When you look for online sepsis education, you want to make sure the faculty and instructors are the very best. The Sepsis Alliance Institute has a wide network of subject matters experts who provide evidence-based sepsis training for healthcare providers. 

Featured Expert:

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. She is also on the Sepsis Alliance Advisory Board of Directors. Dr. Hou presents the COVID-19 and Sepsis, the Hospital Acquired Sepsis: Early Recognition and Intervention, the Health Disparities and Opportunities During the COVID-19 Pandemic and the Healthcare-Associated Infection Mini-Summit webinars. She also participated in Sepsis Tech and Innovation 2021, the Sepsis Alliance Summit 2021, and moderated the Healthcare-Associated Infection Mini-Summit 2021.

The Sepsis Alliance Institute Subject Matter Experts

Hallie Prescott, MD, MS

Assistant Professor in Internal Medicine, Division of Pulmonary & Critical Care Medicine, University of Michigan

Dr. Prescott is an ICU physician and researcher at the University of Michigan and Ann Arbor VA Hospital. She is a member of the International Sepsis Forum and Vice Chair of the 2020 Surviving Sepsis Campaign Guidelines. Her research focuses on sepsis survivorship and is funded by NIH and Dept of Veterans Affairs. She has spoken around the world on sepsis survivorship. Dr. Prescott presents the Caring For Sepsis Survivors  and the Enhancing Recovery from Sepsis and COVID-19 webinars. She also participated in Sepsis Tech & Innovation 2021. 

Patti Bennie

Mother of Carson, pediatric sepsis survivor

On June 1, 2007, Patti Bennie gave birth to Carson. Two weeks later, his belly button became infected at the site of the umbilical cord. As his symptoms grew worse, Carson began to develop a low-grade fever and appear to be in pain; his worried parents took him to urgent care, who then transferred him to William Beaumont Hospital in Royal Oak, Michigan. The next morning, Carson went into septic shock. Thankfully, after six days being treated in the pediatric intensive care unit, Carson recovered and now is a lively twelve year old boy with no residual problems related to his septic shock episode. From this experience, Patti is now determined to raise awareness of sepsis in children in the medical community and the public. She presents the Understanding the New Pediatric Sepsis Guidelines webinar.

Amy Bowerman, RN, BSN

Executive Director of Senior Network Health, Mohawk Valley Health System

Ms. Bowerman is the Executive Director of Senior Network Health MLTC and the Director of Quality Improvement and Privacy Officer for Visiting Nurse Association of Utica and Oneida County, part of the Mohawk Valley Health System in Utica, NY. Ms. Bowerman serves as a Board Member for the NYS Home Care Association, and she sits on the HCA Quality Committee, MLTC Forum, and the SEPSIS workgroup.  Amy has over twenty years of nursing experience. She presents the Sepsis and Home Healthcare training module and the and the COVID-19, Sepsis, and Home Health Care webinar.

Gregory Briddick, BSN, RN 

Sepsis Program Coordinator, SUNY Upstate University Hospital

Gregory Briddick is the Sepsis Program Coordinator at SUNY Upstate University Hospital. His areas of responsibility include oversight of all Sepsis initiatives within SUNY Upstate, along with participating in various committees throughout the institution. In his role as Sepsis Program Coordinator, Mr. Briddick actively advocates for the best care we can provide to patients. As Sepsis Program Coordinator at SUNY Upstate, Mr. Briddick serves as a member of the NYSDOH Sepsis Advisory Group, the NYSDOH Sepsis Data Subgroup, and the Sepsis Alliance Sepsis Coordinator Network Advisory Group. Mr. Briddick obtained a Bachelor of Science in Nursing Practice from Lakeview College of Nursing, was inducted as a founding member into the Lakeview College of Nursing Honor Society, and is currently licensed as a Registered Professional Nurse in Illinois and New York. He has established himself as a clinical expert, as demonstrated by his Certified Critical-Care Registered Nurse (CCRN) and Trauma Certified Registered Nurse (TCRN) certifications. Mr. Briddick is currently enrolled at the University of Illinois at Chicago pursuing a Masters in Health Informatics (MSHI) degree, and is a member of the American Medical Informatics Association (AMIA). He presents the Informatics Basics and the Sepsis in the Time of COVID-19: Perspectives From Front-line Sepsis Coordinators webinars. 

