Meet Our 2020 Stand Up To Superbugs Ambassadors

More than 40 individuals from across the country are coming to Washington Feb. 25-27, as part of The Pew Charitable Trusts’ Stand Up To Superbugs initiative. This year’s ambassadors include health care professionals, public health officials, scientists, farmers and ranchers, veterinarians, superbug survivors, and people who have lost loved ones to an antibiotic-resistant infection. They will meet with their representatives on Capitol Hill to share their superbug stories and expertise, and urge increased action to preserve the effectiveness of existing antibiotics and develop urgently needed new ones.

Trevor Ames (Minneapolis, Minnesota)

Trevor Ames, D.V.M., M.S., D.A.C.V.I.M., is the associate vice president of academic health sciences in the Office of the Executive Vice President and Provost at the University of Minnesota’s College of Veterinary Medicine, where he has also served as dean and held several department chair positions. Ames has spent his career teaching internal medicine to veterinary students and researching infectious diseases in animals. He has been a member of the American Veterinary Medical Association, the Minnesota Veterinary Medical Association, and the American College of Veterinary Internal Medicine for over 35 years. Ames received his doctorate of veterinary medicine degree from the University of Saskatchewan and his master of science degree from the University of Minnesota, where he also completed his residency.  

Brad Andersh (Peoria, Illinois)

Brad Andersh, Ph.D., B.S., has been a professor of chemistry at Bradley University for nearly three decades. His research aims to find new antibiotics that will fight resistant bacteria by either modifying the structure of existing drugs or working to discover new classes of antibiotics. Andersh is the 2013 recipient of the Putnam Award for Excellence in Teaching. He received a bachelor’s degree in chemistry from the University of South Dakota and a doctorate from Iowa State University.

Ritu Banerjee (Nashville, Tennessee)

Ritu Banerjee, M.D., Ph.D., is an associate professor in the division of pediatric infectious diseases and director of the antimicrobial stewardship program at Vanderbilt Children’s Hospital. She provides clinical care for children with complicated infections; teaches medical students, residents, and fellows; and conducts clinical research related to the surveillance of antibiotic-resistant bacteria and strategies to optimize appropriate antibiotic use. She has seen firsthand the devastating outcomes of drug-resistant infections and has been frustrated by the limited number of antibiotics available to fight superbugs. She received doctoral and medical degrees from Washington University in St. Louis, and completed a pediatric residency and pediatric infectious diseases fellowship at the University of California, San Francisco. 

John Barlow (Charlotte, Vermont)

John Barlow, D.V.M., Ph.D., is a veterinary infectious disease researcher and an associate professor in the department of animal sciences at the University of Vermont, where he teaches undergraduate and graduate courses, including One Health—Antibiotic Resistance. His research is focused on mastitis control on conventional and organic dairy farms, Staphylococcus epidemiology on dairy farms, antimicrobial resistance and antimicrobial use in agriculture, and improved methods for disease control in dairy cattle. He received a bachelor’s degree in pathobiology from the University of Connecticut, a veterinary medicine degree from the University of Illinois, and a doctorate in infectious disease mathematical and molecular epidemiology from the University of Vermont.

Marshall Bartlett (Como, Mississippi)

Marshall Bartlett set out to build a business, Home Place Pastures, on his family farm in Como, Mississippi—the land that four generations of his family had worked before him. Bartlett and his family specialize in raising heritage pigs and have expanded the enterprise to include lambs and cattle. Home Place animals are raised on pasture with abundant access to fresh forage and sunshine. Bartlett is committed to sustainable, ethical animal husbandry and to the environmental and economic well-being of his rural community. He is also committed to promoting sustainable animal husbandry techniques and creating a viable business model by scaling up the production and distribution of pasture-raised meats through his business.

Bartlett received his bachelor’s degree from Dartmouth College and worked in Montana and New Orleans before becoming co-founder and president of Home Place Pastures.

