On Thursday, August 17th the Northern New Jersey Regional Club and the Lehigh Healthcare Alliance held a professional networking event featuring Lehigh Professor Dr. Vassie Ware ’18P and BASF’s Associate Corporate Medical Director Julia Klees ’82.

Over 30 alumni, students, parents, and faculty attendees received a tour of BASF’s innovation center in Florham Park, NJ as part of the event. During a post-tour dinner, Julia and Vassie led a discussion on a wide range of issues relating to innovation, technology and healthcare, including the future of bio-sciences, current challenges within healthcare, and the greater need for diversity within STEM fields.

Following the discussion, participants joined in an ‘open-mic’ forum where guests had an opportunity to give a 30 second elevator pitch and tell the group what professional topics they wanted to network about. This type of ‘open-mic’ networking will now be the standard for all of Lehigh’s professional alliance and networking programs.