Meet the Team – Q&A with Senior Associate Judith O’Hagan
With over 20 years of experience within clinical research – initially as a research and development scientist before moving her way up to Senior Laboratory Manager – Judith joined Tower Mains in 2021 as a Senior Associate.
Here, she tells us what initially attracted her to QA, her career highlights, and what makes her tick outside of work.
What initially attracted you to a career in QA?
I always liked auditing in my previous role as a Laboratory Manager. It gives you insight into other organisations’ Quality Management Systems and allows you to dive into the depths of their processes. It also gives you license to ask questions! I am very much a believer that audits, regardless of whether you are the auditor or auditee, should be a learning experience. It’s a chance for different eyes to maybe see a hole that you haven’t and gives you the opportunity to fix it before it becomes a big issue.
What has been your biggest career highlight so far?
Having someone believe I would be good in QA! (Thanks Andrew, Fiona, Shona, and Rhona!) The chance to move to Tower Mains came completely out of the blue and I was delighted to be given the opportunity. I think I’m doing ok!
Do you have any tips for those wishing to progress in QA?
Read everything! There are so many regulations out there to get in your head. I was very familiar with ICH GCP in my previous role but was blown away to discover it was only E6 that I was familiar with and there was a whole library of other documents for other systems and uses that I didn’t even know existed.
What makes you tick outside of Tower Mains?
I have two dogs, a cocker, Rossi, and a springer Zuki. They need lots of walking and I average at least 2-miles every day. I also love to cook; I cook from scratch every night and we always have a roast dinner on Sunday (it’s one of the main reasons my husband married me!). It would also be really remiss of me if I didn’t mention Christmas here. I knew as soon as Fiona and I had a conversation about Christmas in May I was going to gel really well in Tower Mains. I’m really hoping for some audits in places with nice Christmas markets coming up to the festive season. I really love Christmas; I think it’s the joy of the season and the giving of gifts that I love and all the corny music of course!
To find out more about what Judith, and the Tower Mains team can do for you, click here, or email us at info@towermains.com.