Sophia Cardwell (Portland, Oregon)

Sophia Macleay Cardwell, Pharm.D., M.P.H., is a board-certified infectious diseases pharmacist, coordinator of the antimicrobial stewardship program for the PeaceHealth Columbia Region, and an adjunct professor in the School of Pharmacy at the University of Connecticut. Her work in antimicrobial use reporting resulted in PeaceHealth being awarded a National Healthcare Safety Network Antimicrobial Use and Resistance grant from the Washington State Department of Health. She holds a bachelor’s degree in biology from the University of Oregon, a master’s in public health from Portland State University, and a doctor of pharmacy from Pacific University. She completed her pharmacotherapy residency at the University of Vermont Medical Center and her infectious diseases residency at Hartford Hospital.

Elias Chahine (West Palm Beach, Florida)

Elias Chahine, Pharm.D., F.C.C.P., F.A.S.C.P., F.F.S.H.P., B.C.P.S., B.C.I.D.P., is a professor of pharmacy practice at Palm Beach Atlantic University and a clinical pharmacy specialist at Wellington Regional Medical Center. He has written articles and book chapters on infectious diseases and pharmacy education and presented at local, state, national, and international pharmacy meetings. He is the recipient of several teaching, practice, and service awards, including the American College of Clinical Pharmacy education award and the clinical practice award from the Infectious Diseases Practice and Research Network, where he also served as the chair in 2017. Chahine received his Doctor of Pharmacy degree from the Lebanese American University and completed a pharmacy residency at Mary Imogene Bassett Hospital, affiliated with Columbia University, and the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy Academic Leadership Fellows Program.

Christina Fuhrman (Columbia, Missouri)

Christina Fuhrman is a survivor of Clostridioides difficile (C. diff), formerly known as Clostridium difficile, which nearly ended her life. Three years after her infection, her 2-year-old daughter developed the same condition. As a Peggy Lillis Foundation advocate and through her personal website (www.mygijourney.org), she works to increase awareness of C. diff and connect patients with resources. She is a stay-at-home mom to two children after working 15 years in banking and lending.

Barry Fox (Madison, Wisconsin)

Barry Fox is a professor of medicine in the division of infectious diseases at the University of Wisconsin (UW) in Madison. Currently, his specialty is in clinical infectious disease at two hospitals and a long-term care facility. In addition to patient care, Fox leads the antibiotic stewardship team at UW Hospital—a group devoted to using antibiotics wisely, weighing what is best for the patient, as well as controlling costs. He is also one of the hospitals’ epidemiologists. Fox is a fellow in the Infectious Disease Society of America, the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America, and the American College of Physicians. He is also a member of the Emerging Infectious Disease Network and the worldwide Alliance for the Prudent Use of Antibiotics. He received his undergraduate degree in molecular biophysics and biochemistry from Yale University, his medical degree from Vanderbilt University, training in internal medicine from the University of Wisconsin, Madison, and an infectious disease fellowship from the University of Maryland. He is board-certified in both internal medicine and infectious disease.

Tammy Heenan (Keizer, Oregon)

Tammy Heenan is retired from the state of Oregon, Adult and Family Services, where she worked recouping funds lost to welfare fraud. Heenan was diagnosed with lung cancer in March 2015, and had surgery to remove the top lobe of her right lung. Due to complications after surgery, she became/was infected with nontuberculosis mycobacterium (NTM) while in the hospital. She took antibiotics for three years to clear it. Heenan has endured multiple hospital stays and dangerous infections, including Pseudomonas aeruginosa, which has no cure, colonized in her right lung. She relies on antibiotics to keep it dormant. She is at high risk for infections, viruses, and pneumonia, and must wear a medical mask when out in public or at medical appointments to avoid catching viruses and bugs going around. Heenan hopes that funding will be approved for the research to develop new and better antibiotics. She hopes one day that Pseudomonas aeruginosa and other such bacteria will have a cure and that there will be a more effective treatment for NTM.

