The ISBER Distinguished Leadership and Service Award is designed to honor ISBER members who demonstrate exceptional leadership in supporting the mission and goals of the society and/or significant, long-standing contributions to the society.
ISBER is proud to announce Kathi Shea as the 2020 recipient of the ISBER Distinguished Leadership and Service Award.
Kathi’s colleagues recognize the immense value of the experience she has gained through three decades of building sample collections for government, academic and pharmaceutical research initiatives. She has served as an ISBER Board member in various roles including director, secretary-treasurer, and president for a combined total of eight years.
During her term as president, Kathi helped lead ISBER as it transitioned to a new management partner and established itself as an official, independent, non-profit organization. She authored sections of the initial version of ISBER Best Practices and has continued to offer her expertise with contributions to subsequent versions and time on numerous ISBER committees and working groups.
Beyond ISBER, Kathi participated in the development of the NCI Best Practices for Biospecimen Resources, served on the Advisory Working Group that developed the College of American Pathologists Biorepository Accreditation Program (CAP BAP), served on the CAP BAP committee for six years, and is an active CAP inspector.
She continues her involvement with ISBER and especially enjoys teaching workshops on various aspects of sample management for ISBER and SLAS.
About Kathi Shea
Kathi Shea is the Senior Director of Biobank Services at Azenta Life Sciences. She is a former President of the International Society for Biological and Environmental Repositories (ISBER) and an active member of several ISBER committees and working groups. Kathi served on the Advisory Working Group that developed the College of American Pathologists Biorepository Accreditation Program and was an active member of the CAP BAP Committee for six years. She has over 25 years of experience leading biorepository programs and advising on the design of biorepositories, quality systems, and optimal methods for preservation and annotation of biospecimen collections.