Transfusion Services Section Head - CLS PhD
Resume:
Snjezana Vranjes, CLS, PhD ********.*******@*****.***
Relentless pursuit of professional growth. Continuous optimization of laboratory productivity.
Team-based skills building within a collaborative environment.
STRENGTHS
Regulatory Compliance · Department Management · Protocol, Procedure Writing · Method Validation, Verification, Comparison · Instrument Maintenance · Quality Assurance · Process Improvement · Staff Training & Supervision ·
Technical Troubleshooting & Problem Solving · Computer Literacy · Results Interpretation & Reporting · Strong written and verbal communication · Experience in teaching and public speaking · Fluent in German and Croatian.
RELEVANT SOFTWARE
Microsoft Office Suite Google Workspace
POC: UniPOC Flow Cytometry: FacsDiva, FlowJo
EMR: MedHost Transfusion Service: SoftBank, SoftMic SCC Soft Computer & SafeTraceTx
Watsonville Community Hospital, California 2017 – Current
Section Head, Transfusion Services and Blood Bank 2024 - 2026
Technical Leadership: Incorporation and compliance of CLIA, CAP, AABB, and FDA regulations. Writes policies, procedures for medical director approval. Writes job aides for SoftBank software, along with bench-level quick references. Reviews and manages all department quality controls, lot documentation, method validations and comparisons, equipment maintenance and calibrations, proficiency testing.
Blood Management: Audits administration of cellular products and lot monitors, blood product utilization, data management of component wastage, expirations and utilization criteria; transfusion reactions and MTPs; writes reports for the blood utilization review.
Administrative Leadership: Collaborates with Lab Director to assess Transfusion Services-related events in the clinical quality reporting program, investigating root cause and defining corrective action, and reporting to Quality Department. Assesses and recommends improvements for analyzers, best practices to Medical Director. Trains personnel, evaluates bi-annual competency with corrective action and improvement plans, error documentation for FDA, AABB compliance. Collaborates with ClinIT to improve workflow and software interfaces; administrator and trainer for all Transfusion Service software.
POC Lead, Clinical Laboratory Scientist II 2023 - 2024
Managed Point of Care department with UniPOC Data Management System. Coordinated nurse, student training. Handheld analyzer validation, linearity calibration, instrument comparison, new lot verification, quality controls, instrument maintenance, troubleshooting, bi-annual proficiency testing management across multiple departments.
Point-of-Care Tests: Abbott Precision XceedPro glucometer; Sure-Vue urine pregnancy; Chemstrip 10UA, Sure-Vue Fecal Occult Blood, Abbott IDNOW Strep A2, Abbott BinaxNOW Covid 19.
Clinical Laboratory Scientist II, Generalist 2017 - 2023
Performed clinical laboratory testing across multiple departments on multiple shifts, including blood bank, chemistry, hematology, coagulation, urinalysis and microbiology. Provided training for new employees. Instrument operation, including maintenance, calibration, quality control and corrective action. Re-verification of finalized patient results across all clinical tests. Accepted additional responsibilities of managing Quality Assurance for thermometer calibration and accuracy, pipettes inventory and calibration.
Relevant analyzers: Beckman Coulter DxH 600 Hematology, Stago Coagulation, Beckman Coulter DxC 500 Chemistry, Roche Cobas Urinalysis; BioMérieux Vitek Maestra, Biofire Torch & Spotfire.
Huntington College of Health Science, Knoxville, TN 2014 - 2018
Instructor
Contract position to teach courses on antioxidants in relation to immunology, biochemistry, and microbiology. Compiled and prepared course materials, assignments and examinations. Supplied comprehensive feedback on performance, and fielded questions from students.
Medical College of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, WI 2006 - 2009
Postdoctoral Fellow
Completed two fellowships with private medical and graduate school. From 2008 to 2009, supervised team of three PhD students and staff members, to define chemokine lymphotactin signaling in human CD4+ T-cells; model development for engineered lymphotactin as tumor immunotherapy and autoimmune disorders.
EDUCATION/LICENSURE
MLS (ASCP) International Medical Laboratory Scientist, MTA 01011651
PhD, Immunology & Biochemistry, Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen, Tübingen, Germany
Cum Laude; American Association of Collegiate Registrars & Admissions Officers (AACRAO) International Education Services (IES) Certificate of Foreign Academic Credential Equivalency Evaluation
B.S., Medical Biochemistry, University of Zagreb, Croatia
AACRAO IES Certificate of Foreign Academic Credential Equivalency Evaluation
PUBLICATIONS
Kutlesa S, Zayas, J, Valle A, Levy RB, Jurecic R. (2009). T-cell differentiation of multipotent hematopoietic cell line EML in the OP9-DL1 coculture system. (Exp Hematol. 37: 909-923).
Tuinstra RL, Peterson FC, Kutlesa S, Elgin ES, Kron MA, Volkman BF. (2008). Interconversion between two unrelated protein folds in the lymphotactin native state. PNAS 105: 5057-5062.
Malarkannan S, Regunathan J, Chu H, Kutlesa S, Chen Y, Zeng H, Wen R, Wang D. (2007). Bcl10 plays a divergent role in NK cell-mediated cytotoxicity and cytokine generation. J. Immunol. 179: 3752-3762.
Regunathan J, Chen Y, Kutlesa S, Dai X, Bai L, Wen R, Wang D, Malarkannan S. (2006). Differential and nonredundant roles of phospholipase Cgamma2 and phospholipase gamma1 in the terminal maturation of NK cells. J Immunol. 15: 5365-5376.
Kutlesa S, Wessels JT, Speiser A, Steiert I, Muller CA, Klein G. (2002). E-cadherin-mediated interactions of thymic epithelial cells with CD103+ thymocytes lead to enhanced thymocyte cell proliferation. J. Cell Sci. 115: 4505-15.
Kutlesa S, Siler U, Speiser A, Wessels JT, Virtanen I, Rousselle P, Sorokin LM, Muller CA, Klein G. (2002). Developmentally regulated interactions of human thymocytes with different laminin isoforms. Immunology 105: 407-18.
* Published under maiden name Snjezana Kutlesa
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