Special Thanks

To the Wonderful NLTN 20th Anniversary Reception Subcommittee Garry Greer, Beth Hochstetler, LeighAnn Bates, Stacey Cooke, Karen Mulawski, to Ken Carter for guidance on this project, to the NLTC V Planning Committee, to Terry Reamer of APHL for making this reception possible, to Sharon Cibrik and Jeannine Parker for the wonderful early ALTA documents and photos, to Bobbi Albert for compiling a comprehensive staff list of all time, to all the staff of NLTN, CDC, and APHL DCET who contributed stories for this project or who were busy with the H1N1 Swine-lie flu outbreak and unable to stop the necessary work that they do, to all the public health laboratory trainers everywhere, and to all the trainers at this conference, experienced and not–may you learn from these and other tales that the shared stories are the best.

-Martha Evans NLTN

NLTN Timeline From Start to Vision

Events elsewhere in the World

National Laboratory Training Network Formed in 1989 to provide low cost, high-quality con-tinuing education for testing personnel in medical, pub-lic health, and environmental laboratories

The NLTN is a training system sponsored by the Association of Public Health Laboratories and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

IN MEMORIAM

Linda Morrell, Western Regional Office Director Rosemary Bakes-Martin, CDC Training Advisor Eugene Shanoltz, CDC Training Advisor Sandra Marubio, MW Office Coordinator Betty Lynn Theriot, Regional Coordinator Kati Kelly, Past President APHL, former CDC Laboratory Practice Training Branch Chief and prior to that was one of the founding members of the group that created the NLTN.

Meeting San Antonio TX: Participating were CDC staff and 10 Training Coordinators, to explore ways that CDC-DT can continue to serve the State’s training needs without direct delivery of courses by CDC staff. No ASTPHLD members were present and the regional concept was not articulated

WHO launched its Global Programme on AIDS ; The FDA approved AZT as the first antiretroviral drug to be used as a treatment for AIDS

1987

In the Beginning Was the Concept Paper:

THE NATIONAL LABORATORY TRAINING NETWORK CONCEPT PAPER (c. 1988)

Summary: The Association of State and Territorial Public Health Laboratory Di-rectors (ASTPHLD), recognizing the urgent need to Improve the qual-ity of laboratory testing nationwide, proposes to Implement a National Laboratory Training Network (NLTN) that will form alliances among federal, state, and local public health agencies and private sector or-ganizations to develop and promote the delivery of localized training programs based on documented need. Adequate training for labora-tory professionals will Improve the quality of laboratory testing nation-wide and strengthen the public health community's prevention and control programs. ASTPHLD proposes to accomplish this objective by' developing and promoting training programs that will be delivered through seven Area Laboratory Training Alliances (ALTAs). The end result of this pro-posed effort will be a training service delivery mechanism that fully utilizes available resources, localizes training based on state needs, and capitalizes on the training expertise available through the Centers for Disease Control.

The Making of the National Laboratory Training Network

BEFORE THERE WAS A MEETING THERE WAS A PROPOSAL:

The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) have traditionally served as the focal point for developing training materials for public health laboratories. This process has enabled state and other laboratory professionals to effectively utilize the expertise of CDC training personnel but, due to limited resources, allowed few opportunities for the delivery of "customized" training at the local level. The AIDS epidemic has highlighted the need for rapid dissemination of new technology and standards to individuals at the bench level, a need that varies from state to state. To permit a more decentralized method of training delivery, ASTPHLD proposes to form a National Laboratory Training Network (NLTN) that will fully utilize existing training resource;:;, localize training based on need, and capitalize on the expertise that exists within CDC. It is proposed that CDC cooperative funds be awarded to support this Network—

From the NATIONAL LABORATORY TRAINING NETWORK DRAFT PROPOSAL 1988

THERE WAS HIV AND NO INTERNET. CELL PHONES WERE UNCOMMON.

AFTER THE PROSAL THERE WAS A TNA OF STCs .asking for their input on everything from ALTA (Area Lab Training Alliances) structure to relationship to state Laboratories to development and use of resources. The extent to which the State Training Coordinators had input on the structure and nature of NLTN is breathtaking, to me, who wasn’t there, but have experienced organizations without a truly democratic structure.

WESTERN AREA RESOURCE OFFICE (Denver, CO) OFFICE CLOSED Kevin Greiman

Original Area Resource Director (ARD) in the Denver Office.—now working in the private sector.

Linda Morrell (Memorial) Area Resource Director in the Denver Office--passed away suddenly while serving in this capacity.

