Dr. Ed Ashwood: focusing on the patient.

• Author: Creager, Janine S.
• Position: Spotlight

Before Dr. Edward Ashwood, ARUP Laboratories president and CEO, ever put on a pathology lab coat, he was wearing cowboy boots and was downright comfortable in them.

"I really did grow up on my family's ranch in Colorado, [which was] owned by my grandparents," he says. "I spent 13 summers there. Even in college and medical school, I would spend summers at the ranch. I was truly a cowboy." Those summer months were spent herding cattle, repairing farm equipment, irrigating and mending fences. It was hard work for the young Ashwood, but a very rewarding time for him.

"It taught me what hard work is all about," he says. The hard work also taught him self-reliance and teamwork. "The ranch was about 40 miles from town so if something broke down, you had to fix it. When you're herding cattle, you have to rely on your teammates to take their cows to the next pasture without getting them riled up--[to move them] in a calm and deliberate fashion. That experience shaped me more than anything."

While the influence of ranching came from his mother's side of the family, it was his father's example, as a lab technician, which led him to his chosen career path.

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"At nine years old, I knew that I wanted to work in a clinical lab," says Ashwood, who remembers reading lab results side-by-side his father. "In high school, I wanted to be a pathologist, because I knew that they directed the lab. Most people decide they want to be doctors then decide what they want to specialize in." Ashwood, however, chose the opposite route, identifying his specialty first.

After completing his undergraduate degree in chemical engineering and his medical education in Colorado, Ashwood completed a laboratory...