Packaging Princess Malinda Elammari Is Crowning a New Era of Sterile Processing

Raleigh, North Carolina–If you’ve ever seen clusters of crowns shine their way through a sea of people at the Healthcare Sterile Processing Association (HSPA) national conference and wondered what they were, wonder no more.

Started in 2022 by the “Packaging Princess” herself, Malinda Elammari, CST, CSPM, CSPDT, CFER, CSIS, CRCST, CIS, CLSSGB, HACP-IC, the “Crownie” movement began to celebrate those who held multiple certifications in the sterile processing profession. Elammari was inspired by HSPA’s practice of awarding “crown status” recognition to professionals with a certain number of certifications. Professionals with three certifications hold silver crown status, and those with four certifications hold gold crown status.

“I wondered: how do I take this Crownie thing to another level, and really inspire more people to become certified?” said Elammari. “I wanted to emphasize the importance of education, certification, and growth.”

So, she made an announcement. If you have a crown status, wear an actual crown to HSPA, and find Elammari on the vendor floor. There, you can take selfies with her, and she’ll give you a Crownie pin and ribbon.

Each year, the movement grew. It didn’t take long at all for the movement to genuinely inspire people. Elammari recalls one day when someone approached her and burst into tears.

“A conference-goer said to me, ‘I cannot tell you how hard I worked to get all my certifications so I could become a Crownie,’” said Elammari. “That is the biggest success of my career, helping people reach their higher potential in a fun way.”

For a woman whose professional credentials could span multiple pages, this claim is a big one.

Throughout her career, Elammari has served as Interim Director of Education and Quality, Sterile Processing Educator and Quality Control Manager, Clinical Operations Manager, and lead instructor for a Central Sterile program in North Carolina. She holds several certifications in sterile processing through the Certification Board for Sterile Processing and Distribution (CBSPD) and HSPA.

Malinda is also a TeamSTEPPS Master trainer and is certified as a Lean Six Sigma Green Belt. She serves on the Editorial Board for AAMI Publications, sits on multiple national standard writing committees, and holds co-chair positions with AAMI for ISO/WG7 (Packaging) and WG44 (Dental). She is a US representative for ISO’s medical device packaging work group, the Kilmer Innovations in Packaging (KiiP) Executive Committee, and is a project manager for KiiP’s Aseptic Presentation subgroup. Elammari currently serves as president for the North Carolina HSPA chapter and recently received her certification through the Healthcare Accreditation and Certification Program (HACP) for Infection Control.

Putting the End User First

Today, Elammari is the founder and CEO of Crown Point Consulting. She started the company in late 2025 to actualize a dream that had festered in her mind for years. Her main objectives for the company are: One, to become a trustworthy resource to sterile processing departments that need support meeting and maintaining regulations and standards. Secondly, to act as a crucial end-user perspective for packaging industry manufacturers.

“When I think of a brighter future for medical device packaging,” said Elammari. “I think of a collaborative world where the end user’s perspective is understood and taken into account and where end users understand packaging on a higher level.”

As the Packaging Princess, Elammari is arguably one of the best candidates to bridge this gap.

“For example,” said Elammari, “from a surgical technician’s perspective, one of the main barriers is not being able to open a sterile package correctly, or not understanding how to open it and maintain instrument sterility. That’s a struggle that surgical techs face every day.”

One of the biggest packaging misconceptions? The correct use and function of instrument protector cards for robotic and hinged instruments.

“A lot of people think of tip protectors in terms of how well they protect the instrument, which they do, but protecting the packaging itself is equally important,” said Elammari. “Instrument Protector Cards by SterileBits, for example, are user-friendly, and assist in aseptic presentation, which has a great place in the industry. When I was a surgical technician, I would have loved to have those.”

And that’s just one of the many recommendations Elammari has for SPDs across the world.

“When I was an educator at hospitals, I would teach people to assemble trays using a roll,” said Elammari. “If you pile metal instruments on top of each other on a table, the metal instruments hitting each other can potentially damage the passivation layer of those instruments.”

Plus, this practice clutters a technician’s table, potentially leading to a less efficient workflow and more overwhelm in an already high-intensity environment. Instead, Elammari recommends setting up stringed instruments on a roll. Then, make groups of every other instrument, such as forceps and retractors. Finally, build your tray from the bottom up. The first thing in each tray after a liner and chemical indicator should be items like retractors, which lie at the bottom of the tray. Once all those items are accounted for and in the tray, technicians now have room to work on stringers, which are the last instruments to go in each tray.

“That’s an example of a helpful practice that’s not necessarily scientifically backed enough to be implemented into a formal standard, but is something that I’ve seen make a big difference in SPDs,” said Elammari.

These changes may seem small, but they make a significant difference in the quality of the work completed.

“I often joke about the Princess label,” said Elammari, “but at the core of it, it’s about holding myself to a different level of care for the people in this industry. It’s a princess’s job to be there for their people and to help guide their community. That’s where my passion is. To help guide this industry to a better tomorrow.”

To learn more about Crown Point Consulting, click here.

SterileBits: A Better Tomorrow, Today

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