LEAD Award

Corrigan is the director of the County of San Diego Public Health Laboratory. He exemplifies the defining qualities of the APHL LEAD Award leader, encourager, advocate, and developer through more than a decade of dedicated service to state and local public health laboratories and a sustained commitment to workforce development, innovation, and community protection.

Corrigan’s journey into public health began with humble beginnings growing up in Tok, Alaska, a small rural community where access to healthcare was limited and public health infrastructure was often strained. From an early age, he observed the challenges faced by remote populations, including workforce shortages, delayed access to care, and fragile systems vulnerable to disruption. These experiences instilled a deep commitment to equity, access, and population-level impact. A formative summer internship in South Africa further clarified his path, reinforcing that while clinical medicine was not his calling, public health laboratory science offered a powerful, scalable means to protect communities.

Corrigan entered the field as a Public Health Microbiologist and later advanced to Laboratory Manager at the Humboldt County Public Health Laboratory. There, he demonstrated strong operational leadership, staff mentorship, and a systems-based approach to laboratory management. In parallel, he pursued advanced education as a member of the inaugural Doctor of Public Health (DrPH) cohort at the University of South Florida, reflecting his commitment to leadership development, policy-informed decision-making, and organizational resilience. Following completion of his DrPH through the LabAspire program, Corrigan relocated to Southern California to serve as Laboratory Director for the County of San Diego Public Health Laboratory (SDCPHL).

His leadership was immediately tested. Just weeks into his tenure during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, the laboratory was forced to shut down due to critical infrastructure failures, requiring evacuation of staff and immediate activation of Continuity of Operations (COOP). Under unprecedented conditions, Corrigan prioritized staff safety while ensuring uninterrupted public health testing through rapid coordination with local, state, and federal partners. His steady leadership preserved essential services and maintained workforce stability during a critical period.  Rather than restoring the status quo, Corrigan transformed crisis into opportunity. He led the vision and advocacy for a 52,000-square-foot, purpose-built, state-of-the-art public health laboratory, built by laboratorians for laboratorians with workflows aligned to staff safety, operational efficiency, and future preparedness. The facility includes expanded genomic epidemiology and One Health programs, robust wastewater surveillance addressing the Tijuana River crisis, and a dedicated training laboratory intended to serve as the Southern California workforce development hub. Designed to support LRN-B preparedness through BT BSL-3+ / enhanced laboratory capabilities, the laboratory positions SDCPHL to advance toward LRN-B Advanced Laboratory status strengthening both regional and national response capacity.

As a leader, Corrigan has delivered clear results in advancing leadership development initiatives and institutional growth. He has strategically leveraged APHL partnerships to elevate the visibility and credibility of SDCPHL while integrating forward-thinking approaches such as automation and artificial intelligence to ensure sustainability amid fiscal constraints. His leadership reflects vision, adaptability, and innovation qualities essential to modern public health laboratories. As an encourager, Corrigan consistently champions career progression and individual development across disciplines. He believes public health laboratories must operate with a business-like mindset, even within a not-for-profit framework to remain sustainable, efficient, and accountable stewards of public resources.

Corrigan recognizes the importance of interdisciplinary leadership, fiscal stewardship, and operational expertise and has intentionally supported non-laboratory professionals pursuing advanced education. This inclusive approach ensures scientific excellence is matched by strong strengths-based management and strategic oversight. As an advocate and developer, Corrigan advances workforce priorities and resource needs at local, state, and national levels. He has served on APHL and partner workgroups, including the LRN Operations Workgroup, PHPR Workgroup, and the APHL Nominations Committee. At the state level, he served 10 years as Comptroller for the California Association of Public Health Laboratory Directors (CAPHLD) and is President-elect beginning October 2026. Through APHL fellowships, he expanded SDCPHL capabilities in LC-MS/MS and genomic sequencing, including wastewater surveillance, reshaping the laboratory into a resilient, efficient, and future-ready institution.

Bowles recently retired from the Wisconsin State Laboratory of Hygiene (WSLH), where she was the Clinical Laboratory Network Outreach Coordinator. Her years of experience in clinical microbiology established her credibility as the Biosafety Officer and Coordinator of the Wisconsin Clinical Laboratory Network, where she provided outreach and training that enabled a coordinated laboratory response to any biological public health threat.

Bowles has strived to promote the importance of public health and clinical laboratories working together. Her skills, knowledge, and ability to listen and empathize helped her develop and maintain strong relationships with clinical laboratories in Wisconsin. She also readily uses her experiences to promote and encourage other states’ trainers. 

When Bowles participated in the APHL Emerging Leader Program (ELP), their project was a podcast that asked how we would exist without public health laboratories. She emphasized the importance of their role by serving on the APHL Workforce Development Committee and several other subcommittees and workgroups. She was instrumental to the development and review of documents such as CDC’s “Competency Guidelines for Public Health Laboratory Professionals,” ASM’s “Sentinel Level Clinical Laboratory Guidelines for Suspected Agents of Bioterrorism and Emerging Infectious Diseases,” and APHL’s “Clinical Laboratory Preparedness and Response Guide.” She has also presented or co-presented at events for CDC, APHL, ASM, ASCLS-WI and WCLN.

