By Dave Z (Flickr: CITY HALL PHILADELPHIA) [CC BY 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons
Stephanie Lorah
Inventory and Fulfillment Manager
Prime Wellness of Pennsylvania
Sinking Spring, PA
When I joined Prime Wellness of Pennsylvania as an inventory specialist, I knew a lot about quality control and data entry from my previous role at a wireless internet service and products company, but knew little about medical marijuana. I find everything I learn fascinating, but one of the most important things I’ve discovered is how much I love being in this industry.
Numbers have always been my thing, but I’ve also always had a passion for agriculture, growing up in rural Pennsylvania in a family that always owned horses (I still have a pony). I learned early that horses depend on you to survive; you can’t just walk away at the end of the day.
At Prime Wellness, I get to combine both of these passions. I can be the person who maintains the numbers, but also be around a product that requires nurturing. Knowing that our product is improving the wellbeing of thousands of people across Pennsylvania helps me get up in the morning.
My work at Prime Wellness requires me to be more hands-on than at my previous job, especially since I was promoted to inventory and fulfillment manager in August 2019. We’re a grower/processor, so I have to be on top of the entire process, from when the plants are babies through distribution. I love watching the plants thrive — and the company, too. Because of our growth, my team has expanded from two to five to keep up with internal auditing and order fulfillment.
Medical marijuana is a strictly regulated industry, particularly here in Pennsylvania, so everything we do must be consistent, accurate and transparent. We’re constantly verifying numbers like batch identification and amounts and ensuring that testing samples are properly labeled and packaged with supporting documentation so that the process goes smoothly. We need to know what each plant is and what its characteristics are. We literally have to take time to smell the flowers! Whether at the cultivation or packaging stage, we have to be able to determine if something is off and follow up if something seems out of the ordinary. It’s a carefully orchestrated system of constant scanning, checks and rechecks to guarantee that the product patients get inside the package is exactly what it’s supposed to be.
When I started at Prime Wellness, I thought I might just be counting seeds all day, but it’s been and will continue to be so much more. Talk about fulfillment!