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Grassroots explosion of

VOICE, VALUE,VISION Official publication of the American Society for Clinical Laboratory Science ~ South Dakota

Stacie Lansink ASCLS-SD President

2015-2016

As the ASCLS-SD 2015 President, I would like to welcome all of you to an exciting year. This will be my first time

serving as president and my goal is maintain the membership numbers and have members become involved in

committees and meetings. Please let me know if you are willing to serve on a committee.

This year’s annual ASCLS national meeting demonstrated the great participation and demonstration of engagement

and professionalism by many of our members. Three SD members were recognized as Keys to the Future including

Stephanie Jacobson, Jennifer Keimig and Bridget Parsons. Bridget was also awarded the National Student Forum

Leadership Award, the first time a student has received this honor in SD. Pat Tille was awarded the Gloria “Mike” F

Gilbert Memorial Trustee Award for service to the profession and I received recognition as Member of the Year for SD

and a first place award for the ASCKS-SD newsletter.

This was also the first year that two students were awarded a travel grant that paid for their registration and part

of their hotel at the national meeting. Alissa Neigel and Amanda Horn received these awards and will present their

experience at the fall conference in Chamberlain in November. Alissa and Amanda also participated on the Region V

team in the Student Bowl competition that took first place. Congratulations!

The new lifetime achievement award nominees were truly representative of many years of dedication and commitment to the profession of laboratory science and service to the society. This year Pam Kieffer was recognized for her leadership and dedication to the laboratory profession and was recognized as a ASCLS Life time achievement nominee. It is a distinguished honor to be nominated in itself. The field was full of deserving individuals and I am sure the decision was very difficult. Please join me in also recognizing Susan LeClair as the recipient of the 2015 ASCLS Life Time Achievement Award.

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Membership Matters

ASCLS Student members attending the Issues and Updates session at the National ASCLS Meeting. L-R: Alissa Neigel, ASCLS-SD Travel Grant Recipient. Bridget Parsons, ASCLS-SD and Region V Student Forum Representative and Amanda Horn. ASCLS-SD Travel Grant Recipient.

ASCLS-SD President 2014-2015; congratulating Bridget Parsons, ASCLS-SD nominee for the Student Leadership Award. Bridget was selected by the National as this years outstanding student leader in ASCLS!

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Have you renewed your ASCLS 2015-16 membership? If you have not, please consider renewing today so you continue to receive all the benefits that ASCLS membership brings you. When you renew, you make the

following professional statements! "I'm a proud medical laboratory science & health care professional!"

“I demonstrate my commitment to my profession, my patients and the public I serve through my professional membership in ASCLS!”

Front row from left: Alissa Neigel, Deb Pravcek, Pam Kieffer, Amanda Horn. Second row: Pat Tille, Jeff Kistler, Elissa Passiment, James Griffith. Third row: Stacie Lansink, Tiffany Montalvo, Bridget Parsons, and Mary Coleman. ASCLS-SD and ASCLS-ND members auction off an All American Womens autographed baseball to support student scholarships. The ball was auctioned off for $2000.00. Following the event, Elissa and Jim gave the ball to an ASCLS member whose grandmother played for the Georgia Peaches. WHAT A WAY TO SUPPORT STUDENT ENVOLVEMENT! When the Peaches Hit the Ball, it is GONE WITH THE WIND!

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Pat Tille

Even though I have been an ASCLS member for many years, I think it would be appropriate to provide you with a

brief introduction because we have so many new members. I began my career in ASCLS as a state student forum

representative and have served as the Region V student forum representative, SD State President 3 times, 2006, 2007

and 2014, as well as served on the Region V Presidents Council during 2005-2007 and 2013-2015. In addition, I have

remained active at all levels in ASCLS including state committees, Region V Mtg Vice Chair 2013, Chair 2014, Program

Committee/Planning 2015 as well as Opening Keynote in 2013, General Speaker and Keynote, 2014 and the closing

Keynote in 2015. In addition to the Regional Meeting, I have been a featured speaker at numerous ASCLS and CLEC

national meetings as well as in SD, Iowa and Nebraska and most recently ASCLS-WI 2015. I also attended the ASCLS-MN

