Medical Physics Trustees Welcome Dr. Jennifer Stickel
By Robert A. Pooley, PhD, Former ABR Trustee; Kalpana M. Kanal, PhD, ABR Trustee; Matthew B. Podgorsak, PhD, ABR Board of Trustees Chair; and Geoffrey S. Ibbott, PhD, ABR Associate Executive Director for Medical Physics
2024;17(5):8
In this issue of The Beam, we focus our spotlight on ABR Trustee Jennifer R. Stickel, PhD, a medical physicist at the Colorado Associates in Medical Physics (CAMP).
Dr. Stickel became the nuclear medical physics (NMP) Trustee in September at the conclusion of the ABR fall board meeting. Dr. Stickel replaces Robert A. Pooley, PhD, who rotated off the Board of Trustees (BOT). As described in the article “Roles and Responsibilities of an ABR Trustee,” most Trustees have oversight of three or more committees. Dr. Stickel will have oversight of the MP Part 1 Clinical and Part 2 NMP Qualifying exams, Part 3 NMP Certifying Exam, and NMP Online Longitudinal Assessment (OLA) committees.
Dr. Stickel graduated with a PhD in biomedical engineering from the University of California, Davis; her advisor, Simon R. Cherry, PhD, literally wrote the book describing the discipline: Physics in Nuclear Medicine. Dr. Stickel was introduced to medical physics when it was time to find employment after graduating with her PhD, having no awareness of the field prior to that time. UC Davis was seeking a nuclear medical physicist to support the clinical imaging program, and she realized she could have a rewarding career supporting the equipment and clinical applications. She was fortunate to have wonderful mentors: John Boone, PhD; Ramsey Badawi, PhD; and former ABR Governor Tony Seibert, PhD. Dr. Stickel remained at UC Davis for two years before moving to Colorado and joining CAMP, a consulting group that provides medical physics services to the Rocky Mountain West. She worked her way up to partial owner and vice president while still supporting clinical medical physics needs.
Dr. Stickel is triple boarded! She has earned certifications from the ABR in NMP and diagnostic medical physics (DMP) and in nuclear medicine physics and instrumentation from the American Board of Science in Nuclear Medicine (ABSNM).
Dr. Stickel comes to the ABR BOT with a long history of professional service. She has been a member of several American Association of Physicists in Medicine (AAPM) task groups, including TG 356, which was responsible for creating a medical physics practice guideline related to Y-90 microsphere radioembolization. She has been involved with the Intersocietal Accreditation Commission – Nuclear/PET (ICANL) organization since 2012 and has served in executive leadership roles, including the presidential chain, since 2017. She also helped develop the new radiopharmaceutical therapy standards and accreditation program with IAC. Dr. Stickel’s service to the ABR began in 2016 as an item writer for the NMP Part 2 Qualifying Exam. She has served as committee chair since 2019 and is rotating off at the end of this year. Additionally, Dr. Stickel regularly serves as an NMP Certifying Exam oral examiner.
Dr. Stickel has been married to her husband, Jonathan, for 25 years. They have two children: Jebediah, 17 years old and a senior in high school, and Jaelina, 13 years old and in eighth grade. When not supporting school events, they enjoy traveling in the U.S. and internationally. Dr. Stickel also likes baking — cakes, bread, and pastries all come out of the Stickel kitchen.
Of her ABR volunteer time so far, Dr. Stickel said, “The ABR exam process is such a rite of passage for medical physicists. Being able to be a part of the process and ensure that the exams are relevant and appropriate is such an important part of maintaining the impact of board certification for our field. The volunteers and staff are so committed to the process that it is great to be a part of this group.”
We welcome Dr. Stickel to the BOT and look forward to working with her.