Karen Breckenridge Area Resource Director (ARD)--now working at APHL as Director of Quality Systems

Rosemary Bakes-Martin (Memorial) Original CDC Training Advisor—left Denver to work for the CDC in At-lanta later assigned to the El Paso Health Department in Colorado. Rosemary has now passed away.

Diane Luck CDC Training Advisor—now semi-retired and working part time in a clinical laboratory in Colorado.

Cherie Javadi Administrative Assistant—now working in the private sector in Colorado RICHMOND OFFICE (Formerly the Pacific Area Resource Office) Originally located in Berkeley, CA, moved to Richmond, CA Dan Mills

Original Area Resource Director (ARD)—now working in the State Pub-lic Health Laboratory for the State of California.

Marguerite Oates Area Resource Director (ARD)—retired.

Anne O’Connor

Original CDC Training Advisor--now working for the Centers for Dis-ease Control in Atlanta.

Bernie Jilly CDC Training Advisor—now the State Public Health Laboratory Director in Alaska.

Karen Mulawski Previously the CDC Training Advisor in the Boston Office—moved to the California Office of the NLTN, now retired.

Martha Evans Program Assistant—still working with the NLTN Compiled by Bobbi Albert

FROM THE FIRST TNA: in the STC’s own words

The ARD [Area Resource Director) should be the liaison person, and each State Training Coordinator should have equal access to that person. If a Training Committee/Task Force is formed, that will provide a forum for problems, etc. 13. Should states have their own training activities or should all activities be treated as part of the network? States should have their own training because needs of each state are varied. Network activities could be special programs. Individual state programs could be open to all states in the ALTA and promoted by the ARD. .. Any programs developed in conjunction with the ARD should be available for use by all state coordina-tors. Minor training activities and specific projects for state requirements should remain in the domain of the individual state unless the ARD has assisted State training coordinators should, however, inform ARD of all training activities so that the ARD may adapt them for use elsewhere. States with budgets for training should continue. Each state is sovereign and 'will do as it pleases .. don't try to regu-late;· where there is no authority. States should have their own training activities but be willing to share with others. States should continue to operate their own training programs as long as it contributes to the overall training needs of the area. The impor-tance of cooperation and coordination among state training programs cannot be over emphasized. For example, if two states offer a similar program, one state should be asked to offer the program; some states in an area may have particular expertise, which would identify them as the area training center for that particular subject.

Definitions: ARD = Area Regional Director; ALTA = Area Laboratory Training Alliance ASTPHLD = Association of State and Territorial Public Health Laboratory Directors

“... ASTPHLD (now APHL) had only one em-ployee—her name was Mary Beth Winklejohn, Executive Director. Now, twenty years later under the tutelage of Scott Becker there are now more than 80 employees! -Bobbi Albert

Early photo of ALTAs

HAPPY BIRTHDAY NLTN

NASHVILLE OFFICE (Formerly the Southeastern Area Resource Office) Bobbi Albert

Original Area Resource Director (ARD)—retired in June 2008 Judy Delany

Original CDC Training Advisor—now at the CDC in Atlanta Loretta Gjeltema

CDC Training Advisor—still working in that capacity as a CDC Health Scientist

Pam Moleta

APHL Training Assistant—still working for the NLTN as Wet Work-shop Specialist

Jane Clark Program Assistant--now retired SOUTH CENTRAL AREA RESOURCE OFFICE (New Orleans, LA) OFFICE CLOSED Betty Lynne Theriot (Memorial)

Original Area Resource Director (ARD)—left to establish her own private consulting business and later passed away suddenly pre-sumably from diabetic shock.

Linette Granen

Area Resource Director (ARD)—now employed as the APHL Senior Manager for Corporate Relations for APHL.

Sheila Hickman

Original CDC Training Advisor—now teaching in a Clinical Labora-tory Science Program

Jane Willis CDC Training Advisor—retired. Denise Arseneaux

Administrative Assistant—now employed in the private sector Kirk Perilloux

Administrative Assistant now employed by the Office of Public Health in Louisiana

EASTERN AREA RESOURCE OFFICE (Originally located in Exton, PA and later moved to Smyrna, DE) OFFICE CLOSED Jerome Cordts

Original Area Resource Director (ARD)—later employed at ASTPHLD Headquarters in Washington, DC. Current employer unknown

Lynn Russell Area Resource Director (ARD)—currently teaching high school

Christine Ford Area Resource Director after the move to Smyrna, DE--now the NLTN Manager at CDC

Eunice Rosner Original CDC Training Advisor—moved to Atlanta to work with the CDC there, now retired.

