Jermall Cuffee: Building the confidence to do the right things the right way

Medicines begin with a scientific idea. But between an idea in a research laboratory and a medication reaching a patient lies a long chain of work—scientific, technical, operational, and regulatory.

Much of it happens out of sight.

For Jermall Cuffee, that is exactly where his work sits. Recently promoted to Senior Manager of Environmental, Health & Safety (EHS), he now leads the EHS department at WuXi AppTec’s Middletown, Delaware, facility, supporting drug research, development and manufacturing activities that clients rely on to bring medicines and therapies to patients.

His responsibilities span environmental compliance, emergency preparedness and response, incident investigations, audits, training, risk management, and the development of programs designed to prevent workplace injuries and illnesses. It is a broad scope. But Jermall sees a common purpose running through it: help customers develop and manufacture medicines and therapies in a safe, compliant, and reliable environment, ultimately benefiting patients.

The customer within

The pharmaceutical industry is among the most tightly regulated in the world. Yet regulation alone is not the purpose of EHS. At its best, Jermall believes, EHS is part of the infrastructure that allows an organization to move forward. In a support function, he realizes the people he supports are customers too. Whether working through a safety concern, helping a team navigate a regulatory requirement, developing a program, preparing for an audit, or simply being available when someone needs help, he tries to approach the work with a simple principle: “The details matter, and the experience we provide matters.”

That belief is particularly relevant in a CRDMO environment.

Clients come to WuXi AppTec with ambitious scientific programs, but delivering on those programs depends on a vast network of people and functions working together. Research, development and manufacturing are supported by engineering, quality, operations, facilities and many other teams.

EHS is part of that ecosystem. “There are a lot of moving pieces between an idea in research and a medication reaching a patient,” Jermall observes. That way of thinking has also influenced how he defines customer service.

The insight came, unexpectedly, from a family trip to Disney World. During his family’s first trip to Disney World, they were unexpectedly invited to be the First Family for the Day, opening the park and meeting Disney characters before it officially welcomed visitors. The experience was memorable. But what stayed with him was not simply the privilege of being first through the gates. It was an appreciation of everything required to make such an experience feel effortless. 

Behind the finished experience lay meticulous planning, preparation, coordination, and attention to detail—most of it invisible to the people enjoying the result. That idea resonated. This is a mindset also shaped by a 19-year career spanning Security, Operational Excellence, and EHS, each reinforcing his belief that great organizations move forward when people work together toward a common goal.

More than compliance

Scientific breakthroughs may capture the headlines. But medicines cannot reach patients without the systems, processes and people that make scientific progress repeatable, reliable and safe. That is where Jermall finds the larger meaning of his work.

From building an ISO-aligned EHS management system across the Cranbury, NJ, and Natick, MA, sites, to strengthening access control and video surveillance in Middletown, DE, to leading successful security audits, Jermall and his team’s work is foundational. Such work is fundamental to the pharmaceutical industry, to customers, and ultimately to patients.

He sometimes thinks about the person who may eventually receive a medication that was researched, developed or manufactured with the support of people across the organization. Whether it’s research that could lead to a breakthrough discovery, or a therapy that could give someone more time with their family.

Those are, for him, the full-circle moments. His individual responsibilities may sit within a support function, but their purpose extends beyond the function itself: supporting employees, protecting operations, helping the company remain compliant, and creating an environment in which teams and clients can do their best work.

For Jermall, his work is about helping create the environment that allows other people to accomplish extraordinary things. Somewhere at the far end of that long, and complex journey—from an idea in research to a medicine in a patient’s hands—is the ultimate reason for all of it.