Seth Housman (Northampton, Massachusetts)

Seth Housman, Pharm.D., M.P.A., is a clinical assistant professor of acute care in the department of pharmacy practice at Western New England University. He maintains a practice site at Baystate Medical Center as an infectious diseases pharmacy specialist and assistant residency program director for the second-year postgraduate infectious diseases pharmacy residency. His research interests include optimizing antimicrobial dosing to overcome antimicrobial resistance. He received a master’s degree in public administration and a doctor of pharmacy degree from Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa.

Grace Kubin (Leander, Texas)

Grace Kubin, Ph.D., lost her father due to complications from a C. diff infection in June 2015. The uncontrollable infection was caused by improper prescribing of antibiotics following surgery and a lack of patient monitoring to detect the infection. The following year, the Texas Department of State Health Services Laboratory, of which Kubin serves as director, received funding from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to become a testing lab for CDC’s newly formed national Antibiotic Resistance Lab Network. These laboratories provide additional testing capacities to quickly identify unusual resistance and look for potential sources of resistant organisms in health care facilities. The Texas laboratory supports rapid identification in an effort to prevent antibiotic resistance, and Kubin has co-written several papers on this work. She studied immunology, focusing on gene regulation, at the University of Texas, Austin, where she received bachelor’s, master’s, and doctoral degrees.

Kerry LaPlante (East Greenwich, Rhode Island)

Kerry LaPlante, Pharm.D., F.C.C.P., F.I.D.S.A., is a tenured professor of pharmacy at the University of Rhode Island, an adjunct professor of medicine at Brown University, and director of the antimicrobial stewardship clinical research program and fellowship at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Providence, Rhode Island. She is the immediate past president of the Society of Infectious Diseases Pharmacists, chairperson of the Rhode Island Department of Health’s Antimicrobial Stewardship and Environmental Cleaning Task Force, and technical expert for the Joint Commission’s Leading Practices in Antimicrobial Stewardship panel. She received a bachelor’s degree in biology from Canisius College and a doctor of pharmacy and postdoctoral fellowship in infectious diseases/pharmacotherapy at the Anti-Infective Research Laboratory, Wayne State University.

Christian Lillis (Brooklyn, New York)

Christian Lillis lost his mother, Peggy, to a C. diff infection in April 2010 after she was unnecessarily prescribed a broad-spectrum antibiotic. The loss of his mother led Lillis to advocate for better antibiotic use policies and the building of a more robust drug pipeline, as treatments for C. diff are limited. He is co-founder, with his brother Liam, and executive director of the Peggy Lillis Foundation and a former member of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality’s Safety Program for Improving Antibiotic Use. In 2013, he received CDC’s Excellence in Partnership award for domestic advocates and organizations.

Dustin Loy (Lincoln, Nebraska)

Dustin Loy, D.V.M., Ph.D., is an associate professor in the School of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln and faculty supervisor for the bacteriology and molecular diagnostics sections of the Nebraska Veterinary Diagnostic Center. His research focuses on ocular and respiratory diseases of cattle with a specific interest in the development of tools and diagnostic strategies to assist veterinarians with disease prevention and the judicious selection and use of antimicrobials. He is a member of the board of health for Lincoln/Lancaster County, Nebraska, and a committee chair for the American College of Veterinary Microbiology and the American Association of Veterinary Laboratory Diagnosticians. He received a bachelor’s degree in animal science, a doctorate in veterinary microbiology, and a doctor of veterinary medicine degree in food animal medicine from Iowa State University, and is a diplomate of the American College of Veterinary Microbiologists.