Linda Raichle CDC Training Advisor—currently president of Spectrum Medical Educa-tion

Eugene Shanoltz (Memorial) CDC Training Advisor after the move to Smyrna--passed away while still in that capacity.

Joan Davis Program Assistant—now working for the school district in New Jersey

CHICAGO OFFICE (Formerly the Midwestern Area Resource Office) Sandy Marubio (Memorial)

Original Area Resource Director (ARD)—Sandy retired following a mas-sive heart attack and stroke and has now passed away.

Rosemary Humes Area Resource Director (ARD) following Sandy’s retirement—now em-ployed at APHL in Silver Spring.

Pat Dostert Current APHL/NLTN Senior Manager

Valerie Johnson Original CDC Training Advisor—still working in that capacity as a CDC Health Scientist

Melissa VonHatten APHL Training Associate—still working as the NLTN Information Re-pository Manager

Barbara Henderson Program Assistant—current employer unknown

—

Preparing for workshop

Eastern Area State Training Coordinators And NLTN Staff – Grand Rapids, 1996

(Left to Right) Front: Tzesiug Log, Washington D.C.; Gene Shanoltz, NLTN Middle: Deirdre Astin, NY; Kareen Tartwig, PA; Rose Ann La Fisca, NJ; Back: Christopher Zimmermann, DE; Lorraine Kelly, MD; Christine Ford, NLTN

A NEW CONCEPT AND NEW WAY OF WORKING TOGETHER:

2/88: Stone Mountain, Georgia meeting with 3 STCs, CDC-DT Staff, Chair ASTPHLD Training Committee to better define the concept of a regional training system.

9/88: NLTN Concept Review meeting, At-lanta, GA Participating were Training and Laboratory Program Office, CDC and The Training Committee of ASTPHLD to layout “The Vision For A National Laboratory Training Network

Benazir Bhutto chosen to lead Pakistan George Bush wins 1988 US Presidential elec-tion. WHO initiates first World AIDS Day

1988

NLTN Tributes and Memorials Many people have been involved in the NLTN throughout the past 20 years—many of these have moved on, retired, or died, but all contributed to making it what it is today. The following is a brief summary of these people. Please keep in mind that titles have changed several times and offices have been relocated or closed during times of reorganization. If I have left anyone out or give any misinformation, my apologies! Also note: it is impossible to list all of those people who have been a part of the NLTN and/or contributed to the success of the organiza-tion. So, this list does not include all of the wonderful people from APHL and CDC who have been instrumental in the NLTN, nor does it recognize all of the Laboratory Directors and Training Coordinators in the State Public Health Laboratories, without whom the NLTN would not have been possible. BOSTON OFFICE (Formerly New England Area Resource Office) Marcia Stowell

Original Area Resource Director (ARD)--Marcia is now work-ing for the State Public Health Laboratory in Massachusetts.

Elizabeth Brosman Original CDC Training Advisor—current position not known. Karen Mulawski

CDC Training Advisor-- Karen later moved to California as the Training Advisor and retired May 2009.

Betsy Scymczak

APHL Manager (change of title) following Marcia.—now working for the State Public Health Laboratory in Massachu-setts

Denise Korzeniowski

APHL Training Associate—still with the NLTN as Teleconfer-ence Product Line Specialist

Original NLTN staff: New England Area Resource Office (Boston, MA) State Laboratory Director: Ralph Timperi, MPH Area Resource Director (ARD): Marcia Stowell CDC Training Advisor: Elizabeth Brosman Eastern Area Resource Office (Exton, PA) State Laboratory Director: Vern Pidcoe, DrPH Area Resource Director (ARD): Jerome Cordts CDC Training Advisor: Eunice Rosner Midwestern Area Resource Office (Chicago, IL) State Laboratory Director: Dave Carpenter, PhD Area Resource Director (ARD): Sandy Marubio CDC Training Advisor: Valerie Johnson Southeastern Area Resource Office (Nashville, TN) State Laboratory Director: Michael Kimberly, DrPH Area Resource Director (ARD): Bobbi Albert CDC Training Advisor: Judy Delany South Central Area Resource Office (New Orleans, LA) State Laboratory Director: Henry Bradford, PhD Area Resource Director (ARD): Betty Lynne Theriot CDC Training Advisor: Sheila Hickman Western Area Resource (Denver, CO) State Laboratory Director: Ron Cada, DrPH Area Resource Director (ARD): Kevin Greiman CDC Training Advisor: Rosemary-Bakes Martin Pacific Area Resource Office (Berkeley, CA) State Laboratory Director: Thaddeus F. Midura, PhD Area Resource Director (ARD): Dan Mills CDC Training Advisor: Anne O’Connor

