institutions. When Lilly heard about that partnership, it was very motivating. We weren't doing this reactively. Attracting pharmaceutical and life science companies has been a strategic priority at LVEDC for years.

Beyond Lehigh Carbon, What Other Workforce Development Infrastructure is Being Built?

Lehigh Career and Technical Institute, one of the premier career and technical schools in Pennsylvania, is developing a pre-apprenticeship program that stacks into the community college certificate programs. That, in turn, can feed into the Industrial Training and Education Consortium, or ITEC, a nonprofit apprenticeship program run by roughly a dozen manufacturing and industrial employers in the region. ITEC currently has five Commonwealth of Pennsylvania-approved apprenticeship programs, including chemistry lab technician, mechatronics, maintenance tech, and quality control tech, roles that translate directly to pharmaceutical manufacturing operations.

With More Than 850 Jobs Expected, Where Do the Gaps Lie?

Volume is the primary challenge right now. At least half of those positions will require a certificate or a 2-year degree. That means we need to build community awareness starting at the K-12 level, ensuring students know these careers exist before they choose their high school coursework. Having Lilly here is a real asset in that effort. We can now point to real jobs that will exist by 2031 and say, we want everyone to be part of this.

How is LVEDC Approaching the Potential Impact of AI On Technical Workforce Planning?

We're building advisory groups, convening conversations with AI leaders and consultants, and working with schools that have stood up AI curriculum and brought local industry onto their advisory boards. We're also asking our CIOs [chief information officers] directly what they're doing within their companies. What we haven't yet done is have those specific conversations with Lilly about how AI may shape their workforce needs , but we're ready to have them when they are.