When Andrew King applied to the MentorLinks program in 2024, he sought help adding course-based undergraduate research experiences to biology courses at Lehigh Carbon Community College (LCCC).
King, the Pennsylvania college’s interim dean of science, mathematics and healthcare sciences, thought adding hands-on research experiences (known as CURES) would attract students’ interest in science and build useful career skills.
His plan is still in process, but it has been supplanted by the need to develop a biotechnician education program that prepares students to work for Eli Lilly and Company.
A sequence of fortunate events
In January, Lilly Chair and CEO David A. Ricks announced the company would build a $3.5 billion facility in the Lehigh Valley of Pennsylvania to manufacture injectable medicines. When it opens in 2031, the facility will employ 850 people in “high-value jobs.” Some positions will be available to individuals with associate degrees or certificates. In addition, building the facility will involve up to about 2,000 construction jobs.
In February, Gov. Josh Shapiro announced that LCCC would receive $5 million from the state to renovate existing facilities for a “specialized science and technology lab” to prepare pharmaceutical and biotech workers.
News reports of Lilly’s announcement and the college’s lab renovation plans have prompted other life sciences companies in the region to contact King to learn more about the college’s courses and facilities.
In interviews with Community College Daily, King credited connections and knowledge gained through MentorLinks with helping him and others at the college pivot from CURES to creating a curriculum that prepares students to be biotechnicians who can meet Lilly’s workforce needs. He said MentorLinks is helping the college build relationships with other employers and gain a better understanding of workforce needs.
Learning to build industry partnerships
MentorLinks, which is run by the American Association of Community Colleges with support from the U.S. National Science Foundation’s Advanced Technological Education (ATE) program, helps community colleges revamp or start new science, technology, engineering or math (STEM) technician education programs. It provides mentoring from a two-year college STEM expert, funding for faculty professional development, travel and technical resources for two years.
For professional development, King and his MentorLinks teammate Robyn L. Davis, assistant science laboratory manager, participated in Working Partners, an ATE project that teaches faculty how to build industry partnerships. Also, at the urging of MentorLinks Mentor Sheela Vemu, King made a presentation at a 2025 conference at Raritan Valley Community College. Vemu is an associate professor of biology at Waubonsee Community College and the principal investigator of Waubonsee Water Ways, an ATE project that grew out of a MentorLinks project that Vemu’s team completed in 2023.
Ripple effect
In LCCC’s case, MentorLinks’ support for the team’s first reverse site visit to Wake Technical Community College (Wake Tech) in September 2025 was propitious. (MentorLinks calls the visits to other colleges and industry facilities “reverse site visits” because the first site visit is the mentor going to a mentee’s campus.)
After visiting LCCC, Vemu suggested the team visit Wake Tech because it is “one of the few community colleges that uses the CURES model for building science identity in technician training areas.”
Karianne Gelinas, vice president of talent strategies for the Lehigh Valley Economic Development Corporation (LVEDC), explained that when she mentioned the MentorLinks team visiting Wake Tech during a presentation to Lilly representatives, it “serendipitously” sparked a connection.
It was just a nugget of information amid her data-filled presentation about the region’s educational institutions, manufacturing ecosystem and workforce. But, Gelinas said, Wake Tech “rung a bell with some of the Lilly folks, and so we were able to go back and get some information from LCCC on their stage of this process, how much in depth they would be working with Wake Tech.”
Gelinas subsequently learned that Lilly officials considered Wake Tech’s program to be one of the best at producing entry-level biotechnicians and were impressed that LCCC was updating the college’s science curriculum.
A plan for a new certificate
By the time the LCCC MentorLinks team made its second reverse site visit this month, its priority had become addressing Lilly’s workforce needs. This time, the team went to Central Carolina Community College and toured Lilly’s Research Triangle facility.
What the team members learned in North Carolina is helping them refine lab renovation plans and structure the curriculum for a certificate program similar to the BioWork certificate, King said. (Wake Tech developed the BioWork certificate program about 20 years ago, and it is now offered at other North Carolina community colleges, including Central Carolina.)
King explained that to facilitate student accessibility, “We are aiming to keep the certificate within 12 weeks and 150 hours to allow less financially well-off students to take advantage of the Workforce Pell financial aid.”
Kudos from local leaders
At LVEDC’s annual meeting in March, CEO and President Don Cunningham praised LCCC President Ann D. Bieber and the responsiveness of the college’s faculty and staff.
“Ann Bieber and her team at the community college — just up the road from the site — embraced the concept of creating a new training center, engaged with Wake Tech in Research Triangle Park, looked at their curriculum and showed that they could build a training facility at the community college … I think that working behind the scenes to be able to show that we had a talent pathway was important in the process,” Cunningham said.
