Looking back: My time as IBMS President

What would you say are your greatest achievements?

There are lots of things I am proud of. I am honoured to have represented the profession and the IBMS in meetings of the Pathology Alliance and at the National Pathology Optimisation Delivery Group. I’ve also presented awards to inspirational biomedical scientists at national events including the STEM for Britain Awards and at the Advancing Healthcare Awards.

I’ve felt very privileged to be able to mentor one of the WISE (Women in Science and Engineering) Fellows for the Chief Scientific Officer’s Leadership Programme, IBMS member Siobhan Taylor. I feel like I’ve made a real difference to Siobhan’s career and have learned from her too. I’ve also enjoyed working with my IBMS Council colleagues to help develop the IBMS Corporate Strategy 2018 - 2020.

It has been a very busy two years! Trying to fit everything in, there’s been a lot of travel, but it is a great honour to represent the Institute and our members. Despite being tiring at times, it has been really enjoyable.

What have you enjoyed the most?

I’ve enjoyed working with IBMS Council. We’ve changed how we operate. We now work in small groups as well as full Council and we’ve come up with some really good ideas.

There’s a better dynamic when working in smaller groups, it gives everyone the opportunity to feel more comfortable when contributing and then it gets fed back to the whole of Council. We’ve received great feedback about that. I think that for anyone who feels intimidated speaking at a large meeting they feel that they can now say something. I think that the relationships at Council and how we make decisions have now improved.

The other good thing about my time has been to support Harvey’s Gang through our sponsorship of their laboratory coats. Seeing so many hospitals adopt Harvey’s Gang to offer support to young patients and being able to support them during my time as President has been amazing.

What challenges have you faced?

Probably workload because I do have a really busy role and partway through my President Elect year I took on an extra job. I was laboratory manager and I then took on a role as donor services manager. It meant I was running the whole blood transfusion unit, then trying to do my President ‘job’ and responding to everything in a timely fashion. I couldn’t have done it without the support of all the people around me and especially my Executive Assistant at the Institute, Nadine Rulliere, and my secretary at NIBTS (Northern Ireland Blood Transfusion) Leah Hadzik. The main challenge has just been prioritising my workload.

What advice would you give to future Presidents?

Enjoy your time and take a moment to reflect on the experience. Sometimes you get a little bit overwhelmed but take all the support you can get. IBMS staff have been really helpful throughout my tenure and I am very thankful for their support.

For me the best part of being President is IBMS Congress. It’s such an incredible four days seeing all the delegates rushing from one lecture to another and trying to soak up all that info. People are so dedicated to furthering their education and getting all that knowledge. So, I would say try to find time to enjoy the experience, you’ll be run off your feet but it is all worth it.

If there was one final thing you could achieve for members, as IBMS President, what would it be?

The IBMS Leadership in Science Programme is an idea of mine we’ve been developing at Council since the start of this year. It’s about giving biomedical scientists the confidence to know that they can be leaders and empowering them to show that they can work outside their own fields. We will pull together a small group to drive this work and to develop the programme. My hope is that, before I finish as Past-President, I’d really like to have the programme up and running or embedded into practice.

I hope that the leadership programme will be a legacy for early career biomedical scientists. They are the future of our profession, so hopefully this leadership programme will inspire them to achieve more for themselves and their laboratories. All too often laboratory staff don’t get the recognition they deserve but a programme like this will show how committed the Institute is to advancing and supporting the careers of all of its members. I’m proud to have been a part of it.

-Alison Geddis, IBMS President