Barbara Zehnbauer

Barbara A. Zehnbauer, PhD is an Adjunct Professor of Pathology at the Emory School of Medicine.  She has more than 38 years of combined experience directing clinical molecular genetics laboratories and leading laboratory quality initiatives.  She has professional board certification in Clinical Molecular Genetics from the American Board of Medical Genetics and Genomics.  Professor Zehnbauer received her graduate education at the University of Chicago.  Her previous professional experience has included appointments at the John Hopkins University School of Medicine, Washington University School of Medicine, and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Dr. Zehnbauer is a past-president of the Association for Molecular Pathology (AMP) and served on many AMP committees and subdivisions, including Program Committee, Strategic Planning committee, Awards Committee, Publications Committee, Professional Relations Committee, and the Patient Engagement Workgroup.  She is an Editor-in-Chief Emerita and current Editorial Board member of AMP’s official medical journal, The Journal of Molecular Diagnostics.  She received AMP’s Jeffrey A. Kant Leadership Award in 2015 for exceptional leadership in advancing the mission and vision of molecular diagnostics.  She has led the development of professional practice guidelines and certification requirements for laboratory testing with the College of American Pathologists (CAP).  She is a current member of the Consensus Council and a past Chair of the Molecular Diagnostics Expert Panel of the Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute (CLSI).   Her participation has been recognized with several CLSI awards including the John V. Bergen Excellence Award in 2022 for “unique and significant contributions” to the mission of CLSI.  Dr. Zehnbauer led the Steering Committee for the Tapestry Networks SPOT/Dx Quality Assurance Pilot and coauthored the publication of those findings. She also contributed to the Medical Device Innovation Consortium’s Somatic Reference Standards project, producing a landscape analysis paper to support design of quality standards for genetic testing in oncology precision medicine.