Butina named vice chair for Medical Laboratory Science

The Department of Pathology, Anatomy and Laboratory Medicine has named Associate Professor Michelle Butina, Ph.D., vice chair of the Medical Laboratory Science Division. Dr. Butina fills the position vacated by Beverly Kirby, Ph.D.

Butina is certified by the American Society for Clinical Pathology Board of Certification as a Medical Laboratory Scientist. She earned her doctorate degree in Workforce Education from the University of Georgia and her master’s degree in Clinical Laboratory Science from Michigan State University. 

The Division of Medical Laboratory Science offers an undergraduate degree in Medical Laboratory Science in which there are two tracks. In the clinical laboratory science track, students are educated to analyze, interpret, and perform laboratory tests on blood and bodily fluids. In the histotechnology track, students are educated on laboratory procedures that preserve and process tissue specimens. 

Both of these laboratory professions provide valuable clinical information to health care providers that aid in the diagnosis, prognosis and treatment of patients.

The Division of Medical Laboratory Science also offers a graduate pathologists’ assistant program culminating in a master’s degree in health science.  Pathologists’ assistants are skilled health professionals who dissect and examine organs and tissues for disease in order for the pathologist to make a diagnosis.  They also perform autopsies and prepare tissue for intraoperative diagnosis on patients undergoing surgery.