ROSSLYN, VA—Luiza Kowalczyk, senior manager at the Medical Imaging and Technology Alliance (MITA), a division of the National Electrical Manufacturers Association (NEMA), has been selected to attend the 2017 International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) Young Professionals program, which will take place in Vladivostok, Russia, this October in conjunction with the 81st IEC General Meeting. Kowalczyk is one of only 3 winners selected to represent the United States. The competition was held by the U.S. National Committee (USNC) of the IEC, for which the USNC received a record number of submissions from the U.S. electrotechnical arena this year.
“This award appropriately recognizes Luiza for her hard work, dedication, and commitment to standards development,” said MITA Executive Director Patrick Hope. “I look forward to continuing to watch her grow in her career and am confident that she will be a leader in shaping standardization and conformance in the future.”
Luiza Kowalczyk joined MITA in 2014 and quickly gained significant operational experience by serving as the secretary for multiple DICOM (Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine) Working Groups and the DICOM Standards Committee, managing standards maintenance and organizing meeting logistics. DICOM is the international, multi-stakeholder organization for the standardization of the handling, storing, printing, and transmitting information in medical imaging (ISO 12052). NEMA/MITA serves as the secretariat for DICOM.
Kowalczyk’s responsibilities include managing ballots, communications among committees, ensuring deadlines are met and overseeing the day-to-day operations of the committee. She organized two DICOM Educational Conferences promoting DICOM and the standard in China and Korea. As a result, Korean PACS Standards Committee and Chinese Center for Medical Device Standardization Administration (CFDA) joined as members of the DICOM Standards Committee. “Luiza has become a recognized leader, contributor and problem solver for DICOM working groups and has built relationships with key partners through collaboration,” added Hope.
The IEC Young Professionals Program was developed as a way for the IEC and its national committees to reach out to the younger generation of experts, managers, and leaders and encourage their long-term participation in standardization and conformity assessment activities. This helps ensure continuity in the availability of high-quality experts, enabling the commission to maintain its focus on responding to market needs on a long-term basis. Participants are generally engineers or managers aged the early 20s to mid-30s, working in an industry or business relevant to the IEC and with some experience in standards development or conformity assessment.
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The National Electrical Manufacturers Association (NEMA) represents nearly 400 electrical and medical imaging manufacturers on the forefront of electrical safety, reliability, resilience, efficiency, and energy security. Our combined industries account for more than 400,000 American jobs and more than 7,000 facilities across the United States. Domestic production exceeds $117 billion per year.