The polls are now open for the the Association for Diagnostics & Laboratory Medicine (formerly AACC) 2021 Clinical Laboratory Scientists (CLS) Council election.
All the Association for Diagnostics & Laboratory Medicine (ADLM) CLS professional, transitional, and emeritus members are eligible to participate in the CLS election. Ballots are customized based on voting privileges, and the link below will take you to a ballot customized for you. Elections are open through 11:59 p.m. (EDT), May 31, 2021.
To vote, visit: https://voteaacc.simplyvoting.com/
Voting members are asked to affirm each candidate for the CLS Council Chair-Elect, four (4) Council seats, and two (2) Nominating Committee seats.
You can view the candidates and their bios below.
CLS Election Ballot
Chair-Elect
Erika Deaton-Mohney, MT(ASCP), CPP Compliance and Point of Care Coordinator, Bronson Methodist Hospital, Kalamazoo, MI
Erika Deaton-Mohney’s passion for laboratory medicine is evident in the accreditation compliance oversight she provides to four hospital laboratories as well as Point of Care testing oversight to over 100 physician office labs. Erika enjoys successes within four regulatory agencies, project management in both POC IT and in onboarding new laboratories, consulting with laboratories on meeting accreditation standards, and the many relationships she has built along the way.
Erika has a bachelor’s degree in Health Sciences, MT(ASCP) and was a successful member in the first class of board certified Point of Care professional, CPP. She has over 25 years of laboratory experience as a generalist in all core laboratory departments, blood bank, client services and education. She is at her happiest when getting others excited about laboratory medicine and professional development.
CLS Council
Amber Canady, MLS(ASCP)SC, Chemistry Laboratory Manager, Grady Health System, Marietta, GA
Amber Canady started her career in 2007 as a medical technologist at Grady Memorial Hospital where she worked in the chemistry lab and served as the teaching tech and safety officer for the department. In 2012, Amber joined the Grady LIS as part of the Epic Beaker build team. In her time with the LIS team, she built testing and validated workflows for the chemistry and immunology labs. After the Epic Beaker go live in 2013, Amber returned to the chemistry department as the technical specialist over automation. In this role she served as a resource on automated testing, troubleshooting, and regulatory compliance to staff. She also focused on creating lean inventory systems and switching to a paperless quality control system.
Amber has been in her current position since 2019. As manager, she leads a team of 30 medical technologist in the hospital’s vision to become the leading public academic healthcare system in the United States. She is dedicated to bringing more testing in house to improve patient outcomes and shorten length of stay. She is proud to be part of the Grady team, and looks forward to a future of serving the community by providing quality laboratory results.
Amber holds a Bachelor of Science in Biology from West Georgia University and a Bachelor of Science in Medical Technology from Armstrong Atlantic University. She is currently pursuing a Master of Business Administration from Kennesaw State University. She is certified as a Medical Laboratory Scientist and a Specialist in Chemistry by the American Society for Clinical Pathology.
Amanda Faber, MLS(ASCP)MB, Improvement Specialist, Spectrum Health, Cedar Springs, MI
Amanda Faber is an Operations Specialist who works across Spectrum Health System Laboratories to meet regulatory requirements, quality standards and data analytics needs. After working on the front line as a medical technologist in a small hospital laboratory, Amber saw the need for high standards and offered to help transition accreditation agencies. Desiring more opportunities in this area, she then transitioned to the regulatory specialist for CAP accreditation at a large regional laboratory before expanding her role even further to regulatory specialist for the entire health system. Amanda believes access to the right data at the right time leads to informed decisions that produce high quality care and the best results for patients. She is passionate about maintaining high integrity through building accurate data analytics and meeting regulatory requirements.
Amanda has helped Spectrum Health reach a complete system accreditation. She has led improvements in the organization’s quality management system, the creation of system data analytics and visualization, and front line laboratory department rapid improvement events. She also participates in CLSI’s document development committee on quality management systems in order to build new connections and improve the organization as a whole.
Amanda is a certified Medical Laboratory Scientist as well as a Molecular Technologist from ASCP. She holds a BS in Medical Laboratory Science from Grand Valley State University and a BS in Biology from Hillsdale College.
Cheryl Haskins, MS, MT(ASCP)SC, Medical Technologist, Travel Assignments, Club Staffing, AMN Healthcare, Tully, NY
Shortly after beginning her career as a night-shift generalist at a community hospital in Richmond, VA, Cheryl Haskins was offered an opportunity to return to Syracuse, NY to take what she had recently described to a friend as her “dream job”. Working in the Chemistry department at Upstate Medical Center (currently State University of New York [SUNY] Upstate University Hospital), Cheryl performed general chemistry testing as well as specialty testing using a variety of techniques including radioimmunoassay, HPLC, thin-layer chromatography, manual extraction and spectrophotometry. Being in an academic setting, she also was involved with medical technology student education and mentoring as well as research, development and implementation of new assays and instrumentation. In addition to developing technical skills during this employment, Cheryl also had opportunities to develop her leadership style and skills, serving as assistant supervisor in the Chemistry department and eventually as the laboratory supervisor for University Pathologists Laboratory, an offsite laboratory providing testing for medical practices and an outpatient surgery center.
