Lives of Consequence
Dr. Roberta Barnes Carey '71
Director, Laboratory Quality Management Program, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
An expert in microbiology and public health, Dr. Roberta Barnes Carey ’71 was responsible for oversight of the quality management system for the CDC infectious disease laboratories until her retirement in 2016.
As director of the Laboratory Quality Management Program, she led CDC efforts to establish and maintain proven quality practices that promote the highest level of scientific, regulatory and safety measures for the tests developed and performed. The CDC’s quality management system is “the backbone for all laboratory functions performed in public health or clinical hospital laboratories,” Dr. Carey says.
Dr. Carey joined the CDC’s Division of Healthcare Quality Promotion as Chief of the Clinical Microbiology and Epidemiology Branch in 2004. She later served as acting director for the Division of Laboratory Systems, which provides technical and scientific oversight for the regulations that set the federal quality standards for the nation’s clinical laboratories. She served as the CLIA Director (Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments) for CDC’s infectious diseases laboratories in Atlanta that are certified by the CMS (Centers for Medicare and Medicaid). Dr. Carey was also a member of the interdisciplinary workgroups that wrote the CDC guidelines for the diagnosis of Shiga-toxin producing E. coli and the CDC guidelines for the prevention of early-onset group B streptococcal infections.
Previously, Dr. Carey held the position of technical director of the Pediatric Microbiology Laboratory at The University of Chicago Wyler Children's Hospital; director of microbiology and immunoserology at St. Francis Hospital, Evanston, Ill.; and associate professor of pathology and director of microbiology at Loyola University Medical Center, Maywood, Ill. As director of microbiology she was responsible for all facets of the diagnostic microbiology laboratory, as well as teaching medical students, infectious disease fellows, and pathology residents of the practice of clinical microbiology.
Dr. Carey is a board-certified diplomate of the American Board of Medical Microbiology and a Certified Manager of Quality/Organizational Excellence certified by the American Society for Quality.
A member of the American Society for Microbiology (ASM) since 1984, she has held a number of leadership positions in the non-profit scientific organization. In 2013, the ASM honored Dr. Carey with the bioMerieux Sonnenwirth Award for Leadership in Clinical Microbiology. The award, given in memory of Alexander Sonnenwirth, recognizes an outstanding microbiologist for promotion of innovation in clinical laboratory science, dedication to ASM, and the advancement of clinical microbiology as a profession.
After graduating cum laude from William Smith with her bachelor’s degree in biology, Dr. Carey earned a Ph.D. in microbiology from Cornell University Graduate School of Medical Sciences and completed a post-doctoral fellowship in clinical and public health microbiology at Temple University. She is an editorial board member of Lab Tests Online, co-authored the 2008 textbook, Medical Microbiology for the New Curriculum: A Case-Based Approach, and has presented more than 150 lectures at regional, national and international meetings and symposia.
In 2013, in recognition of her remarkable career and profound contributions to her professional community, the William Smith Alumnae Association presented Dr. Carey with its highest honor, the Alumnae Achievement Award.