WSU News Archive

By Allison Benjamin, College of Nursing

SPOKANE, Wash. - Washington State University College of Nursing Clinical Associate Professor Linda Ward has been appointed to a four-year term on the Clinical Laboratory Improvement Advisory Committee (CLIAC) of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control (CDC).

 

She is the first nurse asked to serve on the committee, which is comprised of 20 health care leaders from across the nation working in laboratory medicine, pathology, public health and clinical practice.

 

CLIAC provides specific and technical advice to the CDC and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Food and Drug Administration and Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services on issues related to lab quality and the Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments of 1988. The committee has a voice in assuring that laboratory testing is safe and effective in the more than 200,000 laboratories nationwide subject to CLIA certification.

 

The opportunity to participate was a good fit for Ward on multiple levels. Her first degree was in microbiology and she worked in clinical labs as a chemist and microbiologist for years before becoming a nurse.

 

The real connection for Ward was the committee’s interest in finding someone who had done work related to genetic testing.

 

"My interest focuses on how genetics and genomics will be integrated into health care,” said Ward, "so I based my application for nomination on three perspectives I have regarding CLIA - that of a laboratory scientist, an advance practice nurse overseeing a CLIA-waived lab, and a researcher in genome science.”

 

 

The WSU College of Nursing educates more than 1,000 students each year, one of the largest educators of nurses on the west coast. WSU offers nursing degrees at the bachelor’s, master’s and doctoral levels at three campuses across the state.

 

Headquartered on the WSU Spokane campus, the college partners with Eastern Washington University and Whitworth University to provide undergraduate education as part of the nation’s first, oldest and most comprehensive nursing education consortium.

 

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Media contact:
Alli Benjamin, WSU College of Nursing, Alli.benjamin@wsu.edu, 509-324-7340

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