Leslie Ann Dauphin, PhD

Dr. Leslie Ann Dauphin is the Director of the Center for Surveillance, Epidemiology, and Laboratory Services (CSELS) at the CDC. In this role, she oversees the management and improvement of numerous CDC scientific services. Prior to joining CSELS, she served as the Deputy Director for the Office of Laboratory Science and Safety. Dr. Dauphin has provided leadership in emergency preparedness and response. She recently served as Co-Lead for the Laboratory and Testing Task Force in CDC’s COVID-19 response. As a research microbiologist and Select Agents and Toxins principal investigator, she directed research studies involving bioterrorism threat agents and served as the Response Team coordinator for CDC’s 24/7 laboratory response team for bioterrorism and emerging threats in the United States and abroad. Dr. Dauphin received her doctoral degree in Microbiology from North Carolina State University. She served for four years in the U.S. Army, where she was a paratrooper under the 18th Airborne Corps. She received the Southwest Asia Service Medal and the National Defense Service Medal for her service in Saudi Arabia during the first Gulf War, Operation Desert Storm.

Hassan A. Aziz, PhD, FACSs, MLS(ASCP)cm

Dr. Hassan Aziz is the Dean of the College of Nursing and Health Sciences at Texas A&M University – Corpus Christi. Dr. Aziz is the President of the American Society for Clinical Laboratory Science (ASCLS). He is a Fellow of the Association of Clinical Scientists (ACS) and the Institute of Higher Education at the University of Georgia (UGA). He is a certified Green Belt Six Sigma and TEDx speaker.

Dr. Aziz has extensive international experience in higher education, medical laboratory operation, consulting, and advisory work. He is an external examiner for several international academic programs and an adjunct faculty to several institutions. He is an active member of national and international professional and scientific societies and organizations. He represents ASCLS at the International Federation of Biomedical Laboratory Science (IFBLS), and he is a member of its Scientific Network of Experts. He founded the Qatar Advisory Board of the American Society for Clinical Pathology (ASCP) in 2013 and is a mentor and a consultant for the ASCP Global Outreach Program. He is a VIP mentor to new program directors through the National Accrediting Agency for Clinical Laboratory Science (NAACLS) as well as a site visitor for clinical laboratory programs.

James M. Crawford, MD, PhD

Dr. James Crawford oversees the integrated laboratories of the Northwell Health system as the system Chair and as Senior Vice President of Laboratory Services. He also is a member of Northwell’s subspecialty team of Gastrointestinal and Liver Pathologists. He formerly served as faculty and staff pathologist at Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women’s Hospital, and the Yale University School of Medicine. Immediately before his current position, he was a professor and Chair of the Department of Pathology, Immunology, and Laboratory Medicine at the University of Florida, College of Medicine in Gainesville. Since 2014, Dr. Crawford has served as founding Editor-in-Chief of Academic Pathology, the official journal of the Association of Pathology Chairs.

Dr. Crawford gained national recognition for his front-line reporting from Northwell Health Laboratories during the height of the Spring 2020 COVID-19 crisis. Since April 2020, he has been a leader of the New York State consortium of academic clinical laboratory leadership for our regional response to COVID-19. He is a member of the CMS “Clinical Laboratory Improvement Advisory Committee” and is a 2021 recipient of the Association of Pathology Chairs’ “Distinguished Service.

Reynolds Salerno, PhD

Dr. Ren Salerno is the director of the Division of Laboratory Systems in the Center for Surveillance, Epidemiology, and Laboratory Services at the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). His division improves public health, patient outcomes, and health equity by advancing clinical and public health laboratory quality and safety, data and biorepository science, and workforce competency. He is the lead CDC official for the federal tri-agency Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments (CLIA) program, and the Designated Federal Official of the US Clinical Laboratory Improvement Advisory Committee (CLIAC). He is co-author of Laboratory Biosecurity Handbook (CRC Press, 2007), and co-editor of Laboratory Biorisk Management (CRC Press, 2015). He was the lead author for the International Organization for Standardization’s technical standard 35001 on laboratory biorisk management (ISO, 2019). Most recently, he served as the lead for CDC’s Expansion of Screening and Diagnostics Task Force for the COVID-19 Response.

