OFFICE OF THE
DIRECTOR
The Office of the Director includes eight offices within the State Hygienic Laboratory that provide specialized organizational services across the laboratory. These offices are: Genomics, Human Resources, Information and Technology, Iowa Laboratory Appraisal Program-CLIA, Organizational Development, Public Policy, Research and Development, and Strategic Communications.

Organizational Development

The Office of Organizational Development was established in 2014. This office oversees strategic planning, organizational change, quality improvement, performance measurement and systems design. Areas of focus include workforce performance, customer engagement, financial sustainability, improvement and innovation, and subject expertise.

As part of the office, the Quality Assurance (QA) coordinators develop and conduct continuous quality improvement processes that increase the efficiency and effectiveness of operations and services. This includes applying process improvement concepts to quality management systems; collecting and analyzing data; and assuring compliance, training, education and leadership.

Major achievements:

  • Applied a new model for strategic planning that serves as a management tool used to guide operations.
  • Assisted with the second year of an ISO/IEC 17025:2005 (International Organization for Standardization/International Electrochemical Commission) accreditation grant from the Food and Drug Administration. The ISO/IEC is a comprehensive standard with a high degree of specificity for laboratories that produce testing and calibration results.
  • Deployed an organization-wide effort to support continuous quality improvement through peer groups that helps identify and solve problems under the Lean philosophy.