Executive Director of Sterile Processing Association to Retire
After serving in various roles for 54 years, Betty Hanna, executive director of the International Association of Healthcare Central Service Materiel Management (IAHCSMM), will retire at the end of this year.
AAMI President Mary Logan says she is sorry to see Hanna go.
“Betty Hanna is an amazing ambassador for the central sterilization community,” she says. “She was among the first association CEOs to welcome me to AAMI when I came on board in 2009. When I visited with her at IAHCSMM offices in Chicago, she treated me like I was already family and a special guest in her home. That to me sums up the most important part of Betty’s magic formula for success. She is a life force and her presence will be missed in the sterilization community.”
Hanna will be succeeded by Susan Adams, currently manager of administrative services at the organization, on Jan. 1, 2013. Adams has been groomed for the past two and a half years by Hanna and IAHCSMM’s executive board to run the association, which represents central service and sterile processing professionals.
Board members extol Hanna’s contributions, and say she has been vital to the association.
“IAHCSMM would not be what it is today without Betty Hanna,” says IAHCSMM President Bruce Bird, in a press release. “It’s because of her leadership, loyalty, and love of this association and its many members that IAHCSMM will continue to thrive moving forward.”
Hanna has been with the association since its inception in 1958. She initially planned conferences and maintained records, and has been the executive director since 1964, IAHCSMM says.
“I have stayed with the organization because I believe strongly in the need to support those responsible for processing instruments and supplying medical devices and equipment to their healthcare customers. It’s a need that is just as important today as it was more than 50 years ago when this association got started,” Hanna says.
“I have seen such positive changes take place in the profession—and for IAHCSMM—over the years, and I’m confident that the association will continue to do wonderful things for its members and the profession,” she adds.
Hanna was a presenter at last year’s AAMI-U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Reprocessing Summit. During the summit, more than 300 stakeholders hammered out the priorities for safer reprocessing.
For more information on Hanna’s retirement, click here.
Posted: September 28, 2012