Vickie Baselski received her doctoral degree in microbiology from the University of Texas at Austin in 1978, and completed a postdoctoral fellowship in Medical and Public Health Laboratory Microbiology at the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta from 1978-1980. She achieved certification by the American Board of Medical Microbiology in 1982, and attained fellowship in the American Academy of Microbiology in 2000. She holds a current license as a microbiology and public health laboratory director in Tennessee. Her professional service activities have included technical direction of microbiology at The University of Tennessee Bowld Hospital, The Regional Medical Center at Memphis, and Memphis Pathology Laboratory/American Esoteric Laboratory. She currently serves as the laboratory director at the Shelby County Health Department, and as the microbiology technical director at at Methodist University Hospital and Regional One Health. She is a tenured Professor in the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center and plays an active teaching role in the area of infectious disease diagnostics. She also publishes in the area in of laboratory diagnosis of infectious diseases, particularly on topics of sexually transmitted diseases and lower respiratory tract infections. She is a member of the ASM Sentinel Laboratory Guideline Workgroup, and helped develop the Tennessee Sentinel Laboratory Preparedness Workshop for which she received an NLTN recognition award in 2004. She has continued to present annual updates on Emerging Infectious Diseases and the role of the Sentinel Laboratory for APHL. She was a member and subsequently Chair of the Professional Affairs Committee of the American Society for Microbiology where she worked on a number of regulatory, managerial, and reimbursement issues in diagnostic microbiology. She has prepared and presented statements on behalf of ASM to federal, state, and private professional groups on areas relating to reimbursement, including issues related to emerging technologies. She participates in national and regional workshops and audioconferences as well as publishing in these areas. She was recognized in 2007 with the ASM BioMerieux Sonnenwirth Award for Excellence in Clinical Microbiology, and in 2008 with the Trek Diagnostics ABMM/ABMLI Professional Recognition Award.