September: NLTN Orientation in Atlanta, GA. October: All seven NLTN offices staffed and open. First ALTA Meeting in Durango, CO

Iranian Revolution, Ayatollah Khomeini comes to power. Tens of thousands of Chinese stu-dents protest at Tienamen Square. Gorbachev named President of USSR

IN THE BEGINNING — Bobbi Albert ...there were 7 ALTAs (Area Laboratory Training Alliances). The seven offices were located in Boston, MS; Exton, PA; Chicago, IL; Nashville, TN; New Orleans, LA; Denver, CO; and Berkeley, CA. There were 7 APHL ARDs (Area Resource Directors) and 7 CDC TAs (Training Advisors) who worked with the STCs (State Training Coordinators) in their region. We really had an alphabet soup! The First Staff Meeting …the first NLTN staff meeting. It was held the last week in September 1989 in Atlanta, GA at the CDC. At that time all but one position had been filled, so there were 13 people from the public sector who met along with the ASTPHLD Training Committee and the State Laboratory Directors from the states where the NLTN offices were located. I remember the first night welcome reception when we were meeting one another—we were each asking the others there “what do you think we are going to be doing?” No one really knew! We decided that we were risk takers of the first degree! The NLTN was a brand new concept and it was weeks, months, and years before we fully realized the depth and breadth of the job. …when Judy Delany and I had our first ALTA Meeting…we were so excited to be meeting with all of the STCs, and had prepared an agenda for the meeting. But, I get ahead of myself—I first need to set the scene for the environment we were entering. CDC had worked with the state laboratories for many years to provide training for them…at one point the Training Division at CDC had over 100 employees, many of whom traveled to present workshops throughout the country. But, because economics and funding dictated a more efficient system of providing continuing education, the NLTN concept was born.

1989

First course conducted, “Laboratory Safety and Health”, in Des Plains, Illinois with 40 participants

December 1989

Needless to say, change is never easy, and many states were less than enthusiastic about the new organization. Additionally, the Southeast-ern region of the U.S. already had an organization of the state train-ing coordinators called SLIPS (Southeastern Laboratory Improvement Program). Judy and I stepped into this milieu from the public sector. We had lots of enthusiasm, but little in the way of knowledge of the past! Now, back to our first meeting….it was held at the State Public Health Laboratory in Nashville, and we were prepared as any good meeting planners should be. We distributed our agenda and ex-plained our plans for the next two days only to be told by those at-tending that they didn’t want to do what we had planned! The wind immediately went out of our sails as they invited us to step out of the room while they voted on whether or not they wanted to fold SLIPS into the NLTN. They decided that they would try it for a couple of years to see how it went, then make a decision long term. Fortu-nately for the NLTN, that follow-up vote never came as we began to work together to achieve the goals of the states and the NLTN. –Bobbi Albert, NLTN Manager

IN THE BEGINNING

NLTN Orientation Meeting 9/13-19/89 in Atlanta, GA

(Left to Right) Front: Wayne Brown, Charles Belknap, Chuck Talbert, Carl Blank, Seated: Doris Johnson, Anne O’Connor, Judy Delany, Elizabeth Bros-man, Rosemary Bakes-Martin, Marcia Stowell, Pat Kent, Betty Lynne Theriot, Joan Tandel, Eunice Rosner, Charlotte Billingsley Back: Sheila Hickman, Valerie Jonson, Jerome Cordts, Barbara Albert, Ron Valdiserri, Mike Kimberly, Mary Beth Winkeljohn, Dave Verma, Vern Pidcoe, Henry Bradford, Ted Hawkins, Dan Mills, Kevin Greiman

Janet Hindler lecturing on Antimicrobial Susceptibility at an NLTN Seminar

Happy 20th Birthday NLTN

Two Trainers at a table More trainers dancing.

