Associate Spotlight: Melissa Louis-Juste
Learn more about Melissa Louis-Juste, Manager, Regulatory Affairs, and her experience as part of the Legal team.
Q. Can you tell us a little about your role at PDI?
Louis-Juste: As a Regulatory Affairs Manager, I am responsible for ensuring that PDI’s EPA and hard surface cleaning product portfolios are compliant with U.S. regulations. Furthermore, I support PDI’s new product development, marketed product improvement, cost savings, and compliance initiatives for our EPA products by preparing and filing various types of submissions to the EPA.
Q. What new skills have you learned while working at PDI? How have you developed personally and professionally?
Louis-Juste: I started my Regulatory Affairs career at PDI and over the years I have developed skills such as interpreting regulations, preparing regulatory filings, liaising with regulatory agencies and ensuring compliance of regulated products.
Q. Are there any unique / exciting projects you have been able to work on while at PDI?
Louis-Juste: I had the opportunity to work with the cross functional team (RA, R&D, Marketing and Legal) to pursue the SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19 virus) claim for all of our EPA products. That collaboration involved providing R&D with regulatory guidance and requirements for SARS-CoV-2 testing resulting in successful test results. I also worked with marketing, legal, and R&D to develop master labels for the SARS-CoV-2 amendment submissions to the EPA. The result of that collaboration was the successful EPA approval of the SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19 virus) claim for all of our EPA products.
Q. What impact do you feel your function has had on the industry, particularly during COVID?
Louis-Juste: During the COVID-19 pandemic, the regulatory affairs department partnered with departments, such as R&D, Procurement, Marketing, and Communications, to support initiatives that ensured the continual availability of PDI products to healthcare facilities and food establishments. Some of these initiatives include qualifications of raw materials for supplier surety, production flexibilities, the addition of PDI’s EPA products to EPA’s List N and the communication of that relevant information to our customers.
Q. Have you participated in any charitable programs or events through PDI? If so, which ones and what impact did that program have on our local community?
Louis-Juste: This year I had the opportunity to contribute in PDI’s Back to school supply drive. This program allowed my PDI colleagues and I to be the be the difference in our local community by donating school supplies to students with learning and development disabilities.
Q. How long have you been with PDI and why have you decided to stay with the company?
Louis-Juste: I have been with PDI for 9 years. One main reason why I have decided to stay with the company is because I get to work with many talented, dedicated, collaborative, supportive, and good colleagues at PDI. Another reason is because I am proud to be a part of a company that is behind products that save lives and make a difference everywhere.
Q. How has the company evolved since you joined?
Louis-Juste: Since I joined, PDI has made tremendous efforts in establishing and standardizing processes for new product development and change controls for our current products. In addition, projects are managed using a more transparent and collaborative approach as opposed to individuals or departments working in silo.