Louann Lawrence, DrPH, Chair, ASCLS Education and Research Fund, Inc.

The ASCLS Education and Research (E&R) Fund, Inc., awarded two research grants and six scholarships at the ASCLS Annual Meeting in Chicago, totaling $10,000 in grant funds and $11,000 in scholarships for the 2018 funding year. Thanks to your monetary donations and generosity by donating and purchasing items at the E&R Silent Auction at the Annual Meeting each year, we have these funds to award.

2018 Scholarships
This is the seventh year for our Edward C. Dolbey scholarships, given from a charitable trust bequeathed to the ASCLS E&R Fund in 2011 on behalf of Mr. Dolbey, who for many years was a prominent laboratory supplies distributor in Philadelphia and a long-time supporter of all things related to medical laboratory science. The Dolbey Graduate Scholarship was awarded to Lindsey Davenport-Landry of Iowa; the Dolbey MLS Scholarship went to Elizabeth Thornton from Colorado; and Allison Bautista of Florida was awarded the Dolbey MLT Scholarship.

Scholarships named in honor of or in memory of leaders in the ASCLS community make up the remainder of the scholarship funds. This is the fifth year we have given a scholarship in honor of Dan Southern with funds provided by his family. This year the Dan Southern Scholarship went to Luke Goodale of Oregon.

This is also the fifth year we gave a scholarship in memory of Michelle Kanuth. Funds provided by her family make possible the scholarship that went to Jessica Smith of Illinois this year.

This is the third year we have given a scholarship in memory of Bernadette (Bunny) Rodak, and this year the funds went to Nicole Ferrell of Oklahoma. Dan, Michelle, and Bunny served as E&R trustees, and both Dan and Michelle led the fund as chair. Friends and colleagues are invited to honor Dan and memorialize Michelle and Bunny by contributing to these scholarships.

2018 Grants
An ASCLS Member Grant was awarded to Allie Clinton Smith, PhD, from Texas Tech University, for her proposal, “Detection of S. aureus Small Colony Variants in Chronic Wounds.” A second ASCLS Member Grant was awarded to Perry M. Scanlan, PhD, from Austin Peay State University, for “A Simulated Infection Control Model for a Health-Care Facility.” Our E&R trustees were impressed by the quality of all the proposals and truly wish we could have awarded all who applied. The E&R Fund is the only organization funding research grants to help advance our profession.

Contribute
What better way is there to meet your charitable goals than to support our Developing Professionals? You can use the DONATE button that appears on www.ascls.org to make your contribution to the E&R Fund, or simply mail your check to the ASCLS national office, c/o James Flanigan, American Society for Clinical Laboratory Science, 1861 International Drive, Suite 200, McLean VA 22102. Though your contribution is officially a tax-deductible donation to our 501c3 fund, it is more accurate to think of it as an investment in our profession.