Newswise — WASHINGTON – AACC, a global scientific and medical professional organization dedicated to better health through laboratory medicine, is pleased to announce that David G. Grenache, PhD, DABCC, MT(ASCP), FAACC, has been elected to serve on the AACC Board of Directors as president-elect starting in January 2019. Following this, he will serve successive terms as the association’s president from August 2020-July 2021 and as past president from August 2021-July 2022. In addition, the AACC membership elected a new treasurer and two new directors to the association’s Board. They will take office at the start of 2019 along with the incoming president of AACC Academy, who will also serve on the Board. 

“It is truly a great honor to be elected to serve as the 2020-2021 president of AACC,” said Dr. Grenache. “In this role, I will commit myself to AACC’s mission of advancing the practice of laboratory medicine. I also pledge to use my experience, ideas, and enthusiasm to support the talented laboratory medicine professionals who comprise AACC’s membership and who are the association’s greatest asset. Working together with our dedicated members, I believe AACC leadership and staff can make great strides toward improving patient care around the world.”     

Dr. Grenache is the chief scientific officer and medical director of the chemistry, immunology, and esoteric analytic chemistry labs at TriCore Reference Laboratories in Albuquerque, New Mexico. He is also a clinical professor of pathology at the University of New Mexico. An AACC member since 1994, Dr. Grenache has been actively engaged in association leadership for many years. He currently serves on the board of editors for AACC’s The Journal of Applied Laboratory Medicine, AACC Policy & External Affairs Committee, and as an ex officio member of the association’s Education Core Committee. He also previously held the position of AACC secretary from 2014-2016, chaired the 2018 organizing committee for the AACC Annual Scientific Meeting & Clinical Lab Expo, and helped create the framework for AACC’s Society for Young Clinical Laboratorians while also serving as its first chair. 

AACC Treasurer 

Steven Kazmierczak, PhD, DABCC, FAACC, will serve as AACC treasurer from January 2019-July 2022. 

Dr. Kazmierczak is a professor of pathology at Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU) and scientific director of chemistry and toxicology at OHSU Hospitals in Portland. He also serves as laboratory director for DiabetOmics Laboratories and as a member of the scientific advisory boards for Abaxis, Qorvo Biotechnologies, and Becton Dickinson. An AACC member since 1982, he currently serves on The Journal of Applied Laboratory Medicine board of editors and previously held a position on the AACC Board of Directors from 2012-2014. 

AACC Board Members 

Mark Marzinke, PhD, DABCC, FAACC, and Octavia M. Peck Palmer, PhD, FAACC, will serve as members of AACC’s Board of Directors from January 2019-July 2022. Roger L. Bertholf, PhD, DABCC, FAACC, will also serve on the Board from January 2019-July 2020 as president of AACC Academy, the association’s home for distinguished laboratory experts who shape science in the field. 

Dr. Marzinke is associate professor of pathology and medicine and director of the Clinical Pharmacology Analytical Laboratory at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore, and director of the general (automated) chemistry laboratory in the Johns Hopkins Hospital Core Laboratories. In addition, he serves as co-director of the HIV Prevention Trials Network Laboratory Center and as core leader in the Johns Hopkins Center for AIDS Research. He joined AACC in 2010 and currently sits on the boards of editors for both Clinical Laboratory News, AACC’s flagship magazine, and The Journal of Applied Laboratory Medicine.  

Dr. Peck Palmer serves as an associate professor in the department of pathology at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, with secondary appointments in the university’s departments of clinical care medicine and clinical and translational sciences. She is also the medical director of two automated testing clinical laboratories at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) Presbyterian and Shadyside Hospitals, in addition to serving as the assistant medical director of the UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh automated testing laboratory. An AACC member since 2006, she is currently co-chair of AACC’s Professional Practice of Clinical Chemistry course that will be offered in April 2019. 

Dr. Bertholf recently became the medical director of clinical chemistry at Houston Methodist Hospital following a 29-year career with the University of Florida (UF) College of Medicine - Jacksonville where he was a professor of pathology and laboratory medicine and director of clinical chemistry, toxicology, and point-of-care testing at UF Health Jacksonville. He became an AACC member in 1983 and is currently past chair of the association’s Southeast Local Section while also serving on AACC’s Finance Committee. Additionally, he previously held the position of AACC Academy treasurer from 2006-2008.   

About AACC

Dedicated to achieving better health through laboratory medicine, AACC brings together more than 50,000 clinical laboratory professionals, physicians, research scientists, and business leaders from around the world focused on clinical chemistry, molecular diagnostics, mass spectrometry, translational medicine, lab management, and other areas of progressing laboratory science. Since 1948, AACC has worked to advance the common interests of the field, providing programs that advance scientific collaboration, knowledge, expertise, and innovation. For more information, visit www.aacc.org.