2014 and 2015 meetings. I have participated in workshops in Washington DC regarding the future of laboratory

professionals and Interprofessional Health Care, as well as featured in a National Higher Education Documentary:

National Policy Summit on Redefining Access for the 21st Century Student (Institute for Higher Education; Washington

DC) with one of my MLS students. As recognized in SD as a respected laboratory professional, I was asked to be a

speaker at the SD Infectious Disease Conference this fall that includes nurses, infection control practitioners and

physicians. I have been very active at the National Level in ASCLS, with my most recent participation as the ASCLS

Bylaws chair. Previous positions include the ASCLS Awards Committee, Coordinator of the Scientific Assemblies,

National Molecular SA Chair and Bylaws Chair.

As the immediate president in South Dakota my campaign was to increase membership and support the societies

members, focusing on mentoring and bringing upcoming professionals whether they are students, seasoned or new

into the society. Each year that I served as the president of ASCLS-SD the state membership increased. I am proud to

say we were able to reach one of, if not the highest membership in our State Societies History, of 201 Members in 2015.

This is the first time in my 23 years with ASCLS-SD that I am aware that the ASCLS-SD society membership has

exceeded 200. I am very proud of the Board of Directors, Committees and the General Membership for this kind of

support for our profession and our society.

In addition, this year I was able to work with the ASCLS-SD Student/New Professional Committee in SD to establish

the first ever travel grant program to attend the National ASCLS Meeting. I am happy to say that ASCLS-SD sent three

students to Atlanta this year to experience ASCLS in a global arena.

ANOTHER FIRST FOR SOUTH DAKOTA!

ASCLS has been my rock, my networking and has brought me many wonderful friends, colleagues and mentors. As a

result I have been rewarded in more ways than I can possibly express in this short document, from scholarships when

I was a student, to publications and awards for my work, as well as recognition in professional achievement by ASCLS

in both Molecular Diagnostics (2011) and Microbiology (2005). I am always humbled by these honors, but know that no

awards would have been possible without the support, leadership and amazing network of colleagues and friends

developed over the past 23 years....

As the new Region V Director my goals are centered on my personal core values, simple and straight forward:

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1. Keep the communication open and provide the state organizations and members with information and

updates;

2. Promote the Region as a united group that includes all states and offers leadership, networking and

continuing education opportunities to the membership.

3. To embrace organizational change, goals and needs of each state and their members to advance initiatives

and ideas that will sustain the future of the laboratory professionals.

4. And to diligently work to full fill my duties that support and respond to ASCLS, the membership and the

profession at all levels.

Despite my lengthy membership and involvement in ASCLS, this position is challenging and I have been working to

identify the needs of the states and memberships, while transitioning into the duties of a National Board member. As

leaders in Region V and within the laboratory profession, my hope is that we can work together to create a culture of

diversity, integration and collaboration with integrity, transparency and credibility to each other, to our patients,

employers and the profession.

Please feel free to email me with thoughts, ideas or questions! Our organization is only as strong as our membership.

THANK YOU FOR OYUR CONTINUED SUPPORT!

Cardinal Health 2015 urEssential Finalist

Dr. Patricia M. Tille

20 PROFESSORS OF CLINICAL LABORATORY SCIENCE YOU SHOULD

KNOW-2015 http://www.medicaltechnologyschools.com/medical-lab-technician/clinical-laboratory-science-professors

By Stacie Lansink Vice-Chair of Immunohematology

Scientific Assembly

Umbilical cord blood transplants is a type of graft that is utilized for patients with a malignant or genetic disease

that can be a form of treatment when they do not have an HLA-matched family member or volunteer unrelated adult

donor for a hematopoietic stem cell transplant. The umbilical cord blood is a rich source of hematopoietic stem.

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cells is collected from the umbilical vein either before delivery of the placenta or after delivery. There has been an

increase in the amount of cord blood transplants that are occurring as it has some advantages over a bone marrow

transplant. Some of the advantages include: minimal risk to the donor, the unlikelihood of transmitting an

infectious agent to the recipient, and a lower risk of graft-vs-host disease to name a few.

