Tia Burns, MS, PA-C, MT(ASCP), graduated magna cum laude with a B.S. in Clinical Laboratory Science from Wayne State University in Detroit in the year 2000, and was certified as a Medical Technologist (MT) by the American Society of Clinical Pathologists the same year. She was employed as an MT in Hematology before specializing in the field of Cytogenetics. Since obtaining her Master's degree in Physician Assistant Studies in 2006, she has worked in Adult Internal Medicine at William Beaumont Hospital as well as in Adult Infectious Disease at the University of Michigan. In 2008, she relocated to Minnesota with her husband, and joined the University of Minnesota Adult Blood and Marrow Transplant team.