2026 Lab Manager Leadership Summit Will Bring Clinical Laboratory Expertise and Networking
Medical lab speakers to explore career positioning, communication techniques, and operation scaling
Scott Wallask is senior editorial manager at Today’s Clinical Labs and its sibling brands, The Dark Report, G2 Intelligence, Lab Manager, and Lab Design News.
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The 2026 Lab Manager Leadership Summit will bring together laboratory leaders from across disciplines to explore strategies needed to navigate today’s complex management challenges.
For clinical lab managers, the Leadership Summit offers opportunities to connect with peers facing similar operational pressures and learn from practical content that can be applied directly to medical lab management.
The in-person event takes place April 20-22 at the Gila River Resorts & Casinos–Wild Horse Pass, located just south of Phoenix.
Clinical lab speakers’ experience will benefit attendees
Among the 2026 Lab Manager Leaderships Summit’s speaker lineup are clinical lab industry experts who bring perspectives rooted in diagnostic settings:
- April Day, MBA, BS, MLS, senior director of clinical pathology at Geisinger Health System, will explain how to reposition one’s lab career in a rapidly changing market. Drawing on a resume that began at the bench and advanced to overseeing complex lab networks, Day will share strategies to identify advancement opportunities and prepare for next steps in professional development.
- Melissa Duong, MS, PA(ASCP), associate director of anatomic pathology at Penn Medicine Chester County Hospital, will discuss communication approaches to improve lab productivity and strengthen team cohesion. Among the techniques Duong will detail is code-switching—in other words, adjusting language and style depending on context.
- Stacey Metzler, MA, BS, clinical genomics supervisor at Phoenix Children’s health system, will explore how clinical lab leadership under pressure can scale without compromising quality. Metzler will focus on the challenges of balancing staff workloads, integrating new technologies, and meeting regulatory requirements in high-pressure lab environments.
- Curtiss McNair, Jr., MBA, BS, MLT, vice president of operations at PanGIA Biotech, will keynote the full summit. Inspired by McNair’s experience implementing automation in a clinical lab that once manually processed 95 million samples annually, the session will highlight practical change management methods that keep teams motivated.
- Nora Hess, BA, owner of Next Horizon Consulting, will conduct a half-day workshop about CLIA compliance. Through a combination of guided discussion, peer interaction, and scenario-based exercises, participants will leave Hess’ workshop with real-life tools to strengthen their compliance programs and avoid CLIA deficiencies.
At this conference, less science and more leadership
Beyond the sessions, workshops, and roundtables, attendees of the 2026 Lab Manager Leadership Summit will have ample chances to network with peers from the clinical lab world and other laboratory sectors, such as biotech, environmental, and toxicology.
Rather than focusing on purely scientific content, the agenda is structured to help participants refine how they lead people, prioritize resources, and improve quality.
For example, in past years, the summit has featured Octavia Peck Palmer, PhD, FADLM, BS, pushing clinical lab leaders to talk more with local community members and Stephanie Whitehead, MBA, MPH, MLS(ASCP), describing an intriguing “Yes…and” exercise to build team consensus.
View Lab Manager Leadership Summit agenda
Check out the full 2026 Lab Manager Leadership Summit agenda to browse other sessions and see how leadership skills can tie into current job responsibilities in the clinical lab.
Today’s Clinical Lab will be covering the event, and we hope to see you in April.