Mike Broyles, PharmD

Director of Pharmacy and Laboratory Services, St. Bernard's Five Rivers

Dr. Broyles earned his BSPharm from the University of Missouri, Kansas City, and his PharmD from the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, with a primary focus of antibiotic stewardship since 1992. Dr. Broyles has been the Pharmacy Advisory Chairman for Community Health Systems for 18 years, establishing clinical initiatives for the organization. He provides consulting for bioMérieux, Inc., Roche Diagnostics, Abbott Diagnostics, Fujirebio, and ThermoFisher on PCT aided guidance for antibiotic use stewardship programs, as well as for more than 24 IDN’s on stewardship topics. Dr. Broyle has more than nine years’ experience using, researching, and publishing on stewardship and the use of PCT to improve stewardship activities. He has also assisted in development of stewardship software products for pharmacy and hospitals, including: TheraTrac, TheraTrac 2, TheraDoc, Stellara, ICNet, and ABX Alert for antimicrobial stewardship use in hospital ABS programs. Dr. Broyles presents the Empowering Antibiotic Stewardship: Understanding the Use of Procalcitonin webinar.

Al Cardillo, MSW

President and CEO, Home Care Association of New York State

Al Cardillo is the President and CEO of the Home Care Association of New York State (HCA), a statewide organization of over 300 home care agencies, hospices, managed long-term care plans, waiver programs, allied organizations, and individuals. He has served as Executive Director for Health in the NYS Senate and program specialist for the NYS Division of Medical Assistance. He presents the Sepsis and Home Healthcare training module. He also participated in the Sepsis Alliance Summit 2021. 

Angel Coz, MD, FCCP

Associate Professor of Medicine, University of Kentucky

Dr. Coz is a Pulmonary and Critical Care specialist, the Medical Director of the Intensive Care Unit at the Lexington Veterans Affairs Medical Center and an Associate Professor of Medicine at the University of Kentucky. He holds multiple leadership positions at the American College of Chest Physicians (CHEST), and has been awarded the Distinguished CHEST Educator (DCE) designation for two years in a row. Dr. Coz presents the Sepsis: Common, Lethal, and Unrecognized and Communicating with Sepsis Patients: A Survivor's Story webinars.

Angela Craig, APN, MS, CCNS

ICU Clinical Nurse Specialist, Cookeville Regional Medical Center

Angela has been a Clinical Nurse Specialist for over 20 years.  The past 10 years, she has worked with Cookeville Regional Medical Center as the Clinical Nurse Specialist for ICU and works with their sepsis initiative.  She chairs the Sepsis Team at the hospital and CRMC was the first hospital in the state of TN to get sepsis certification through the Joint Commission. She has presented at the national, state and local level on sepsis. She presents the Sepsis Data Abstraction webinar. She also participated in the Sepsis Alliance Summit 2021. 

Michael Crosser, MD

Assistant Professor, Family Medicine at KU Medical Center, University of Kansas

Dr. Michael Crosser grew up in the Kansas City metropolitan area and received much of his education nearby.  He obtained his Bachelor of Science in Biology from the University of Missouri in 1998 and his medical degree from The University of Kansas School of Medicine in 2002.  Both his Internal Medicine residency and Pulmonary/Critical Care Medicine Fellowships were completed at the University of Kansas, where he ultimately joined the faculty in 2008. Dr Crosser’s clinical and research focus is with adult cystic fibrosis care and he presently serves as the Assistant Program Director at the Adult CF Center at KU.  He has been Section Chief of the outpatient pulmonary medicine clinic since 2009 where current clinic activity includes greater than 40 providers across 3 separate sites.  Additionally, as an appointed member to the University of Kansas Healthcare System’s eIPAC committee since 2013, Dr. Crosser focuses on EMR and other IT support programs and how they influence provider work efficiency, quality, and satisfaction. Dr. Crosser presents the Mobilizing Telehealth During the COVID-19 Pandemic webinar.

Kimberly DeNicolo, MSN, RN

Emergency Department Quality Coordinator, Ann & Robert H. Lurie's Children's Hospital of Chicago

As a winner of the Sepsis Alliance pediatric nursing award, Kimberly is the nursing lead for her hospital’s ED multidisciplinary sepsis committee as well as a member of CHA’s Improving Pediatric Sepsis Outcomes (IPSO) inpatient and facilitation teams. She collaborates with the inpatient sepsis teams by sharing the ED improvement work and helps tailor future interventions based on their experience within acute care areas. She presents the Nurses Challenging Sepsis: Saving Children's Lives webinar. 