Bowles has never turned down an opportunity to build partnerships, and other trainers have continued to seek her out as a resource and source of support, both professionally and personally. She has shared news of volunteer opportunities and job announcements, continuously encouraged others to apply for the ELP and the Doctor in Public Health Program, and never fails to recognize fellow trainers for their important work; all to pay forward opportunities she has received.​

Pillsbury's passion for environmental public health extends outside of Oregon. She has served on the APHL Environmental Laboratory Science Committee (ELSC) for many years and is currently the Vice Chair of the committee. She is constantly pushing her staff to grow and providing resources for them to do so. Through her encouragement, multiple section managers have graduated from leadership programs, including Leadership Oregon and APHL's Emerging Leader Program. 

Her enthusiasm for developing the next generation of scientists is also evident by her continued support of the yearly "Bring Your Kid to Work" day, where daylong activities based around laboratory work in chemistry, data science, and water/air monitoring are coordinated. This year she led the effort to provide a STEM activity for APHL 2025. She also started a quarterly lab tour program to raise awareness, as well as coordinating tours and informational sessions with local/regional environmental partners and tribal communities.​

Toney, director of the Virginia Division of Consolidated Laboratory Services, has been a major force in transforming the board certification landscape for public health laboratory directors. For years there were few, if any, roadmaps for doctoral level Public Health Laboratory staff to study and seek the board certification that CLIA requires to direct a High Complexity Laboratory. Unlike clinical microbiology and clinical chemistry, there are no post-doctoral fellowships focused on public health laboratory practice. CDC provided limited funds to develop guidance for seeking board certification but there was no plan to accomplish this. At the time, Toney had recently achieved the HCLD (ABB) board certification studying on her own and this informed her perspective on requirements for certification. In 2018 she helped develop "A Practical Guide to Board Examination and Laboratory Leadership Resources." The practical guide outlined all the responsibilities for a laboratory director and summarized the competencies required to pass board certification. The guide also summarizes all the CLIA-approved board certification programs in addition to listing a wealth of technical references to help prepare for the examination.

Publishing the "Practical Guide" was only the beginning. Toney led a small group in organizing the materials and sessions for a new program, "board exam boot camp" to assist interested staff preparing for the board certification exams. She started by compiling all the materials and flashcards she developed for her own board certification. The boot camp started at the beginning of the COVID pandemic. In the last few years, the Board certification boot camp has become its own site and group on the APHL ColLABorate platform. Over multiple iterations, the group developed better and more detailed exam preparation processes including reformatted rapid-fire questions and an opportunity for participants to network with each other and volunteer moderators. The first 10-week iteration, during the height of the COVID pandemic, had over 45 participants at one point. There was clearly an appetite for learning across the country! This team effort continues, with many contributing to multiple study sessions addressing the competencies required to pass board certification. In the current 2023-24 cycle there are 61 individuals enrolled with an average of 20 participating in each study session.

Toney's dedication to tackling this area of critical leadership for Public Health Laboratories has provided the next generation with a roadmap and support group to pursue board certification where none previously existed. Her dynamic personality and leadership is reflected by her serving as recent President of APHL, engaging her DCLS staff in national activities, and maintaining the core of the boot camp team she led through the program's growth and iterations. This is a demonstration of her charisma, caring, and friendship to her colleagues. The "boot camp" is now a vibrant program supporting opportunities throughout the national Public Health Laboratory system and is a great demonstration of public health leadership.

McCallum serves as the BioChem Laboratory manager within the Division of Laboratory Services at the Colorado Department of Agriculture and has been with the department for nearly 25 years. She leads an ISO-17025 accredited laboratory unit performing microbiological and chemical testing related to human and animal food testing, pesticide residue analyses of cannabis, ground and surface waters and more.

McCallum’s passion for the work she performs and her commitment to her staff are evident in the outstanding work they perform. Laboratory staff have been provided with the opportunity to advance in their careers, and the lab has offered internship opportunities to young industry professionals.

She is a champion for public health laboratory science, contributing significantly to APHL’s efforts to strengthen the capability and capacity of human and animal food testing as the AAFCO representative and assists AAFCO as a member of the Laboratory Methods and Services Committee.

The development of innovative solutions to laboratory process improvement is another of McCallum’s strengths. She contributed heavily to the creation of both a BCL training team and training portal for the lab and AAFCO is looking to incorporate McCallum’s model on their website in the near future.

Winter is a truly visionary leader for the public health workforce. Her leadership as deputy branch chief and now branch chief for the Training and Workforce Development Branch at CDC during the COVID-19 pandemic has created numerous large-scale workforce initiatives. Through the development of the OneLab initiative, a unified response to training needs, she will have impact on the public health workforce for decades to come. She has helped create a collaborative network of laboratory education and training professionals—investing in those who serve bench staff and help ensure our public health laboratories are prepared to respond to crises. She has initiated development of a new network of point-of-care testing professionals, recognizing the role that testing staff play in public health response and expanding our traditional understanding of the PHL workforce.

She's also been an integral part of the CDC-APHL collaboration to stand up the APHL Career Pathways in Public Health Laboratory Science program, bringing hundreds of new public health laboratory professionals into the fold and helping to ensure they are equipped with the tools needed to thrive. Winter brings people up with her—as her branch has grown, she's brought in multiple new team leads whom she is an ongoing advocate for and to whom she provides both the space and support to innovate.

Ned-Sykes is the team lead of the Training and Workforce Development Branch, Division of Laboratory Systems, US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). She is highly regarded by APHL and her public health laboratory colleagues as an expert on both public health laboratory and clinical laboratory workforce issues and has helped strengthen the laboratory workforce.    

Ned-Sykes has played an instrumental role in the development of the MMWR supplement, the Laboratory Leadership Service competencies and fellowship program, and the Global Laboratory Leadership Program between APHL and CDC, which now includes sponsorship by WHO, OIE and FAO.​