Award for Outstanding Contribution to Workforce, Training and Continuing Education

Mikorski has been involved in training and education from the time she started working as a Medical Technologist in 1975. 

When Mikorski joined the New Jersey Department of Health Public Health and Environmental Laboratories in 2003, she quickly became involved in biothreat training — developing and delivering training for clinical laboratorians, first responders, infection preventionists and other partners for almost a decade. In 2013, she created a laboratory internship program with Rutgers University and The College of New Jersey—a program that is still going strong. 

Since taking on the role of ELC grant manager in 2014, Mikorski has increased the lab's funding from $100,000 to $1 million. This enabled her to hire new staff, fellows and mentors, as well as develop new courses in quality assurance, data modernization and business principles for new laboratory professionals. Additionally, she created an Outreach Technology Center and is currently chairing a Data Modernization Workforce Task Force, with the mandate to determine training needs for scientific and technical staff to enable effective and efficient technical operations, data management and analyses. 

Mikorski is an excellent communicator and distributes a weekly newsletter covering public health laboratory news to clinical laboratories, her home laboratory, and other partners and trainers. In addition to her many presentations for APHL and other public health organizations, she has presented posters at numerous APHL Annual Conferences, all emphasizing the importance of a robust, well-prepared public health laboratory workforce.

She is very proud of her work with the Mercer County STEM Council that worked with the Boys and Girls Club of Mercer and the Rutgers STEM Council on developing a summer program. During the 2025 summer term they are hosting 100 students.​

​Bailey is an accomplished speaker and has lead trainings on a wide variety of topics, including the Laboratory Response Network, packaging and shipping, public health preparedness and response, ebola and engaging clinical laboratories. She also serves as an Institutional Biosafety Committee member at Vanderbilt University.

Bailey has always been very willing to share her knowledge and expertise with her peers and trainees and has become a leader within our Public Health Laboratory Training community. She has dedicated her career to providing training and education that helps people perform at their highest level. She is a shining example of what the Maxson Award was developed to recognize—an individual who has made outstanding contributions to public health laboratory continuing education and workforce development.

In 2009, Fortune moved to the Montana State Public Health Laboratory as the laboratory training specialist, biosafety officer and Select Agent Program alternate responsible official. As the laboratory’s subject matter expert for the PHEP program, she provided guidance in the development of all-hazards sample transport plans intended for county health jurisdictions' response to emergencies.

Even though Fortune now works as the Newborn Screening Short-term Follow-up coordinator, she remains the subject matter expert on packaging and shipping and has kept her role as biosafety officer. She is a great example of the public health laboratorian this award is meant to recognize and honor.