Laboratory operations consultant — MBA, MLS(ASCP)

Innovate. Implement. Excel.

To Innovate, you need ideas. To Implement, you need an engaged team. To Excel, you need the desire to meet a goal. When all three come together, you create a working environment designed for success with people who are empowered.

I worked for over 40 years leading hospital laboratories through automation implementation, staffing shortages, change management challenges, financial constraints, and a pandemic. Now I help labs like yours accomplish more using innovative strategies tailored to meet your goals and engage your staff.

Book a consultation Invite Susan to speak

Portrait of Susan E. Dawson — Susan E. Dawson — Chicago, Illinois

44 years in clinical laboratories MLS(ASCP) · MBA with distinction National & international speaker Featured by SelectScience ↗

In a laboratory, culture means two things.

What grows in a petri dish — and the working environment of the laboratory. Most consultants focus on only one aspect. Susan spent over 35 years responsible for both, and her method starts from the conviction that a working culture, centered on caring for the patient, and caring for the staff, leads to technical excellence.

The science

Workflow, automation, middleware, autovalidation — engineered so results move faster and error has nowhere to hide.

The people

Staffing, on-the-job training, mentoring, leadership — a lab culture open to change, because she built one for forty years.

Consulting

What Susan takes on.

Outcome-first engagements for clinical laboratories and the manufacturers who equip them — scoped in plain language, delivered for practical application in the workplace — not theoretical plans placed in a file and forgotten.

Workflow & process optimization Find the bottlenecks, redesign the flow, and prove the gain in turnaround time, efficiency, consistency, and quality for improved customer service and staff engagement. Laboratories Automation & middleware Align the instrument functionality and rules engines to work for your technologists — fine-tuned by Susan's successful implementations, spanning over 20 years. Labs & manufacturers Staffing & training Address workflow challenges using insightful and creative methods to build strong team skills. Laboratories Leadership development Develop supervisors with a focus on improving process management, quality, communication, and workforce morale. Labs & manufacturers

Book a consultation Engagements shaped to your lab — assessment, on-site, or ongoing.

The record

years working at all levels, from bench tech to administrative director, in a growing health system. Collaborating with industry leaders and healthcare executives on cross-functional strategy.

Susan Dawson working alongside laboratory colleagues

At the bench with the team — Chicago.

1980

Joins the laboratory field as a medical technologist at Swedish Covenant Hospital, Chicago.

1988

Becomes the first supervisor of "Chematology" — recognized and accepted by CAP as a combined department overseeing both disciplines.

1993

Promoted to Clinical Lab Manager.

2003

Implements total laboratory automation and autovalidation for chemistry, immunoassay, hematology, and coagulation — years before it was standard practice.

2019

Named Laboratory Administrative Director, leading operations, quality, inter-laboratory collaborations, strategy, and customer service across multiple hospital laboratories.

2024

Founds Accomplish More Consulting Services — bringing the playbook to labs everywhere, and authors Growing Into Leadership: Lessons Learned Along the Way.

North Park University, M.B.A. with distinction · Augustana College, B.A. Clinical Laboratory Science.

Read Susan's story

Susan Dawson teaching technologists at an analyzer screen

Speaking

Stories from the bench, lessons for the boardroom.

Susan speaks nationally and internationally on what actually moves a laboratory — told through four decades of real events, not theory. Sessions run from keynotes to workshops for leadership teams.

Laboratory management & operationsKeynote · Workshop

Efficiency and the automated labKeynote · Panel

Leading through staffing shortagesWorkshop

Growing into leadershipKeynote

Invite Susan to speak

The book

Growing Into Leadership

Lessons Learned Along the Way

Real events from forty years of laboratory life — on openness, curiosity, authority, and influence — collected into an unassuming, compelling case for leadership that grows a culture of openness, communication, cooperation, and personal development.

Buy on Amazon ↗ About the book

Paperback & Kindle — and room on this shelf for the next title.