UAB School of Health Professions

Janelle Chiasera, Ph.D., M.T. (A.S.C.P.), was not sure what to expect when she made her initial trip to Birmingham in 2006 to interview for a position at UAB. But she was certain that whatever she discovered, it would not overwhelm her.

After all, Chiasera had spent more than 10 years studying and working at Ohio State University. With an enrollment of nearly 52,000 students at the Columbus campus, Ohio State was the largest school in the country during the 2006-07 academic year.

“To be candid, most universities pale in comparison to Ohio State, just because of the size,” Chiasera says. Then she took a tour of the UAB medical facilities and found herself, well, somewhat overwhelmed.

“The size of the medical campus at UAB is much larger than Ohio State's medical campus. I was shocked,” Chiasera says with a smile. “Just walking around, it wasn’t at all what I had expected.” Sufficiently impressed, Chiasera made the move to UAB with her husband, John Nagy, and their greyhound, Max. On Sept. 1, 2006, she became director of the clinical laboratory sciences and the medical technology programs in the School of Health Professions.

Chiasera says she “loved” Ohio State and had not planned on leaving. But the combination of UAB’s medical facilities and the opportunity to help expand some of the SHP’s existing programs enticed her to change her mind.

“The dean [Harold P. Jones, Ph.D.] has a clear and well-verbalized vision and mission of where he sees this school in the future,” Chiasera says. “One of the things that attracted me to UAB was that clear vision and the opportunity and potential to grow the programs.”

A native of Buffalo, New York, Chiasera received a B.S. degree in medical technology from Bowling Green State University in 1991. She then enrolled at Ohio State, where she earned an M.S. degree in allied medicine (1998) and an M.A. (2004) and a Ph.D. (2005) in education policy and leadership.

“I was always interested in the medical profession, even when I was a child. I always wanted to do something in medicine but didn’t quite know what it was,” Chiasera says. “I was one of those students who was floating around a little while. I finally got interested in medical technology because I like handson laboratories so much. So I decided to major in it.”

While pursuing her graduate degrees, Chiasera also worked in the medical technology division of Ohio State’s School of Allied Medical Professions, first as a teaching associate and research associate and later as a lecturer. She then spent a year as a medicaltechnology faculty member before moving to UAB.

Chiasera serves as an associate professor at UAB, so she has some teaching responsibilities. But her primary role is to direct the SHP’s undergraduate program in medical technology and the graduate program in clinical laboratory science.

“I come from a family of educators. I went into the medical field, but I’ve always loved education,” Chiasera says. “I would go to work with my dad and my mom and see that side of things. So I’ve always had this interest in both medicine and education. And what’s nice about this position is that it gives me the best of both worlds.”

One of Chiasera’s primary responsibilities is to revise the SHP curriculum to focus more on graduate education. She also has written a proposal for a separate biotechnology curriculum that currently is going through the approval process.

“Where I see us going in the future is focusing our curriculum more on expanding our roles of educating students at the graduate level, while still providing a solid undergraduate program for individuals who want to practice medical technology,” Chiasera says. “Over the next couple of years, we’re going to really focus our efforts on being the best that we can at educating a diverse body of students for a number of graduate programs.

“For example, we just wrote a proposal for a biotechnology certificate program that we’re pretty excited about, which we hope to market toward students with biology, chemistry, or microbiology degrees, as well as clinical laboratory science degrees, who want to work in the biotechnology industry.”

Since she is new to UAB, Chiasera admits that it is taking time and patience for her to learn the program well enough to enact all the changes. But according to department chair Edward Huechtker, Ph.D., M.P.A., Chiasera has the enthusiasm to make it work.

“She’s really a very energetic, knowledgeable person who we think is going to make this program even better,” Huechtker says. “We really expect this program to grow under her. We are very, very pleased that she’s here.”

Chiasera says she is just as pleased to be at UAB, an institution that greatly surpassed her initial assumptions and has since lived up to the raised expectations.

“One of the things that made me want to move here is the fact that there is a great deal of support,” Chiasera says. “I have support from my boss to the dean to the president, who are all health professionals. At Ohio State we didn’t have quite that type of organizational structure. This structure is in place here for growth and development, and we want to be a part of that.

“The move to Birmingham was relatively smooth, and we have felt very comfortable here—so much so that it quickly began to feel like home. I am also beginning to feel more comfortable in my new position and am still excited and charged about the opportunities that lie ahead. The tough part was trying to figure out which football team to root for, but I'm sticking with UAB!"