Rashida Atkins, MEd

Rashida Atkins is the Acting Lead for the Just-in-Time Unit in the Training and Workforce Development Branch (TWDB) in the Division of Laboratory Systems at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Rashida has combined her passion for education and training with her excellent collaboration and implementation skills throughout her career. She has over eight years of experience developing instructional design strategies and content, managing creative projects for up-and-coming brands, and project management consulting with private, public, and non-profit organizations.  

During her tenure with DLS, she has designed numerous trainings for internal and external audiences, including most recently the Introduction to Laboratory Risk Management (LRM) e-Learning course. She’s also assisted with developing project lifecycles, creating the risk management curriculum, branch reorganization, and strategic planning. Rashida has strong skills in both Adobe Suite products and Lectora, and has programmed many of DLS’s eLearning courses along with spearheading efforts focused on the rapid development of performance management resources for clinical, public health, and non-traditional laboratory professionals. 

Blanche Collins, PhD, MCHES

Blanche leads a team that creates and maintains courses for eLearning and training of trainers for clinical and public health laboratory professionals. Blanche has worked at CDC for 15 years, and over the course of her career, she has has been involved in every stage of product development and rollout. She worked on preparedness and response-related training and communication products for staff and partners, and she coordinated several national STD prevention and treatment webinars for clinicians. Blanche participated in numerous CDC emergency responses, including COVID-19, Zika, Ebola, H1N1, Haiti Earthquake, Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill, and the 2009 anthrax cases linked to imported drums.  

Before coming to CDC, Blanche taught at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse, the University of Alabama at Birmingham, Faulkner University, Oregon State University, and the University of Florida.

Terry Dale

Terry started his career at CDC in 2013 as a Cyber Security Analyst with the Cybersecurity Program Office (CSPO) policy team. He was responsible for completing over 100 Authorizations to Operate (ATO) and he became a team lead for his group. Additionally, he was chosen to be World Trade Center Health Program’s point of contact (POC) and assessor for CDC. Terry joined the CSPO Ops team, where he specialized in vulnerability management and was the liaison between Ops and Policy teams. 

Terry’s most recent role before coming to DLS was the point of contact for HHS Xpanse and HHS Cyber Hygiene, which includes global device vulnerability management and on-premises device vulnerability management. He also serves as an expert for the Digital Services Office (DSO) and CSELS vulnerability mitigation effort. During this effort, he has worked closely with DSO and CSELS Security Stewards and assisted in vulnerability remediation.  

Prior to CDC, Terry worked as an analyst for Carefusion/Pyxis, where he implemented pharmacy networks and medicine dispensing equipment. Terry was responsible for patch management and IT security protocols.

Heather Duncan, MPH, MLS (ASCP), ASQ (CQA)

Ms. Duncan is the Microbiology Manager at Vidant Medical Center, the third largest Level 1 Trauma Center in the nation. It is the flagship hospital for Vidant, a comprehensive health system made up of nine hospitals that serves 1.4 million people across 29 counties in North Carolina. She is a member of the Clinical Laboratory Improvement Advisory Committee (CLIAC) and Chair for the CLIA Certificate of Waiver and Certificate for Provider-performed Microscopy Procedures Workgroup.  

Her diverse laboratory background spans industrial food safety, clinical laboratory testing, laboratory medicine, and regulatory compliance.  Before joining Vidant Medical Center, Ms. Duncan successfully created a high-complexity testing laboratory and quality assurance program for the Department of Veterans Affairs as the Chief Technologist.  She is also a certified quality auditor and served as a CLIA surveyor.

William Glover II, PhD, D(ABMM), MT(ASCP)

Dr. Glover held roles as a Research Scientist, Bacteriology Supervisor, and Director of Science & Technology (CLIA Director) at the WA State Public Health Laboratories before joining the NC State Laboratory of Public Health (NCSLPH) in April 2019 as an Assistant Laboratory Director. Dr. Glover serves on a variety of national committees and workgroups with external partner organizations such as the American Society for Microbiology (ASM), the Association of Public Health Laboratories (APHL), and the Clinical Laboratory Improvement Advisory Committee (CLIAC).

