ASCLS-WI Board of Directors

2008-2009 Meetings

· Saturday, September 27, 2008 - 9:30 a.m. - Columbus Hospital

· Saturday, November 22, 2008 - 9:30 a.m. - Columbus Hospital

· Saturday, February 7, 2009 - 8:30 a.m. - Teleconference

· Tuesday, April 28, 2009 - 5:00 p.m. - ASCLS-WI convention in Fox Valley

All ASCLS-WI members are welcome to attend Board meetings. If you are planning to attend, please contact President Stacy Walz (sewalz@wisc.edu) for directions and to reserve parking.

The Latest from the Board of Directors (from home page)
Approved minutes from meetings of the Board of Directors may be obtained
by contacting any Board member for copies. Their contact information can
be found either on this website or the leadership roster sent with the
Fall issue of BadgerLab Times.

Also new: Standard Operating Procedure (click to view PDF)

Director Bios

April Harkins
April Harkins is a 1998 graduate from Marquette University’s Department of Clinical Laboratory Science. After working two years in the clinical lab as a generalist on midnight shift, April went to graduate school at the Medical University of South Carolina and received her Ph.D. in microbiology and immunology in 2005. April has since taken a faculty position back at Marquette University and has become involved in ASCLS at the local and state level. April has been an officer for the local society, co-chaired the 2008 ASCLS-WI state convention in Waukesha, WI, serves as NMLPW chair for the last three years and attended the 2008 ASCLS national convention as a delegate for Wisconsin. April believes that ASCLS is extremely important to the success of our profession, both at the state and national level. She believes in the critical importance of our profession and serving on the Board of Directors of our state society is another way to be involved and serve our fellow laboratory professionals and students.

Donna Byrne
Donna grew up in Milwaukee and graduated from the University of Wisconsin – Stevens Point with a BS in Medical Technology. Her employment in the clinical laboratory took her from Watertown to Green Bay; up to Ogdensburg, New York; and then back to Wisconsin to Park Falls, Minocqua, Chippewa Falls, and Eau Claire. She has been employed in small and large hospitals as well as clinic settings. Currently Donna is employed as a Technical Consultant at Luther Midelfort in Eau Claire. Donna has been active in the West Central Branch of ASCLS-WI for many years. She has been a member of the ASCLS-WI Board of Directors from 2004-2008, currently serving as secretary. She recognizes the changes and challenges facing the laboratory profession. Staff shortages, recruitment and retention, legislative issues, licensure, and rapidly changing technology are only a few things brewing in the laboratory arena. ASCLS is vital to the Clinical Laboratory profession, and staying active in the society contributes to the health care field.

John Strous
John E. Strous received his undergraduate degree in biology in 1972 and his master’s degree in microbiology in 1982, both from the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh. He completed an independent internship at Mercy Medical Center’s School of Medical Technology in 1977.

Mr. Strous worked at Mercy Medical Center for 28 years, including 23 years as a medical technologist. He was named as the Medical Technology Program Director at UW Oshkosh in 1991 and continues to serve in that position.

John believes that active support of the state and national ASCLS is important to the profession. He has attended multiple national clinical laboratory educator’s conferences and national ASCLS meetings, including participation at some of the national meetings as a delegate for Wisconsin.

John also supports the activities of ASCLS-WI, has attended the annual spring meetings since 1992, is currently a moderator for the annual student bowl competition and is also currently serving as a member of the board of directors of ASCLS-WI. He believes in the importance of the profession as a critical component in our healthcare system and supports the concept on licensure for Wisconsin laboratory professionals.

Gina Romano
Gina Romano is currently a senior Clinical Laboratory Science Student at the University of Wisconsin – Madison. Gina graduated from Tremper High School in Kenosha. She has completed a Toxicology Research rotation at UW Hospital and is looking forward to completing her Core Lab rotations in the Spring. In the future, Gina plans to attend graduate school with an emphasis in forensic toxicology. She became involved in ASCLS-WI one year ago after hearing about its positive impacts on new and upcoming professionals. She serves as the 2008-2009 Student Forum Representative for Wisconsin and recently attended the National Convention in Washington DC. Gina believes that every student should have the opportunity to hear about scholarship and job opportunities offered through ASCLS-WI and because of this, she designs activities and emails that address these issues.

Sue Stalewski
Sue’s undergraduate degree is in medical technology from UW-Milwaukee (1980). She earned an MBA from Keller Graduate school (Lake Forest, IL) in 1991. She has worked in almost every area of the laboratory as a generalist, hematology technologist, marketing and outreach coordinator, a supervisor of an industrial hygiene laboratory and a supervisor of a system-wide hematology/hemostasis section. She even worked as a microscopy specialist in a laboratory that analyzed building materials for asbestos!
She has also worked for several Milwaukee area healthcare organizations, including West Allis Memorial (Aurora), St. Joseph’s Milwaukee (Wheaton) and St. Mary’s –Milwaukee, St. Mary’s-Ozaukee, Community Memorial and Columbia Hospital (CSM)
Sue has been a clinical associate professor in the UW-Milwaukee Clinical Laboratory Sciences program since 2000. She is now splitting her duties between CLS education and serving as the director of distance education for the College of Health Sciences.

