At Pfizer, We Believe Everyone Should Be Seen, Heard and Cared For -- Literally

Digital technology has a profound influence in our day-to-day lives, impacting everything from how we socialize, how we work, and everything in between. Although most of us tend to focus on the next big thing that will reshape our world—the shiny new “it” technology—sometimes the most meaningful changes emerge through simple efforts centered on people’s everyday needs. This is certainly the case at work, where I recently learned about how members of our digital team used technology—with a bit of ingenuity! — to support one of our own colleagues.

 At @Pfizer, our people are at the core of what we do and who we are. We work hard to create a culture of equity and inclusiveness in which every colleague is seen, heard and cared for. For Maria Terracina, Global Supply Chain Procurement Senior Manager (pictured above), that sense of equity was brought to life when our digital team reached out to her in a time of need.

Maria lost her vocal cords to cancer and a subsequent partial laryngectomy in 2021. This has been lifechanging on many levels, not the least of which is that so much of what she does and who she is, is defined by her ability to speak. Not only does Maria negotiate and facilitate Pfizer agreements, but she is also a certified innovation coach, and in her downtime, a tour guide in her home city of Catania, in Sicily.

Faced with the possibility of not being heard and understood due to a very low tone of her voice, Maria feared the worst -- losing her independence, being silenced, and an overall uncertainty around being able to fulfill the work she loved. 

“To me, work is life,” Maria said. “And speaking is life.”

The severity of her cancer and subsequent treatment left Maria with few options to restore her voice. But then one of her colleagues, Tom Glennon, learned about her struggle and reached out to Pfizer Digital to see what we could do. I am proud to say that our team stepped up and developed a simple but novel solution. Using their expertise, they modified existing digital assistive technologies to help Maria, including setting her up with an external microphone with specialized software that was carefully tuned so that her voice could be heard and understood,

“There are a lot of digital assistive technologies available, and Maria was the impetus for us to dig in and document how to make more effective use of them,” said Bernard Dunne, Senior Director, Workforce Platforms and Applications. “With a wide variety of digital assistive tools and our company focus on equity, we can help colleagues to make the most of their unique abilities, ultimately unleashing the power of our people.”

“Givng me the opportunity to show up in important negotiations with this voice is helping to give me my life back,” said Maria. “I could have never imagined that I would find so much empathy and inclusiveness in all of my Pfizer colleagues.”

Maria and Bernard’s words are a powerful reminder that for all the importance we place on the next big thing in technology, what matters most is its impact on people’s lives. That’s where purpose comes in, and I’m proud that at Pfizer, everything we do is centered on our purpose–breakthroughs that change patients’ lives. As Maria’s story shows, sometimes those breakthroughs can be personal, and their impact is on our own Pfizer family. 

#pfizerproud #colleagues #equity #pfizervalues