After more than 30 years of commitment to Duke University and 10 years to the EQAPOL program, we would like to announce Ms. Janet Staats, Research Laboratory Manager for the (External Quality Assurance Program Oversight Laboratory) EQAPOL Flow Cytometry ICS program has retired effective December 31, 2019. Over the years, Ms. Staats has applied her wealth of experience and knowledge to the EQAPOL contract and should be acknowledged for the dedication in which she has served the EQAPOL Flow program.
Upon the retirement of Ms. Staats, Dr. Kent Weinhold will be transitioning out of the role of EQAPOL Flow Cytometry EQA program Study Director and Co-Investigator of the EQAPOL Program in order to take on new leadership responsibilities at Duke. As a Distinguished Professor of Surgery in the Duke University School of Medicine, Dr. Weinhold has brought nearly 40 years of basic/translational research experience to his 9-year tenure to the EQAPOL program. Dr. Weinhold and his team have provided excellent service and have been integral to EQAPOL’s overall success.
We are pleased to announce that Dr. Guido Ferrari will now oversee the EQAPOL Flow Program as its new Study Director. For many years, Dr. Ferrari has served as the EQAPOL ELISpot External Quality Assurance Study Director and is a highly accomplished immunologist/virologist who has coauthored over 100 peer-reviewed publications, most in the field of HIV/AIDS research. He is well recognized as a world expert for his seminal contributions in the areas of comprehensive HIV-specific CTL characterizations (including vaccine-induced cross-clade CTL responses), multiple high-level ADCC studies in infected patients as well as HIV/AIDS vaccine recipients, and the development/validation of multiple immune assay platforms. We are looking forward to Dr. Ferrari bringing his experience to the EQAPOL Flow program.