Pathology Leaders Inspire Educators to Promote Lab Careers

Can efforts to spread the word about laboratory careers via educators be successful? Absolutely: a North Carolina initiative is showing exactly how. 

Laboratory leaders know how exciting and important laboratory careers are and can be. But a key stumbling block remains the lack of awareness by young people of the range of careers open to them in the clinical laboratory setting. A recent initiative in North Carolina is encouraging awareness through the creation of a continuing education workshop for science teachers hosted by the University of North Carolina Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine, in partnership with the North Carolina Association for Biomedical Research (NCABR). The initiative has been championed by Russell Broaddus, MD, PhD, Chairman of the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine in Chapel Hill. Dr. Broaddus holds the Joe W. and Evelyn Grisham Distinguished Professorship and is a surgical pathologist with subspecialty expertise in gynecologic pathology and solid tumor molecular diagnostics. 

The initiative originated with NCABR, which functions both as a research advocacy group in North Carolina, and as a source of education. Among other efforts, NCABR leaders promote research, and have a strong outreach across the state. As the association’s website explains, “NCABR provides free training and materials to K–12 educators by bringing them into research facilities to learn directly from scientists through our Rx for Science Literacy free workshop series. We also offer online courses, curricula and other publications about research and present outreach programs for the general public, including K–12 students.” 

As Dr. Broaddus explains, “Suzanne Wilkison, NCABR’s President, is very active, and very dynamic. She believes that if you can reach teachers, you can amplify your message, because every teacher touches hundreds of students in a week.” 

A connection was made after one of the pathologists’ assistants at UNC-Chapel Hill gave a presentation to a middle school class in Raleigh, and members of that class posted about their experience of the presentation. Ms. Wilkison learned of that development—and things moved forward from there. 

She reached out to Dr. Broaddus, who in turn reached out to members of the UNC faculty who might be interested in presenting to K-12 teachers. “I recruited various faculty members who I knew were very good lecturers, very dynamic, and who could present interesting topics,” Dr. Broaddus recalls. He also made the key decision to focus on cancer as an area of interest. And, with the support of the American Society for Clinical Pathology (ASCP), which helped fund the series,  volunteers gathered on the UNC campus, delivering talks that focused on pathology work around cancer; next year, Dr. Broaddus says, he’d like to have volunteer lecturers focus on explaining about bloodwork. 

The lectures, Dr. Broaddus emphasizes, were very popular, and inspired teachers to promote the idea of laboratory careers to their students. 

Important lessons learned around the value of partnerships 

Helping lead this initiative has been important in two different ways, Dr. Broaddus reflects. First has been the fact of laboratory leaders spreading the message of the potential inherent in lab careers to young people thinking about what they want to do professionally. The second has been the partnership element; Dr. Broaddus praises the NCABR leadership for their support of the effort, and ASCP leadership for their financial support.  

“If you can get hooked in with a group like NCABR,” Dr. Broaddus explains, “because they have the contacts with the teachers, they will put out the word for you. Honestly, it was easy for me to get the faculty members to participate; they love doing this type of thing.” And, importantly, he says, “Now, instead of pathologists talking to pathologists, we have pathologists talking to teachers—the people who will help to encourage young people to enter the field.” 

Next up? Statewide workshops that could be held in multiple cities across North Carolina, with UNC pathology leaders represented, at least annually, and perhaps more frequently. Everyone should feel inspired by this kind of outreach, Dr. Broaddus concludes.