Front Line Supervisor Program Scholars

Laura Santucci

Title: Assistant Manager
Department: Division of Laboratory Animals
Entity: University
Class Year: 2022

Bio:
Skilled and dedicated Animal Technologist and Assistant Manager offering extensive experience with small and large animal care, husbandry, training and enrichment as well as providing mentoring and training to teammates and facility orientations to new hires. Laura possess strong technical abilities related to the various levels of biomedical protocols and has cultivated strong communication skills using a variety of modern technologies to educate and engage her colleges. As an Assistant Manager, it is imperative that Laura continues to be versatile and flexible. Her current role requires a Jack of all trades and Laura never shies away from a challenge and is a devoted lifelong learner. Laura started at Duke's Division of Laboratory Animal Resources in an entry level position almost 15 years ago. She has extensive expertise of the duties and functions of all three levels below her as well as her current role of Comparative Medicine Specialist IV.

Laura believes that true leaders don't create followers, but rather more leaders. She has encouraged and supported her team to discover and begin making progress towards goals that will give them the skills, and in some cases, the certifications, to potentially move up within Duke and improve their all-around professional capital. Laura has also done extensive work participating in Duke's Frontline Supervisor's Program. This program is vital to helping new supervisors understand themselves, their strengths and challenges to ultimately make them more well-rounded as a leader. You cannot know others (and therefore be a good manager) if you don't first know yourself.

Laura keeps her finger on the pulse of animal research trends that benefit animals and humans though her local and national memberships in RTB-AALAS and AALAS.