Marnie Doubek, MD, FAAFP

Mother of Zachary, a Pediatric Sepsis Survivor

Dr. Doubek attended medical school at SUNY Health Science Center, Brooklyn and graduated in 1997. In 2000, she opened a private office providing primary care. In 2013, her practice became part of Atlantic Medical Group. She is the lead physician in their Millburn, NJ office. In 2014, Dr. Doubek's 11-year-old son, Zachary, developed severe sepsis due to an infection in his femur. He survived, but she recognized the need to raise sepsis awareness in the medical community and the public. Dr. Doubek presents the Surviving Pediatric Sepsis: What's Next? webinar. She also participated in the Sepsis Alliance Summit 2021. 

Rommie L. Duckworth, BS, LP

Captain, EMS Coordinator, Ridgefield Fire Department

Rommie L. Duckworth is a dedicated emergency responder, author, and award-winning educator with thirty years of experience working in career and volunteer fire departments, hospital healthcare systems, and public and private emergency medical services. Rom is currently a career fire Captain and paramedic EMS Coordinator with the Ridgefield (CT) Fire Department, Founder and Director of the New England Center for Rescue and Emergency Medicine, Editorial Director of RescueDigest.com, and an emergency services advocate and speaker at conferences around the world. Rom offers keynote presentations and educational programs on leadership development, educational methodology, clinical health care topics and emergency services operations, in addition to consultation and coaching for organizations and individuals through the New England Center for Rescue and Emergency Medicine. Rom is also on the Advisory Board of Directors for Sepsis Alliance. He presents the Sepsis: First Response and the Sepsis: Pediatric First Response webinars. He also participated in the Sepsis Alliance Summit 2021. 

Reena Duseja, MD, MS

Chief Medical Officer for Quality Measurement and Value-Based Incentives Group in the Centers for Clinical Standards and Quality at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services

Dr. Duseja is an emergency medicine physician and prior to coming to CMS, was an Associate Professor at the University of California, where she led quality improvement activities in a large county hospital and was awarded funding by NIH to conduct studies related to improving patient care and value for the health system. She received her MS in Health Economics at Wharton, Heath Care Management and Economics, at the University of Pennsylvania. Dr. Duseja presents the Meeting the Sepsis CMS Measures webinar. 

Graciela Eldridge, RN, ADN

Maternal Sepsis Survivor

Graciela has been a Perinatal nurse for 29 years. In her early nursing career, she was an educator for University of Davis Medical Center, with an emphasis in cultural diversity in child bearing and child rearing practices of women. She worked for Woodland Memorial Hospital as community Lamaze instructor. Graciela has worked for the past 21 years at Kaiser Permanente South Sacramento hospital. She is currently a Staff IV RN. She is an advanced preceptor in Labor and Delivery and her specialty is in the OR working with mothers having Cesarean Sections. She presents the Maternal Sepsis webinar.
 

Carl Flatley, DDS, MSD

Founder, Sepsis Alliance

As the founder of the American Sepsis Alliance in 2003 which became the Sepsis Alliance in 2007, Dr. Flatley has been immersed in spreading sepsis education and awareness. He has given hundreds of talks to a wide variety of different audiences, both professional and non-professional and worked with the CDC and the Global Sepsis Alliance on several projects concerning awareness and implementation of sepsis protocols. While creating a legacy for his daughter, Erin, who died unnecessarily from septic shock, Dr. Flatley has created and funded several awards to recognize outstanding individuals yearly who excel in sepsis works. The Erin Kay Flatley Spirit Award, the Erin’s' Campaign for Kids and Global Sepsis Alliance International Awards highlight Erin’s' life and outstanding individuals, institutions and sepsis initiatives Worldwide. Erin's Foundation has been the largest and longest supporter of the Sepsis Alliance, "So More Survive". Dr. Flatley presents the Nurses Challenging Sepsis: Saving Children's Lives webinar. 

