Leadership

Kevin Land, M.D.

Vice President & Medical Director, Clinical Services

Dr. Kevin Land is a Clinical Informaticist and Transfusion Medicine physician who has focused much of his career on systems design and process improvement to improve donor and patient safety. Dr Land heads the clinical services side of Vitalant, which includes cell therapy, therapeutic apheresis, immunotherapies, Arizona-based HLA, and immunohematology reference laboratories. He is the laboratory medical director for the Phoenix-area FACT- and AABB-accredited cell therapy lab and manages all of Vitalant’s hospital-facing Medical Directors.

Dr. Land completed his pathology residency and transfusion medicine fellowship at UT Southwestern Medical School in Dallas and Medical Informatics training at Johns Hopkins. Between 2000 and 2007 he held a joint appointment at Carter BloodCare as the Medical Director of Laboratory Services and in the Department of Pathology at UT Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas, Tx as the Medical Director of Laboratory Informatics. During that time, he was also the Medical Director for Blood Systems Laboratory in Bedford, Texas, now part of Creative Testing Solutions. Before assuming the role as Vice President in 2016, Dr. Land served as Bonfils Blood Center’s first Chief Medical and Scientific Officer, CEO of South Texas Blood and Tissue Center, and Chief Medical Officer for United Blood Services in Texas. (Bonfils Blood Center and United Blood Services are now Vitalant.)

A popular speaker/teacher, Dr. Land has taught patient blood management, general science, clinical pathology, laboratory management, and medical informatics to a variety of audiences. Dr. Land is very active at the national and international level, serving as chair of AABB’s Donor Hemovigilance Working Group, chair of ISBT’s Haemovigilance Working Party, and a board member of the International Haemovigilance Network.

Geoffrey Land, Ph.D.

Medical Director, Histocompatibility (HLA) & Immunogenetics Laboratories

Dr. Land is the Medical and CLIA Director of Vitalant’s HLA & Immunogenetics laboratories in Phoenix, AZ. Concurrently, Dr. Land is one of the Interim Medical Directors of Transplant Immunology Laboratory at Baylor University Medical Center in Dallas, as well as the Director of the Carter BloodCare Laboratory in Tyler, TX.

Dr. Land earned his BS in Biology from the University of Texas in Arlington, followed by an MS in Biochemistry from Texas Christian University and a PhD in Microbiology from Tulane University School of Medicine. His career specialties have been in medical mycology and immunology. Certified by the American Board of Bioanalysis to direct high complexity clinical laboratories, Dr. Land directed or co-directed in his career the medical mycology laboratory at The Wadley Institutes of Molecular Medicine; the mycology, clinical microbiology and clinical immunology laboratories at the University of Cincinnati Medical Center; and the microbiology, and immunology laboratories at Methodist Medical Center in Dallas. He also founded the transplant immunology laboratory for Methodist-Dallas and the HLA laboratory for Stewart Blood Center, now part of Carter BloodCare.

Robin Cusick, M.D.

Medical Director, Immunohematology Reference (IRL) Laboratory

Dr. Robin Cusick is the Chief Medical Officer of Vitalant’s blood donation center in the Phoenix area and is the Medical Director for Vitalant’s Immunohematology Reference Laboratory and Specialist in Blood Banking training program. In these roles, she enjoys working with blood center and laboratory staff, donors, hospital blood bank staff and clinicians. Dr. Cusick also enjoys teaching and serves as a Clinical Assistant Professor with a joint appointment in the Departments of Pathology and Child Health at the University of Arizona College of Medicine – Phoenix. Dr. Cusick is certified by the American Board of Pathology in Anatomic and Clinical Pathology and Blood Banking and Transfusion Medicine. She graduated from Texas A&M University with a Bachelor of Science in Molecular and Cell Biology and went on to medical school at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School in Dallas, Texas. Her postgraduate medical education was in anatomic and Clinical Pathology at Baylor University Medical Center in Dallas, followed by fellowship training in Blood Banking and Transfusion Medicine at UT Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas.

