Alisa Kilgas, BS 1987

Alisa Kilgas grew up on a small family farm in southern Indiana. Her own and her family’s belief in God and that He gives each person a unique purpose and provides both the gifts and opportunities to fulfill their purpose is what led Alisa to a more than passing interest in science starting in the second grade. Her interest expanded into health and safety through her involvement with 4-H at age ten, and ultimately to her attending Purdue University in 1982 to study Pharmacy and Engineering. She received a BS in Pharmacy from Purdue in 1987 and an MS in Engineering in 1992.

After graduation, Alisa has had the privilege for 35 years to apply her education and passion by working in the life sciences industry for Eli Lilly, NNC, Cook, Baxter, and now Singota Solutions. Her functional responsibilities have ranged from R&D, marketing, sales, project management, regulatory affairs, quality assurance, strategic planning, and business administration. Her roles have included bench level scientist, project manager, business unit manager, president, and Chief Executive Officer. A career impacting fact is that she is the daughter of, and sibling of, entrepreneurs. And whether it was with a startup or Fortune 200 company, in R&D or setting organizational strategy, or in an entry level role or as CEO, each of these opportunities resided right in her backyard of Indiana—a state full of opportunities to make a meaningful difference in the life sciences area.