Lifelines (Winter 2001) - Board Member Spotlight

Board Member Spotlight - Daniel Stites, M.D.

	Daniel Stites, M.D.

In September 2001, Blood Centers of the Pacific (BCP) announced the appointment of Daniel Stites, M.D., as the newest member of its board of directors.

Dr. Stites comes to BCP with a wealth of knowledge, experience and enthusiasm. “I haven’t attended a board meeting as of yet, but I am really anxious to be involved,” said Dr. Stites, who is married to a medical librarian with two adult children. Dr. Stites will attend his first BCP board meeting in January 2002.

Born in Atlantic City, New Jersey, Dr. Stites attended Haverford College in Philadelphia, where he received an Artium Baccalaureatus (A.B.) Degree in German Literature. Having an interest in medicine, he went on to pursue a Medical Degree at Stanford University and interned in Medicine and Pediatrics at the North Carolina Memorial Hospital in Chapel Hill, North Carolina. “I find the medical profession very rewarding,” said Dr. Stites, who currently serves on several Scientific Advisory Boards including the Blood Systems Foundation. “It’s terrific.”

Soon after, Dr. Stites became a clinical associate at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland. He then moved to California where he did his Postdoctoral Fellowship at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). “As part of my fellowship in the 1970’s, I got to work with Dr. Herbert Perkins (BCP’s Senior Medical Scientist), and thus began one of my first associations with BCP,” he said. Dr. Stites remained at UCSF for the next 30 years as a faculty member and eventually became Chairman of the Department of Laboratory Medicine. Dr. Stites is now an Emeritus Professor in that department.

Dr. Stites also served as an officer in the United States Public Health Service from 1967 to 1969. He has won several awards and belongs to numerous medical societies. Dr. Stites was an editor for the Clinical and Diagnostic Laboratory of Immunology and has had more than 150 original articles published in medical journals and periodicals.

This past August, Dr. Stites retired from UCSF. But while retirement for many means taking it easy from work, Dr. Stites’s work plate seems as full as ever! Recently, not only did Dr. Stites join BCP’s board but he also assumed an advisory role to Dr. Michael Busch, VP of BCP’s Research and Scientific Services. “I’ve always known and respected this institution (BCP),” said Dr. Stites, who used to donate blood at UCSF. “I’ve always been interested in blood banking and I am privileged and honored to work and volunteer here.”

Of his recent appointment to the BCP board, Dr. Stites hopes his background as an immunologist, his understanding of blood banking and not to mention his clinical expertise in virology, will benefit BCP.

Currently, Dr. Stites lives in Sonoma after having resided in Burlingame for 20 years.

Welcome aboard, Dr. Stites!