Perthena Latchaw, MS, MT(ASCP), was awarded the ASCP 2008 Member Excellence in Education Award.

The award was established to recognize an ASCP laboratory professional Member who is actively involved in a medical laboratory education program and has demonstrated outstanding performance in teaching through work in the classroom or clinic, or through development of effective teaching methods and instructional materials.

"Perthena is always encouraging students to continue learning, even after obtaining a degree," said longtime co-worker Malinda Browning, MT(ASCP), MPH. "She is creative, deeply conscientious, professional, and hard-working."

Latchaw has been the medical laboratory technology program director at Seminole State College in Seminole, OK, since 1982. She is involved in the education of medical laboratory professionals on the local, state, national and international levels. In addition to her teaching and administrative responsibilities there, she recruits, advises and mentors students.

"When a student's interest is in another health related field such as cytology, histotechnology, physician's assistant or even medical school, Perthena personally introduces the student to a mentor or an advisor for that particular field," said Browning.

On the state level, Latchaw has been a member of the Education and Training Workforce Committee of the Oklahoma Health Care Workforce Center for six years. The center is a result of Oklahoma legislation recognizing the shortages in the health care workforce.

Her commitment to educating laboratory professionals has also taken her on regular trips to Africa with the ASCP's program to fight AIDS. "We had trained about 30 of Tanzania’s best lab professionals on how to train others," said Latchaw. "Then it became their task to plan and conduct “roll outs” across the entire country, and simultaneously train the rest of their colleagues."

Since June 2005, she has participated in eight trainings: five Training of Trainers and three rollouts, all in African countries.

"It’s not about me," said Latchaw. "It’s about serving and saving the lives of beautiful, appreciative people. Life is far more than personal fulfillment. I have been given this amazing opportunity to use what I have spent my life learning, to find the purpose for the rest of my life.

"I had been working evenings in a large hospital lab after teaching all day," said Latchaw. "I had been doing this for 18 years. I was starting to feel the extra hours and thought I should quit the second job. They would be short handed, but I was not irreplaceable. Little did I know that when I made the decision to quit and travel to Africa, it would be the most energizing adventure of my life. Retirement now will only be a time to continue serving others in any way I can. . . I often just want to stay and offer an extra pair of hands. The workload is overwhelming, and they are so committed to helping their fellow countrymen beat this AIDs epidemic.

"I have a quote that I have etched in stone and sitting on my desk. It says: 'Wherever you go, go with all your heart.' I don’t have time to do anything half-heartedly!"

Latchaw has served the ASCP in other capacities as well. She was a member of the ASCP Board of Certification's Joint Generalist Examination Committee from 1996-2001, and served on the ASCP Government Relations Committee from 1991-1995. She has been serving on the BOC Board of Governors since October of 2006 and is now the Board Liaison to our Joint Generalist Committee.

She cites pathologist Bill Blevins as one of her mentors. "He taught me more than I can ever catalog," said Latchaw. "He taught at St. Mary’s medical technology program in the afternoon, and in the mornings he taught at the Oklahoma University Medical School. So he taught us the same things he taught to the medical students. I absorbed it all like a sponge. He was thrilling to listen to, and I just couldn’t get enough."

Latchaw has also enjoyed being a pilot. She was "smitten" with flying at a young age when her uncle took her for her first airplane ride in his Beechcraft Debonair. "A few years later I joined Civil Air Patrol, the civilian auxiliary of the USAF," said Latchaw. "As volunteers, we performed nearly all the search and rescue of missing or overdue aircraft." After college, she got her pilot’s license and regularly flew a Cessna 150. She always dreamed of combining her passions of aviation and medical technology. "On one recent trip to Africa, in rural western Kenya, I noticed a dirt airstrip and asked about it. The locals said a 78 year-old woman medical doctor flies her own airplane in and helps the people in the villages. Perhaps there is still time for me to fulfill that dream."

Latchaw is a devotee of old black-and-white movies from the 40s. "My all-time favorite movie is Random Harvest, with Greer Garson (my favorite actress) and Ronald Coleman," she said. "I love Mozart, The Mormon Tabernacle Choir, opera and country music, Reba McEntire, and several others."

She has a son who is a career Marine pilot and a father of two boys, ages 8 and 10. "He and my daughter-in-law have been stationed in Okinawa, Japan, for the past three and a half years," she said. "My wonderful, creative daughter and her husband work and live in Wichita, Kansas."

Latchaw's thank you remarks:
In February 1968, as a brand new Medical Technology student, I embarked on a career and a profession that led me to hospitals, clinics, research, and reference labs around the world and back to Oklahoma to Seminole State College to teach.

The Education Excellence Award has nothing to do with me, but everything to do with those students who sacrificed day in and day out to learn, to grow and to achieve the career and the profession that we all enjoy. Two hundred students of all ages, races and backgrounds gave of themselves to join us in this most exciting profession.

Thank you for allowing me to represent them with this award.

Perthena Latchaw, MS, MT(ASCP)