Dolores Figueroa, MT(ASCP) SBB

Immunohematology Reference Laboratory Systems Specialist

Dolores is the immunohematology reference laboratory (IRL) system specialist for Vitalant. She is responsible for the technical direction of the IRL and blood center reference testing activities throughout the country. Dolores joined Vitalant in July 2000 from Immucor, Inc. She holds a certificate in Medical Technology from the University of Puerto Rico, Medical Science Campus. She attended the Atlanta American Red Cross Specialist in Blood Banking School, and is a certified medical technologist and specialist in blood banking through the American Society of Clinical Pathology (ASCP).

Terri Poulin, MT(ASCP)SBB

Director of Clinical Laboratories, Immunohematology Reference Laboratory (IRL)

Terri has served in the capacity of Director of Technical Services for Vitalant in Arizona since 1995, and in early 2014 added the Director of Clinical Laboratories, Immunohematology Reference Laboratory to her responsibilities. Terri has more than 20 years of laboratory experience in the transfusion medicine arena, ranging from level one trauma facilities to burn units, transplants, oncology and neonate facilities. She was elected to serve on the Board for the South Central Association of Blood Banks for nine years and is an active assessor with AABB. Prior to joining Vitalant, Terri served as supervisor of the transfusion service at Scottsdale North Healthcare for 10 years. She holds a Bachelor of Science in Medical Technology from Arizona State University and is a certified Medical Laboratory Scientist and Specialist in Blood Banking (SBB) through ASCP. Terri received her Six Sigma black belt certification in 2007.

Melissa Marlowe, CHS(ABHI), MT(ASCP), MBA

Director of Clinical Laboratories, Histocompatibility (HLA) and Cellular Therapy Laboratories

Melissa Marlowe oversees the operations of the histocompatibility (HLA) and cellular therapy laboratories at Vitalant in Phoenix. She was appointed to this expanded role in November 2013. Melissa previously served as manager of two teams providing HLA typing and cellular therapy processing needs to HPSC transplant programs in Arizona. Melissa joined Vitalant in Phoenix in June 1997 as a technologist in the HLA laboratory. She worked as a testing technologist until becoming the HLA laboratory supervisor in 2005 and then the HLA laboratory manager in 2009. She holds a Bachelor of Science in Molecular & Cellular Biology from the University of Arizona and a Bachelor of Science in Clinical Laboratory Sciences from Arizona State University. Melissa is a certified medical technologist and a Certified Histocompatibility Specialist (CHS) through the American Board of Histocompatibility and Immunology. She earned her MBA from the University of Arizona Eller College of Management.

Liz Carter, MT(ASCP), CQA, CQMOE

District Quality Director, Vitalant

In her role as District Quality Director for Vitalant, Liz oversees quality activities for Clinical Services within the HLA, IRL and Cellular Therapy laboratories, Vitalant Research Institute, and BioCare, a Vitalant subsidiary. Her professional experience prior to Vitalant includes 10 years supervising a complex transfusion service and another 10 years as a laboratory professional in a generalist capacity, with experience in hematology, blood bank, microbiology and flow cytometry.

Liz’ career at Vitalant began in 1999 as a quality director for Phoenix-area blood donation center operations. She also held a regional quality director position, overseeing multiple blood centers, before being assigned her current role with Clinical Services. Her Bachelor of Science degree in Medical Technology was earned at University of Wisconsin, Madison, and she is a certified medical technologist and specialist in blood banking through the American Society of Clinical Pathology (ASCP), with CQA and CQMOE certifications from American Society for Quality.

Kara Thompson, MT(ASCP), ASQ

Quality Director, Clinical Labs

Kara is the Quality Manager for Clinical Labs at Vitalant where she assists in managing review of quality systems and compliance in all areas of technical and clinical operations and serves as a resource for operational quality issues. Kara joined Vitalant in July 2007 and worked in donor testing labs and in quality assurance for blood donation center operations before joining Clinical Labs in June 2010. She previously held positions in component processing, donor testing, and transfusion service at Robertson Blood Center in Ft. Hood, Texas and at Scott & White in Temple, Texas. Kara received a Bachelor of Science in Medical Technology from the University of Mary Hardin – Baylor. She completed the Scott & White program in clinical laboratory science. Kara has a certification as a Medical Laboratory Scientist through ASCP and is a Certified Quality Auditor through ASQ.