Kim Shumate
Broomfield,CO
Summary
Knowledgeable Lead Technologist with proven background leading assay development, instrument validations, and team projects. Successfully manages complex technical initiatives, ensuring timely delivery and high-quality outcomes. Demonstrates expertise in team collaboration and problem-solving, consistently adapting to evolving challenges. Proven history of maintaining equipment and laboratory quality in alignment with regulatory guidelines.
Overview
8
8
years of professional experience
1
1
Certification
Work History
Lead Technologist
Children's Hospital Colorado
08.2024 - Current
- Directs day to day operations of the laboratory section and assists with supervision of staff. Functions as primary resource for technical and clinical expertise in lab section. Acts as a clinical consultant to care providers, managers and supervisors, and hematopathologists.
- Performs and oversees validation of new assays or improvements to existing assays. Extensive experience with completing validation plans and reports, and troubleshooting unexpected results during the validation process.
- Oversees training of new employees and students. Manages competency schedule and assessment of department staff. Manages CAP and Alternate Proficiency testing for the department. Responsible for assigning, resulting, performing reviews, and investigating deficiencies when appropriate.
- Elected to hospital's CAP inspection team and performed inspection of peer hospital's Diagnostic Immunology and Immunpathology Laboratories in February 2025. Completed CAP heat-maps for in-house inspection in 2024. Experience with identifying deficiencies, recommendations, and implementing corrections.
- Extensive experience submitting Laboratory Information System (Epic Beaker) tickets for new builds, working with the LIS technologists, and validating new features prior to implementation. Extensive experience writing, editing, and reviewing procedures in Omni-Assistant Software.
Medical Technologist III
Children's Hospital Colorado
09.2021 - 08.2024
- Technologist working full time in the Immunopathology and Hematopathology laboratory.
- Extensive experience with Beckman Coulter's Navios Flow Cytometer, Kaluza analysis software, TQ-Prep instrumentation, ELLA automated ELISA platform, Biotek ELx808 plate reader, and Fisher Scientific accuWash.
- New experience with the following assays: B-ALL Minimal Residual Disease, Neutrophil Oxidative Burst, Immunophenotyping for PNH, CD34 and CD3 absolute assays for apheresis products, PHA, Anti-CD3, and Tetanus T cell proliferation assays, T cell Naïve Memory, Comprehensive B cell panels, TCR, Regulatory T cells, ALPS, ASET, and protein cytokine quantitation on an automated ELISA instrument.
Medical Laboratory Scientist
Dell Children's Medical Center
08.2017 - 09.2021
- Performed leukemia and lymphoma immunophenotyping on the BD Canto II and BD LSR Fortessa. Proficient in analyzing data using BD FACSDiva and BD FACSCanto software. Experience with Cerner's CoPathPlus system.
- Received specimen from pediatric and adult patients. Processed patient samples including peripheral blood, bone marrow, body fluids, and tissues for subsequent staining with fluorochromes and acquisition on the cytometers. Department averaged 180 samples for leukemia/lymphoma work up per month, split between three employees.
- Gained strong knowledge of surface cell markers present on normal and neoplastic cells. Gained experience with immature and mature hematopoetic neoplasms. Evaluated each case for abnormalities and added on additional testing as needed to provide a complete report.
- Efficiently communicated results to pathologists daily. Presented various interesting and uncommon cases in our monthly flow cytometry roundtable discussions with our pathologists.
- Provided additional support during the Covid-19 pandemic in the following areas of the laboratory: chemistry, hematology, coagulation, urinalysis, blood bank, and microbiology.
- Frequently assumed the role of charge technologist on third shift in the core laboratory. Subsequently was responsible for delegating tasks to others, facilitating communication between the lab and other health care professionals, investigating and resolving issues, coordinating the response of the laboratory in emergency situations, and other responsibilities as directed by my manager.
- Performed QC, standardization, compensation, and troubleshooting analyzers and QC failures as needed. Identified and resolved unexpected results, directing secondary testing measures or collection efforts.
- Competent with operating, maintenance, calibration, and troubleshooting analyzers including the Sysmex XN-2000, Architect ci4100, ACL Top 550 CTS, Siemens Clinitek Advantus, Osmol1 Micro-Osmometer, Siemens PFA-1000, TEG 5000, Sebia Capillarys 2, Quidel Sofia2, and Abbott ID Now. Proficient with Cerner's Pathnet laboratory information system and resulting through Instrument Manager and WAM middleware.
- Performed manual ABO/Rh typing, antibody screens and identifications, antigen typing, and crossmatches in blood bank. Proficient in product modification through division, pooling, washing, thawing, irradiation, volume reduction, and whole blood reconstitution. Gained experience with issuing blood products and prioritizing needs during emergent situations such as traumas, ECMO cannulation, initiation of massive transfusion protocol, and emergency surgery.
Education
Bachelor of Science - Medical Laboratory Science
University of Central Florida
Orlando05-2017
Skills
- Extensive experience with the Navios Flow Cytometer Following the replacement of two lasers, independently re-built 12 assays on the cytometer Re-build included establishing new voltage and compensation settings, in addition to performing all aspects of a full validation
- Responsible for the validation of the following assays: B-ALL Minimal Residual Disease on Day 8 Peripheral Blood samples, CD34 Viability, sCD25 detection on Ella Automated ELISA instrument, and addition of antibodies to existing leukemia/lymphoma panels
Certification
American Society for Clinical Pathology (ASCP)CM, Board of Certification
Medical Laboratory Scientist
Certification Number: 259419
Exam Date: May 2, 2017
Publications
Shumate, K. A., Williams, S. N., Khatri, A. B., & Knight, V. (2024). Addition of CD14 improves discrimination of lymphocytes in the TBNK
phenotyping panel. Cytometry Part B: Clinical Cytometry, 1–12. https://doi.org/10.1002/cyto.b.22180
Timeline
Lead Technologist
Children's Hospital Colorado
08.2024 - Current
Medical Technologist III
Children's Hospital Colorado
09.2021 - 08.2024
Medical Laboratory Scientist
Dell Children's Medical Center
08.2017 - 09.2021
Bachelor of Science - Medical Laboratory Science
University of Central Florida