Elaine had big shoes to fill when she arrived at IQMH eight years ago. However, she immediately jumped into the role and continued to maintain the programs and excellent customer service, thanks to her extensive knowledge, expertise, and experience from being a previous customer herself. Elaine added value and improvement initiatives to her programs.

Her keen eye for detail and endearing personality made her nearly indispensable to IQMH. Elaine made incredible contributions to patient safety through her work with proficiency testing. She collaborated with Public Health Ontario for ARO (Antibiotic Resistant Organisms) and administered/compiled patterns-of-practice surveys for Bacteriology which collected information from hospitals and laboratories across Ontario.

She also worked with various scientific committees to update the Consensus Practice Recommendations for Bacteriology, Mycology and Parasitology. Elaine was instrumental in establishing new testing material suppliers and on-going contracts for the various surveys she worked on and continued to maintain strong relationships with the vendor/supplier staff. Elaine made strong connections with the scientific committee members and became a well-respected advocate for quality in the infectious disease community.

She was also the Proficiency Testing team’s “party planner” and enjoyed nurturing the office plants. Additionally, she enjoyed tricking her co-workers with fast growing orchids on April fool’s day!

Elaine has a lifelong passion in marine conservation and worked as a volunteer at the Bermuda Aquarium and Zoo. We would not be surprised to find Elaine cleaning up beaches, or scuba diving for shipwrecks, coral reefs, or Hawaiian green sea turtles during her retirement.

As she departs, she advises, “Be passionate about your work, it will become infectious to those around you and equally important, learn from everyone around you, become a sponge”.

On behalf of the IQMH staff and scientific committee members, we wish Elaine a happy and healthy retirement as she takes on this new adventure!