Cindy Hou, DO, MA, MBA, FACOI, FACP, FIDSA

Infection Control Officer, Jefferson Health

Cindy Hou, DO, is the Infection Control Officer and infectious diseases specialist at Jefferson Health New Jersey. Her hospital system was nationally recognized by Sepsis Alliance as a Sepsis Hero in 2016. She is the physician lead for the hospital’s Antimicrobial Stewardship Committee, Sepsis on the Floors Task Force, Infection Control Committee, and more. Dr. Hou has been a passionate advocate for early detection, prevention, education, and management of sepsis in the community hospital setting. She has helped to champion the development of nurse-initiated policies, old school education, and the impact of multi-disciplinary teams on survival of patients with sepsis. She has also studied the impact of mandatory infectious disease consults on C. Diff infections and severe sepsis. She also serves as the physician champion for the NJHA’s Antimicrobial Stewardship Collaborative. In 2018, she was a recipient of Heroes of Infection Prevention Award in Patient Safety from APIC.

Kathleen Vollman, MSN, RN, CCNS, FCCM, FCNS, FAAN

Critical Care Clinical Nurse Specialist and Consultant Advancing Nursing LLC

Ms. Vollman is a Critical Care Clinical Nurse Specialist and Consultant. She has published and lectured nationally and internationally on a variety of pulmonary, critical care, prevention of healthcare acquired injuries, work culture and professional nursing topics and serves as a subject matter expert on these topics for the American Hospital Association. From 1989 to 2003, she served as a Clinical Nurse Specialist for the Medical ICUs at Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit, Michigan. She is focused on creating empowered work environments for nurses through her company, ADVANCING NURSING, LLC. Ms. Vollman serves as adjunct faculty for the CNS program at Michigan State University. She was inducted into the College of Critical Care Medicine in 2004 and the American Academy of Nurses in 2009 and a Fellow in the CNS Institute in 2019. Ms. Vollman was appointed to serve as an honorary ambassador to the World Federation of Critical Care Nurses in 2012 and is currently serving as financial director for that organization.

Dian Baker, PhD, APRN-BC, PNP

Professor, School of Nursing, California State University, Sacramento 

Dr. Baker obtained her PhD from the University of Hawaii and completed a postdoctoral fellowship in healthcare leadership at the University of California, Davis. She was the academic partner and researcher with the Sutter Health System Team that was awarded the 2018 California Healthcare Quality Institute's C. Duane Dauner Quality Award for excellence in quality and safety for their work on non-ventilator hospital-acquired pneumonia. In 2020, Baker was part of the team awarded the Award for Publication Excellence from the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology and the American Journal of Infection Control. Baker and her colleagues formed the Hospital Acquired Pneumonia Prevention, Intervention, Research, and Education (HAPPIER) collaborative that includes nurse leaders, researchers, and partners in the UK. She is currently working to promote prevention of nonventilator hospital acquired pneumonia in hospitals worldwide and is a consultant for the VA National HAPPEN program. She is co-chair of a research workgroup for the National Organization to Prevent Hospital Acquired Pneumonia (NOHAP).

Karen Giuliano, PhD, RN, MBA, FAAN

Co-Director, Center for Nursing and Engineering Innovation, University of Massachusetts Amherst 

Karen is currently Co-Director of the Center for Nursing and Engineering Innovation, and an Associate Professor (Joint), the Institute for Applied Life Sciences and College of Nursing, University of Massachusetts Amherst. With a clinical background in critical care and 25+ years of global experience in the development of new medical products, Karen has a passion for improving healthcare through innovation. Her expertise includes human-centered design and clinical outcomes research. Karen actively contributes to many professional organizations and works with small, medium and large companies on medical product development and innovation.  In addition, her own interdisciplinary program of research is focused in two main areas: non-ventilator hospital-acquired pneumonia and IV infusion safety using IV Smart Pumps.  Karen is a Fellow in the American Academy of Nursing (FAAN), a six-sigma green belt, and holds a BSN and PhD in nursing from Boston College, nurse practitioner from the University of Massachusetts, an MBA (Global Management Concentration) from Babson College and completed a postdoctoral research fellowship on IV infusion device safety at Yale University.

Mary M. Duncan, RN, MSN, CIC 

Senior Director of Infection Prevention , University of Alabama- Birmingham Health Center

Mary Duncan is an experienced, certified Infection Preventionist who has spent the last 17 years implementing best practices at various facilities to prevent infections in patients. She is currently the Senior Director of Infection Prevention at the University of Alabama-Birmingham Health System. This is an 1100+ bed Level 1 trauma center in the city of Birmingham, Alabama.  Through her passion and innovation approaches, she strives to decrease vascular access device associated bloodstream infections by working with front line staff to make sure they are educated on best practices and have access to the tools they need to do the right thing. She is the lead author for the study A Bundled Approach to Decrease the Rate of Primary Bloodstream Infections Related to Peripheral Intravenous Catheters. Through the creation a vascular access maintenance bundle, the hospital was able to significantly reduce bloodstream infections. 

