I want to express my sincere gratitude for the 40 under Forty honor I received in 2014. I believe that award raised my credibility and my confidence, and it is one of the honors I am most proud of in my career.

After finishing my fellowship, I began my career as the only hematopathologist in a large tertiary care pediatric hospital. While the month-long pediatrics rotation in fellowship training was helpful, I felt it hardly adequate for all the varied diseases I encountered even in the first month. In addition, I was tasked to start a flow cytometry lab from scratch. I was trained how to analyze flow dot plots, but all the technical specifications were new to me. I felt overwhelmed much of the time, but great mentors and divine grace helped me through many interesting cases in the early years.

Receiving the 40 Under Forty award early in my career meant a tremendous amount to me. It meant that my achievements had been seen and recognized, despite not always knowing the next step. As the only hematopathologist at my hospital for the first several years, I didn’t often get positive feedback, and it gave me a much-needed boost of confidence to keep moving forward.

Since receiving my award, I went on to become the Director of Hematopathology as we grew and hired additional staff, and I was the Section Director for the flow cytometry laboratory for 13 years. I was honored to author a chapter on pediatric flow cytometry in the new edition of Diagnostic Pediatric Hematopathology, which should be released later this year, and I also was a regular speaker at the International Clinical Cytometry Society clinical cytometry course for nine years. Other areas of the laboratory that I was Section Director were hematology and coagulation, bone marrow processing, and hemoglobin electrophoresis. In 2022, I stepped back to part time, wanting to devote more time to my family as my daughter (who was born the same year we started the flow cytometry lab) was starting high school and will be going to college soon.

I am proud of our department now, with four hematopathologists and five flow techs, that deliver consistent high-quality care for our patients. I feel that the 40 Under Forty Award helped my career grow tremendously, and for that I will be forever grateful.