Clinical Laboratory Science Program News • Spring 2021
Interprofessional education teaches communication, collaboration and cooperation in patient care by bridging understanding of health professions among students in various programs. In January, nearly 300 students from across WSU Applebaum participated in a virtual workshop that was deliberately designed to cover various IPE core competencies including roles and responsibilities, values and ethics, communication, and cultural competence. Clinical Laboratory Science was one of nine programs that participated. CLS student Jehad Saif said, “I loved the experience and understood the importance of our role. We are a huge factor in decision-making and the heart of the hospital."
Learning at home
Stay-at-home orders didn't stop our Clinical Lab Science students from learning. While they couldn't enter the Mortuary Science building in January, they worked hard making fake blood, creating blood smears and modeling cellular elements for Assistant Clinical Professor MaryAnne Stewart's Hematology course. Ingredients included everything from ketchup and corn starch to beet juice and pasta sauce. Cellular structures were created with clay and food dye.
We're back in the lab!
In February, we were able to get back together in person (socially distanced, of course) for hands-on lab training.
Pandemic Warriors
Wayne State CLS alumni have been tirelessly working through the past year, playing a critical role in COVID-19 PCR, antigen and antibody test development; quality control and assurance for diagnostic testing; and implementation and analysis of COVID-19 testing for diagnosis and treatment.
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| Ghiwa Chakaroun '20 | Michelle Ernst '97 |
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| Kim Lloyd Watts '95, '02 | Zahraa Sbaiti '16 |
Read more about how every WSU Applebaum program has been crucial to our community's coronavirus response.
Faculty transitions
In 1980, when Janet Brown joined Wayne State University’s medical technology program, President Jimmy Carter was serving his final year in office, Rubik’s Cube had just hit the market and the World Health Organization announced that smallpox had been eradicated. Forty years later in the summer of 2020, Brown retired from her position as assistant professor of clinical laboratory science. A lot has changed, but Brown’s commitment to teaching held steady until the very end.
Also in 2020, Karen Krisher retired after 10 years as a CLS faculty member at Wayne State. She brought many years of experience as a medical laboratory scientist and former hospital clinical microbiology laboratory director to the classroom, imparting lessons learned in the field to her students.
Assistant Clinical Professor Jennifer Reish, MLS(ASCP)CM joined the Wayne State CLS faculty in fall 2020. “I stumbled upon Clinical Laboratory Sciences in college and quickly fell in love with the major, which is the perfect balance between science and health care,” she said. “I am thrilled to be sharing my passion with the next generation of scientists every single day.”
Reish has been a professional medical laboratory scientist since 2011, currently working at St. John Providence Park Hospital in Novi where she performs STAT and routine testing on patient samples and is trained to work in blood bank, chemistry, coagulation, hematology and urinalysis. While she was working toward her master’s in biochemistry and molecular biology, which she earned from Wayne State in 2020, she served as a graduate research assistant in the Berti Lab. She holds a bachelor’s in clinical laboratory science from Eastern Michigan University.
Assistant Clinical Professor Ronette Chojnacki, MT(ASCP) began teaching at Wayne State in 2018 as an instructional assistant. She was hired as an assistant clinical professor in fall 2020. “Being a professor here at WSU teaching what I have been doing in the lab all these years is truly fulfilling,” she said. “I am teaching the future clinical laboratory scientists that will be working in the lab one day.”
Chojnacki was a professional medical technologist at Garden City Hospital working the bench in microbiology from 1996 to 2020. Currently pursuing a master of health care administration degree from Colorado State University’s Global Campus with a projected graduation date in October 2021, she earned her bachelor’s in health sciences with a major in medical technology from Oakland University.
Share your news and updates
If you have news of your own to share or just want to say hello, please get in touch! We'd love to hear from you. Please feel free to email Karen Apolloni directly at ae2586@wayne.edu. You can also update your alumni record online to make sure we have your most up-to-date contact information for future newsletters.
