Katherine Kaherl, MLS(ASCP)SBB

Katherine Kaherl joined the Red Cross in 2002 as the Director of the Farmington, Connecticut Immunohematology Reference Laboratory (IRL) and in 2015 was given the role of IRL Executive Director with operational oversight of the 44 IRLs in the organization. Prior to 2002, her hospital blood bank career spanned 21 years and began at University Hospital in Ann Arbor, Michigan, where she also completed a BS degree and received her MLS certification. Katherine has the unique perspective of seeing both sides of the business as she started her career as a customer of the American Red Cross and then joined them in a lab leadership role. She completed the Specialty in Blood Bank program in St. Louis, Missouri and continued to work in various transfusion services throughout the Midwest and the Northeast as her family moved around the country. Her passion today is mentoring the next generation of immunohematologists.