May 2005 | Vol. 23, No. 5

Rita Shugart Becomes New ICAVL President

Rita Shugart, RN RVT FSVU, an SVU member since 1979 and a former SVU officer and Board Director for several years, recently became the new President of the Intersocietal Commission on the Accreditation of Vascular Laboratories (ICAVL) in Columbia, MD. She is the first non-physician and first woman to serve as ICAVL President.

She was elected ICAVL President-Elect in 2002 to a two-year term effective January 1, 2003, and automatically became ICAVL President on January 1, 2005 for a two-year term. Rita has been one of two SVU representatives on the ICAVL Board of Directors since 1995, and earlier had served two years as ICAVL Secretary. Joanne E. Drago, LPN, RVT, Chief Vascular Technologist at the Michigan Vascular Center, Flint, MI, is the other SVU representative on the ICAVL Board.

Rita Shugart said: “I am quite honored to become ICAVL President, and am especially proud to represent those who I believe are the most critical determinants of the quality of noninvasive vascular services in vascular labs – the technologists and sonographers who work every day to promote high quality patient care. I firmly believe ICAVL accreditation for vascular labs is the best method for achieving this goal, and I hope my visibility as ICAVL President will increase vascular lab participation in this process, which is so valuable for our patients.”

Rita, who served as SVU President in 1986, is the Vascular Lab Manager for the Cardiovascular and Thoracic Surgeons of Greensboro, NC.

Congratulations, Rita from all of your friends at SVU!