Throughout his scientific career, Dr. Glover has been involved in teaching and mentoring medical residents and fellows, undergraduate, graduate, and postdoctoral students. Dr. Glover received his Ph.D. in Molecular Microbiology and Immunology from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in 2010. He completed a postdoctoral Fellowship in Clinical and Public Health Microbiology at the University of Washington Medical Center in Seattle, WA, in 2012 and is a diplomate of the American Board of Medical Microbiology.

Precious Goodson, EdD

Dr. Precious R. Goodson, is an ORISE Fellow in the Division of Laboratory Systems’ Training and Workforce Development Branch (TWDB). Dr. Goodson collaborates with branch staff on eLearning courses for clinical and public health laboratory professionals, literature reviews, and best practices recommendations for the OneLab REACH learning management system.

Before joining CDC as a fellow, Precious worked in various educational institutions, corporations, and governmental agencies to build online courses, develop training, and develop eLearning for adult learners, and began work as an adjunct instructor of instructional design/eLearning. Dr. Goodson conducted a qualitative evaluation of the effectiveness of an education and training program for those who provide care to disabled veterans with brain injuries or mental injuries. She has authored peer-reviewed journal articles and presented her research findings at international and national conferences. Dr. Goodson received a doctorate in instructional design from Northcentral University, a master’s degree in technology in education from Lesley University, and an education specialist degree in technology education from Lesley University.

Susan Harrington, PhD, D(ABMM), MLS(ASCP)

Dr. Susan Harrington is a medical director at the Cleveland Clinic, where she oversees the Mycobacteriology Laboratory (main campus) and the Microbiology Laboratory (Akron General Hospital). She began her career as a medical technologist (now medical laboratory scientist) in microbiology at the Johns Hopkins Hospital. While working at Johns Hopkins, she completed a master’s degree in public health and started the molecular epidemiology laboratory. Dr. Harrington completed a Ph.D. in bacterial pathogenesis at the University of Maryland and a clinical microbiology fellowship at the NIH Clinical Center. She was the associate director of the microbiology laboratory at Albany Medical Center before joining the staff at Cleveland Clinic in 2011. In addition to medical laboratory oversight, Dr. Harrington is the faculty advisor to the Medical Laboratory Science Program at Cleveland Clinic.

Enthusiasm for the medical laboratory science profession drives a number of her volunteer activities. She was invited by the American Society for Microbiology to be their representative to the American Society for Clinical Pathology (ASCP) Board of Certification (BOC) Board of Governors (BOG). While on the BOG, she was the liaison to the Microbiology Examination Committee. She served on several BOC BOG committees and completed two years as chair of the BOG. While chair, she spearheaded initiatives to fund research to demonstrate the value of ASCP certification and promote a standardized nomenclature for medical laboratory scientists. Dr. Harrington continues to work on these projects and serves on the Research and Development committee of the BOC and the ASCP Commission on Science, Technology, and Public Policy. She was appointed chair of the newly organized ASCP Workforce Steering Committee.

Triona Henderson-Samuel, MD, MPH

Dr. Triona Henderson-Samuel is a board-certified pathologist and public health physician in the Division of Laboratory Systems at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention providing clinical pathology expertise for laboratory course development.

She led the nation’s first pathology and laboratory medicine-specific Extension for Community Healthcare Outcomes (ECHO) Community of Practice for rural and community clinical laboratories that convened to share best practices, tools, and resources to help in reducing existing laboratory errors to improve diagnostic excellence. Before joining CDC in 2019, Dr. Henderson-Samuel directed the clinical microbiology laboratory at Vidant Medical Center/East Carolina University in Greenville, NC. In that position, she utilized change management principles to revamp and improve laboratory efficiency, workflow, and quality.

She is active in the clinical laboratory and medical education community as an advocate for change management and Lean/Six Sigma principles to improve laboratory efficiency, workflow, and quality.