Cara Fleming, AGPCNP-BC, AOCNP

Nurse Practitioner, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center

Cara Fleming, AGPCNP-BC, AOCNP, is a Nurse Practitioner working at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSK) since 2008. She is board certified as an Adult Geriatric Primary Care NP by the American Nurses Credentialing Center. She is also recognized for her specialty as an Advanced Oncology Certified NP by the Oncology Nursing Certification Corporation. She has dedicated her clinical practice to the acute care of oncology patients while working in the Urgent Care Center and later the Intensive Care Unit. During her time in Critical Care, she served as the principle Clinical Program Manager for the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center Sepsis Program, developing many institutional advances in sepsis education, protocol, and procedures. She also served on the New York State Department of Health Sepsis Advisory Board. She has since taken her practice to the outpatient arena where she works in MSK’s acute care clinic called the Symptomatic Care Clinic in Bergen County, New Jersey. Sepsis has always remained a primary concern when evaluating her oncology patients. She presents the the Sepsis and Oncology module.

Kelly Gilrain, PhD

Director, Psychological Services Director, Behavioral Medicine, Clinical Health Psychologist, Hospital Medicine, Cooper University Healthcare

Dr. Gilrain serves as the Director of Behavioral Medicine at Cooper University Hospital. Her undergraduate is in Psychology from Hunter College – CUNY on the Upper East Side in Manhattan. She remained there for her Master’s degree focusing on eating behaviors and diversity. She took time off from academics to explore careers in medicine and psychology working at the American Red Cross, Helene Fuld Medical Center and Princeton University Wellness Center. She opted to return to graduate school at Drexel University pursuing a PhD in Clinical Psychology with a focus in Health Psychology.

She has worked in Health Psychology for the past 15 years within the following areas: somatic/conversion disorders, in particular PNES at Jefferson University Hospital, Temple’s cardiac transplant unit and burn unit and at Pennsylvania Hospital in the Consultation-Liaison Service. She has completed training and evaluations at various neuropsychology clinics in the Philadelphia area focused on both health and forensic concerns. Her interests lie in chronic medical issues, end of life concerns, death and dying, trauma, behavioral medicine program development and provider wellness.

She has taught Psychology and Humanities courses in college and universities in the NY and Philadelphia area over the past 24 years. She holds Academic Professorships at Cooper Medical School at Rowan University (CMSRU) as well as Rowan University.

She has been with Cooper since 2010 and developed and implemented the Consultation-Liaison Service within the Medical Hospital under the Department of Hospital Medicine. She has supervised psychology externs since 2010 and has presented at national conferences with Society of Behavioral Medicine (SBM) discussing ways to further Health Psychology programs and training in Academic Medical Centers. She and her team have a robust externship program and are in process of seeking an APA Accredited Psychology Internship program as well. Dr. Gilrain presents the Managing Healthcare Providers' Mental and Physical Wellness in the Time of COVID-19 webinar. 

Angela Graf, BSN, MSN, NP

Director of Clinical Excellence, St. Joseph Health Queen of the Valley

Angela is a professional nurse leader with more than 17 years of nursing experience and more than 10 years in nursing and quality leadership roles. She has created and implemented successful quality and performance initiatives. These have a lasting impact on the lives of patients and caregivers and have the added benefit to improve the hospitals economic livelihood and community reputation. She presents the Conundrum of Maternal Sepsis: A Devastating Complication webinar. 

Jeffrey Groeger, MD

Chief, Urgent Care Services, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center

Jeffrey S. Groeger, MD is Chief of the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center (MSK) Urgent Care Service.  After receiving his MD from University of Cincinnati College of Medicine, Dr. Groeger completed his residency at Lenox Hill Hospital, and then his fellowship at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center.  Dr. Groeger subsequently began practice at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, where he has been for 39 years. Over the course of his career in urgent care at MSK, Dr. Groeger has had extensive experience in the diagnosis and treatment of sepsis in cancer patients. Dr. Groeger presents the Sepsis and Oncology module.

Frankie Hamilton, MSN, MBA, RN, CCRN-K, PCCN-K, CNML

Sepsis Quality Specialist, Lenox Hill Hospital

Frankie leads projects revolving around sepsis care performance improvement, collects and reports sepsis data to the NYS Department of Health, and presents the hospital’s sepsis care metrics to senior leadership for review. He also co-facilitates an Opioid Steering Committee with the CMO of Lenox Hill to establish compliance with the newest Joint Commission standards on pain control. Frankie utilizes his knowledge, varied professional experience, and recent business degree to effect large scale change in sepsis care and continue to raise sepsis awareness. He presents the Sepsis Champions: How Hospital-wide Involvement Changes Sepsis Care webinar.

