Susan J. Leclair, PhD, CLS, has been a hematologist, clinical laboratory scientist and chancellor professor emerita at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth since 2015. A professor of medical laboratory science who taught at the university for 35 years, she has focused much of her career on clinical hematology and oncology, as well as human genetics and bioethics. During her career in academia, Dr. Leclair has also served as president and secretary of the faculty senate.
Prior to her work in academia, Dr. Leclair spent 12 years in the field. A hematology technologist for the Rhode Island Hospital in Providence between 1979 and 1980, she was also an education coordination and program director in the school of medical technology at Miriam Hospital, also in Providence, from 1972 to 1979. Furthermore, Dr. Leclair was a supervisor of hematology at Morton Hospital in Taunton, MA, and a medical technologist at Union Hospital in New Bedford, MA, beginning in 1968.
Writing extensively in her field, Dr. Leclair has contributed numerous chapters to books and articles to peer-reviewed journals and has also authored computer software in hematology. During her tenure, she notably chaired the hematology/hemostasis committee for the National Certification Agency for Medical Laboratory Personnel Exam Council between 1994 and 1998. Dr. Leclair was also an instructor of hematology courses at Brown University from 1978 to 1980, and consulted for Gateway Health Alliance from 1985 to 1987 and Pawtucket Memorial Hospital from 1999 to 2001.
Dr. Leclair is currently working with several online groups providing education for patients and physicians about laboratory tests and how they affect patients. She has also been involved on the board of directors of the American Society of Clinical Laboratory Science since 2010. Locally, Dr. Leclair was a reviewer for the National Commission of Clinical Laboratory Sciences, chaired the Massachusetts Association of Health Planning Agencies, was on the board of directors of the Southeastern Massachusetts Health Planning Development, Inc., and was on the planning subcommittee of the AIDS Education as a presenter of the organization’s info series.
A longstanding member of the American Society for Clinical Laboratory Science, Dr. Leclair served as an editor of the clinical practice section of the organization’s journal between 1996 and 2000 and was editor-in-chief between 2001 and 2008 and between 2013 and 2017. She has been the creator and director of the organization’s consumer information web page since 1999. Dr. Leclair is also a board of trustees member and former chairman of the American Society of Medical Technology Education and Research Fund, Inc., and a member and past president of the Massachusetts Association for Medical Technology, the Southeastern Massachusetts Society of Medical Technology and Alpha Mu Tau.
Honored in 2017 with a Heroes of Medicine Award by Cure Magazine and the International Myeloproliferative Neoplasms Foundation, Dr. Leclair also received a Robin H. Mendelson Memorial Award for Outstanding Service to the Profession by the ASCLS Consumer Web Page and an ASCLS/Kendall Sherwood Award for Outstanding Service to the Hematology/Hemostasis section of the Scientific Assembly. Furthermore, Dr. Leclair received two awards from the University of Massachusetts, an Alumni Association University Service Award and the Yvonne Sandstroem Memorial Award for University Service. She has notably been cited in more than 40 editions of Who’s Who, including Who’s Who in America, Who’s Who in American Education, Who’s Who in the East, Who’s Who in the World, and Who’s Who in Medicine and Healthcare since 1994.
Dr. Leclair obtained a Bachelor of Science in medical technology from Stonehill College in 1968, Master of Science in medical laboratory science from the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth in 1977 and PhD in clinical hematology from Walden University in 2001. She is a certified clinical laboratory scientist. Married to James T. Griffith, Dr. Leclair is the mother of one child and grandmother of three grandchildren. In her free time, she enjoys choral singing, cooking, reading and traveling.
