WASHINGTON – AACC is pleased to announce that four new members have been elected to the association’s Board of Directors and will begin serving in January 2014. The AACC membership also elected two new members to the Nominating Committee, which is responsible for choosing future candidates for both the Nominating Committee and the AACC Board.
David D. Koch, PhD, will serve a one-year term on the AACC Board as president-elect, followed by successive terms as the association’s 66th president in 2015 and past president in 2016, while David Grenache, PhD, will serve a three-year term as secretary. Additionally, Rita Horvath, MD, PhD, and James Faix, MD, will serve three-year terms as Board members, and Larry Broussard, PhD, and Ann Gronowski, PhD, will serve two-year terms on the Nominating Committee.
“I am sincerely honored and humbled to be chosen as president-elect of AACC, and I will be pleased to serve the membership,” said Dr. Koch. “Healthcare is evolving and we face noteworthy challenges ahead, but I am confident about clinical chemistry as a discipline and AACC as an organization. By pooling our resources and committing to our shared vision, AACC will advance the science and improve the practice of clinical chemistry in the future as we have in the past.”
Dr. Koch is currently director of clinical chemistry, toxicology, and point-of-care testing at Grady Memorial Hospital and a professor in the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, Emory University in Atlanta. At Emory, he teaches in their Commission on Accreditation in Clinical Chemistry (ComACC)-accredited postdoctoral training program. He is also a fellow of the National Academy of Clinical Biochemistry (NACB). In addition to being a committed member of AACC since 1980, Dr. Koch is active in the Academy of Clinical Laboratory Physicians and Scientists (ACLPS) and on several subcommittees of the Clinical Laboratory Standards Institute (CLSI). He is known in particular for his expertise in evaluating new clinical laboratory instruments and methods.
Dr. Grenache is an associate professor in the Department of Pathology at the University of Utah School of Medicine and the medical director of the Chemistry Division at ARUP Laboratories in Salt Lake City. He also serves as co-director of the University of Utah’s ComACC-accredited postdoctoral fellowship in clinical chemistry and is a fellow of NACB. Outside of AACC, Dr. Grenache supports the profession of laboratory medicine as a leader within ACLPS and CLSI. His research focuses on maternal-fetal diagnostics.
Dr. Horvath is area director of clinical chemistry at South Eastern Area Laboratory Services in Sydney, Australia, conjoint professor of medicine at the University of New South Wales, and an honorary professor at the School of Public Health of Sydney University and at the Faculty of Pharmacology and Biochemistry of Buenos Aires University. An international expert in evidence-based laboratory medicine, Dr. Horvath currently advises NACB and the National Prescribing Service of Australia on evidence-based methodologies and test utilization, respectively. She is also involved with CLSI’s guideline group on reporting critical laboratory results.
With a research focus on markers of sepsis and autoimmune disease, Dr. Faix serves as medical director of clinical chemistry and immunology at Stanford University Medical Center and as clinical professor of pathology at the Stanford University School of Medicine in Palo Alto, Ca. In addition to his involvement with AACC, he is an active member of the College of American Pathologists.
Dr. Broussard previously served as AACC president in 2008, and is a professor and department head in the Department of Clinical Laboratory Sciences, Louisiana State University, New Orleans, La. He is also a fellow in the NACB and American Academy of Forensic Sciences. In his research, he specializes in method development and clinical toxicology, with a focus on inhalant abuse and workplace drug testing.
Another former AACC president who held the position in 2011, Dr. Gronowski is professor of pathology and immunology, and obstetrics and gynecology at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. Additionally, she is the associate medical director of the Clinical Chemistry, Serology, and Immunology Laboratories at Barnes-Jewish Hospital. Her research focuses on the laboratory diagnostics of endocrinology and reproductive physiology with an emphasis on maternal-fetal medicine.
About AACC
Dedicated to achieving better health through laboratory medicine, the American Association for Clinical Chemistry (AACC) brings together more than 50,000 clinical laboratory professionals, physicians, research scientists, and business leaders from around the world focused on clinical chemistry, molecular diagnostics, mass spectrometry, translational medicine, lab management, and other areas of breaking laboratory science. Since 1948, AACC has worked to advance the common interests of the field, providing programs that advance scientific collaboration, knowledge, expertise, and innovation. For more information, visit www.myadlm.org.