1995 ASTHPHLD MEETING

While I was serving as the CDC NLTN manager, I traveled routinely to all 7 re-gions for the regional meetings of the State Training Coordinators. My first trip to the Eastern Area meeting, which was located in Exton, PA, was scheduled in the winter. There was a really big snow storm the day of my travel. As the plane was coming in for a landing, I could see cars off the road all over the place and quickly made the decision that I would take the train to Exton rather than trying to drive a rental car on very unfamiliar dangerous roads. I had a large box of mate-rials I was taking as well as my suitcase so I was struggling to deal with getting all these things onto the train. This whole concept of riding the train was a bit new for me. I had only been in Atlanta a year or so at this time and was not a Marta rider. The train was also packed since thousands of people had made the same decision to ride the train because of the snow. By the time I found the right train and got a ticket, it was later than anticipated. As we traveled along, I became more and more anxious. We kept going farther and farther into the countryside and more and more people exited the train. When we finally arrived at the Exton station, it was pretty much in the middle of nowhere with no taxi cabs around, dark and incredibly cold. I was not adequately dressed for such cold weather not having anticipated being stuck out in it. I dragged all my stuff off the train and headed toward an open pay phone (remember the days before cell phones?!) to call a cab and tried to put a quarter into the slot. The phone was frozen! The coin would not go into the slot. I removed my gloves and tried to heat up the phone slot with my bare hands, but it still would not go in. I was close to panic as I realized I was about to be aban-doned in the middle of winter with no means of transportation or commu-nication. There was one man left heading toward his car. I had always had a habit of not even making eye contact ...(continued on next page)

Judy Delany remembers an early training story ...

death. I yelled to him as he opened his car door and asked if I could have a ride to somewhere that I could make a call. He agreed to take me to the McDonald's on his way home. When we arrived at the McDonald's it was closed as was every other establishment in sight. He felt sorry for me and actually drove me to my hotel - so my first travel encounter with a strange man turned out ok. The hotel was sort of a strange party environment since so many people were stranded while traveling. An entire group of cheerleaders were there for a competition and there were buckets all over the place to catch the wa-ter from leaks in the ceiling. Our regional meeting went on as planned al-though many were unable to attend. However this difficult travel experi-ence led the lab director to considerations and discussions that eventually led to the relocation of the Eastern Office to Delaware - another long com-mute from the airport - but another story. —Judy Delany

TRAINING TALES

Regional Coordinators (Left to Right) Front: Barbara Albert, Betty Lynne Theriot, Marcia Stowell, Kevin Greiman Back: Dan Mills, Jerome Cordts Not Present: Sandy Marubio

First CEU given for “Mass Spectral Inter-pretation”, in Austin, Texas with 33 par-ticipants

NLTN Timeline From Vision to Execution 1990

A CDC study revealed that 3 of every 1,000 college stu-dents are infected with HIV.*; The NIH Office of AIDS Research (OAR) was established

World Wide Web Created

First wet workshop , HIV Serol-ogy was conducted in Raleigh, North Carolina with 20 partici-pants

2005 to the present time

In 2007 NLTN adopted a new business model in order to offer relevant, cost-effective, and timely training in a difficult economy, in consultation with and feedback from stakeholders including public health laboratories and State Laboratory Training Coordinators.. Out of this process came a new model in which all field offices worked nationally within the organization. NLTN continues to partner with Training Coordinators in a number of ways, including Special Interest Groups, the STC List Serve, a special trainers’ SharePoint site, a new trainer mentoring program. NLTN offers distances learning and site- based programs in multiple formats to those who would be trained at a low cost option. NLTN Training offerings can be found at www.nltn.org/courses.

During this same time period, elsewhere in the world: 2003 -SARS first reported in Asia 2005 -Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, New Orleans devas-tated. Rubella eliminated in the United States CDC 60th Anniversary 2007 -Al Gore's film Inconvenient Truth wins Academy Award for Best Documentary 2009 H1N1 swine-like flu emerges in Mexico

Challenges continue

NLTN During These Years; From 1999 through 2004 NLTN developed and delivered 250 bioterrorism and chemical terrorism preparedness training courses. By 2004 NLTN had offered over 3,500 workshops and training activities involving more than 125,000 attendees. It created a variety of distance learning training products. In 2005 NLTN developed an online registration system which i constantly adapted and upgraded to cope with changing training needs and is still in use today .

2002 —2005

NLTC IV Reception 2007 San Antonia,

Dr. Jane Getchell, Director Public Health Lab Director, Smyrna Delaware

Early Memories of NLTN The first (and I think the only) meeting I attended was in Chicago at a hotel near the airport. I remember Dave Carpenter and his wife and Sandy Marubio were there, plus a lot of other people I have forgotten. We had fun. We talked big ideas and plans for the NLTN. I was in a bit of an awkward situation since my boss at the time did not support the concept. I think there are two best things about NLTN – first, the people you get to know, and second, the feeling that you are helping laboratory professionals by providing training that is important to their work. NLTN has gone beyond my early vision, expanding to world wide training, as well as to a wide variety of laboratory types, each with vastly different test offerings, and tremendous variation in staff experience and educational levels.

1993 1991 Dissolution of USSR. Nelson Mandela freed.