Everly Macario (Chicago, Illinois)

Everly Macario’s otherwise healthy and beautiful curly red-haired, brown-eyed 1½- year-old son, Simon Sol Sparrow, died suddenly from a community-associated methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (CA-MRSA) infection in 2004. Since then, Macario has been sounding the alarm about our post-antibiotic era and rallying to reduce our misuse of antibiotics—in humans, food animals, and pets. Her aim is to make antibiotic resistance as urgent as climate change. Macario holds a doctorate in health and social behavior, a master’s degree in health policy and management, and a master’s degree in education—each from Harvard University.

Ron Mardesen (Elliott, Iowa)

Ron Mardesen’s farm, A Frame Acres, in Elliot, Iowa, has been in the family for five generations, with three generations currently working the land. Mardesen’s family has been partnering with Niman Ranch since 2002 and he has spent more than a decade as a field agent for the company, supporting hundreds of independent family farmers. He currently serves as a coach and spokesperson for Niman’s farming community. A Frame Acres has been featured on “60 Minutes” and in radio and print ads for Chipotle. Mardesen has hosted hundreds of guests on his farm and is a member of Practical Farmers of Iowa. He hosts international groups and mentors new farmers throughout the state of Iowa and in eastern Nebraska. Mardesen is committed to letting pigs be pigs.

Marian Millard (Prairieville, Louisiana)

Marian (Mary) Millard lives with a resistant health care-acquired infection. For the past three years, she has been a public speaker, sharing her patient story at various conferences and with pharmaceutical companies around the world to raise awareness of the problem of antibiotic resistance. Millard now studies microbiology, follows all research on antibiotic stewardship, and advocates for patients. She lives in Louisiana with her husband and tries to do as much as she can to stay strong and healthy. Millard worked for 11 years as a licensed practical nurse and 13 years in practice management. She holds a bachelor’s degree in business from American Public University System and a master’s degree in education from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Kimberlee Musser (Loudonville, New York)

Kimberlee Musser, Ph.D., is the clinical director and director of the bacteriology laboratory at the New York State Department of Health, Wadsworth Center. As the chief of bacterial diseases, she oversees the bacteriology laboratory, the foodborne bacteriology laboratory, the mycobacteriology laboratory, the Northeast Regional PulseNet Laboratory, and the Northeast Regional Antimicrobial Resistance Laboratory. Musser’s laboratory provides diagnostic reference testing for the detection of various pathogenic bacteria in New York state. She received a doctorate of biomedical sciences from Albany Medical College and her postdoctoral training as a CDC/APHL Emerging Infectious Diseases Fellow at the Wadsworth Center.

Noelle Noyes (Minneapolis, Minnesota)

Noelle Noyes, D.V.M., Ph.D., is a veterinary epidemiologist in the Veterinary Population Medicine Department at the University of Minnesota. Her team investigates antimicrobial resistance dynamics at the intersection of livestock production systems and microbial ecology. Areas of current research include methodological improvements for applied use of metagenomic data, and the microbiome as a tool for improved animal health, welfare, and production. Noyes received her doctorate in epidemiology and her veterinary degree with a specialization in large animal medicine from Colorado State University, and a postdoctoral fellowship at the United States Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) National Institute of Food and Agriculture. Previously, Noyes received a bachelor’s degree in European studies from Amherst College, with a concentration in Asian languages and civilizations, and a master’s degree from Universität Osnabrück, Germany, while conducting independent research through an Alexander von Humboldt Fellowship. 

Kelsey OYong (Pasadena, California)

Kelsey OYong, M.P.H., C.I.C., is an epidemiologist and health care-associated infections coordinator at the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health. Her responsibilities include investigating health care infection outbreaks, containing drug resistance, and tracking antibiotic use. OYong completed a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention-Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologists Applied Epidemiology Fellowship in 2013 and is certified in infection control and epidemiology. She received a bachelor’s degree in molecular biology from Colgate University and a master’s of public health degree from the University of Albany School of Public Health.

