Coming back to QualTex, with Falisha Atwell
Download MP3From Norcross, Georgia, it's Hearts Afire, the podcast for the team at BioBridge Global, where we're working every day to save and enhance lives through the healing power of human cells and tissue. I'm your guest host, David King, of the East Texas nasal twang. And today, we have a visit recorded in late 2023 with Falisha Atwell.
Falisha:Yes. Hello, everybody. I have the Georgia twang.
David:It cannot be as bad as this.
Falisha:You can combine it all.
David:That's right. So tell tell folks what you do. What you do, Falisha?
Falisha:Okay. I'm I'm the senior laboratory director, for QualTex Laboratories here in Norcross, Georgia. It's great to be here. Thank you for inviting me for a chance to talk to to you today.
David:Well, great. Well, great. Well, so I always ask people really easy ease and easier than that. Okay. The easiest question is where are you from originally?
Falisha:I am from a town called Jefferson, Georgia. It is a small town in between Gainesville and Athens. People know Athens for the University of Georgia. Very small, very quaint little southern town. It's only about a 30 minute drive from Norcross.
Falisha:Oh, not bad then. Far. Right? Yeah.
David:Pretty close still. I mean, I live in Texas and there's no 30 minute drives to anywhere. Yeah. So, so you grew up in a small town. Where did you go to school?
Falisha:I went to Jefferson High School, and grew up within the Jefferson City School, a public school system there, in my hometown. When I graduated from Jefferson, I went off to school at Georgia Southern University. That's in Statesboro about 3 hour drive, Southeast. I stayed there for a couple of years and then I transferred back to the University of Georgia in Athens, and finished my first degree. From there I decided to go through a medical technology, program and you wouldn't know that today as like medical lab sciences is the term that we use now.
Falisha:But I went through a program in Atlanta. I was at Georgia State University. So after finishing there and entering the workforce I decided to go back to the University of Georgia. I'm skipping all around the state, but, I decided to go back to the University of Georgia and complete a master's degree. So I've been a little bit of everywhere within the state.
David:Yeah. Sort of bounced around.
Falisha:Yeah. Yeah.
David:It's quite alright. It's it's diversifying. Right?
Falisha:Yeah. I guess you can call it that.
David:So why did you get your master's in?
Falisha:I got my master's in regulatory from a school of pharmacy. It was within their pharmacy, the their program, to train pharmacists. So it looks a little weird on my degree because it's like masters of pharmacy. But I'm not a pharmacist. It's just the regulatory piece that I focused on.
Falisha:So,
David:you have sort of an interesting story, interesting history with QualTex. Tell us tell us the story.
Falisha:Okay. Well, I was originally hired in 2014, and I came in as a we called it a, a quality manager, quality lab manager was the exact title. And that is today known as the compliance manager. So I came here, I spent a really short time and had the opportunity to to promote to laboratory services director then. And then I stayed with the company probably a total of about 2 years, and then I decided to leave the company.
Falisha:I was working on that master's degree at that time and I wanted to put a little bit of effort into quality and kinda come out of operations. I thought that was going to be, what was, my purpose. So I spent time away from the organization. And then, you know, as you know, last year, I came back to the organization. So there were some interesting things going on that I was able to see that really drew me back.
David:What's so what sort of things are going on that that that got you to come back and and got you to come back in a leadership position?
Falisha:Right. So when I came back, well, first of all, just to kinda back up, I love the team that I worked with, here in, in 14 to 16. So it was kind of like you go off someplace else and you realize, you know, I had a really great team and exactly why did I leave that team? So I was questioning myself with that. So everybody was still in place that I really had a great experience with before.
Falisha:But then to add to that, my boss Mark Fite. I met him, I was able to interview with a group of the team members and as well as him. And then I was able to meet with him 1 on 1 when I came for the tour of the facilities. And I was really impressed by the leadership, the direction for the department and just everything that he've kind of nicely laid out, you know, all of his plans. It really resonated with me and it made me have the sense of belonging.
David:And really, that's an organization this size here because you're very isolated over here from the other, you know Right. 670, you you really need that sort of cohesion, don't you, in this in this area?
Falisha:Absolutely. You need, to feel that sense of, connectedness. And, when I came back, you know, I've been able to travel. I traveled last year, I traveled, this year, 2023, and I expect to travel more to San Antonio in the next year. And that's helped me to have that FaceTime that's really important to build those connections within our organization, and I really appreciate that.
Falisha:It's made my job a lot easier to know where my resources are for different things and to get that support.
David:For sure. So, you know, I know that there isn't a typical day, but if you had to sort of summarize a typical day, what would it be like?
Falisha:Well, I'll come in in the morning, and I the first thing I wanna do is look at all the reports from the previous day. I wanna make sure that there's nothing that's going to cause any sense of urgency or any delays, for our customers. So I take a glance backwards. There's several reports that I take a look at, but I kinda summarize it all. And for the most part, every day is almost the same.
Falisha:I don't see anything that is going to, like, you know, cause any problems for me later in the current day. So after that, I take a look at my calendar and, yeah, it's filled with a lot of meetings. And so I find that time, that downtime in between meetings to make sure I circle through the lab, say good morning to our technologists that are out there on the floor, you know, keeping it going for us. Also, you know, I circle through the office and make sure I'm speaking to my peers and, you know, make sure everybody's good. And then I can go and I can go into my meetings that might last almost all day.