Isaiah Hurtado, MS, CHES

Isaiah Hurtado is a Certified Health Educator (CHES) with experience coordinating tailored wellness programs and patient education for those with chronic illnesses. He is currently a Health Education Specialist in the Division of Laboratory Systems’ Training and Workforce Development Branch at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Since joining TWDB, he has designed and developed COVID-19 job aids, eLearning courses, and two virtual Training of Trainers (TOT) programs for packing and shipping dangerous goods.

Brian Jackson, MD, MS, FAMIA, FCAP

Dr. Brian Jackson is associate professor of pathology at the University of Utah, and the medical director for support services, IT, and business development at ARUP Laboratories. He completed his MD and MA degrees at the University of Utah, where he was a National Library of Medicine fellow in medical informatics. He completed residency in clinical pathology at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, after which he worked for a Belgian medical software company prior to joining the University of Utah and ARUP Laboratories. His primary research focus is the application of medical ethics to biomedical corporations.

Valerie Johnson, MS

Valerie Johnson is a Health Scientist in the CDC Training and Workforce Development Branch (TWDB).  She has several key roles in TWDB, including administrator of the ASCLS P.A.C.E.® program. In this role, Val advises project teams so that they will meet criteria for P.A.C.E.® credit. She works with teams to tailor webinars, laboratory workshops, eLearning, Training of Trainers, Virtual Reality, and other training platforms.

Santiago Junca

Santiago Junca is a Health Communication Specialist in the Training and Workforce Development Branch in the Division of Laboratory Systems at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Santiago serves as the graphics lead for Lab Training VR: OneLab Edition, where he and the team produce 3D models and graphics for the virtual laboratory. He designed and completed 3D models, animations, and other graphic elements for CDC’s first virtual reality training course, Lab Training VR: Biosafety Cabinet Edition, released in August 2020. He created illustrations and animations for the Fundamentals of Donning and Doffing PPE in Clinical Laboratories as part of the COVID-19 pandemic response. He also created illustrations and animations for DLS’ Packaging Shipping Dangerous Goods: What the Laboratory Staff Must Know eLearning Course.

Before coming to CDC, Santiago was a medical illustrator at Medical Visions, Inc. In this capacity, he illustrated injuries and surgical procedures for medical, legal personal injury, worker’s compensation, and malpractice cases, identified fractures and lesions in patient X-rays, MRI’s and CT scans, and read radiology reports to gain a comprehensive understanding of patient’s status pre and post-accident or surgery. In 2016, Santiago worked at Emory University School of Medicine’s Visual Medical Education Team, where he developed 3D models and animations on the topic of Fragile X Syndrome for an eBook that was published for Emory medical students. The eBook aimed to encourage medical students to pursue.

LT Erika LeSeane, MPH

Lieutenant Erika LeSeane serves as a Public Health Educator at CDC where she has applied health education and instructional design practices for more than 14. During this time Erika has responded to numerous public health threats and emergency responses. Erika recently managed web-based learning and a national webinar program providing information to state, local, tribal, and territorial (SLTT) partners to help ensure partners respond to threats and emergencies. She also served as a staff technical advisor for adult learning methodologies and received an Omni Intermedia Award. Recently, Erika spearheaded the transition of the Strategic National Stockpile (SNS) in-person training modules to a virtual learning format allowing federal and SLTT partners to access an on-demand catalog of SNS training courses and videos critical to an SNS response. Under her leadership, the number of SNS virtual training offerings available nationwide doubled. She also helped produce multiple federal medical station technical assistance videos, which were instrumental in decreasing the time to establish alternate care sites across the nation during the height of the pandemic.  

Alexandra Mercante, PhD

Dr. Alexandra (Alex) Mercante is the Associate Director for Communication in the Division of Laboratory Systems at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. She began her career at CDC in 2012 as a post-doctoral fellow in the National Center for HIV/AIDS, Viral Hepatitis, STD, and TB Prevention. Her research focused on developing improvements in molecular and phenotypic testing methods for accurate detection of resistance to first-line TB drugs and using whole-genome sequencing to uncover unknown mechanisms of drug resistance. Dr. Mercante then served as a Quality Systems Manager, Laboratory Safety Manager, and Communication Lead for the Enteric Diseases Laboratory Branch (EDLB) in the National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases.  