Sue is currently the president-elect for ASCLS-WI and has served four years as the ASCLS-WI secretary and four years as a board member. Sue’s major contributions to ASCLS-WI have been as the awards committee chair for the past several years and the coordinator of the annual student poster competition at the annual ASCLS-WI meeting.

Outside of the lab world, Sue is an elected member of the West Allis-West Milwaukee school board and active in other school and community organizations. She has three sons, two in college and one in high school.

As an advocate for the CLS profession Sue believes that it has never been more important to be strong as a professional organization and that we must work to protect the practice of laboratory professionals in the state of Wisconsin and to advocate for the value of clinical laboratory science and clinical laboratory science professionals in all aspects of healthcare and patient safety.

Sue Miller
Sue Miller is employed as a 7/70 tech on the night shift at Marshfield Clinic Laboratory and as an occasional tech at Wausau's Aspirus Hospital's Reference Laboratory. She graduated from Western Wisconsin Technical Institute in 1979. She has been actively involved in ASCLS-WI as a board member, now serving her 2nd term, is currently the Central WI Chapter President and has served on several convention committees over the past 20 years. Sue is also involved in the WI Chapter of American Medical Technologists and serves as a BOD member, and is also the current President of the WI Chapter of American Association of Bioanalysts Associate Member Section, and the President-Elect of the AAB National Board of the Associate Member Section. She enjoys all aspects of being involved in all three professional lab organizations and believes strongly that we must unite and move forward with professional licensure. Sue also enjoys working with students.

Stacy Walz
Stacy is a 1999 graduate of the Medical Technology Program at the University of Wisconsin- Madison. Upon graduation, she worked for over six years in the Clinical Pathology Laboratory at the Wisconsin National Primate Research Center in Madison. In 2003, she was the first student to complete a graduate certificate in Laboratory Quality Management, administered by UW-Madison, under the guidance of Dr. James Westgard. In 2005, she took her current position as Education Coordinator and Associate Lecturer in the Clinical Laboratory Science Program at UW-Madison, and hasn’t looked back! Stacy is currently working on a master’s degree in Population Health Sciences at UW-Madison.

Stacy joined ASCLS as a student in 1998, and has remained active ever since. From student forum member to BOD member to now president, Stacy has dearly valued the friendships she’s made, leadership opportunities she’s participated in, and opportunities for advocacy for the profession she loves. She has attended the national ASCLS meeting 4 times, the Legislative Symposium in 2008, and CLEC in 2007, and she hasn’t missed an ASCLS-WI convention since she became a member. Stacy’s primary goals in this organization are to foster student participation at the state and national levels, enhance communication among ASCLS-WI members, and educate members about the licensure initiative.

Toni Kuehl
Toni Kuehl started her laboratory science career at the St. Catherine’s Hospital, Kenosha laboratory where she rotated through all shifts and all laboratory departments. She helped develop the student lab curriculum, performed bench instruction, lectured, and represented the hospital in community outreach programs. Toni also worked briefly as ad hoc faculty at the University of Wisconsin-Parkside, Kenosha where she taught Medical Technology. When her hospital installed a clinical information system, Toni was invited to join the Information Services department to represent the laboratory and other ancillary services. From that point on, Toni continued working in Information Services. She currently serves as Director of Information Services at United Hospital System, Kenosha.

Toni has been an active member of the Racine-Kenosha branch of ASCLS-WI since she was a student. She has served as branch president (several years), fund raising chairman (several years), state convention program chair (one year), and state convention chair (one year). Toni is currently serving her second two-year ASCLS-WI board member term.

Toni believes the ASCLS-WI board should serve our members by endorsing continuing education, promoting membership, encouraging students, stewarding our financial resources, representing our members, broadening public awareness of laboratory science, and looking forward to the long-term viability of our profession.

Emily Kepler
Emily Kepler is a 2006 graduate of the University of Wisconsin- Madison Clinical Laboratory Science program. She works full time as a generalist at the Reedsburg Area Medical Center. Emily enjoys working in a rural hospital since it allows her to see her patients face to face. Emily became involved in ASCLS-WI as a student member and has continued her membership at the local and state levels. Emily attended the 2006 Legislative Days as a student delegate, served on the planning committee for the 2007 ASCLS-WI state convention, is currently the President of the Madison chapter, and is serving the second year in her first term as Treasurer. Emily is eager to get members more involved in the organization. Emily is honored to serve and represent fellow members as an ASCLS-WI officer.