Payal Patel (Ann Arbor, Michigan)

Payal Patel, M.D., M.P.H., is an assistant professor in the division of infectious diseases at the University of Michigan and the medical director of antimicrobial stewardship at the VA Ann Arbor Healthcare System, where she leads a diagnostic stewardship effort to reduce ordering unnecessary urine cultures. Patel’s research focuses on implementation of antibiotic stewardship practices on a local, national and international level. She most recently served as the antimicrobial stewardship lead for CDC’s States Targeting Reduction in Infections via Engagement (STRIVE) program that sought to reduce health care-associated infections in 443 hospitals in 28 states. She is also working with antimicrobial stewardship programs in Italy, India and Japan. She received a bachelor’s degree in public health and the humanities from Johns Hopkins University, a medical degree from the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, and a master’s in public health at the Harvard School of Public Health.

Eric Petrosinelli (Warwick, Rhode Island)

Eric Petrosinelli is a teacher for Rhode Island Hospital's medical imaging programs, and he works in the field as an X-ray and CT scan technologist at Sturdy Memorial Hospital in Attleboro, Massachusetts. His work has made him aware of the intestinal infection C. diff, but it was not until recently that he understood how potentially fatal this infection can be. His mother, Betty, was hospitalized with C. diff in November 2018, and died five days later. Besides her age, she had no other predisposing factors. Petrosinelli felt compelled to act in honor of his mother, and he now serves as an advocate for the Peggy Lillis Foundation, spending time in April 2019 lobbying with the foundation’s members in Washington. His goals as an advocate include promoting C. diff awareness, detection, and treatments, as well as working to change policy.

Melinda Pettigrew (New Haven, Connecticut)

Melinda Pettigrew, Ph.D., is a professor of epidemiology and the senior associate dean for academic affairs at the Yale School of Public Health (YSPH). She leads the academic programs at YSPH and researches the growing public health threat of antibiotic resistance. Specifically, her research seeks to determine how disruptions in the microbiome influence development of antibiotic resistance and the risk for hospital-acquired infections. She serves as a steering committee member and executive committee member for the Antibacterial Resistance Leadership Group, which is a network of scientists who set the nation’s clinical research agenda to curb the threat of antibiotic resistance. Pettigrew has served since 2017 on the Connecticut Department of Public Health’s Multidisciplinary Antimicrobial Resistance/Antimicrobial Stewardship Advisory Group. She serves on the editorial boards of the Journal of Clinical Microbiology and mBio. Pettigrew is a widely known teacher who received the YSPH Distinguished Teaching Award and the Yale Graduate and Professional Student Senate Inspiring Yale Award in 2018. She received a bachelor’s degree in biology from Grinnell College and a doctorate in epidemiology from Yale University.

Cassandra Quave (Atlanta, Georgia)

Cassandra Quave, Ph.D., is curator of the Herbarium and assistant professor of Dermatology and Human Health at Emory University, where she leads antibiotic drug discovery research initiatives and teaches courses on medicinal plants, microbiology and pharmacology. Her research focuses on plants used in the traditional medical treatment of infectious and inflammatory skin disease, which she applies to natural products drug discovery in her search for new antibiotics that target multidrug-resistant pathogens such as methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) andcarbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae, (CRE), among others. Her interest in antibiotic-resistant infections is personal; she survived a hospital-acquired Staphylococcus aureus infection that nearly took her life as a child. Quave is the co-founder and CEO/CSO of PhytoTEK LLC, a drug discovery company dedicated to developing solutions from botanicals for the treatment of recalcitrant antibiotic-resistant infections. She is a fellow of the Explorers Club, a past president of the Society for Economic Botany, and a recipient of the Emory Williams Teaching Award and Charles Heiser Jr. Mentor Award, and her innovative research has been covered extensively by the mainstream media. She received a doctorate in biology with a focus on ethnobotany and ethnopharmacology from Florida International University’s Center for Ethnobiology and Natural Products, and training as a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Arkansas and Emory University. 

