2 President’ s and CEO’ s Message Career Pathways

4 Empowering Leaders to Mitigate Burnout in Public Health Laboratories

5 MSU Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory Reaps the Benefits of the Career Pathways Program

6 Public Health Laboratory Ambassadors Engage Communities in New York

8 From Internship to Fellowship: Growing the Public Health Laboratory Workforce

From the Bench

9 Testing Innovations in San Francisco Address Surge in Mpox Cases

Environmental Health

26 Best Practices for Healthy Laboratories

28 Expanding Non-fatal Overdose Surveillance with Innovative Partnerships

Food Safety

29 Culture-independent Diagnostic Tests: A Response to a Longstanding Public Health Challenge

30 Metagenomics May Offer Value Across Many Areas of Public Health

Global Health

31 Innovating Laboratory Workforce Competencies Globally

32 Promoting Laboratory Leadership and Multidisciplinary Collaboration to Strengthen Global Health Security in Uganda

34 PulseNet Africa: Building Capacity and Relationships Across the Continent to Strengthen Foodborne and Antibiotic Resistance Genomic Surveillance

Infectious Diseases

35 Local Public Health Laboratories Respond to Influenza A( H5N1): Achievements and Lessons for Preparedness

APHL PROGRAMS

Membership

14 APHL 2025: Laboratory Science and Public Health Meet in Portland

16 Thank You for Joining Us in Portland!— Photos from APHL 2025

Industry Matters

Industry Matters

18 Wastewater-based Epidemiology Sheds Light on COVID-19 Trends in Ethiopia

FEATURE

20 Retention Drives Innovation: Making the Case for Public Health Laboratory Workforce Support

Informatics

36 Innovations in Informatics: From Fellow to Full-Time

37 Making the Case for Public Health Laboratory Informatics Team Rightsizing

Newborn Screening and Genetics

40 Safeguarding Newborn Health: The Urgent Need to Strengthen the NBS Workforce

Public Health Preparedness and Response

41 Value of Federal Funding in Supporting Public Health Laboratory Preparedness and Response

42 Strengthening Biosafety Workforce Through Community Engagement

Quality Systems and Analytics

43 Connecting Laboratories, Strengthening Skills: The Power of the Peer-to-Peer Learning Program

44 APHL Fellows Coordinate Recent L-SIP Assessments

7700 Wisconsin Avenue, Suite 1000 Bethesda, MD 20814 Phone: 240.485.2745 Fax: 240.485.2700 info @ aphl. org aphl. org

The Association of Public Health Laboratories( APHL) works to strengthen laboratory systems serving the public’ s health in the US and globally. APHL’ s member laboratories protect the public’ s health by monitoring and detecting infectious and foodborne diseases, environmental contaminants, terrorist agents, genetic disorders in newborns and other diverse

health threats.

LAB MATTERS STAFF

Gynene Sullivan, MA Editor Brittany Robertson Art Director David Fouse Advisor

To submit an article for consideration, contact Gynene Sullivan at gynene. sullivan @ aphl. org.

2024 – 2025 BOARD OF DIRECTORS

Megan Crumpler, PhD President

Scott Shone, PhD, HCLD( ABB) President-elect

Godfred Masinde, PhD, MBA, HCLD( ABB) Secretary-Treasurer

Sharon Massingale, PhD, HCLD / CC( ABB) Public Health Institutional State Representative

Michael Pentella PhD, D( ABMM) Public Health Institutional State Representative

Anthony Tran, ​DrPH, PhD, MPH, D( ABMM), MT( ASCP) Public Health Institutional State Representative

Pamela Higgins, PhD Public Health Associate Institutional Member Representative​

Deborah Severson, BSMT( ASCP) Public Health Institutional Local Member Representative​

Leslie Wolf, PhD, HCLD( ABB) Public Health Institutional Local Member Representative​

Timothy Southern, PhD Past President

Scott Becker, MS Ex Officio, Chief Executive Officer, APHL

The production of this publication was supported by Cooperative Agreement # NU60OE000104, funded by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention( CDC). Its contents are solely the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official views of, nor an endorsement by, CDC, HHS or the US Government.