Jeff Hersh, PhD, MD

Chief Medical Officer, GE Healthcare

Jeff Hersh is the Chief Medical Officer for GE HealthCare Systems.  With over 30 years' experience as a practicing physician, Dr. Hersh has been Board Certified in Internal Medicine, Pediatrics, Emergency Medicine and Disaster Medicine. He holds a medical degree from the University of Miami and a PhD in Theoretical Physics from Yale, has published and presented hundreds of articles and lectures, and holds multiple patents (including two in AI).
 

Michael Hooper, MD, MSc

Vice President Medical Affairs, Sentara Norfolk General Hospital

Dr. Hooper has extensive clinical and research experience in the detection and treatment of septic patients. Dr. Hooper has published original research on electronic systems for detecting patients with developing sepsis in an intensive care unit and has assisted in developing processes for sepsis development in 2 healthcare systems. He presents the Unlocking the Potential of AI in Sepsis Care webinar.

Catherine (Terri) Hough, MD, MSc

Professor of Medicine, Division of Pulmonary, Critical Care, and Sleep Medicine, University of Washington

Terri Hough is a Professor of Medicine in the Division of Pulmonary, Critical Care, and Sleep Medicine at the University of Washington. Dr. Hough is an intensivist, working in the Medical and Trauma-Surgical ICUs at Harborview Medical Center. She is an NIH-funded researcher focused on improving outcomes after critical illness and injury. She is Principal Investigator of the Pacific Northwest Clinical Center of the NHLBI-funded PETAL Network, and Principal Investigator/Co-Investigator on many ongoing clinical trials, implementation science, and epidemiologic studies of patients with ARDS, sepsis, and chronic critical illness. Dr. Hough received a B.A. in Cellular Biology at the University of California, Berkeley, M.D. at the University of California, San Francisco, and a M.Sc. in Epidemiology at the University of Washington. She did her residency in Internal Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania and has been at the University of Washington since 1999. Dr. Hough presents the Post-Sepsis Syndrome: Recognition and Management webinar.

Marla Jones, BSN, RN

Quality Improvement Coordinator, Bon Secours Mercy Health

Marla received her Bachelor of Science in Nursing from Penn State University in Pennsylvania.  She has been in the Mercy Health System for 36 years in various positions, such as Assistant Manager of ICCU/CCU, Coordinator of Critical Care Education, Manager of Case Management, and QI Coordinator for the last 9 years. Marla also held certification as a CCRN and ACM along with ACLS instructor. Marla devotes her community service to Relay for Life in Trumbull County and was August 2018 Relay calendar girl. She presents the Sepsis Data Abstraction webinar. 

Niranjan "Tex" Kissoon, MBBS, MD, FRCP(C), FAAP, MCCM, FACPE

Executive Medical Director, Children's and Women's Global Health
Co-Chair, Surviving Sepsis Campaign Children’s Guidelines Panel

Niranjan Kissoon is Professor, BC Children’s Hospital and UBC Global Child Health, Department of Pediatric and Emergency Medicine University of British Columbia. Niranjan Kissoon is Past President of the World Federation of Pediatric Intensive and Critical Care Societies (WFPICCS); Professor, Pediatric and Surgery at the University of British Columbia (UBC) in Vancouver, Canada. He holds the UBC BC Children’s Hospital Endowed Chair in Acute and Critical Care for Global Child Health is Vice President, Global Alliance for Sepsis (GSA), Co-Chair, World Sepsis Day, International Pediatric Sepsis Initiative, and the Pediatric Surviving Sepsis Campaign Guideline Committee. He also currently serves on Sepsis Alliance's Advisory Board.

