The ASCP 2021 Annual Meeting brought a changing of the guards to the ASCP councils who represent your voice in the Society. Below is a brief background on the chairs of the ASCP Commission on Membership, the Pathology Council, the Council of Laboratory Professionals, and the Resident Council. Each of these individuals leads a team of member volunteers who actively work on your behalf to advocate and build awareness of pathology and the medical laboratory profession, and provide you with opportunities to become involved in ASCP.
We invite you to learn more about the new chairs in these brief profiles below.
Commission on Membership
Chair—Diana Kremitske, MHA, MS, MT(ASCP)
Diana Kremitske, MHA, MS, MT(ASCP), Vice President of the Diagnostic Medicine Institute, Geisinger Medical Center, Danville, PA. In that capacity, she oversees laboratory and radiology operations, and courier services at several hospital campuses and numerous clinics. She also participates in overseeing Geisinger’s Patient Blood Management Program.
Through her involvement with ASCP, Ms. Kremitske has served as an at-large member of the Board of Directors and is the current ASCP Treasurer and a member of the Effective Test Utilization Subcommittee. She previously served as chair of the Council of Laboratory Professionals and participated on ASCP’s Regional Member Award Selection Committee, Annual Meeting Steering Committee, and CLP Nominations Committee, as well as the initial workgroup that recommended the appropriate test utilization measures in the ASCP National Pathology Quality Registry.
“The Commission on Membership is a significant structure at ASCP,” Ms. Kremitske says. “The Commission exists to work on addressing the needs of ASCP members. As such, it brings together the leaders of the Pathology and Resident Councils, Council of Laboratory Professionals, and at-large members to discuss and plan programs for members. It is an incredibly passionate group of people, and it is an honor to work alongside them for this purpose.”
The topics discussed by the Commission include member benefits, member engagement, activities that support the goals of the ASCP, student scholarships, annual awards, social media, and diversity and inclusion. “Members voices are vital to our work and are represented through the respective Councils and the at-large members on the Commission,” Ms. Kremitske says. “Many topics are brought forward to the Commission on Membership from the respective council leaders while advocating for the needs of our members. Also, the activities of the Career Ambassadors of the laboratory professional workforce and Pathology Ambassadors are coordinated with their respective councils, creating robust and integrated platforms to promote clinical laboratory professions.”
Each spring, ASCP holds a special series of meetings for the various councils and commissions to focus on determining strategic activities for the coming year and have input into new goals for ASCP. It is a special time set aside to bring volunteer leaders together to discuss and generate ideas centered on meeting the needs of members. Currently, the Commission’s goals include designing new member experiences, identifying more opportunities to integrate diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives, and continuing to enhance workforce pipeline efforts.
There are volunteer opportunities to serve on the councils that report up through the Commission on Membership. All ASCP members are encouraged to learn more by visiting
www.ascp.org and applying for a volunteer opportunity.
Pathologist Council
Chair—Gissou Azabdaftari, MD, FASCP
Gissou Azabdaftari, Vice Chair and Director of Anatomic Pathology, Stony Brook University.
Chair-elect - Deb Sesok-Pizzini, MD, MBA, FASCP
Deb Sesok-Pizzini, MD, MBA, FASCP is the Chief Medical Officer and Senior Vice President at LabCorp Diagnostics. She is also an adjunct professor in the Department of Clinical Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, Perelman School of Medicine, Philadelphia.
Council of Laboratory Professionals
Chair - Dana Powell Baker, MBA, MS, MLS (ASCP)CM
Dana Powell Baker, MBA, MS, MLS (ASCP)CM is an assistant professor in the Department of Clinical Laboratory Sciences at the University of Kansas Medical Center, Kansas City, Kansas
Chair-elect - Michelle Campbell, MS, MLS(ASCP)CM
Michelle Campbell, MS, MLS(ASCP)CM is the senior developer with an academic appointment as Instructor in the Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN. She is also an adjunct instructor in Clinical Laboratory Science, the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Resident Council
Chair - Hannah Wang, MD
Hannah Wang, MD, is a medical microbiology fellow at Stanford Pathology at Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, CA, and is board-certified in anatomic and clinical pathology.
Chair Elect - Evi Abada, MD, MS
Evi Abada, MD, MS, is a resident physician in anatomic and clinical pathology at Wayne State University School of Medicine/Detroit Medical Center in Detroit, MI.