Falisha:And then at the end of the day, I just circle back and just make sure we're still, in a good place before I leave. And
David:you all are pretty busy over here, aren't you?
Falisha:Yeah. We are. You know our volume you know had a a small decrease and and that's okay and we kind of changed our working, hours. So we have a lot to do in a shorter amount of time. But we wanted to be efficient with, you know, how we're working and make sure to maximize, you know, people's schedules so that we could get the best for the business.
David:For sure. What what sort of challenges are there when you work for an organization and the headquarters is a 1000 miles away?
Falisha:I think when I returned, I think it was knowing, your resources and who to go to for what. But I think those things sort of resolve over time. You get to know, you know, who to reach out to and then the travel, for me, like, you know, when people come to visit Atlanta like yourself, you know, you get some talking time, we get some face to face interaction. So when people come here, I spend that time with people. And then when I go there, I spend that time with people as well.
Falisha:And that just helps to build that relationship and that makes it a lot easier. So it started off a little bit difficult, but now it's a lot better.
David:A lot better now. Yep. You're always welcome to come and see us in the back of the Alamo back there.
Falisha:Oh, Okay. Yeah. I actually visited the Alamo the last trip. So
David:Did you come in through the front door so you see the spectacular recreation?
Falisha:I did.
David:The the fake the fake Alamo in the front?
Falisha:I did. It's very nice.
David:Yes. John Barnes looks at his window, and there's people taking their quincenera, their birthday pictures out there because it's a whole lot easier to park in our Alamo than the one downtown.
Falisha:Yes. Yes. I'm sure.
David:So how have things changed even since you've been back? How how are things sort of evolving around here?
Falisha:The technology is always evolving and that's, a fascinating thing about being in this industry and working for a company where we have the high volume that we have is that you'll always stay on top of the best, you know, the latest upgrades and of equipment. That's always nice to see. When I was here prior, there was no automation for VMT. And so to that was one of the first things I went, wow, you know, to take a look at, you know, because when I came back to interview, I was like, wow, that's fascinating. So I love the fact that the technology continues to change, and it changes how we do things, and it makes us more lean, more efficient.
Falisha:You know, that's just a ever changing thing that, you know, we can expect from our industry.
David:What sort of do you see on the sort of things you see on the horizon?
Falisha:Okay. Yeah. We have some really great things coming down the pike in 2024 and beyond. One of the first things we're doing is we're looking to automate the assessing, department. So where we bring in our boxes of samples and receive things, we're looking to automate that, and that's gonna help tremendously because it literally takes a lot of manpower to come in and open boxes and, you know, kinda set things up and get our shells.
Falisha:You know, Nat goes one way, VMT goes another way. And then we don't really have a great reconciliation process. We kind of, have the opportunity to really look and make sure that those orders match the sample IDs that we receive. So it's going to make things a lot better to have, a sessioning automated. In addition, we got a few upgrades, going on.
Falisha:1 in particular, particular, our Roche NAT side of the laboratory will be getting new LCP 1, and what that's going to do is help us to automate part of the process in that. And so whereas right now, we're taking samples out of clamshells and manually putting samples into rack carriers. We're gonna have that piece be automated, and it's gonna look a lot like it does, on the VMT, side of the laboratory. It's gonna make us a lot faster and more efficient. So that's a great, thing that's coming down the pike.
David:Wow. That's that's some that's some pretty cool stuff coming.
Falisha:Very cool stuff. Very cool stuff. But one of the things that's gonna happen that's gonna make, I think, us all proud is to implement microbiology testing here in Atlanta. So this will be a first. It's we're gonna build out space for a new laboratory, and we're looking, you know, forward to that.
Falisha:We're gonna start that in 2024 as far as the build out is concerned. But then in 2025, we're looking to actually go live with some testing. So that's really fascinating.
David:Wow. That's, yeah, that's that's cool because I know you've never done never had a micro lab here.
Falisha:We've never had one. Yeah. And to be a part of it is amazing.
David:So Wow. That's cool. That's very cool stuff. So tell us a little bit about what you do when you're not here making things work nice and smoothly.
Falisha:Right. Right. Well, one of my favorite things to do is travel. And, so in addition to business travel to San Antonio, this year I picked up, I ramped up my traveling and, my youngest, my son graduated from high school in May and that meant for me, just a freed up schedule to so that I can do things and go more places. So, my my husband and I and my family and I have gone several places in a year.
Falisha:We've gone to Charlotte a couple of times. We've gone to, the Dominican Republic, Orlando, Orange Beach, Alabama was really nice. I've been able to do a lot more travel, after he's graduated, my son has graduated. And, I'm looking forward to more travel in 2024.
David:There are lots of things to see around here driving distance, aren't there?
Falisha:It is. Oh, absolutely. Now for those who haven't come to Atlanta and visit the outskirts of Georgia, it looks nothing like this city.
David:Exactly. Exactly. Well, good. Well, good to hear. And we appreciate you taking some time to visit with us.
Falisha:Yes. Thank you.
David:Alrighty. Executive producers of the Hearts Afire podcast are Adrienne Mendoza and Jay Podjenski. Our director is Angelica Sandoval, with technical assistance from Matt Flores. Hearts Afire logo was designed by Roberto Esquivel. If you have an idea for the Hearts Afire podcast, if you'd like to be on the Hearts Afire podcast, If you're sick of listening to this East Texas twang be the host of the Hearts Afire podcast, email us, heartsafire@biobridgeglobal.org.
David:Thanks for listening.
