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directed staff who could work at home to do so . Even chemists reported from home one day a week .
To maintain services during the pandemic , both DEQ and LEAD had to develop special protocols . Thus , when DEQ leadership made the decision initially to eliminate travel longer than a day trip , LEAD staff reworked monitoring routes to make it possible to reach sites within a day . According to Pillsbury , “ Staff felt a strong responsibility to continue monitoring despite the pandemic .” Air monitoring was particularly critical with widespread wildfires in the state .
Then , like so many states , Oregon faced a budget crisis precipitated by the heavy expenses incurred during the pandemic . Said Pillsbury , “ We had to buckle down and figure out how we were going to manage our workload with reduced funding , but we did it .”
Except for a short hiatus in field work at the beginning of the pandemic , LEAD has continued to perform its functions to date . Pillsbury is proud that her division persevered to deliver services , but she does not rank continuity of operations as the top achievement of her tenure . Instead , she focuses on her staff , “ Thus far , I consider my greatest achievement to be helping my staff safely navigate their work through the first 19 months of the pandemic .” At a time when businesses are under-staffed and hospitals overflowing , this is no small feat . n
A DEQ chemist works on LCMS . Photo : LEAD
New Fellowship Classes Begin , Recruiting for Expanded 2022 Programs
by Heather Roney , MA , manager , Fellowships
APHL held a combined virtual orientation program in August for 20 incoming fellows in the following programs :
• Antimicrobial Resistance Laboratory Fellowship
• Newborn Screening Bioinformatics and Data Analytics Fellowship .
Orientation included presentations from the
US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention ( CDC ) and APHL leadership , overviews of the public health laboratory system , and program-specific content to prepare fellows for their appointments . All fellows are now working in their local , state and CDC host laboratories . We look forward to following their progress .
Editor ’ s Note
APHL is expanding program offerings in 2022 ! As a recipient of American Rescue Plan funding , APHL is accepting applications for fellows and host laboratories for assignments beginning summer 2022 . These funds are also supporting a new public health laboratory internship program . Interns will be current or recent graduates interested in a 12-16 week experience in a public health laboratory .
Please consider sharing this information with members of your public health laboratory network . n
Over the years , the dates of publication for Lab Matters have shifted … a necessity as production cycles have lengthened from eight weeks to 10-12 weeks , depending on the issue . With that shift , it has come to my attention that the naming conventions ( i . e ., spring , summer , fall winter ) don ’ t necessarily agree with the calendar anymore . This issue has also been causing some confusion as we curate content around important events and dates . We recently got the question , “ Why does the spring issue publish in June ?”… a very valid point .
In an effort to alleviate this confusion , as well as bring our publishing more in line with traditional magazine naming conventions , Lab Matters is shifting its issue names :
• Spring 2022 – publishes in March
• Summer 2022 – publishes in June
• Fall 2022 – publishes in September
• Winter 2022 – publishes in December
So even though the issue name has changed , you will still receive four editions per year . This “ Fall / Winter 2021 ” edition is specially named , since we have already published a “ Winter 2021 ” edition .
Thank you so much for your support for Lab Matters over the years . It has been a priviledge to tell the stories of our members , and I look forward to continuing to do so .
32 LAB MATTERS Fall / Winter 2021