PRESIDENT ’ S MESSAGE
Transitions
When I was a youngster I gazed with wonder at the magnificence of the bold , red sun of sunsets of the American Midwest . How magical was the sun that goes from yellow and white to red in its arc across the sky . Now I know with a bit of knowledge that it ’ s no mystery that the incredible redness is due to the scattering of the red light waves by gases and particulates in the atmosphere . There is no real magic I guess — or is there ?
I witness magic every day that I pass through the doors of a state public health laboratory . I observe magic each day when I work with APHL members and staff . It is the magic of a very few special people who are willing to sacrifice their days , nights and weekends for the much greater good of their families , neighbors and the unseen and unknown across the lands that they serve .
Over the 30 + years that I have worked in this state public health laboratory I have viewed so many times our laboratorians perform their magic . Whether that was to bring a new test or testing platform into production in a phenomenal amount of time ; produce and ship out thousands of test kits to customers over a few days ; examining new federal grants and then aiding the member laboratories with essential toolkits ; delivering dynamic webinars and web tools for the member laboratories ; working overtime and over weekends to perform their work without being asked or being compensated ; being over-worked , under-staffed and underpaid for the entirety of their careers ; composing new and exciting training courses ; being asked to perform time and time again and always delivering . Make no mistake this is no sleight of hand magic — this is real and it emerges continually and in every member laboratory and in the workplaces of APHL .
We all owe each other a debt of gratitude for the work all of us do for the collective , the laboratory collective . For as the bench laboratorian cannot do their work without support staff , the support staff cannot do their work without an administrator and the administrator cannot do their best work without the assistance of APHL . The laboratory ecosystem , is reliant on each other and that ’ s how it should be . All working together as one for the greater good of the public and the public ’ s health .
It has truly been an honor working with and serving alongside all of you in the member laboratories , at APHL and , of course , in the Missouri State Public Health Laboratory . You all are among the finest and most virtuous people I have known . Your work is more important than ever and I hope that you recognize , as I do , that the world is in good hands with all of you at the helm .
I am looking down the road to the end of my career and the sunset beckons me once again , the deep , bold magical redness is once more just that , red . And I do look forward to that without further clarification or reason . Godspeed my friends . n
Bill Whitmar , MS President , APHL
It has truly been an honor working with and serving alongside all of you in the member laboratories , at APHL and , of course , in the Missouri State Public Health Laboratory . You all are among the finest and most virtuous people I have known .”
2 LAB MATTERS Spring 2021