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Lorrie Blais G ’21 balances her time between roles as a public health microbiologist in the Vermont Department of Health Laboratory (VDHL) and a per diem medical technologist at Northwestern Medical Center (NMC).

“I start a typical day performing quality control, preventative maintenance, and document control tasks,” said Blais, who spends much of her shift at VDHL in the food microbiology lab. “If food samples require testing, I process and analyze them according to FDA or USDA methods, depending on the food type.”

“Occasionally, I perform non-food microbiology testing for rabies, COVID-19, Mpox, norovirus, and water bacteriology,” said Blais. If she’s working at her per diem job that evening, she’ll run home for a quick dinner and then drive to NMC, where she performs microbiology, hematology, and clinical chemistry testing.

A self-proclaimed microbiology nerd and local foodie, Blais considered a job in the food microbiology lab a perfect fit. She worked as a lab technician while completing ����̽̽’s Medical Laboratory Science master’s program and was promoted to microbiologist upon earning her degree.

“I thoroughly enjoy being able to see both the environmental and clinical sides of testing and experience both the public health lab and hospital lab testing environments,” said Blais.“It would be challenging to have to pick one over the other.”

“����̽̽’s master’s degree in medical laboratory science program enhanced my undergraduate background in biology, microbiology, and chemistry and helped me develop knowledge of other lab areas. The clinical rotation at the end of the program made me feel more comfortable performing techniques learned in the classroom, so I wasn’t nervous to start my career.”