Division News

From the Director

We are starting the 2008-09 academic year with a new website. We hope you will find this website easy to navigate and filled with useful information. We will be adding updates, information, photos, stories and more as we build this site. We are extremely grateful to Laine Stewart who spent the summer organizing program information and creating this new website.

We have great news! Our Master’s degree in Molecular Diagnostic Science (MMDS) program was approved by the UNC General Administration this summer. Over the past year, we submitted a “Request to Establish” document that described the plans for the MMDS program. This proposal was reviewed by the Graduate School and the Provost before it was forwarded to General Administration. The Graduate School praised the high quality of the program and stated that it holds great promise for laboratory professionals in North Carolina.

The new MMDS program will be starting in the summer of 2009. It is an exciting program that offers students a chance to earn a graduate degree in an advanced area of laboratory practice. CLS faculty members have been working hard on the details of the program – fortunately as laboratory professionals, we are good at details. We are excited about moving the current post-baccalaureate program to the next level and working with students who want to obtain a Master’s degree. Please share the news about this new program with your colleagues.

We have some wonderful news about scholarships for CLS students. The class of 1978 is celebrating their 30th anniversary by sponsoring a scholarship for a current CLS student. The Class of 1978 donated $1000 for the next two years. Together with matching funds from other CLS donors, we will be able to award a scholarship of $2,000 to a CLS student this year and next. Roberta DeLuca from the Class of 1978 also worked with her colleagues at WakeMed to establish the Raleigh Laboratory Pathology Associates / WakeMed scholarships. This help for CLS students could not come at a better time. These scholarships will enable CLS students to work less and study more and they will help address the shortage of laboratory professionals.

We are excited about the coming year with a new website, a new program and new support for students. We hope that you will stay in touch with us by updating your alumni information, sending us email, or stopping by our offices. We are proud of all the alumni of our program and we appreciate the support of all our friends and contributors.