Lee Riley (Berkeley, California)

Lee Riley, M.D., is professor and head of the division of infectious disease and vaccinology at the School of Public Health at the University of California, Berkeley. He is a member of a research group at Berkeley, the Consortium for Research on Antimicrobial Resistant Bacteria, and a former Pew scholar in the Biomedical Sciences program. He currently serves as a member of the board of scientific counselors for the Office of Infectious Disease at CDC. He was elected as a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Sciences, Infectious Disease Society of America, and American Academy of Microbiology. His research focuses on molecular epidemiology and mechanisms of resistance of antimicrobial-resistant Gram-negative bacteria. He received his medical degree from the University of California, San Francisco.

Chris Romm (Sparks, Nevada)

Seven years ago, Chris and Joyce Romm lost their son, Carl, an Army veteran, a few months after he was honorably discharged. Doctors initially diagnosed an infection caused by a strain of Staphylococcus aureus that caused severe heart damage. Carl underwent multiple hospital visits and emergency heart surgery, but after each hospitalization, he quickly became ill with a new, resistant infection. He was later found to have a confluence of antibiotic-resistant infections that were resistant to every antibiotic, including vancomycin. These infections could not be treated successfully, and he died of cardiac arrest, a result of heart inflammation caused by the infections. Carl’s death was the consequence of antibiotic-resistant infections and the resulting toxins in his body from every antibiotic in the arsenal. Chris and Joyce share Carl’s story today to draw greater attention to the need for new antibiotics and increased research, as well as the proper use of these drugs in all settings. Ultimately, they want to help ensure that fewer patients are afflicted and that families are spared from losing someone they love to antibiotic-resistant infections.

Shannon Ross (Vestavia Hills, Alabama)

Shannon Ross, M.D., M.S.P.H., is an associate professor of pediatrics and microbiology in the division of pediatric infectious diseases at the University of Alabama, Birmingham (UAB), and has been a faculty member in UAB’s department of pediatrics since 2006. Ross is an active clinician and researcher, with her lab work focusing on congenital infections. She is a fellow of the American Academy of Pediatrics, the Infectious Diseases Society of America, and the Pediatric Infectious Diseases Society, and an elected member of the Society for Pediatric Research. Since 2015, she has been the medical co-director of the Children’s of Alabama-Benjamin Russell Hospital’s antimicrobial stewardship program and leads a team that works to implement guidelines and policies on appropriate antimicrobial use to improve patient care. She received a medical degree from the UAB School of Medicine and completed a pediatric residency and pediatric infectious diseases fellowship from UAB. During her fellowship training, she also received a master’s degree in public health, in clinical research, at the UAB School of Public Health. To learn more, watch “My Worst Fear: A Doctor Faces Antibiotic Resistance” and read “One Doctor’s Fight to Stop Superbugs and Save Lives.”

Laura Sage (Corvallis, Oregon)

Laura Sage and her husband are co-owners of Red Bird Acres, a first-generation pasture-based livestock farm in Oregon’s Willamette Valley. They raise laying hens, broiler chickens, and pigs exclusively on pasture, and their products are certified Animal Welfare Approved. On their farm, she and her husband work to prevent antibiotic resistance through the judicious use of antibiotics. They never give their animals prophylactic antibiotics and, through good husbandry practices, are able to raise animals that stay healthy and thrive on pasture without the use of medical interventions common on other livestock farms. When necessary, they will provide an individual sick animal with antibiotics at a therapeutic dose under the supervision of their veterinarians. As a very small-scale farm, they rely on these medications to work when they need them. She has a bachelor’s degree in women’s studies and adventure education from Prescott College. To learn more, read “How Family Farmers Raise Animals With Few Antibiotics.”

