Alumni Spotlight: Ryan Mize, DCLS, MHA

• By School of Health Professions
• November 25, 2024
• Education

Ryan, Mize, DCLS, MHA, is a Medical Director for Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), an Associate Medical Director for Mass General Brigham System (MGB), and is Pathology faculty for Harvard Medical School (HMS). According to Mize, he is “one of about five or six, of approximately 40 Doctor of Clinical Laboratory Sciences (DCLS) professionals, in the country that function as medical directors, and one of only two that hold system-wide appointments.” He’s also a proud TTUHSC graduate.

Mize left his small town of Watauga, TX, to major in Cell and Molecular Biology at TTU, with dreams of one day going to medical school. In his final year of undergrad, he learned about the Clinical Lab Sciences program at TTUHSC, and traveled across the highway to receive his Bachelor’s. It was also at TTUHSC, where he went on to get his masters in Molecular Pathology, and where, a couple of years later, he went back to complete his masters in Healthcare Administration. 

After leaving Lubbock and moving around a few major cities, Mize settled in Austin, where he started his doctorate at the University of Texas Medical Branch (UTMB) in Galveston. According to UTMB, the DCLS is an advanced professional doctorate designed for practicing clinical laboratory scientists. 

“After many years of training and realizing I no longer wanted to be a practicing physician, DCLS seemed like a great avenue to develop clinical skills and understanding, but also remain technical and help patients, so I went for it,” he says. Halfway through the program, Mize landed in Boston, ultimately planting roots where he still works today, at the MGH.

His journey to become one of the first DCLS professionals to become a Medical Director was, as he describes, a classic “right place, right time” situation, with valuable connections and a need that a non-Doctor of Medicine (MD) could fill. He continues, “There are many areas of healthcare that are strained by different factors such as staffing, so integrating some of our specialty labs within the department of Pathology across Mass General Brigham  allowed an opportunity to bring in subject matter experts (that aren’t strictly MDs), and that’s where the DCLS potential came into play.”

As for his future, Mize regards the great work that advocates for DCLS practitioners have done to advance the field. He explains that the early proponents recognized the need for lab technical experts to be at the patient's bedside or to be in direct contact with care teams. 

“I hope to continue the work in advocating DCLS as Medical Director here at MGB and HMS, to show that we, too,  can help improve patient care.”

And for the future of health, Mize hopes more unrecognized expertise from an otherwise behind the scenes resource, like medical laboratory scientists, grows in utilization. But he is sure of one thing - the role TTUHSC has played and continues to play in that future.

“I regard TTUHSC very highly,” he says. “Over the years, I was able to lean on them for support for many years after graduation and still continue doing so.” 

In his spare time, Mize describes himself as “a bit of an adventure seeker,” traveling as much as he can, making up for time spent studying and training and experiencing everything he can like scuba diving, skydiving and his most recent favorite - flying.