Hail and Farewell

Extract

As this is the end of my term as Editor-in-Chief, I thought I would spend a little time thanking the people who got me to the position. Since I truly believe that you cannot know where you are going without knowing where you have been, this will include some longtime lore.

I want to start by thanking the people who taught me that professionalism does not start and stop with test tubes and slides. Sister Aloysia, my Education Coordinator, brought me to a Massachusetts Senate hearing on a bill to grant licensure to our profession. It didn't pass and I realized that there were people in the world who did not respect what I did. I couldn't understand why. Another person of influence was Roma Brown who became President of then ASMT, and obeyed a subpoena from Congress. She was rewarded by being fired from her Kansas laboratory. She and several other presidents and leaders engaged in a multi-year set of lawsuits about the independence of the profession. Each suit was settled in ASMT's favor and the rulings were based upon the 13^th, 14^th, and 16^th Amendments (the anti-slavery amendments) to the US Constitution. These actions reinforced my belief that, in addition to knowledge and skill, action is a necessary criterion for a professional.

Jean Shafer of New York was a world-class hematologist in the clinical laboratory. She taught both medical laboratory science students and residents. She convinced me that our field did indeed encompass patient care and treatment. Perhaps…