In these key laboratory systems roles, she harmonized Quality Management and laboratory safety compliance strategies by coordinating the development of policies, processes, and procedures that spanned the 12 Quality Systems Essentials and included 10 CLIA test systems. She also led the development of EDLB Quality Assurance and Indicator Review assessment tools laboratory safety incident notification job aids, and she piloted targeted QMS training approaches. As Communication Lead, she led communication campaigns for the PulseNet Transition to Whole Genome Sequencing and the 20th Anniversary of PulseNet.  

Breyanna M. Mikel, MPH, CHES

Breyanna M. Mikel has over seven years of experience in health promotion and education, program development, program evaluation, health disparities, and child and adolescent health. Breyanna’s professional experience includes working as a health scientist with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and serving as a research coordinator for a community-based research program aimed at improving access and coordination of mental health services for Georgia youth and their families. As a research coordinator, Breyanna also provided technical assistance to numerous child-serving agencies at the local and state level. She has also served as a data analyst with social service- based nonprofits that aim to reduce and raise awareness around homelessness and HIV among communities of color. Breyanna is a Certified Health Education Specialist (CHES®), and her professional interests are school health, injury and violence prevention, health disparities, and minority child and adolescent health. Breyanna received her Bachelor’s in Science in Integrative Studies with a minor in Health Promotions from Kennesaw State University and a Master of Public Health with a concentration in Epidemiology from Georgia State University.

Susan O’Connell, Med, PMP

Jamie Perniciaro

Jamie Perniciaro is a Health Education Specialist in the Training and Workforce Development Branch (TWDB) in the Division of Laboratory Systems at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. She has over ten years of laboratory experience researching zoonotic diseases. Leveraging her interests in health education and laboratory science, she provides technical assistance to an array of audiences.

Prior to joining TWDB, she served as a Biologist in the Rickettsial Zoonoses Branch in the Division of Vector-Borne Diseases. In this role, she led the serology testing for global health studies in the Disease Ecology Laboratory.  She also deployed to the CDC field laboratory in Sierra Leone during the 2014-2015 Ebola emergency response.

Meredith Reagan, MS

Meredith Reagan is a health communicator in the Division of Laboratory Systems at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the partnership lead for the DLS Office of Communication. In her current role, Meredith leads communication efforts for the CDC Laboratory Outreach Communication System (LOCS) and the Clinical Laboratory COVID-19 Response Calls and supports communication and partnership activities for CDC OneLab. 

Joe Rothschild

Coming from a background in video and film where he worked on tv shows such as COPS, National Geographic, and various prime-time news programs, Joe Rothschild has over 17 years working at CDC and currently leads a team of virtual reality (VR) developers who are focused on developing VR laboratory training. Joe also enjoys working with eLearning design and development for clinical and public health laboratories and assists with disseminating, supporting, and evaluating dynamic web and computer-based health communication programs. Considered an agency specialist in Section 508 and advanced multimedia accessibility, Joe led the development of CDCs first 508 compliant Flash widget and continues to provide Section 508 guidance to other CDC development teams. Joe also spearheaded the design of CDC’s eLearning syndication system, allowing CDC eLearning courses to be loaded onto partner learning management systems.

Anthony Tran, DrPH, MPH, D(ABMM), MT(ASCP)

Anthony (Tony) Tran has nearly 20 years of public health and clinical laboratory experience including work at the national, state, and local levels. During the seven years prior to pursing his doctorate, Dr. Tran worked at the Association of Public Health Laboratories (APHL), a national nonprofit organization that represents state, territorial and local public health laboratories in the United States. More recently, as the Director of Policy and Operations at the NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene Bureau of the Public Health Laboratory, Dr. Tran provided guidance and direction to all areas of the laboratory and was involved in the City’s response to Ebola, NYC’s largest Legionnaires’ Disease outbreak, and Zika. Prior to joining the FDA, Dr. Tran served as Director of the District of Columbia’s Public Health Laboratory for nearly 4.5 years where he led the City’s testing efforts in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. He also was a member of the APHL Board of Directors and their COVID-19 Task Force. 