In recognition of his achievements, Dr. Kissoon was awarded the 2013 Distinguished Career Award by the AAP for his contribution to the society and discipline; in 2015, he was awarded the SCCM Master of Critical Care Medicine Award and the BNS Walia PGIMER Golden Jubilee Oration Award in India. In 2016, Dr.  Kissoon received the UBC Canada Distinguished Achievement Award for Overall Excellence; and in 2019, Dr. Kissoon received a Presidential Citation from the Society of Critical Care Medicine for outstanding contributions to the Society for the eighth time. In 2018, Dr. Kissoon received the UWI Distinguished Service Award, and is also the Recipient of the 2020 Drs. Vidyasagar and Nagamani Dharmapuri Award, presented by the Society of Critical Care Medicine (SCCM) for exemplary and pioneering achievements in the care of critically ill and injured infants and children. Dr. Kisson presents the Understanding the New Pediatric Sepsis Guidelines webinar. He also participated in Sepsis Tech & Innovation 2021. 

Katarina Lannér-Cusin, MD, FACOG 

Medical Director, Women's Services, Sutter Health

Dr. Katarina Lannér-Cusin is an obstetrician-gynecologist in Berkeley, California and is affiliated with Alta Bates Summit Medical Center-Berkeley. She received her medical degree and completed her residency in OB Gyn at University of California San Francisco School of Medicine and has been in practice for more than 20 years. She was part of the implementation team for the Sepsis Initiative at Sutter Health. She is presently the Medical Director for Women’s Services at ABSMC and also the co-chair for the Sutter OB Quality Committee. She presents the Maternal Sepsis webinar.

Heath Latham, MD, FCCP

Associate Professor, Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, Kansas University Medical Center

Dr. Latham has been on KUMC's faculty since 2008 and was promoted to Associate Professor in 2013.  He is the program director for the Pulmonary and Critical Care Fellowship.  He provides clinical service and educates students, residents, and fellows in the clinical setting. Dr. Latham works with the Pulmonary and Critical Care medicine fellows in the medical intensive care unit, on inpatient pulmonary consults, and in the outpatient pulmonary clinic. Dr. Latham presents the Fluid Resuscitation and Sepsis webinar.

Maile Le Boeuf

Maternal Sepsis Survivor

In June 2015, Maile admitted herself to the ER. She stopped breathing and was placed in a medically induced coma for two weeks. When she awoke, she learned she had just survived sepsis, which she had never heard of before. The source was an undetected strep infection contracted in childbirth nine days earlier. Her true battle began after waking to blackened limbs and immense long-term complications. Maile was a recipient of the 2019 Sepsis Heroes award. Read more about her story here. She presents the Conundrum of Maternal Sepsis: A Devastating Complication webinar. 

Melissa Lin, MS, CPHQ, LSSBB

Transformation Sensei, Virginia Mason Institute

Melissa coaches and guides health care leaders and providers worldwide through their cultural transformation toward lean as their management method. She focuses on strategic planning, board governance and strategic partnerships. She earned her master’s degree from The Dartmouth Institute of Health Policy and Clinical Practice, and she is a Lean Six Sigma Black Belt and a Certified Professional of Healthcare Quality. She presents the Increasing Clinician Buy-in to Improve Sepsis Care webinar.

Tracy Lowerre, BSN, MSN, RN

Nurse Clinician, Children's Hospital of Richmond at VCU Health

As one of the two winners of the Sepsis Alliance pediatric nursing award, Tracy has worked in the pediatric ICU for nearly 20 years and is the co-chair of her hospital’s pediatric sepsis committee. She works closely with leadership, IT and other units on innovations to improve treatment for septic patients. She also works to change processes that improve antibiotic administration times within the system. She presents the Nurses Challenging Sepsis: Saving Children's Lives webinar. 
 

Charles G. Macias, MD, MPH

Chief Quality Officer and Vice Chair of Quality and Division Chief for Pediatric Emergency Medicine, University Hospitals Rainbow Babies and Children's system of Care, Cleveland Ohio

Charles Macias is the Chief Quality Officer and Vice Chair of Quality for the University Hospitals Rainbow Babies and Children’s system of care in Cleveland Ohio and its Division Chief for Pediatric Emergency Medicine. He is a co-chair of the Improving Pediatric Sepsis Outcomes Quality Improvement Collaborative of the Children's Hospital Association - a collaborative of over 54 institutions dedicated to decreasing mortality and morbidity from sepsis. He was the chairman of the Pediatric Septic Shock Collaborative of the American Academy of Pediatrics and the former chairman of a pediatric asthma collaborative for the Texas Pediatric Society. He serves as the executive director of the national Emergency Medical Services for Children (EMSC) Innovation and Improvement Center, utilizing improvement science to support the EMSC program in 58 states and territories. Most recently, he was elected to the newly created subspecialty seat on the Board of Director’s for the American Academy of Pediatrics. Dr. Macias presents the the Sepsis: Pediatric First Response webinar and participated in the Sepsis Alliance Summit 2021.

