Dave Davis is a man famous throughout the histology community for his international outreach. You may recognize him as the 2015 recipient of the Histotech of the Year Award, or the man going around snapping photos at any given NSH Convention, but most recently he was recognized as the 2018 recipient of the Lee Luna Foreign Travel Scholarship. This scholarship, now sponsored by Sakura Finetek, is offered each year to an NSH member interested in traveling abroad for histology education or outreach.
Over the years, Dave has completed work in countries such as Tanzania, Libya, Germany, Cambodia, Greece, Saudi Arabia, Madagascar, the eastern Caribbean, and is now living full time in Costa Rica. NSH recently enlisted Debbie Wood, the 2017 recipient of the Lee Luna Foreign Travel Scholarship, to interview Dave about his plans to use the funds from this scholarship to host a second Western African Histology congress in Ghana. Listen to the full podcast here.
He shared with us some interesting insights on all things international, but one of the most interesting parts of this extensively informative interview, was learning more about how Dave himself got started in international histology.
Dave first got into histology by accident (as many of us do!), after his position as a medical technologist in the US military was eliminated and he was reassigned to the histology department. This assignment led him to actually MEET Lee Luna himself, back in the 1980s while working at the USAMRIID military labs in Maryland.
In 2001, Dave dipped his toes into the international waters, after he was asked to help pathologists in Madagascar who were having trouble reading slides. From there he developed more international contacts and has since been in and out of around 60 countries! He got into this particular project in Ghana as a result of networking he did at an NSH Convention several years ago. After meeting an attendee from Ghana, he developed a plan to donate equipment, which progressed after several more conversations, into full fledged plans for a histology congress in Western Africa.
During his interview, Dave shares with listeners some tips for getting into international histology projects, but his best advice is simply to stay involved and network! Dave mentions the NSH Symposium/Convention as his favorite place to network; you can attend an international attendee meeting there if you’re looking to make some global contacts! But even if you can’t attend an in-person event, NSH’s member community The Block, has made it easier than ever to connect internationally with fellow members, from your computer. Connect with Dave, or others in the international community, using the member directory.
The deadline to apply for scholarships like the Lee Luna Foreign Travel Scholarship is May 31st. Check out NSH’s available scholarships here!
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