After 20+ years as a Medical Technologist in the field of Blood Banking, I returned to graduate school to pursue a Master’s degree and Ph.D in Epidemiology. This decision was a result of my interests in both the burgeoning field of new/emerging potentially transfusion transmitted diseases and conditions as well as blood donor behavior and modification. In order to be competent to design and perform studies in these areas, further education was needed. In addition, there are very few formally trained Epidemiologists in this field.

My current position as Project Leader in the Transmissible Diseases Department has allowed me to develop and coordinate research projects in the Blood Banking arena. Some new areas of research include (1) transfusion potential for infectious causes of chronic diseases and cancer, (2) validation of donor history questions, (3) donor motivations and (4) application of new molecular techniques for use in detection of transfusion transmitted conditions. These are interesting and exciting new areas of work.