Leadership Spotlight

Meet Dr. Kelly Winter, Chief, CDC Training and Workforce Development Branch (TWDB). TWDB manages and maintains OneLab.

Growing a program and cultivating resources

"I've been a gardener my whole life," says Kelly Winter. She and her husband have about 600 square feet of raised beds in their backyard near Atlanta. They enjoy sharing veggies with family and friends, who've come to relish not only the vegetables but also the "copious amounts of soup" Kelly and her husband make. "In warmer months, we go all out with tomatoes and peppers and other produce, and we're planning to add cold-weather crops as well.”

Leading TWDB means she also leads OneLab, and in that role, Kelly uses skills comparable to a gardener. She cultivates an ecosystem of laboratory and test professionals, drawing connections and providing resources for OneLab to flourish and multiply. Kelly shares her thoughts with us as she takes stock of 2023 and looks ahead to 2024, much like a farmer assesses which crops thrived.

All paths lead to the laboratory

Leading an initiative like OneLab wasn’t on the horizon when Kelly first entered the professional workforce 25 years ago. But to her, it all makes sense now. "My career has been a winding road," she says. "I was in journalism for about a decade as a newspaper copy editor. That's where I got my penchant for doing things quickly and on time without overthinking them.

"My first job here at CDC reminded me that what I love most and what I do best is training." Joining the CDC as a contractor supporting the Division of Global Migration Health, she trained airport Customs and Border Protection officers to notice signs of potentially ill travelers and seek support from their partners in CDC’s U.S. Port Health Stations to prevent the introduction of infectious diseases that threaten the public’s health.

"I happened to join in mid-2014, just before the Ebola outbreak that became a large-scale emergency response," Kelly says. "I ended up doing field-based training at airports across the country. I studied epidemiology and originally thought I wanted to focus on epidemiological research. But training was calling me.

Eventually, Kelly moved to the Division of Laboratory Systems (DLS), which includes TWDB.

"Once I got over here, I was hooked," she says of her early days in DLS. "I fell in love with the labs and realized the importance of laboratories in the overall public health system. Somehow I had never considered labs' critical role, even though I have a master's and a PhD in public health and my mother was a nurse.

Critical but often overlooked

"Everything hinges on the work laboratories do," Kelly continues, "but often it's done out of the spotlight. On epidemiology exams, you'll often see questions that start with things like 'There have been 20 confirmed cases of cholera.' There's no acknowledgement that there was a lab test and that the test had to be performed correctly for us to know this. We call epidemiologists 'disease detectives,' but they can't investigate anything without the clues that labs provide.

"Ultimately, it's about diagnostic excellence and preparedness. Whenever there is a public health emergency or a patient needs diagnosis and treatment, all of that is guided by the results of lab tests. This is where OneLab is critical: it's incumbent on our program to help improve the accuracy of these tests by strengthening the competency of the professionals who conduct them.

2023’s prolific harvest

OneLab membership and resource access

In 2023, OneLab amassed more than 15,000 members representing over 2,000 laboratories and laboratory organizations across the United States. Kelly adds, "They're now connected to these resources made just for them that are free and accessible whenever they need them. These resources were accessed over 171,000 times in 2023. Members have registered for our webinars and gained access to our job aids, videos, FAQs, and eLearning courses.”

She continues, "OneLab is supporting a large swath of the laboratory community and getting them materials that they need. It’s also making sure that they have access to training, particularly continuing education, that is free and accessible to them any time of day so that they can fit it into their already hectic schedules. This ensures they conduct quality laboratory tests safely, which helps improve public health and patient outcomes.

CDC OneLab TEST

“TWDB and the OneLab crew successfully launched OneLab TEST (Timely Education and Support of Testers) last spring. Creating a network and community of practice for people who conduct testing in non-laboratory settings is an essential piece of OneLab. This group has long needed more training and education materials tailored specifically to their needs and to be connected to each other.”

Kelly is especially pleased that nearly 3,500 members have enrolled in OneLab TEST as of February 5, 2024. OneLab's Cooperative Agreement partners–the American Society for Clinical Laboratory Science (ASCLS), American Society for Clinical Pathology (ASCP), New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, and the University of Maryland - Department of Medical and Research Technology–have been instrumental in building awareness and encouraging people to sign up.

"Many people are doing testing in a volunteer capacity or as an additional duty while working in a completely different role. They can be anyone from a pharmacist to an administrator at an assisted living facility to a high school teacher. They do this important work but don't necessarily consider themselves part of the testing community. To bring them together has been a real challenge. Still, the fact that we've already got so many people engaged underscores the need to build this community of practice.

Planning a bumper crop

CDC OneLab VR

OneLab unveiled its new virtual reality (VR) training platform in February, and Kelly sees this as a crucial opportunity to bolster OneLab's resources by allowing users to take on-demand VR training or use the space to deliver live training to their own staff. With a 50,000-square-foot virtual facility, OneLab VR empowers laboratory professionals to apply, assess, and improve their skills in a safe and controlled learning environment.

"VR gives people a great way to build proficiency in biosafety and quality practices," says Kelly. "Building muscle memory, going through the steps of laboratory processes and procedures until they become second nature is important. VR is a way to do that and to do it consistently and get real-time feedback as you would from a peer or a mentor, but without a person needing to be available. And learning from errors is a lot safer when the chemicals and pathogens are virtual.”

OneLab, in partnership with the Association of Public Health Laboratories (APHL), has laid the groundwork for VR training by providing VR headsets to public health and clinical laboratories. "This has accelerated VR uptake because a lot of labs might not have the resources to try VR training," says Kelly. "We started sending headsets so that they could explore VR, and we could get feedback from them on the topics that are most important from their perspective. More than 40 laboratories are now using these headsets, and we've used their feedback to develop our VR courses.”

CDC OneLab Summit 2024

Kelly is particularly excited about April's OneLab Summit. "This will be our second Summit and a chance to interact in real-time with the community that we serve. This Summit will be even more engaging and tailored to the feedback we've received from our intended audiences of laboratory professionals and testers.”

CDC OneLab Network events and new resources coming online

With a history of strong attendance, OneLab Network events have offered real-time feedback from members about topics they are most interested in. OneLab follows up by creating additional training events and resources on those topics. "It's also essential to think about the broader impact: We estimate that for every attendee in one of our live network meetings, there are 9 additional downloads of our courses and other training resources–so the increase in training uptake is much greater than the attendance numbers alone.

“People are going back and looking at these materials after the event. We understand that not everyone can step away for live events; they must remain on the job. Having those materials available to download or view after the meeting is also important.

"OneLab will be releasing several dozen new training resources this year," Kelly continues, "ranging from a 15-minute VR scenario on autoclave safety to an eLearning course on quality management systems fundamentals and much more. We’re excited about our new offerings.

“As for our OneLab members – laboratory professionals and those who do testing in non-laboratory sites–we very much appreciate their time and engagement. Whether they’re presenting at a OneLab Network event or sharing suggestions for new eLearning courses, their involvement has made the training much richer. We offer a heartfelt thank you for their ongoing help bringing OneLab’s potential to fruition.”