Armando Nahum

President and Co-Founder, Safe Care Campaign

Armando Nahum is the Co-Founder and President of Safe Care Campaign, an organization dedicated on Infection Prevention and a Principal of H2Pi (the Healthcare and Patient Partnership Institute), a premiere organization helping hospitals develop Patient and Family Councils for Quality and Safety (PDACQS®). Armando currently sits on the CDC Council on Infection Prevention, the Georgia Hospital Association Advisory Board to Prevent Infection, the Georgia Department of Public Health HAI Advisory Committee, a member of MedStar Health System Patient and Family Advisory Council for Quality and Safety (SPFACQS) and a voting member of the Presidential Advisory Council for Combating Antibiotic Resistant Bacteria (PACCARB). Armando is the Patient and Family Advisor for MedStar Health Sepsis System Initiative. Through his work, he has been instrumental in passing legislation in Maryland, produce a Sepsis video for Patients and Families education, reduce mortality to 35% and win the Sherman Award as well as the Circle of Honor for Patient Safety Innovation from the Maryland Patient Safety Center. Armando Nahum is Director, Center for Engaging Patients as Partners at MedStar Institute for Quality and Safety (MIQS). Armando is a founding member of Patients for Patient Safety US (PFPS US) within the World Health Organization (WHO). 

Nikunj Vyas, PharmD, BCPS

Clinical Pharmacist/Infectious Diseases, Jefferson Health - New Jersey

Dr. Nikunj Vyas, is a Clinical Pharmacy Specialist in Infectious Diseases currently practicing at Jefferson Health – New Jersey.  He received his Doctorate of Pharmacy from St. John’s University in New York City in 2012.  He then went on to complete a Pharmacy Practice Residency at Atlantic Health System in Morristown, NJ and Infectious Diseases Pharmacy Residency at West Virginia University Healthcare in Morgantown, WV. At Jefferson Health – New Jersey, he currently oversees infectious disease pharmacotherapy and co-chairs Antimicrobial Stewardship Committee in collaboration with Infectious Diseases service. He also serves as a preceptor and mentor to post-doctoral pharmacy residents and students from numerous pharmacy schools.  He also serves as a member on numerous committees including Sepsis, Infection Control as well as Pharmacy and Therapeutics Committee where he represents Antimicrobial Stewardship Program and/or Clinical Pharmacy Department. Dr. Vyas is also well published in gram positive and gram negative resistant organisms as well as Antimicrobial Stewardship Strategies in an inpatient setting.  He also has continued interest in patient quality and safety as well as clinical outcome based research.  Dr. Vyas was awarded the Pharmacy Practitioner of the Year for the state of NJ in 2018 by New Jersey Health System Pharmacists which was a big honor for his dedication to Antimicrobial Stewardship and optimizing patient care. In his free time, Dr. Vyas is a sports fanatic and loves to travel and try different cuisines around the world. 

James Steinberg, MD

Professor of Medicine, Division of Infectious Diseases, Emory University School of Medicine

Chief Medical Officer, Emory University Hospital Midtown

James Steinberg, MD, is Professor of Medicine in the Division of Infectious Diseases at Emory University School of Medicine where he has been on faculty for over 32 years. He is currently the Chief Medical Officer at Emory University Hospital Midtown and previously served as Hospital Epidemiologist at that institution. Since its inception, he has chaired the Emory Healthcare Infection Prevention Steering Committee. Dr. Steinberg has served two terms on the SHEA Board of Directors and has been SHEA’s liaison to HICPAC. His research interests are in the prevention of healthcare associated infections. He is a co-investigator in Emory’s Prevention Epicenter and was principal investigator on a study investigating the impact of an electronic hand hygiene system on hand hygiene compliance rates. 

Patricia (Patti) Warden, RN, MS

Senior Infection Prevention Specialist, Mercy Hospital St. Louis

Patricia Warden is currently an Infection Preventionist at Mercy Hospital – St. Louis which is a 900 bed Level 1 trauma center in the suburbs of St. Louis, Missouri. She has practiced nursing in the acute care, transitional care, and burn units providing her with the skills, critical thinking and leadership abilities necessary to perform optimally within the field of infection prevention and control as well as promote and maintain patient safety initiatives.  Her work on the reduction of bloodstream infections won a Mercy Quality and Patient Safety Award in October 2016. Ms. Warden received her Bachelor of Nursing degree as well as her Master of Science in Molecular Biology degree from Saint Louis University in 2010 and 1996, respectively.