Early-career leaders often bring fresh energy and perspective to laboratory management, challenging long-standing practices while building stronger teams and workflows.
Lab Manager’s Leadership Excellence Awards recognize professionals who demonstrate this kind of impact across the profession. The Young Lab Manager Excellence Award highlights emerging leaders whose achievements show exceptional promise and influence. The 2026 recipient, Callie Carson, MHA, MLS(ASCP), CLSSYB, has already built an impressive record of leadership across multiple hospital laboratory systems. Beginning as a bench technologist, she quickly advanced into supervisory and management roles, where she implemented new instrumentation, launched training programs for new hires, and introduced initiatives, including a multidisciplinary blood utilization committee. During the COVID-19 crisis and subsequent staffing shortages, Carson helped stabilize operations, rebuild teams, and restore a struggling laboratory—efforts that exemplify the leadership and resilience this award celebrates.
Here, Carson reflects on the experiences that shaped her approach to leading laboratory teams.
What does receiving a 2026 Lab Manager Leadership Excellence Award mean to you at this point in your career?
I am so honored to receive this recognition. With being a younger leader, you are in a constant state of learning, adapting, and growth. It is inspiring to be recognized and know you are on the right track to make a positive impact on your staff and patients.
You moved quickly from bench technologist to leadership roles. What early behaviors or skills do you think helped you stand out?
Luckily, I grew up with a family that instilled a hard work ethic, passion for learning, and some hard life circumstances that gave me perspective on what truly matters. This helped me to develop the soft skills needed for leadership that speak louder than titles or degrees. I believe that if you are determined, nothing can stop you from achieving your goals. My passion has always been helping others, and this career is the perfect avenue to guide those critical decisions in patient care.
What strategies have helped you maintain morale during extreme workload and staffing shortages?
Working down in the trenches and being hand-in-hand with staff has been my greatest insight and strongest support that I can provide. Being a leader means putting in the long hours, shouldering the stress, and yet performing every task with burning determination and a smile. When you can walk into the room and bring that strength, positivity, and calmness, you can feel the shift in the team, which makes a tough shift feel seamless. There are always going to be those hard shifts that seem never-ending, but supporting your team goes a long way in boosting morale.
What steps do you take to build trust with your team?
Building trust requires taking time to truly know your staff. Showing compassion, honesty, and active listening goes a long way and leads to making memorable connections. Being transparent with decisions and always striving to do the right thing helps to build that trust and goal-oriented work ethic.
What’s the most important leadership lesson or takeaway you’ve learned in your career so far?
Everyone needs to feel heard and feel safe to share ideas. I have seen the extremes of leadership from dictatorships to unsafe leniencies. It is hard to find the balance, but when people are empowered to advocate for safety and strive for perfection, great initiatives and practices are developed. Team building with a solid foundation of values is the foundation of success.
What advice would you give first-time lab managers?
You may never feel ready to lead a team, but know that it is a continuous learning process full of mistakes, ownership, wins, and sacrifice that is well worth it in the long run. It’s a wonderful experience to build a department where you can see your team grow and excel in their careers.
