As a Chemist I at INOVA Diagnostics Inc., Tracy T. Ludwick Naputi tests raw materials, in-process components, and finished reagents associated with ELISA products.

Knowing that she could support her children with a career in biotechnology helped Tracy T. Ludwick Naputi extricate herself from an abusive marriage.

“I used every negative aspect of my life as a thing to motivate me instead of to bring me down. I used it to be my drive to do better,” she explained in an interview following her presentation on a Faces of Success panel on June 23 at the Community College Program at BIO, the international convention of the Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO) in San Diego.

In 2012 Naputi was hired as a Lab Assistant II by INOVA Diagnostics Inc. The annual average salary of bioscience workers was $88,202 in 2012, according to the Battelle/BIO State Bioscience Jobs, Investments and Innovation 2014 report released at the convention. Biotechnology uses organisms and biology-based processes to create products.

Naputi credits the soft skills she learned along with top-notch biotech laboratory skills taught at San Diego Miramar College and Mira Costa College in Oceanside, California, as the critical factors for getting her first job at INOVA Diagnostics and earning two promotions in two years. Her most recent promotion to Chemist I is a post typically held by someone with a bachelor’s degree and three years of experience.

“I’m where I am because of the community college and all the resources that are out there,” she said of the applied biotechnology certificate she earned at Miramar College and the biofuels certificate she earned at Mira Costa. Her journey to attain these credentials was replete with personal challenges that she overcame.

The Community College Program at BIO, where Naputi spoke along with four other community college alumni, is a day-long program that informs community college educators about industry trends. The program was convened by the Northeast Biomanufacturing Center and Collaborative (NBC2) at Montgomery County Community College in Blue Bell, Pennsylvania; the Bio-Link Next Generation National ATE Center for Biotechnology and Life Sciences (Bio-Link) at City College of San Francisco in California, and the National Center for the Biotechnology Workforce at Forsyth Technical Community College in Winston-Salem, North Carolina with support from the National Science Foundation and BIO.

Pacific Islander Has Early Interest in Bioscience

A native of Micronesia, Naputi immigrated to the U.S. when she was in the sixth grade. She liked biology in high school and enrolled at California State University, Fullerton thinking that a career in nursing was the most financially realistic option for her. In her second year she met the man who would eventually become her first husband, and she dropped out. Within a few years they had four children, but her husband’s drug dealing cast a dark shadow over their home life.

When he was incarcerated, it was a relief. Naputi took the opportunity provided by welfare to return to school. “I chose to go to school because I didn’t want to make minimum wage an hour for long periods of time,” she said.

She enrolled in Miramar College’s biotech program and was making progress toward a certificate when her husband was released. He uprooted the family, insisting they move to Banning, California, a small town about three hours from San Diego.

During the next five years Naputi had another child, and held two jobs at the same time: she worked as a manager at McDonald’s and as a church secretary. Although her husband was working and no longer involved in drugs, his overconsumption of alcohol was problematic and he became increasingly abusive toward her.

“The alcohol got a little excessive to the point where he was not only emotionally and mentally abusive, he started getting physically abusive,” she said.

When he became violent with her on Father’s Day in 2008, it was Naputi’s breaking point. Her eldest daughter witnessed the attack that resulted in a serious injury to her foot. She was in physical pain. But Naputi said it was the prospect of her daughters submitting to violent men when they got older that she could not tolerate. “I didn’t want them thinking it was OK because it was what Mommy did,” she said.

“I packed up the kids and limped to my car that had a quarter tank of gas. My account had negative $2,” she said. Her pastor gave her money for gasoline to get to her mother’s house in San Diego.

Prof. Sandra Slivka's Coaching Helps Single Mom to Better Life

When her foot healed a month later, Naputi re-enrolled at Miramar College expecting to pick up where she left off in 2003.

But she failed her biotech course that semester. This forced her to take an Introduction to Biotech course, which had not been part of the curriculum during her previous enrollment. The course refreshed her academically, and she began earning credits toward an associate degree in analytical chemistry, the major that her academic advisor recommended for her to transfer credits to the biotech bachelor’s degree program at California State University San Marcos.

The biotech program’s instruction in resum? writing and mock job interviews with biotech company representatives helped her with the mechanics of entering a career at a salary that would help her sustain her family. Her election as a student council senator and her job as an assistant in the office of the Vice President for Student Services boosted her confidence.

"Sandra Slivka's passion for the field is what made me come back to finish it," Naputi wrote in an email referring to Miramar's certificate program. When she initially enrolled at Miramar, Slivka was a biotech instructor; she was the program's leader when Naputi returned. "She was very encouraging and supportive and patient. She coached me to step out of my comfort zone, which I've had to [do] many times during the duration of the program. I owe her a lot for making me realize that even I can succeed in this demanding field," Naputi wrote about Slivka.

Certificate Programs' Resume & Interview Preparation Shortens Job Search

After earning her first biotech certificate at Miramar in 2010, Naputi enrolled in the EDGE Biomass Production Certificate program at Mira Costa College. “I missed the biotech lab environment, which was completely different than all the chemistry labs I was in. I saw it as an opportunity to gain more experience in the field and to broaden my chances of finding a job. It also opened up an opportunity for me to be exposed to many networking opportunities as this particular certificate was sponsored by BIOCOM [an organization of life science businesses in Southern California], who helped us all with our resumes and gave us tips on interviewing,” Naputi explained in an email. She completed that certificate in 2011.

Naputi was anticipating a long job search when INOVA Diagnostics offered her a job as a lab assistant based on the many biotech skills she listed on her resume. It was only her second real interview with a biotech company. Her successful workplace performance has led the company, which makes autoimmune diagnostic reagents and systems for clinical laboratories, to hire other community college alumni.

Naputi says she makes more money than she ever has. Other aspects of her life have also improved. She is married for a second time to man who supports her biotech career aspirations, and her plans to complete an associate degree and eventually earn bachelor’s and master’s degrees. She and her second husband have a 15-month-old son whom they are rearing along with the two girls and three boys from her first marriage who range in age from nine to 16 years old.

To people who may feel trapped as she once did, Naputi offers this encouragement for pursuing a career in biotechnology or another STEM career: “You can do it all. You can do anything as long as you put your mind to it.”