Imrana Malik, MD

Associate Professor, Department of Urgent Care, UT MD Anderson Cancer Center

Imrana Malik, MD, DABSM, FCCP, is an associate professor in the Department of Critical Care at MD Anderson Cancer Center (MDACC), and is primarily involved in direct patient care in the medical and surgical intensive care units. Her main clinical research interest involves sepsis in cancer patients. She is the co-chair of the Sepsis Committee at MDACC, the mission for which is to decrease mortality from sepsis in cancer patients. Through the Sepsis Committee, she has planned and hosted annual World Sepsis Awareness Day events at MDACC since 2012. For these events, she also created educational videos about sepsis for pediatric, adult, and elderly populations, which can all be viewed on YouTube. In addition, she has organized the World Sepsis Day events and Annual Symposium (One Voice for Sepsis) for the Texas Medical Center, as chair of the multi-institutional TMC Sepsis Collaborative. She has also participated in the planning committee for the Annual Symposium of the Texas Chapter of the Society of Critical Care Medicine (SCCM) from 2012-2014. Dr. Malik presents the Sepsis and Oncology module.

Jakob McSparron, MD

Assistant Professor of Medicine, University of Michigan

Jakob McSparron, MD is an Assistant Professor of Medicine in the Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine at the University of Michigan. Dr. McSparron attended medical school at Weill Cornell Medical College and completed residency in Internal Medicine at New York Presbyterian Hospital – Cornell. He went on to complete fellowship in Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine at the Harvard Combined Training Program. He currently serves as Associate Program Director of the Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine fellowship and Associate Director of the Critical Care Medicine Unit. His clinical and scholarly interests include ARDS, sepsis, post-ICU outcomes, and medical education. He is the clinical director of the UM-PULSE clinic. He presents the Improving Sepsis Survivorship: A Multidisciplinary Approach to Optimize Post-Sepsis Care webinar. 

Rima Mohammad, PharmD

Clinical Associate Professor of Clinical Pharmacy, University of Michigan College of Pharmacy
Clinical Pharmacist Specialist, Michigan Medicine

Rima A. Mohammad is a Clinical Associate Professor of Clinical Pharmacy at the University of Michigan College, of Pharmacy, as well as a Post-ICU Clinical Pharmacist Specialist at Michigan Medicine. She received her Doctor of Pharmacy at University of Cincinnati in 2004 and completed her pharmacy practice and critical care specialty residency at the University of Michigan in 2006. She is board certified specialist in pharmacotherapy and a fellow of the American College of Clinical Pharmacy (FCCP). Rima is a key member of the interprofessional team caring for ICU survivors and caregivers at the University of Michigan Michigan Medicine, Post ICU Longitudinal Survivor Experience [PULSE] clinic. She has almost 14 years of acute care patient care experiences, developing and implementing innovative clinical services, research and teaching. She presents the Improving Sepsis Survivorship: A Multidisciplinary Approach to Optimize Post-Sepsis Care webinar. 

Karin Molander, MD, FACEP

Emergency Medicine Physician, Mills Peninsula Emergency Medicine Associates

Karin Molander, MD, FACEP, is an emergency medicine physician who provides emergency care to patients in the community setting, analyzes quality of care, and is passionate about patient education. She received her MD from Rush Medical College in 1996 and completed her emergency medicine residency at Stanford University in 1999. She became involved with sepsis at Mills Peninsula Medical Center in 2007 training intensivists in central line placement to prepare them for Early Goal Directed Therapy (an initial Surviving Sepsis Campaign piece). She then joined the MPMC Sepsis Committee in 2009 and became chair in 2011, and participated in the LEAN process to develop a sepsis initiative for Sutter Area Hospitals. This led to electronic health record (EPIC) order sets, screening tools, and standard work for management of the septic shock and the severe sepsis patient within the Sutter RPIW team. They also created identification and treatment protocols that work throughout the Sutter System. She is also on the Sepsis Alliance Board of Directors. Dr. Molander presents the COVID-19 and Sepsis and the COVID-19, Sepsis, and Home Health Care webinars. She also participated in Sepsis Tech & Innovation 2021 and the Sepsis Alliance Summit 2021. 

