Community Involvement

June 2024 

The ALS Soak ... more than $62,000 of the $50,000 goal was raised!

CEO Rita Romano, third from left, was one of several community leaders who was “soaked” on Aug. 15 on behalf of the ALS Association. The CEO Soak in Syracuse was held downtown at the Clinton Square fountains. Standing to Rita's left are Syracuse University’s new football coach Fran Brown and Onondaga County Executive Ryan McMahon. Rita said the event was inspiring and fun. 

ALS takes a devastating toll on individuals and their families. Local leaders reached out to friends and family to help raise funds for new treatments and a cure for ALS, and to help those in our community living with ALS. Together they raised more than $62,000 of their $50,000 goal! 

June 2024 

Employees support the 2024 Syracuse WorkForce Run

A beautiful night for a walk or run at the 2024 Syracuse WorkForce Run! On Thursday, June 6, Laboratory Alliance team members joined about 3,000 others from Central New York, including Otto! We had fun and proceeds supported AccessCNY, a non-profit that offers person-centered services that empower individuals of all ages and abilities to reach their full potential.

Employees support United for Moms in time for Mother's Day

In honor of Mother’s Day, Laboratory Alliance employees donated items for United Way’s United for Moms campaign. Personal and self-care items were collected and Bailey Masterson, development associate from United Way, left, picked up the donations at the Operations Center on Monday, May 6 with the help of Laboratory Alliance’s Deborah Reed, senior administrative assistant. Thanks to everyone who contributed! 

May 2024 

Syracuse Heart Walk 2024

We did it again! Laboratory Alliance again supported the Syracuse Heart Walk for the American Heart Association on Sunday, April 14 at the SRC Arena at Onondaga Community College. 

We raised 88% of our $5,000 goal and were one of the top 5 teams.

Thank you to everyone that supported the American Heart Association Syracuse Heart Walk. Our team placed  in the top 5 teams for dollars raised!  And, every dollar donated means more research, more people trained in lifesaving CPR, more medical breakthroughs and more champions for equitable health. 

It was a very fun event and we are looking forward to next year! Stay heart healthy!

April 2024

Recognizing Medical Technologist Sister Maria Grace Quartiero

Celebrating 50 Years as a religious sister and even more as a medical technologist
August, 2019

The news that longtime Laboratory Alliance Medical Technologist Sister Maria Grace Quartiero, IHM, celebrated her 50th Jubilee of Religious Profession in June is inspiration to share her story. 

Laboratory Alliance Operations Center, 2019

Long before she was Sister Maria Grace or a medical technologist, Jeanne Quartiero was an eighth grader in Connecticut, and that is when she discovered an interest in medicine. She chose diseases as her themed essay topic and, as part of the assignment, mailed letters to healthcare organizations for information. 

“I heard from all the laboratory associations, despite it being a fairly new field at that time,” she said. 

This was in the mid-1950s and the role of the laboratory in clinical diagnosis and patient care was expanding at hospitals. From the mid-1950s through the 1960s, the capabilities of automated devices increased the number of laboratory tests that were being ordered, and medicine’s and surgery’s dependence on clinical chemistry was confirmed. 

“Once I had all this information I never wanted to do anything else.”

From 1961 to 1965, she attended Marywood College in Scranton, Pa. She spent three years at the college and a fourth year at Robert Packer Hospital in Sayre, Pa., for the required internship to earn her bachelor’s degree in medical technology. She was hired by the hospital as a medical technologist where she worked for a year before making another change in her life. 

Medical technology was not her only calling. She wished to enter religious life.

“Maybe I was being called by God. I wasn’t sure, but the longing stayed with me through college. The following year when I was working as a medical technologist at Robert Packer Hospital I listened to my heart,” she said.  

Robert Packer Hospital Chemistry Lab, May 1966

Entering the Convent in 1966 

“My parents were not happy about my decision at the time,” she said, “but as they came to know the sisters I was living with, they changed their minds. It was on Sept. 8, 1966, along with 49 other young women, that I became a postulant of the Congregation of the Sisters, Servants of the Immaculate Heart of Mary (IHM), in Scranton. I was one of the older girls in our group. Most were just out of high school, and these young postulants without college educations were directed toward degrees in education. The next three years of my novitiate – or training – took place at St. Joseph’s Hospital in Carbondale, Pa., where I continued to work in the laboratory. In 1969 I was officially hired by this hospital lab where I spent the next 12 years.”

By 1981, Sister Maria Grace wanted a change so she sent applications to laboratory job openings in Long Island, Pittsburgh, Scranton and Maryland. The church placed three criteria on her job search: it must be a Catholic hospital, she had to live in a convent and she needed to have access to public transportation. 

“The congregation was not going to buy me a car!” she said. “The weekend after the Fourth of July holiday, I traveled to Maryland for an interview. It was so hot and all the girls were crowded into the one room at the convent with air conditioning. After a single sleepless night, I said I’m not coming here!” 

St. Joseph’s Hospital, Carbondale, Pa., with the lab’s first automated instrument, February 1979

A month later she learned about a job in Syracuse through a friend who was heading north to get her master’s in nursing from Syracuse University. St. Joseph’s Hospital hired Sister Maria Grace in 1981, where she worked until she joined Laboratory Alliance in its inception year, 1998.

The full-time medical technologist works in special chemistry at our Operations Center main laboratory. She operates the instruments that test for lead, celiac disease, lupus and more. During her early years in the lab, she attended conferences to learn about industry changes. Now she stays ahead of new technology through online training sessions. Sister Maria Grace continues to find the work interesting, challenging and meaningful.

Sister Maria Grace’s 38 years of service to our community through her work in the laboratory is complemented by an equal number of years of service to our community and beyond through her ministry with the Syracuse parish, Most Holy Rosary.

“I would like to see more young people consider a career in medical technology,” she said. “It’s sad that our youth don’t know about the great opportunities in the lab.”

In the meantime, she says “I have no plans to retire – there’s no retiring when you work for the Church!”