2014

Message from Alan:

2013 was a year of huge personal changes. Started with my brother Dick’s death last January---a real shock that I’m still reeling from. Then in July...retirement. Had a huge party with people from all over---one of the only big parties I’ve been to where I knew all the people. Got some interesting gifts, but I gave myself the best one: an electric car (Nissan Leaf). I had long ago concluded that the major car companies would never step up to the plate of a path to breaking fossil fuel addiction. But son of a gun I was wrong. I have never enjoyed driving a car so much ever in my life. And I’m not really retired...got hired back 20% time for certain projects that are of special interest for me. Perfect.

Message from Diane:

Unlike Alan, it is hard to describe accomplishments at work. It was easier as a surgical pathologist to finish a case, and have a direct hand in making a diagnosis that would lead to a patient’s care and treatment. It’s taken over 5 years for me to become comfortable in the role of a technical director of cytology and histology. I do some teaching, but mainly help oversee the processes, identification, preparation, processing, staining, quality and delivery, of creating the slides that I used to read on a daily basis. The ultimate goals are maintaining a specimen’s integrity, patient identification and safety. You want the right patient specimen on the right (correctly) labeled slide. Unlike automated chemistry and hematology, cytology and histology are quite manual. I’ve been working with many others in my laboratory to introduce systems to reduce errors. While we have made great improvements, it is an on-going process.