Dr. Tran now serves as Director of the FDA’s San Francisco Laboratory. Here he oversees Microbiological and Chemical analysis of human and animal food products to help protect the nation’s food supply. 

Linda L. Williford Pifer, PhD, SM(ASCP), GS(ABB)

Dr. Linda L. Williford Pifer is a professor in the Department of Clinical Laboratory Sciences at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center (UTHSC). She has been at UTHSC for 44 years and teaches microbiology, virology, parasitology, human genetics, research, blood-borne pathogen safety, emerging infectious diseases, and bioterrorism. She was an HIV researcher and a member of the original NIH AIDS Working group and has been funded by the NIH, the American Cancer Society, the National Science Foundation, the Kellogg Foundation, and the Thrasher Foundation for research on Pneumocystis carinii and HIV.  Her publications have been selected for the Yearbooks of Pathology and Clinical Pathology, Cancer, and the Pediatric Digest.

She was the first to accomplish the in vitro cultivation of P. carinii at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital and established the Clinical Virology Diagnostic Laboratory at Le Bonheur Children’s Hospital.  She taught courses in infectious diseases for the Nat’l. Sci. Found. for university professors at the Univ. of Puerto Rico at San Juan, Temple Univ. in Philadelphia, the Univ. of TX at Austin, Clark Univ. in Atlanta, and CBU in Memphis. She has been a guest lecturer on P. carinii in AIDS patients at Yale Univ. and the Univ. of Bristol in the U.K.

Sean Patrick Waters

Sean Waters is a Health Communications Specialist in the CDC Division of Laboratory Systems (DLS), Training and Workforce Development Branch (TWDB). Sean’s background is in graphic development, video editing, motion graphics, and photography with over 10 years of experience. Prior to joining CDC, Sean worked on several contracts for the Department of Defense. He became a federal contractor supporting CSELS/DLS/TWDB in the fall of 2015. As a video editor and creative lead, he is instrumental in developing and managing over 30 unique training courses, which furthers the DLS mission of supporting a highly competent Laboratory workforce.

Kelly Winter, PhD

Dr. Kelly Winter is the Acting Branch Chief of the Training and Workforce Development Branch in the Division of Laboratory Systems at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Kelly has over 20 years of experience in training, education, and communication, including over a decade in public health. She began her CDC career in 2014 as a Training Specialist in the National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases Division of Global Migration and Quarantine (DGMQ). During CDC’s 2014-15 emergency response to Ebola, she led training on entry screening at U.S. airports and self-monitoring for travelers. From 2015 to 2018, Kelly worked in DGMQ’s Travelers’ Health Branch, creating training and communication materials and serving as Managing Editor of CDC Yellow Book.

Bence Ujj

Bence Ujj started at the CDC as a Multimedia Specialist contractor with the Division of Laboratory Systems (DLS), Laboratory Training Team. He has created many of the videos and multimedia content found throughout CDC e-learning training courses. Since becoming a fulltime federal employee in 2020, Bence has been heavily involved with the COVID-19 response. He has had a hand in creating animations, video scripts, and a host of other health communication materials. 

Hoi-Ying (Elsie) Yu, PhD, DABCC, FAACC

Dr. Elsie Yu is a Medical Laboratory Director at Geisinger Health System with a system leadership role in Clinical Chemistry, Immunology, Toxicology, and Point-of-Care Testing.  She is also a Clinical Associate Professor at Geisinger Commonwealth School of Medicine.  In 2016, she was named “40 Under Forty Top Five” by the American Society of Clinical Pathology.  She actively participates at various special project committees (e.g., CLSI, NKF, and AACC committees) to promote proper laboratory utilization.

She has integrated different hospitals and clinics into the Geisinger Health System through consolidation and standardization to enhance testing services. Her main interest is to improve laboratory test utilization and operational efficiency.   Her work requires extensive collaboration and partnership with clinical providers to achieve clinical effectiveness. Most recently, she is expanding her partnership to include the public in improving laboratory test utilization through health literacy.