James was born in Pittsburgh in a working-class family and grew up in North Huntingdon Township, graduating from Norwin High School in 1967.  After high school, he went to the University of Pittsburgh and did two years of pre-pharmacy at the Greensburg campus.  He was the first in his family to attend college. Upon graduation from Pitt’s School of Pharmacy and becoming licensed in 1972, he worked for 2 years in retail at an independent pharmacy in Butler, PA.  In 1974, he enrolled in a Drug Information Program at Case Western Reserve University’s School of Library Science.  After getting a master’s degree, he moved to the Chicago area and was employed by a number of different pharmaceutical companies.  He worked in several different functional areas including medical Information/medical writing, clinical research and clinical project management, regulatory affairs, and scientific assessment of licensing opportunities.  At the end of his career he held the position of Director of Regulatory Affairs at Abbott Laboratories (now Abbvie), with responsibilities for Humira rheumatology submissions to the Food and Drug Administration, resulting in approvals for rheumatoid arthritis, psoriatic arthritis and ankylosing spondylitis.