Returning to the workforce after a short hiatus, Cheryl joined the laboratory staff at St. Joseph’s Hospital in Syracuse working as a chemistry and hematology technologist, and eventually again taking on a leadership role. Within a few years, Laboratory Alliance of Central New York (“Lab Alliance”) was created as a new hospital-owned organization from the laboratories at St. Joe’s, Crouse Hospital and Community General Hospital, all in Syracuse, and continued to serve them from laboratories within existing spaces. In addition, a new offsite regional reference laboratory was opened in a Syracuse suburb and it was here that Cheryl spent the majority of her professional career. Beginning in a wide open, unheated space under construction, the Lab Alliance team built a new, state-of-the-art laboratory providing services for the owner hospitals, as well as for physician office laboratories, nursing homes and medical providers throughout Central New York. Transitioning from Technical Supervisor to Technical Manager for Chemistry, Cheryl was responsible for departmental operations at all Lab Alliance locations as well as co-managing the Chemistry and Hematology staff in cooperation with the Hematology Technical Manager. She also had responsibility for overseeing the staff and processes for send-out testing in our Referral Testing area.
It was during her time employed at an academic medical center that Cheryl became interested in participation in our national professional organizations. In addition to ADLM, she is a member of ASCP and CLMA. Cheryl was a member of the ASCP Chemistry Examination Committee for 7 years and continues to be active with the local chapters of ADLM and CLMA.
In 2019, Cheryl began working as a medical technologist traveler. She has taken travel assignments in hospitals in New York, Oregon, Missouri and Washington. This experience has provided the opportunity to work in a variety of settings, shifts and disciplines including Chemistry, Hematology, Transfusion Services and limited Microbiology. (It has also provided the opportunity to live and work near family members and travel extensively across our beautiful country!)
Cheryl earned her Bachelor of Science and Master of Science in Medical Technology from the SUNY Upstate Medical University in Syracuse, NY. She is certified by the American Society for Clinical Pathology as a Medical Technologist and as a Specialist in Chemistry.
Theresa Kunzler, MS, MT(ASCP), Technical Supervisor, ARUP Laboratories, Salt Lake City, UT
Theresa Kunzler is a Laboratory Supervisor in the Chemistry division at ARUP Laboratories. She manages 19 laboratory scientists and oversees testing in the Electrophoresis/Manual Endocrinology laboratory for multiple esoteric assays used to diagnose endocrine and cardiovascular diseases and risk analysis for prenatal defects; assay methods include electrophoresis, immunoassay, and NMR.
She began her lab career as a MLT in microbiology at Primary Children’s Medical Center. After completing the ASCP exam, Theresa took a position at ARUP Laboratories in the Special Chemistry laboratory. After restructuring within the Chemistry division, she was promoted to lead technologist in the Electrophoresis/Manual Endocrinology laboratory and is currently the supervisor. She also worked at Brigham City Community Hospital, a 40 bed level IV trauma hospital, as a generalist and phlebotomist for just under 5 years.
Theresa received her bachelor degree in Clinical Laboratory Science from Weber State University and her master degree in Health Sciences from University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey (now affiliated with Rutgers University). She presented a poster at the ADLM annual meeting in 2008, has attended the Annual Scientific Meeting for the past 4 years, and is a member of the Rocky Mountain Local Section where she has served as Secretary since 2020. She has participated in laboratory studies that have resulted in being a contributing author on several publications.
Nominating Committee
Kerstin Halverson, BA, MS;Clinical Applications Manager, Acute Care Diagnostics, Farmington, MN
Kerstin A Halverson holds an M.S. in Biology from Minnesota State University – Mankato, MN. She began her career in the Electron Microscopy department at Hennepin County Medical Center in Minneapolis, MN in 1993. She worked with sample processing and helped develop specimen tracking capability within their LIS at the time. She transitioned over to POCT in 1999 at HCMC and eventually moved on to the role of Point of Care Coordinator at Children’s Minnesota in 2003. Children’s POCT program consists of seven different sites within the metro area, which equates annually to over 300,000 patient tests, 2,500 operator competencies, and managing 150 POCT devices. Her responsibilities included oversight for competency, quality control, proficiency testing, instrument and reagent validation, policies, procedures, regulatory compliance, and interface management of six instrument types and five manual tests in the program. In 2017, she joined the team at Instrumentation Laboratory (IL) as a Clinical Applications Manager. At IL she is responsible for managing instrument installation projects, software upgrades and customer care for IL’s Acute Care Diagnostics Division, overseeing a team of 7 Applications Consultants across sixteen states in the Midwest.
Since 2006 Kerstin has been active in ADLM and the CPOCT Division as faculty in the inaugural CPOCT Certificate Program, followed by co-chairing the revisions team and serving most recently on the Task Force that developed the POC Certification exam in 2018. She served two terms as the CPOCT Division Secretary, was elected CPOCT Division Chair in 2017, and is currently CPOCT Division Past Chair. She was the 2016 CPOCT Coordinator of the Year. She has presented at multiple ADLM Annual Meetings and POCT Symposiums, published numerous articles and posters on POCT and a book chapter on safety preparedness in a metropolitan area.
Amy Rockefeller, MLS(ASCP), Clinical Laboratory Manager, UC San Diego Health, San Diego, CA
Amy Rockefeller is a Clinical Laboratory Manager at the CenterofAdvanced Laboratory Medicine (CALM) for the University of California- San Diego Health System. Amy is responsible for the oversight of the Core Laboratory, Outpatient Phlebotomy, Cytogenetics, Clinical Genomics and Toxicology Departments.
Amy earned a Bachelor of Science Degree in Microbiology at California State University- Chico and earned a Master of Advanced Studies in Healthcare Leadership at the University of California, San Diego. She has a Green Belt in Lean Healthcare Processes and enjoys working on process improvement initiatives throughout the organization.
Amy is currently actively involved with her local ADLM section in San Diego, CA and is the acting Secretary. Amy has also served on the ADLM CLS Council since the Fall 2018.
In her free time, Amy enjoys crocheting, hiking, photography and traveling.