Dr. Michael Bissell was born on March 5, 1947 in Ridgecrest CA, to mother Margaret Alberta Encell Benefiel and father Henry Robert Benefiel, and spent his childhood and adolescence in southern California and Arizona. After graduating from Palo Verde High School in Tucson, AZ in 1965, and the University of Arizona in 1969 he married classmate Sherry Helene Sacks, but the marriage ended in divorce in 1973. He subsequently married Sherrie Lynne Lyons of Pacific Palisades, CA in 1977 and together they had two children named Cassandra and Grahame, but this marriage too ended in divorce in 1990. Dr. Bissell subsequently married Lita A Hill, his paternal first cousin, who passed away in early 2008. He has been happily married to Mary Lee Jewett Swartz since 2010.
Dr. Bissell’s post-secondary education and training included two BS degrees with honors in chemistry and mathematics from the University of Arizona 1969, MD 1975 and PhD Neurobiology 1977 from Stanford University, and MPH epidemiology 1978 University of California Berkeley. Postgraduate training leading to Board Certification in Clinical Pathology at the Martinez VA Medical Center of the University of California, Davis from 1978 to 1981 and a postdoctoral research fellowship with the National Institute of Mental Health in Bethesda, MD, from 1981 to 1984.
With many years of professional experience under his belt, Dr. Bissell served most recently from 2000 until his retirement in late 2013 as Professor of Pathology at the Ohio State University College of Medicine, Columbus, OH. There over time he filled multiple clinical and administrative roles including director of laboratory medicine, director of clinical chemistry, director of toxicology, vice chair and interim chair of pathology, and associate dean for applied research.
Prior to his work at Ohio State, from 1998 to 2000 he was director of clinical pathology at Allegheny General Hospital in Pittsburgh, PA, where he had the opportunity to completely redesign and oversee implementation of a new clinical lab. He based this effort on principles he had acquired earlier in his career as Vice President and Senior Medical Director of Nichols Institute Reference Labs in San Juan Capistrano, CA from 1991 to 1993. He had subsequently applied these principles in consulting work with Anshen, Allen Associates, Architects, San Francisco and London, providing expert advice to the British National Health Service on the space programming for the clinical laboratories of the New Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh (1995), and the Norfolk and Norwich NHS Regional Medical Center (1996).
Other consulting work included serving as consulting clinical pathologist from 1993 to 1998 for Chi Laboratory Systems, Inc., Ann Arbor, MI, providing business consulting on various aspects of clinical laboratory management nationwide. Very early on in his career, from 1981-1987, based on research he had conducted on biological effects of atmospheric ionization, Dr. Bissell served on consultant panels advising the states of Minnesota and New Hampshire and the New England Power Service Company on the siting of high voltage dc powerlines.
Other “day jobs” (laboratory directorships, academic appointments, etc.) included: Director of Clinical Chemistry at the University of Chicago Medical Center, 1984-1987; Director of Clinical Pathology at the City of Hope National Medical Center, Duarte, CA 1988-1991; and Director of Laboratory Medicine at the University of Texas Medical Branch, Galveston, TX ,1993-1998.
Throughout his career he was active in professional organizations, especially the College of American Pathologists (CAP), where he chaired the Toxicology Resource Committee and contributed to a number of publications including a column in CAP Today; and the Clinical Laboratory Management Association (CLMA), where he served on the Board of Directors and as Treasurer, as well as leading the organization in the creation of its White Paper on Healthcare Reform and co-authoring a series on “Case Studies in Ethics” in the Clinical Laboratory Management Review with ethicist Leonard Weber for several years. He was also a member of the American Society of Clinical Pathologists (ASCP), the American Association for Clinical Chemistry (AACC) and the Society of Forensic Toxicologists (SOFT). He has been a national speaker in the field and has numerous publications including several books to his credit. He was selected for inclusion in several different editions of Who's Who.
A lifetime member of the Sierra Club and the academic honoraries Phi Kappa Phi and Sigma Xi, he also has served as an activist and lecturer with the Physicians for a National Health Program, having been a signatory on that group’s original white paper. Civically, he is active in his church and has served on the board of directors of Partners-in-Ministry-in-Liberia (PIMIL) an international charity. Diagnosed with early stage Parkinson;s disease in late 2013 at the time of his retirement, Dr. Bissell nonetheless enjoys genealogy, travel, writing parodies of pop songs, and playing the harp and Saxophone. In a career filled with highlights, he is especially proud of having acted as the interim chair of pathology at The Ohio State University.