Volume 38 Number 5 | October 2024
The Lifetime Achievement Award celebrates an ASCLS member who has made significant contributions to ASCLS as well as the laboratory field, and who, by example, has inspired others. This is the 10th year for this award. There were four nominees this year including: Janice Conway-Klaassen, Teresa Nadder, Yasmen Simonian, and Sharon Strauss.
The 2024 ASCLS Lifetime Achievement Award was presented to Dr. Janice Conway-Klaassen. Below is the nomination letter submitted with her nomination.
It is with immense pleasure and honor that we nominate Dr. Janice Conway-Klaassen for the ASCLS Lifetime Achievement award. No one deserves to be recognized and honored as a member of ASCLS more than Jan for the impact she has made throughout her career. Dr. Conway-Klaassen is a visionary who has personified dedication to outstanding service and scholarly activities for nearly half a century. Her service extends beyond ASCLS, throughout the United States and into the global laboratory community. Her experience began like many other long-standing members of ASCLS, but what sets her apart is her ability to look beyond the details to achieve a goal that will support current perspectives and is creative and forward-thinking.
Jan is a true visionary. Her expertise in the clinical laboratory has afforded many unique opportunities to serve the medical laboratory profession, the public, and her community. Following the 9/11 attacks, she served as a biosafety and biosecurity officer for Nevada and later for Minnesota due to her experience with BSL Level 3 and 4 containment facilities. She helped develop safety protocols for medical students in volunteer clinics and health fairs for the University of Minnesota (UMN) Medical School, as well as online biohazard safety training for the UMN School of Veterinary Medicine.
She has successfully developed several new academic programs at all levels from phlebotomy to graduate education, earning National Accrediting Agency for Clinical Laboratory Sciences (NAACLS) accreditation for all eligible programs. She is a long-standing program self-study reviewer and site visitor for NAACLS, having reviewed dozens of programs around the country and internationally. Additionally, she has served on both PARC and RCAP committees for NAACLS and chaired multiple NAACLS task forces. Most recently, she was appointed to serve on the Board of Directors for the ASCLS Association of Medical Laboratory Education Programs (AMLEP). Her knowledge and experience in educational programing and administration are invaluable in this new role for ASCLS.
Outside the domain of clinical and academic experience, Dr. Conway-Klaassen is a fierce advocate for the profession. She was a #Labvocate before it became a hashtag, providing testimony for laboratory personnel licensure efforts to the state licensure and higher education advisory boards in both Nevada and Minnesota.
She has promoted the profession to those aspiring to achieve future careers in healthcare. She has judged numerous high school science fairs, planned career days for high school students, coordinated health fairs and science camps, and served as a science coordinator for the Girls Scouts of Nevada.
She has a prolific record of successful grant awards from the federal government, industry partners, and internal to the UMN. Her latest achievement was a HRSA grant of $3.25 million to support scholarships for disadvantaged students, demonstrating her commitment to building a community of professionals for the field of laboratory science.
Jan’s scholarship is well known worldwide. She has authored multiple book chapters, including several in Bailey and Scott’s Diagnostic Microbiology. She has published many articles in peer-reviewed journals and has been invited to speak at multiple venues throughout her career at the state, regional, national, and international levels.
We would be remiss if we did not mention her unwavering commitment to her students, colleagues, and other professionals. She has served as an educator and mentor for thousands of new professionals, new junior faculty and program directors across the United States and the globe. Although she recently retired, she continues to serve the laboratory community around the world.
Dr. Janice Conway-Klaassen has been a beacon of best practices in the laboratory science community. She is a visionary who exemplifies a commitment to excellence, innovation and empowering the disenfranchised. Her determination to stand up for what’s right in the laboratory community paired with her perspectives in public health and academia is a stellar example of the standards she upholds. It is because of all these reasons that she is deserving of the 2024 ASCLS Lifetime Achievement award.
The ASCLS Awards Committee will begin accepting nominations for 2025 ASCLS Awards this winter. Learn more about the ASCLS Lifetime Achievement Award.