Her Story
About Chhaya
I have dedicated 19 years to the pharmaceutical industry, all with Merck, where I have had the privilege of contributing to vaccine development and quality assurance. My journey began on the manufacturing floor, where I was directly involved in the formulation of life-saving vaccines like Gardasil and Varivax. From there, I progressed through quality control laboratories, managed critical mycoplasma testing in microbiology for 5 years, and ensured that our production teams had the results they needed to release batches to patients who were waiting. I then moved into quality assurance, where I focused on ensuring all laboratory testing met regulatory guidelines and compliance standards. My role expanded into change control, where I assessed supplier changes for materials sourced globally and coordinated with sites worldwide. Today, I negotiate quality agreements with our direct suppliers and conduct External Entity Oversight Level (EEOL) assessments to monitor and ensure our suppliers maintain the highest quality standards. One of my most notable achievements was improving operational efficiency in the lab by addressing a significant backlog in testing, which had the potential to impact vaccine availability in the market. I understood that every delay could affect patients who needed these vaccines, so I worked to modify the assay and remove the backlog while ensuring we didn't create future bottlenecks. This work was truly impactful because it directly supported getting vaccines to people who needed them.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Chhaya
01What’s the best career advice you’ve ever received?
The best career advice I've ever received is that career progression is in your hands. You have to drive that, you have to seek different opportunities. I wish I would have known that early on, but at least I got to know through some mentorship that I had throughout my career. It's something now that I am very diligent about - seeking different opportunities, learning, and pushing myself outside of my comfort zone.
02What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
One thing I often struggle with, and I would say, is being bold and having tough conversations when they need to happen. Don't bury them or put them under the rug saying you'll come back to it - do it in a timely fashion. Sometimes those conversations are important for your career progression, or even in a school environment. If something is not right and you're not being treated properly, you need to have that conversation, whether it's in a good setting or you just need to put your best foot forward and go have that uncomfortable conversation. Hopefully, both parties will grow a little bit from it.
03What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?
For the quality organization that I support, one of the biggest challenges and opportunities right now is AI. AI is here, and we need to figure out how it will impact our work and what we need to pivot. We're looking at how we can improve some of our processes and tie AI into our daily lives so that it becomes more efficient. Of course, we have to ensure that quality is maintained along with that efficiency. It's a new opportunity and challenge that we're learning about and exploring in that area.
04What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?
I would say being honest, transparent, and always willing to learn something new are most important to me. Work-life balance is also very important because I have two daughters, and I need to make sure that I provide time to my family. They're at ages where they need us the most - navigating different phases of life and the challenges outside of school and learning how to navigate those environments.
Keep Exploring
More Influential Women · Pennsylvania
Join Influential Women and start making an impact. Register now.