PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE
A Presidential Priority:
Laboratory Safety for the Next Generation of Leaders
For those of you who may not know me,
my name is Grace Kubin and I am the
director for the Texas State Public Health
Laboratories. Thanks to the members
of APHL, I am also the incoming APHL
president.
Safety—and understanding
all facets of it—is a critical part of
building a knowledgeable workforce
and developing the next generation
of leaders in the laboratory.”
Grace Kubin, president, APHL
During the member assembly at APHL
2019, I was given the opportunity to
discuss my presidential priority for the
upcoming year. I spent a lot of time in
the months leading up to the meeting
thinking about what my priority should
be. So I looked back at the different
APHL projects, committees and groups
that I had the privilege of participating
in over the years to help me make a
determination and two themes really
stood out: the workforce development
component of APHL’s Emerging Leader
Program and the biosafety focus of APHL’s
Public Health Preparedness and Response
Committee.
The topics of workforce development
and biosafety seem to be on everyone’s
minds, and are universally discussed at
almost every professional gathering of
laboratorians. I really wanted one to be
highlighted as my priority, but which one?
Both are important and integral to public
health laboratories. After mulling it over
for many weeks, I came to the realization
that they were not exclusive. Safety—
and understanding all facets of it—is a
critical part of building a knowledgeable
workforce and developing the next
generation of leaders in the laboratory.
every hazard we work with can help
educate laboratorians about where and
how they work. Arming laboratorians
with knowledge and education, as well as
providing the support to make changes
beneficial to their environment, will help
to empower and build leaders to sustain
the important work of public health
laboratories.
Not everyone was able to attend the
last session at APHL 2019, “LaboraStory
Corps: You Did WHAT in that Lab?”, but if
you did, you heard some pretty amusing
and somewhat terrifying stories about
incidents in the lab that elicited groans of
disbelief and knowing acknowledgments
from the audience. After listening to all
the stories not only from the session
speakers, but also from the audience
participants who ventured up to the
microphones, I know that this priority
will be of benefit to all laboratorians. Stay
tuned!
I hope you take some time to check out
the interesting articles in this issue of Lab
Matters, including the feature article on
antibiotic/antimicrobial resistance, the
automation of PulseNet whole genome
sequencing, and a recap of APHL’s policy
symposium and visit to Capitol Hill. I
am very excited about taking on this
challenge as APHL’s president, and look
forward to working with you in the
coming year. n
APHL has developed many tools to assist
with improved biosafety in public health
laboratories, but we need to broaden
the scope to be more inclusive for every
type of laboratory testing. Understanding
how a facility is designed to provide a
safe work environment, how processes
and procedures contribute to workplace
safety, and understanding the biological,
chemical and radiological aspects of
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LAB MATTERS Summer 2019
PublicHealthLabs
@APHL
APHL.org