Meet the BACE Team: Corrie Lazzaro

Corrie Lazzaro is from Melrose, Florida and has lived there her whole life. In July 2023, Corrie joined the Biotility team as a Lab Assistant, and in this role, she spends her days preparing BACE kit packets and packing them for shipping to testing sites. You can also find her aliquoting samples, testing experiments, and cleaning the lab or maintaining the day-to-day lab equipment.

Corrie’s favorite part about working in the lab is organizing the laboratory equipment and refilling the pipette tip receptacles. It’s not a big job, but to Corrie, it’s exceptionally fun. She also enjoys diagnosing any problems with equipment in the lab and figuring out how to fix them. She says she feels like a mini science detective! Even more, Corrie appreciates working at Biotility because of the team that, even though she’s young, has always treated her with respect and kindness. Corrie plans to graduate from Santa Fe College this spring, and she hopes to start in a program for her master’s degree next fall.

Corrie is excited that the BACE allows students an opportunity to expose themselves to some of the most fundamental skills needed when working in biotechnology, and that they might even gain the confidence to pursue a career in biotech. In fact, Corrie is actually a BACE credential earner herself and didn’t realize that biotech was a field she could enter into until she learned more about it through the BACE!

We asked Corrie a few questions so you can get to know her better:

As a child, what did you want to be when you grew up?

Too many things. A writer, a veterinarian, a film writer or director, and maybe even an actress! Ironically, I didn’t know that I wanted to do anything related to science until college because I didn’t realize that I was good at math. When I was 18, I learned about the Industrial Biotechnology program at Santa Fe College and jumped on the idea because – “The science in Jurassic Park has a name?!” 🐱‍🐉🧪

What is your favorite travel destination, or where would you most like to travel?

I love going anywhere that makes my dogs happy. My oldest especially loves the beach, so my family and I try to take a vacation somewhere at the beach once a year.

What do you like to do in your free time?

I enjoy writing, drawing, photography, editing videos, and pretty much anything artsy. I also spend quite a bit of time playing with my youngest dog, who can be both a terror and the sweetest thing!