1990: First Teleconfer-ence was Public Health Rounds Teleconference: PCR: HIV Appli-cations with 179 participants

UN forces win first Persian gulf War; Bill Clinton elected 42nd President of U.S.

First satellite course, Direct-ing the Laboratory Performing Moderate Complexity Tests: Quality Laboratory Manage-ment for Meeting CLIA “88 Requirements

CDC NLTN Training Calendar fully operational.

Training Advisors (Left to Right)

Front: Elizabeth Brosman, Rosemary Bakes-Martin, Judy Delany, Eunice Rosner Back: Sheila Hickman, Anne O’Conner, Valerie Johnson

Training in St. Thomas We followed the Puerto Rico trip with a trip to St. Thomas for a training course. We were able to take an extra day and have the weekend in-between in St. Thomas to minimize travel expenses for the two areas lo-cated close together. I had decided to take two of my teenage daughters along since they had never been out of the country. They met us in PR for the trip to St. Thomas, planning to share a condo on a very nice beach with Bobbi. As we waited in the San Juan airport (a major hub for all of South American travel connections), we went to a small shop for a ham-burger and coke. We were given a cup to put ice into from a large ice con-tainer. I opened the container and saw the metal scoop down at the bottom of the chest with very little I e left. I thought briefly-·being the microbiologist that I am - about the dangers of salmonella in ice. Bobbi and I even dis-cussed the danger this posed. Finally we were so tired and so thirsty, we decided it would probably be ok. During the night at the condo, we all be-came ill, in the inverse order of our ages. The duration of the illness was also in the inverse order. The older got sick first and it lasted the longest while my youngest daughter had only about 8 hours of agony, Bobbi and I had 2 days of it. We had trouble sharing the bathrooms - I finally just slept (some) on the tile floor of the bathroom so anyone coming in had to step over me. We were so sick that the maids would not even come into the building. They left clean sheets on the outside of the door for us. We barely got ourselves together to be able to go to the St Thomas Public Health Lab on Monday to begin our course. When the lab director heard our tale, he was stunned at our stupidity and also the fact that we were drinking the water from the faucet in our room. He said, “You can’t drink the water here.” I was stunned since I was thinking of it as the U.S. —Judy Delany

Molecular Diagnostics PHS course, 2003, Califor-nia Sate Public Health Laboratory, Richmond, CA

Virgin Islands Public Health Laboratory, 2009

PHS Rabies by Linette Granen We would do our Rabies Public Health Series Course every other year (even numbered) in January at Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio, TX. The TX PHL staff would set up the hands-on portion and were faculty for the didactic portion, along with CDC. By October, we would have all of the participants selected from 25 or so PHLs. Well, after 9/11/2001, I contacted Fort Sam and they thought they could still go through with the workshop. By the beginning of November, 2001, that had dramatically changed with the change in security procedures. We would bus the participants into Fort Sam, and that could not happen. So, I had about one month to find another place to have this 5-day wet workshop with a place to put 24 fluorescence mi-croscopes! Enter Jim Harris, STC in TX, who recommended a small com-munity college in San Antonio, St. Philips. It just so happened that the time in January, St. Philips's students would be on holiday break so they could give us 2 labs that accommodated 24 each, one for the fluores-cence scopes and one for the hands-on portion as well as a lecture room!!! It worked so well that we continued to use St. Philips as our site! So, there's always a silver lining somewhere!!

NLTN Hands-on Laboratory Workshop

Southeast and South Central ALTA Meeting

Road Trips in the West - Karen Breckenridge When I first started with the NLTN in the Western Office in 1995, we oper-ated on a shoestring budget. To bring quality training events to a variety of locations we often conducted "road trips" around the region. This usually meant flying out early Monday morning to a location (note I do not use the term city as that does not apply to most areas in the west), renting a car, driving 25-250 miles to the workshop site, shopping at the local grocery store for break food, setting up the room and AV, welcoming and registering the participants and often serving as the faculty as well. Then packing every-thing and/or everyone up and driving to the next location to do it all over again for the next 2-4 days. We actually were fortunate to have some speak-ers that were willing to make these trips with us and some did it more than once! Oh and to add yet another twist, one of these occurred annually in February across Wyoming! One of the more memorable road trips was during “realignment” as a way for Valerie Johnson to introduce Diane Luck and myself to the training coor-dinators and lab directors in North and South Dakota. Because travel to the Dakotas was expensive, we put together a series of workshops to conduct in various locations in these states with stops in Pierre, SD and Bismarck, ND at the public health labs. The three of us and the speaker for the workshops all met in Sioux Falls, SD and piled into the rental car (a Lincoln). I’m sure we caused amusement for anyone watching as we as loaded luggage for a week for four women, a slide projector, an overhead projector, a micro-scope, a box of workshops handouts and last but not least a set of golf clubs (for those of you that remember working with Diane, she had a goal of play-ing golf in each of the 50 states, which she completed, so in the evening after checking into the hotel, she would go out for a round of golf)! It was quite the event loading and unloading that car at each stop.

