From intern to vice president: Alumna’s career blossomed at pharmacy automation company

As a Binghamton University undergraduate in the late 1990s, Alecia Lashier ’02 wanted an internship where she did more than just file paperwork and make coffee. 

She connected with Innovation Associates (iA) through the Strategic Partnership for Industrial Resurgence (SPIR) program, which works with small and midsize businesses in the Southern Tier to solve real-world problems.

The Johnson City-based engineering firm — founded in 1972 — had already begun expanding into the pharmacy automation industry after decades of consulting with clients, including the U.S. military, IBM Corp., and aerospace and utilities companies. As a dual major in psychology and computer science with an ever-inquisitive mind, Lashier thought a software role would be a perfect fit.

“I remember the first question during the interview was, ‘What languages do you know?’ For a second, I thought I would be answering phones for the summer, so do I say French or do I say Pascal?” she said with a laugh, referring to the popular programming language. “Luckily, I answered correctly, and I've been here ever since.”

Today, iA has moved to Binghamton and is among the biggest manufacturers of pharmacy automation systems, filling 1,000 prescriptions a minute across the U.S. for commercial retailers, healthcare systems, and government agencies, such as the federal Department of Veterans Affairs.

Lashier has been a key part of the company’s expansion and evolution over her 25-year career, and now she helps to lead more than 600 employees as iA’s executive vice president and chief automation officer. Not bad for someone who started her career there as Employee #34.

Learning on the job

Growing up in Johnson City, Lashier was fascinated with how the human brain and eye function, but she also became fluent with computers. 

“My first computer, when I was 7, was a Tandy,” she said. “I remember putting a Lego in the floppy drive, and it broke. Those two things don't work together!”

Lashier describes herself as “a very dedicated student” in high school, a bit shy but eager to learn. As a first-generation college student, she found new confidence at Binghamton, and she credits the SPIR internship as a formative experience that shaped her future.

With hindsight, she realizes that her supervisor at iA probably regarded keeping an eye on her as just one more task he had to do. As the semester progressed, though, he came to respect her skills and insight.

“I honestly learned everything from sitting at an old IBM desk kitty-corner to him,” she said. “It wasn't the best setup, but I could hear everything going on and learn from it. He kept giving me opportunities, and I was able to say, ‘Sure, I'll give it a try.’”

Her internship went so well that she transitioned into a full-time role once she earned her bachelor’s degree, and over the years, she worked her way up the ladder from software engineer to manager to vice president. 

Today, Lashier mentors her own interns, and she tries to make the experience as fulfilling as hers was.

“I have a different style than most people. I usually have an idea of what I need them to do, but I don't start there. I want the student to say what would really excite them,” she said. “If it's way off, we'll figure out a way to merge them together, but hopefully it can be something that works both for the student, who's new to the space, and to me as well.”

Offering something mutually beneficial to businesses and students is an important goal for SPIR, said Michael Testani, MS ’02, Watson College’s senior director of outreach and engagement, who oversees the program.

“I am very grateful for the SPIR relationship with iA, and it is heartwarming to have this affiliation with Alecia,” Testani said. “This project is a testimony to her inspiring vision for her company and makes an important statement about the SPIR program. SPIR has demonstrated over 35 years of success, thanks to great companies like iA and our great students. It is very rewarding to see the program come full circle where one of our former students is now an executive sponsor for another brilliant student. I hope this pattern continues for many years to come.”

The SPIR internship helped Lashier sharpen her views on what her career could be, and she wants to pass that down to the next generation.

“From day one, I’ve felt like I'm actually making a difference, and I need a job where I do make a difference,” she said. “Now, a new group of students is also making a difference, and I get to see that — which is even cooler, honestly.”

Transforming pharmacies

For iA’s first four decades, the company worked with a wide range of industries to devise solutions for tricky hardware or software issues. In 2015, iA pivoted from engineering for hire to exclusively pharmacy solutions.

“We were asked to increase the efficiency and safety of an existing pharmacy system,” she said. “After that job was complete, we said, ‘Wow, this industry really needs help.’”

One persistent cost driver for pharmacies is personnel. From the factory to the consumer, there are currently seven “touch points” where people need to guide medications along their journey. Automated prescription fulfillment reduces the number of steps with nearly 100% accuracy. It also allows pharmacists to do their jobs more effectively.

“There are pharmacy deserts across the United States where people have to drive two hours to get medications — that's unacceptable to me. There's no reason for that,” Lashier said. “Also, pharmacists go to school not for counting pills, but for how a treatment works, how it interacts with other medications, and how it fits with a patient’s entire health profile.”

While current clients include big mail-order firms and the Veterans Affairs health system, iA also provides solutions to a scaled-down system for smaller companies and pharmacies. Lashier and her team — which includes SPIR students — also use artificial intelligence to mine 30 years of knowledge that could lead to insights and improvements.

“It's my mission, but it's also our mission statement: Unleash the full potential of pharmacy,” she said. “Things are about to change dramatically.”

Lashier’s gaze is firmly on the future of iA, but sometimes she does look back on the career journey that started with a SPIR project.

“In 25 years, so much has happened — but I've been very dedicated to this area and being able to give back,” she said. “It's about lighting additional sparks.”