In the 1990s, Umbilical cord banks were established that would accept a donation from a term delivery and store

the umbilical cord for public use. Currently, there have been an estimated 730,000 umbilical cords donated and

about 35,000 transplants have been performed worldwide. Over the past 20 years, private and family banks have

grown to store umbilical cords for a particular patient or family, and these usually charge a yearly storage fee.

Cord blood transplants are being utilized when there is not a suitable donor available for an allogeneic

transplantation, such as when the patient has no relative that matches their HLA type or they may not have enough

time to find a bone marrow donor due to the aggressive nature of their disease. Cord blood transplants have

increased the chances that these donors will benefit from a donation because they can get a transplant quickly.

Currently, umbilical cord transplants are still a fairly new procedure and are used primarily for patients when there

are no other treatment or donor options that are available. In some cases, there is still the chance that the graft will

not take and the patient may expire or the graft will take and the patient will be put into remission. As more

successful cases are reported, more physicians are willing to consider the umbilical cord transplant an option for

some patients.

For more information visit the following website: http://www.nationalcordbloodprogram.com Resources:

Ballen, K. F. (2015). Umbilical Cord Blood Donation: Public or Private? Bone Marrow Transplantation, 124.

Keersmaekers, C. L. (2014). Factors affecting umbilical cord stem cell suitability for transplantation in an in utero

collection program. Transfusion, 545-549.

Membership Matters

Pat Tille getting feedback from the students at the Issues and Updates at the ASCLS National meeting.

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Membership Counts and Now Rewards Even More!

By: Jeff Kistler President-Elect and Membership Chair

Membership to ASCLS has many benefits and now more rewards. It is important as laboratory professionals to retain current members and recruit new members into the organization and from now until June 1st, 2016 there is a competition among the regions of ASCLS to see who can recruit the most members. The region with the most members will be recognized as champions of recruitment and those members that recruit individuals to ASCLS will receive a $25.00 credit that can be applied to their choice of: membership renewal or the registration fee to the national meeting. To receive the rewards for recruiting a member, simply go to: www.ascls.org/member-rewards to submit the information of the member that you recruit to ASCLS and earn your rewards. The time commitment for being a member can be minimal, it is all in how involved you want to become. ASCLS offers educational opportunities to earn CEU credit to maintain maintenance, opportunities for networking with other laboratory professionals and ASCLS-SD has a committee to promote our profession and provide public recognition through the Governor’s proclamation of National Medical Laboratory Professionals Week. ASCLS is a professional organization that represents laboratorians as a whole, regardless of their specific

discipline or specialty. ASCLS is an organization that is operated by clinical laboratory professionals as

opposed to some of the other organizations and provides its membership with full voting rights.

There are many rewards to becoming a member of ASCLS and one way to experience ASCLS is to attend a meeting, either the Region V meeting, the Fall Collaborative Conference, or the one day meeting in the spring. These meetings are offered locally, but to really experience ASCLS, the national meeting is where the excitement can build for the profession. Recruit a member to experience what ASCLS can do. For the ASCLS membership application, go to: http://www.ascls.org/join-ascls/join

Resources: Nagel, Mary. ASCLS Member Recruitment: What to say when you don’t know what to say

It's Time to Renew Your Professional Spirit!

Plan on Attending the 2015 Fall Conferences

ASCLS-SD FALL CONFERENCE CEDAR SHORE RESORT NOVEMBER 5-6, 2015 CHAMBERLAIN SD

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ASCLS Members representing SD at the ASCLS National meeting in Atlanta! Back Row: Left Row - Bridget Parsons, Stacie Lansink, Pat Tille, Deb Pravecek, Jeff Kistler,

Middle Row: Alissa Neigel and Amanda Horn Bottom Row: Tiffany Montalvo and Pam Kieffer.

HAVE PICTURES! SEND THEM TO US.... We want to see YOU in the next newsletter!

Volusion Co-Editors: Stacie Lansink and Pat Tille

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