Scary TRAINING TALES

Scary memory One of my most frightening days with NLTN oc-curred when I was driving Jim Harris to a mycology workshop in Vermont. There was a light dusting of snow, but nothing to bother an Iowa native. We were driving along chatting away when the car di-rectly in front of me did a 360 and almost flipped over. We continued on to our workshop destination, but at a much slower speed. Submitted by Karen Mulawski - March 2009

I also have a scary Vermont training tale...during our regional meeting in Putney, Vermont I checked into the hotel and got to my room to discover that a person in the very next room was hav-ing a meltdown. In the midst of a mean blizzard and the escalat-ing noise of shouting, breaking glass and furniture, state troop-ers with guns drawn and the fire department arrived to chop down the door and quell the disturbance! As this is happening I am communicating with female STCs upstairs that are standing on the toilets in their bathrooms peering out of small windows watching! It was a scene right out of a movie... Garry Greer

NLTC III 2004 The Fiasco in El Paso by Linette Granen One of the first large workshops that I organized as an ARD in the SC Office was in El Paso in January 1995. We were cosponsoring with Jim Harris and the TX Public Health Lab. This was a hands-on workshop on TB and I had 8 different companies presenting and exhibiting their new technology, as well as a wet workshop component. This was a multi-day workshop at UT El Paso and we had 16 participants from all over the country. We called it the "Fiasco in El Paso" because:

• one of the TX lab people decided to change the location of the first day of lectures the night before; • I lost my contact lens in the ladies' room; • two of the vendor reps couldn't be there so they were doing their presenta-tions over the phone; however, the main campus of UT's phone system would not accommodate a speaker phone, so we went to WalMart to get a cheap phone to use in an off campus location; • we had to bus people to the off campus location to hear the presentations by phone; and • one of the vendor reps got stuck in the elevator and couldn't get out; he was late for his presentation; • one of the reps doing his presentation over the phone did it on a pay phone at an airport (no cells-this was 1995), which was less than optimal. This was just my trial by fire to prepare me for future workshops!!!

MORE TRAINING TALES

1996

First Public Health Series Course, Advanced Mycobacteriology, in Boston, MA with 20 participants

NLTC I 1996

AOL, CompuServe, And Prodigy begin to provide inter-net service.

1994

• CDC investigate Hantavirus outbreak in Southwest

• Polio eliminated in the Americas • War in Yugoslavia

2000 2001

September 11, 2001 World Trade Center and Pentagon attacked by terrorists.

First anthrax attacks

Millennium fears that com-puters and internet will not be compliant, known as Y2K Bug.

My First Teleconference -Denise Korzeniowski It is ironic that I ended up being the teleconference coordinator for NLTN/APHL. My very first teleconference was on 9/11(01). It was a dis-aster in more than one way. I arrived at work late that day because of a Dr.'s appointment. In my car I listen to books on tape so I hadn't listened to the news. As I entered the building someone I knew was leaving and told me that I was going the wrong way. I thought that was very strange, but keep going. When I arrived at the office my coworkers were beside themselves. Finally, they told me about the national tragedy. The manager was out of the office and I had to decide what to do about the teleconference which was scheduled in 3 hours. We were told to evacuate the state lab building and go home. I still thought I could do the program from my home office. It soon became apparent that due to the national emergency the phone lines would be unreliable around the country. We then had to contact all the site representatives and re-schedule the program. Not an auspicious start! Since then I have done many successful teleconference barring a few minor disasters: fire alarm going off in the building, phone lines going dead, and one speaker using a cell phone that ran out of juice half way through. He unfortunately didn't realize that no one could hear him until he had completed the lecture!

