PrimusLabs is pleased to announce that Liz Rios has joined its Microbiology team to serve as the Microbiology Lab Supervisor for PrimusLabs’ Florida laboratory, currently being relocated to Lakeland, Florida. Rios’ first challenge will be reassembling the laboratory in Lakeland at 2525 Drane Field Road. She will be joined in the effort by a team of technicians and samplers.

Rios is a native of Carolina, Puerto Rico, and earned a B.S. in Microbiology from the University of Puerto Rico in San Juan. She followed that up by earning a Master’s degree in Microbiology from Inter-American University of Puerto Rico in Bayamon.

From 2011 until 2013, Rios served as a Biotech Operator for Eli Lilly and Company, and between 2013 and 2019, she worked in food safety as a Quality Analyst and later as the Quality Assurance Supervisor at PacTech International. Most recently, she continued to build her food safety résumé serving as a Sanitation Supervisor for Bevolution Group in Lakeland. Since coming to PrimusLabs, Rios has trained in the Microbiology Department at the PrimusLabs headquarters in Santa Maria, California, where she and the rest of the department participated in updating Primus’ ISO accreditation.

Rios believes that her past experiences “managing people, organizing schedules, and handling documentation have been really helpful in preparing me to meet the challenges of managing an entire laboratory including training new people.”

She is also excited about working for PrimusLabs. “This is really a new experience – setting up a laboratory. It is challenging, but good.” As for collaborating with her new colleagues at Primus, Rios noted that she is especially impressed with their “communication and teamwork. It’s excellent,” she said. “I know I can count on others’ help when I need it.”

The Lakeland laboratory is scheduled to open sometime in early January 2020.