Brigid O’Neill-LaGier
Brigid O’Neill-LaGier is the chief executive officer of the Penn-Jersey Region of American Red Cross Blood Services. She has been with the Red Cross since 1993.

O’Neill-LaGier holds a master’s degree in business administration from Drexel University as well as a bachelor’s degree in business, leadership and organizational studies from The State University of New York at Binghamton and an associate’s degree in medical laboratory technology. Her credentials include certification as MT(HEW), MLT(ASCP), HT(ASCP).

She began her career as a medical laboratory technologist in clinical hospital laboratories in upstate New York, specializing in general laboratory science, microbiology and histology.

From 1997-1999, O’Neill-LaGier was a project manager for American Red Cross Biomedical Headquarters in Washington, DC. Prior to that, she was the associate director of donor services, and the director of regional collection operations for the New York-Penn Region of American Red Cross Blood Services.

O’Neill-LaGier is currently a member of the American Association of Blood Banks (AABB), the New Jersey Society of Blood Bank Professionals, and the Blood Bank Task Force of New Jersey.

Geralyn Meny, MD
Geralyn Meny, MD, is medical director of the Penn-Jersey Region of American Red Cross Blood Services.

Dr. Meny received her BS degree in medical technology from the University of Kentucky. She received certification as a medical technologist and a Specialist in Blood Banking from the American Society of Clinical Pathologists. Dr. Meny received her MD degree from the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas in 1990. She completed a pathology residency at Parkland Memorial Hospital in Dallas in 1995. Dr. Meny is board certified in anatomic and clinical pathology and blood banking/transfusion medicine by the American Board of Pathology.

Prior to joining the Penn-Jersey Region of the American Red Cross, Dr. Meny was the associate medical director of Transfusion Services at the University of Texas, Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas.

Dr. Meny is active in the American Association of Blood Banks (AABB) as an assessor and has served as a member of the Hematopoetic Progenitor Cell (HPC) Standards Program Unit, the HPC Accreditation Program Unit, the Accreditation Program Unit and the AABB Certification Committee.

Ralph R. Vassallo, Jr., MD
Ralph R. Vassallo, Jr., MD, is a medical director for the Penn-Jersey Region of American Red Cross Blood Services. His research interest lies in platelets, hemostasis and thrombosis.

Dr. Vassallo received his medical degree and bachelor’s degree from the University of Pennsylvania, completing a residency in internal medicine and a fellowship in Hematology/Oncology at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania.

Prior to joining the Red Cross, Dr. Vassallo was the director of medical education for the Frankford Healthcare System for almost ten years. He also served as program director of Albert Einstein Medical Center’s Transitional Year Residency at the Frankford Hospitals.

He has published articles on platelet signal transduction and co-authored a compilation of Practice Guidelines for Blood Transfusion. He is a member of the American College of Physicians/American Society of Internal Medicine, American Association of Blood Banks, American Society of Hematology, International Society of Blood Transfusion and International Society on Thrombosis and Haemostasis.

David Moolten, MD
David Moolten, MD, is the medical director of Clinical Services for the Penn-Jersey Region of the American Red Cross Blood Services, which offers programs that help physicians and hospitals meet the transfusion needs of their patients.

During his more than 10 years of Red Cross service, he received the national 2000 Norman Augustine American Red Cross award for his outstanding work in cellular therapy. Dr. Moolten and the staff of the Penn-Jersey Region, one of 36 Red Cross regional blood centers, were honored for their excellent teamwork in building a cell processing center and introducing cellular therapy at the Region.

After graduating from Harvard College, Dr. Moolten received his medical degree from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. He completed his fellowship year in blood banking and tranfusion medicine at the Thomas Jefferson University School of Medicine. He has an adjunct faculty appointment at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, where he also did his residency. He is licensed to practice medicine in Pennsylvania and New Jersey, and is certified by the American Board of Pathology. His work has been published in Transfusion, Seminars in Oncology and Science.

Laurene Cianfrani MT (ASCP) SBB
Laurene Cianfrani is the administrator, patient/hospital services for the Penn-Jersey Region of the American Red Cross Blood Services.

She received her BS degree in medical technology from Marquette University in Milwaukee, Wisconsin and SBB training at Mt. Sinai Hospital/American Red Cross, Mid America Region in Chicago. She received certification as a Medical Technologist and a Specialist in Blood Banking from the American Society of Clinical Pathologists.

Cianfrani has been with the American Red Cross Blood Services, Penn-Jersey Region since 1981. She joined as a supervisor in the freezing laboratory and held various positions including manager, Reference Laboratories and, in 1987, director, Hospital Services. She has also held the positions of director of Quality Assurance and compliance officer as well as chief operating officer. She has been administrator, patient/hospital services since 1996.

Prior to joining the American Red Cross, Cianfrani worked as director of the blood bank at the University of Chicago Medical Center and as a medical technologist for several hospitals in the Chicago area.

Cianfrani is an active member of the American Association of Blood Banks and has had several abstracts published in Transfusion.

Sandra Nance, MS, MT (ASCP) SBB
Sandra Nance is director of Technical Services for the Penn-Jersey Region of the American Red Cross Blood Services, and the director of the American Rare Donor Program and director of The National Reference Laboratory for Blood Group Serology (NRLBGS) of American Red Cross Blood Services.

A graduate of the University of Maryland, Nance has a master’s degree in pathology. She also received her SBB from the Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions.

Nance has been with the American Red Cross since 1981 and the Penn-Jersey Region since 1990. She started out as assistant director of Technical Services for Special Services. Prior to that, she was a research associate for the Los Angeles-Orange Counties Region of the American Red Cross Blood Services and a lead technologist for the blood bank laboratory at The John Hopkins Hospital.

Nance is an assistant adjunct professor at the University of Pennsylvania. She is active in her state organization, the Pennsylvania Association of Blood Banks, and has held positions on the Nominating Committee, as Program Committee chair and on the Executive Board. She is active in the American Society of Clinical Pathologists and served on the Steering Committee for the Invitational Conference for Investigative Immunohematologists. She has been a member of the American Association of Blood Banks (AABB) since 1975 and currently serves on its Board of Directors.

Susan H. Hsu, Ph.D.
Susan H. Hsu, Ph.D., is the Director of the Histocompatibility/Molecular Genetics Department of the Penn-Jersey Region of American Red Cross Blood Services. Dr. Hsu joined the Red Cross in 1987 as scientific director and director of the histocompatibility laboratory. Prior to joining the Red Cross, Hsu was Co-Directors of the Immunogenetics Laboratories in the Division of Medical Genetics of the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. Dr. Hsu received her Ph.D. and her Master’s Degrees from the University of Illinois. Her Bachelor Degree of Science is from the National Taiwan University, Taiwan. She is a board certified Lab Director by the American Board of Histocompatibility and Immunogenetics.

Her professional memberships include the American Society of Histocompatibility and Immunogenetics, and the International Transplantation Society.

In 2001, her laboratory was chosen to perform confirmatory typing for the cord blood unit and for cord blood recipients by the National Marrow Donor Program.

Her work has been published in American Journal of Human Genetics, J. Exp. Med., Human Gene Mapping, The Human Immunology, J. Immunology, Tissue Antigens, Bone Marrow Transplantation, The Journal of Pediatrics, Arch Pathology, Arthritis Rheum, The American Journal of Medical Science, The Johns Hopkins Medical Journal, Science, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences and Nature.