Margot McDermott

Margot L. McDermott is a laboratory leader and senior scientist with over two decades of diverse experience spanning the food safety/HACCP, pharmaceutical, and clinical pathology sectors. Throughout her extensive career, she has successfully led large technical teams for the validation of LIMS, launched cGMP contract testing laboratories, and optimized cGMP manufacturing efficiency—including a major lean manufacturing initiative that slashed operational overtime from 25% down to just 1%. Notably, her scientific achievements include pivotal research that contributed to the Ebola vaccine. Margot has built a reputation for operational excellence, high-quality data integrity, and strict regulatory compliance. She earned her B.S. in Bacteriology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where she was a member of the Golden Key National Honor Society. Outside of work, Margot is an effective communicator who enjoys scientific writing, reading, painting, crafting, and publishing poetry. Now bringing this real-world expertise into the CTE classroom, she teaches microbiology classes with an emphasis on strong technical precision and rigorous compliance. Margot bridges the gap between theory and practice by equipping students with master-level practical skills, from the foundational mechanics of handling micropipettes and reading petri dishes to navigating complex medical ethics, regulatory requirements, and data integrity.