Faculty Profile: Assistant Professor/Clinical Brittany Teeter
A career in the laboratory wasn’t always part of the plan for Assistant Professor/Clinical Brittany Teeter, MS, CLS, MLS (ASCP). Instead, her role a medical laboratory scientist began as a practical choice that made sense for her and her family and evolved into a career she continues to shape with an eye to the future.
“If you do something well, you kind of owe it to society to help others do it well, too,” Teeter said of her decision to go all in on the medical laboratory sciences profession.
Teeter joined the faculty of the Division of Medical Laboratory Sciences in April and is a 2023 honoree of the American Society for Clinical Pathology ASCP 40 Under Forty program.
Teeter’s award “illustrates her leadership qualities and contributions to laboratory medicine,” said Terri Murphy-Sanchez, MS, MLS: CSMLS, ASCPCM , assistant professor and program director of the Division of Medical Laboratory Sciences. “We are very excited to have her on board, and she has already proven herself to be an invaluable asset to our MLS team.”
Teeter serves as a career ambassador and a social media sub-committee member for the ASCP. She also is a committee member of the Council of Laboratory Management Association.
Her path to the lab
Teeter was living in Killeen, Texas, when she decided to enroll in the medical laboratory technician program at Central Texas College. At the time, her husband was in the military and assigned to the nearby U.S. Army post.
“I liked their rolling admissions; it worked with my timeline,” she said of her reason for choosing the laboratory program. “I initially did it because of the job outlook and being able to work anywhere. I ended up loving it.”
Teeter and her family moved to San Antonio, where she went on to earn her bachelor’s in biology. She then earned a master’s in clinical laboratory science and began the PhD in Health Sciences program at UT Health San Antonio while working as quality assurance coordinator and core lab manager at University Hospital. She served as a regional manager for quality assurance at a hospital system in Washington before returning to San Antonio to join the faculty in the Division of Medical Laboratory Sciences.
This fall, Teeter is teaching a quality assurance course and hematology lab, as well as assisting in the immunology lab. She continues to work toward her PhD and dissertation on vitamin D deficiency and immunity suppression.
“I always try to look where I’m meant to be,” she said of her return to San Antonio.