Hayden Schwenk (Belmont, California)

Hayden Schwenk, M.D., M.P.H., is a clinical associate professor of pediatrics in the division of pediatric infectious diseases at the Stanford University School of Medicine. He is the co-clinical chief of the division and chairs the Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital Stanford pharmacy and therapeutics and integrated infectious disease program committees. As medical director of the hospital’s first antimicrobial stewardship program, he is responsible for identifying and implementing strategies that improve antimicrobial utilization. He has a particular interest in the diagnosis and management of C. diff infections, antifungal stewardship, and approaches to the stewardship of antimicrobial use in medically complex, critically ill children. He received a master’s degree in public health from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and a medical degree from the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center. 

Emily Spivak (Salt Lake City, Utah)

Emily Spivak, M.D., M.H.S., is an associate professor of medicine in the division of infectious diseases at the University of Utah. She established and serves as co-director of the antimicrobial stewardship programs at University of Utah Health and the Salt Lake City Veterans Affairs (VA) Healthcare System. Spivak’s research interests focus on understanding patterns and drivers of antimicrobial use, methods to assess appropriateness, and development and evaluation of methods to improve antimicrobial use. She has led clinical research focused on evaluating patient outcomes related to various antibiotic use strategies. She is also involved with national VA efforts to evaluate antimicrobial use and to develop, disseminate, and evaluate tools to improve use. She is a member of the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America, where she serves on the antibiotic stewardship committee. She is a fellow of the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA), and serves as vice chair of the IDSA Antimicrobial Resistance Committee. She also serves as a member of the board of scientific counselors to the Office of Infectious Diseases at CDC and is co-chair of the Vizient Antimicrobial Stewardship Committee. She received her medical degree from the University of Virginia, completed her residency and fellowship training at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, and earned a master’s in health sciences in clinical investigation at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

Melissa Stundick (Crofton, Maryland)

Melissa Stundick, Ph.D., is executive director of strategic alliances at Spero Therapeutics, where she leads its efforts to partner with other pharmaceutical companies, not-for-profit organizations, and government agencies. At Spero and in her former role as the broad-spectrum antimicrobials program chief with the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, she has advocated for policy changes to promote innovation in antibacterial research and development and increase economic incentives for companies engaged in this important therapeutic area. She received a bachelor’s degree in chemistry from Bates College and a doctorate from the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. She also holds a certificate in intelligence analysis from the University of Maryland.

Deanne Tabb (Columbus, Georgia)

Deanne Tabb, Pharm.D., heads an infectious disease pharmacy service at Piedmont Columbus Midtown in Columbus, Georgia. She received a bachelor’s degree in medical technology from Columbus State University and practiced in the area of clinical microbiology prior to earning her pharmacy degree from Auburn University. She completed a pharmacy practice residency at Columbus Regional Health Care System and an infectious disease specialty at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota.

A.J. Tarpoff (Westmoreland, Kansas)

Anthony John (A.J.) Tarpoff, D.V.M., M.S., is an assistant professor and beef extension veterinarian at Kansas State University. He spends most of his time working with beef cattle producers and veterinarians with continued education and practical skills in beef cattle production. He educates students and producers on the importance of antibiotic resistance. He received a bachelor’s degree in animal science, a master’s in biomedical science, and a doctor of veterinary medicine degree, all from Kansas State University.

Erica Washington (Metairie, Louisiana)

Erica Washington, M.P.H., is the health care-associated infections program coordinator at the Louisiana Department of Health. She believes that superbugs can be slowed through judicious antibiotic use, provider education, and consumer awareness. She was a 2016-17 Informatic—Training in Place Program antibiotic resistance fellow with Project Strengthening Health Systems Through Interprofessional Education and is a current fellow of the Association for Professionals in infection Control and Epidemiology, Inc. She is a member of numerous epidemiological organizations, including the Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologists and the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America, and was a 2013 White House Champion of Change for Prevention and Public Health. She has a bachelor’s degree in biological sciences from Louisiana State University and a master’s in public health in epidemiology from Tulane University.

