Volume 35 Number 5 | October 2021
This recognition celebrates an ASCLS member who has made significant contributions to ASCLS at all levels. This is the eighth year for this award. The recipient will have made significant contributions to ASCLS, as well as the laboratory field, and who, by example, has inspired others. There were three nominees this year including Janet Brown (MI), Mary Gourley (PA), Linda Laatsch (WI), and Susie Zanto (MT).
The 2021 ASCLS Lifetime Achievement Award was awarded to Susie Zanto of Montana. Susie has served in many capacities throughout the ASCLS organization. Besides serving as ASCLS-MT president, ASCLS Region VIII director, and ASCLS president, she has served in many constituent society officer and committee chair positions. She is ASCLS-Montana’s webmaster and has received national publication awards for her work keeping the website current and informative. Susie has also served in several capacities at the regional and national levels as committee member and chair, task force member and chair, and ASCLS representative to other affiliated organizations. Susie has served as representative to the National Accreditation Agency for Clinical Laboratory Sciences (NAACLS) and to the Coordinating Council on the Clinical Laboratory Workforce (CCCLW) where she is currently in her second year as CCCLW chair. Susie is a member of Alpha Mu Tau Fraternity and has served as both secretary and treasurer.
Susie also served as the chair of the ASCLS Workforce Shortage Position Paper Task Force, which produced an outstanding product, taking a massive amount of information and distilling it into a format that is succinct yet thorough enough to convey the critical state of the workforce in its current state. The position paper was printed in a seven-page booklet that was used the following March as a leave-behind for the 2019 Laboratory Legislative Symposium; legislative representatives were very impressed with the scope and presentation of the data.
The following is from her letter of nomination:
Susie is the ultimate professional and inherently exhibits the ASCLS values and vision. She promotes professionalism, compassion, and joy in all that she does. She has served in many capacities throughout the ASCLS organization. Aside from all the various positions that she has held in all levels of the organization throughout her tenure in ASCLS, she is first and foremost a mentor. She has mentored countless individuals throughout her working career and her ASCLS career. She is the reason many of our state, regional, and national leaders have succeeded in ASCLS careers. Always count on her to help present different ideas as to what could be a solution. She has an amazing “can do” attitude and her creativity is exceedingly high.
Susie is pure joy! She always has a ready smile and listens with compassion. She can see the potential in everyone she meets and does what she can to help develop that potential. She has been one of the faculty members, as well as co-coordinator of the region’s Leadership Academy since its inception in 2014 and exemplifies what the leadership academy is all about—teamwork, leadership, professionalism, inclusivity, and a celebration of our collective professional identity.
Susie has devoted her professional career to medical laboratory science in the public health arena. She has mentored more individuals that can be known and has exhibited the qualities of the profession both in the workplace and in private life. She never backs down from a challenge, rather she faces challenges head-on and shares lessons learned with others. Lastly, Susie has embraced ASCLS as an integral part of her life over 30 years ago and continues to contribute in many ways to ASCLS and to the medical laboratory profession.
Congratulations, Susie Zanto!
Learn more about the ASCLS Lifetime Achievement Award.
From left: ASCLS-Montana members Holly Weinberg, Susie Zanto, and Abbey Wichman celebrate Susie’s ASCLS Lifetime Achievement Award.