1999

CDC LRN established

Large Scale sequencing of human genome begins George Bush elected 43rd

president of United States

NLTC III

Computing in the NLTN When we were first hired (1989) CDC/APHL were looking for people with experience using a computer in addition to the laboratory and education background. At this point many laboratorians had only had experience with LIS systems rather than personal computers. I felt fortunate to have used a personal computer/word processor for several years to develop lectures, handouts, lesson plans, and exams. When we arrived for our orientation, we were given training on our new training calendar system (Paradox) and on WordPerfect (or was it WORKS?) We were issued one printer that we shared, a fax machine which used the shiny roll of paper and a new 286 IMB computer for each of us. Since I had dealt with so many memory problems with my home MacIntosh I asked my new supervisor, Dr. Ted Haw-kins, what we should do if we ran out of memory with this computer. He replied, “If you EVER run out of memory with this computer, I’ll come to your office to see what you are doing with it. This will last you forever.” Hmmmmmmmm —Judy Delany

Early Technology

...there were web message boards...one I used was medtechnet....and it was considered 'dangerous' at the time by some people who were not ready for the age of computer communication. Loretta Gjeltmea

Training in Flood Zones - Karen Breckenridge There were a few years that we started to feel that flood waters were out to get us, you know something is wrong when every hotel we went to was also full of FEMA staff. It started with the first Foodborne Illness Public Health Series Workshop, the largest flood in the history of Fort Collins, CO occurred during the course. The student union building where we had planned on holding lunch each day was com-pleted flooded, so alternative lunch plans had to be made each day. The laboratory building lost all air conditioning and had sporadic elec-tricity outages, fortunately only one lab session had to be canceled. We also had the opportunity to be the only car following a road grater on a dirt road (looked like a nice shortcut on the map) in South Dakota. In hind sight we should have pulled over when it did, but we went around it (the driver waved us by – or was he waving us back? guess we should have stopped to find out) not knowing a mile or so up the road was a complete washout with a 20 foot drop off. After carefully backing up until a wide spot to do a creative 13 or so point turn, we went the long way around. On another trip Diane, Val and I were in Grand Forks, ND during spring flood warnings. Diane overheard one of the other exhibitors mention that the airport was closing down that afternoon. She got all our tickets (before electronic tickets and cell phones) and went to a pay phone to try to change our flights, meanwhile Val and I closed up the booth and had everything packed in under 10 minutes. When we made it to the airport through the fog and rain, we ran to the plane. Immediately it taxied to the end of the runway and just sat there. The pilot came on and said he was waiting for a window in the fog so be ready to take off at a moment’s notice as if we didn’t get out in the next 30 minutes we were not going anyway as the airport was closing. That was the afternoon before Grand Forks was completely destroyed by the flood. The bed and breakfast we stayed at was completely flooded and since has been torn down.

Through Rain, Sleet, Snow or Hail

First CBT course, DNA: The Foundation of Molecular Technology

1997

My First Wet Workshop I started working with Karen Mulawski in the Boston Office in February of 1998. That April was the week-long wet workshop on Advanced My-cobacteriology. I was working the registration desk and I had a walk-in from Peru. I was stunned. Not knowing what else to do I let him into the course. It turned out that he was invited by Partners in Health to come to the workshop. Partners in Health is the non-profit organiza-tion started by Dr. Paul Farmer (you should read the book: Mountains Beyond Mountains) to improve healthcare in poor countries. He was our keynote speaker. They were training this young man to do TB testing in Peru. Anyway, it all worked out but it was quite a first workshop. Shoolah Escott

NLTC II 1998?

Team-Building by Linette Granen Back in the early 90s, NLTN staff would have two meetings each year, one at CDC and one that rotated among the ALTAs (Area Laboratory Training Alliances). We also would have a face-to-face meeting of all of the STCs and sometimes Lab Directors in our AL-TAs. Most of these meetings included team-building exercises--including things like Myers-Briggs assessments (with acting out); throwing around kush balls; doing survival scenarios; and of course, various training techniques that got everyone involved! The SE(Southeastern) and SC(South Central) ALTAs were the first to have a joint meeting in Gulf Shores, AL where we all learned about the Internet!! (This was the early 90s!)

A tale from the early days of teleconferencing: Valerie Johnson We had a monthly teleconferences in the midwest region (then called the ALTA - Area Laboratory Training Alliance). They began in 1990 and ran for several years. There were 12 states in the region, and each state was responsible for providing a speaker and topic. The teleconferences were called "Public Health Laboratory Rounds." I can remember at least two speakers who went on to be-come APHL Presidents: our very first speaker was Dr. Frances Pouch-Downes from Michigan. Another early speaker was Dr. Norm Crouch, who at that time was in Indiana. In those days, the bridge lines regularly "crashed" and had to be reset. Thus, the course ma-terials included instructions that when (not "if"!) the bridge crashed, the facilitator should wait 5 minutes and then call back in. Despite the technology issues, the teleconferences were quite successful

1998 1999

First Internet course, Shiga Toxin Producing E. coli: Current Issues

and New Technologies

First on-line registration for Vi-brio vulnificus: Not a Pearl You Want To Find with 572 participants