Teckla Webb (Hawley, Minnesota)

Teckla Webb, D.V.M,. is pursuing a master’s of public health degree at North Dakota State University, where she became interested in promoting antimicrobial stewardship. She is a member of the Minnesota One Health Antibiotic Stewardship Collaborative and is involved in research investigating antimicrobial use in veterinary practices. She currently works as a relief veterinary practitioner. Her veterinary career includes rural mixed animal practice in northern Colorado and small animal exclusive practice in Fargo, North Dakota. She has also worked for the USDA Food Safety Inspection Service as a public health veterinarian, providing animal handling and food safety inspection for a variety of slaughter and meat processing establishments in the upper Midwest. She received a bachelor’s degree from California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo, and a veterinary medicine degree from Colorado State University.

Gary Wheeler (Little Rock, Arkansas)

Gary Wheeler, M.D., is a senior medical consultant at the Arkansas Department of Health, president of the state chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), and chair of the national AAP’s Committee on State Government Affairs. Previously, he was the chief medical officer of the state health department and oversaw hospital-acquired infection and antimicrobial stewardship programs. He is a pediatric infectious disease specialist and was the pharmaceuticals and therapeutics chair at Arkansas Children’s Hospital, where he focused on stewardship. His major work has been in advocating for the sustained public health of children, for which he has been cited by the AAP, the Southern Society of Pediatrics, and the Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families. He received a bachelor’s degree from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill; master’s degrees in religious studies from the University of Chicago and in public service from the Clinton School of Public Service at the University of Arkansas; and a medical degree from Baylor College of Medicine.

William Weiss (Double Oak, Texas)

William Weiss, M.S., directs the preclinical services group at the University of North Texas System College of Pharmacy, which conducts industry-sponsored research for the discovery and development of new and novel antimicrobial therapies for the treatment of multidrug-resistant bacterial infections. Before that, he was director of drug evaluation at Cumbre Pharmaceuticals Inc., a group leader in infectious disease discovery research at Wyeth Research (Pfizer) and a group leader at Lederle Laboratories and Schering-Plough (Merck). He has participated in numerous antibacterial discovery programs leading to the development of nine marketed antibiotics. He received a bachelor’s degree in microbiology from Rutgers University and a master’s in microbiology from Fairleigh Dickinson University.

Amelia Woolums (Starkville, Mississippi)

Amelia Woolums, D.V.M., Ph.D., is a professor in the Department of Pathobiology and Population Medicine in the College of Veterinary Medicine at Mississippi State University. She investigates the factors that influence the development of bovine respiratory disease, the leading cause of sickness and death in U.S. beef cattle. Current areas of research include the effect of vaccines and immune modulators to enhance respiratory disease resistance and the impact of cattle management on the development of multidrug antimicrobial resistance. She is a diplomate of the American College of Veterinary Internal Medicine and president of the American College of Veterinary Microbiologists. Woolums received a veterinary degree from Purdue University and a doctorate from the University of California, Davis, where she studied the immune response of cattle infected by a common respiratory virus.

Helen Zgurskaya (Norman, Oklahoma)

Helen Zgurskaya, Ph.D., M.S., is a George Lynn Cross professor of chemistry and biochemistry at the University of Oklahoma, where she leads a research program on antibiotic discovery and resistance, multidrug efflux mechanisms, and efflux pump inhibitors. She is a founder of the university’s Center for Antibiotic Resistance and Discovery, an international team composed of 13 research groups spread across five academic campuses and the Oak Ridge and Los Alamos national laboratories. Zgurskaya has written more than 70 papers, several book chapters and is a co-editor of a book. She is also an associate editor of the ACS Infectious Diseases journal and a member of the editorial board of the Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy and Frontiers in Microbiology journals. She received a master’s degree in microbiology from Dnepropetrovsk State University, Ukraine, a doctorate in microbiology from the Russian Academy of Sciences, Russian Federation, and was a postdoctoral researcher at the Stanford University School of Medicine and the University of California, Berkeley.