Lori Muhr, DNP, MHSM/MHA

Sepsis Program Coordinator, JPS Health Network

Lori brings over 30 years of clinical, managerial, and educational experience to this project. She has a Doctorate Degree in Nursing Practice, a dual Master’s Degree in Management and Administration, is certified Adult Clinical Nurse Specialist, and works as an Advance Practice Nurse. She has experience in ED, Critical Care, and Community Health. Lori has experience working in rural hospitals, Level 1 Trauma centers, For-Profit and Not-for-profit organizations, all of which bring a unique perspective in her ability to reach all levels of healthcare providers. She has recently led JPS Hospital to achieve Joint Commission - Disease Specific Certification in Sepsis and has led them to be the first community safety net hospital to receive this designation. Her ability to simplify complex issues and passion for teaching comes through in her energetic and motivational style. She presents the Sepsis Case Studies webinar. 

Pamela Nicklaus, MD, FACS

Pediatric ENT Surgeon, Telemedicine at Children's Mercy

Pamela Nicklaus, MD is a practicing pediatric otolaryngologist at Children’s Mercy Hospital in Kansas City. She is an Associate Professor of Surgery at the University of Missouri Kansas City, and an Adjunct Associate Professor of Otolaryngology at the University of Kansas. Dr. Nicklaus trained in otolaryngology at the University of Rochester and completed her fellowship in Pediatric Otolaryngology at the Hospital for Sick Children, University of Toronto. She established the section of pediatric otolaryngology at the University of New Mexico before coming to Kansas City. She founded the Pediatric Otolaryngology Fellowship at Children’s Mercy Hospital and ran the program for 10 years. Dr. NIcklaus established the otolaryngology telehealth program at CMH in 2016, and most recently deployed telehealth across the division of otolaryngology at Children’s Mercy Hospital during the COVID-19 pandemic. Dr. Nicklaus presents the Mobilizing Telehealth During the COVID-19 Pandemic webinar.

Lori Olvera, DNP, RNC-OB, EFM-C

Perinatal Educator, Sutter Medical Center

Lori has been a nurse for over 35 years and practiced most of her career in women’s health including labor and delivery, mother-baby and special care nursery. She was an educator for various colleges and universities for 20 years and is currently a Clinical Nurse Educator for High Risk Maternity and Labor & Delivery at Sutter Medical Center Sacramento. Lori received a Doctor of Clinical Practice in 2015. She presents the Maternal Sepsis webinar.

Maria Teresa Palleschi, DNP RN APRN-BC CCRN

Director, Patient Care Services, Magnet and Sepsis, Detroit Receiving and Harper / Hutzel Hospitals 

Maria Teresa Palleschi DNP RN APRN-BC CCRN is a Nurse Practitioner and Director of Patient Care Services at Harper / Hutzel Hospital and Detroit Receiving Hospital, Detroit Medical Center in Detroit, Michigan. She received her Bachelor of Science in nursing degree and Masters of Science in nursing from Wayne State University and Doctor of Nursing Practice from Madonna University. Dr. Palleschi has forty two years of experience in critical care nursing with 22 of those years as an advanced practice nurse. Currently, she is the Director of Patient Care Services, including sepsis, stroke, and Magnet programs. She has facilitated the development and implementation of many programs and protocols at the Detroit Medical Center including sepsis care, the epidural pain service, early mobility, palliative care, prevention of hospital acquired infections, ICU pain, analgesia, and delirium protocol, as well as pressure injury prevention and management strategies. Throughout her career, she has facilitated staff involvement in the exploration and implementation of evidence based practice at the bedside. She is an advisor for multiple shared decision making councils including critical and acute care professional nurse councils. She was the co-chair of the Detroit Medical Center Critical Care Committee for over 8 years and serves as an advisor for multiple shared decision making councils in acute and critical care. Dr. Palleschi presents the Sepsis for the Advanced Practice Provider webinar. 

Mark Piehl, MD

Pediatric Intensivist, WakeMed Children's and Founder and Chief Medical Officer, 410 Medical Innovation

Dr. Piehl served as Medical Director of the WakeMed Children's Hospital and Director of Pediatrics at WakeMed Physician Practices from 2009 to 2015. He serves as Medical Advisor for WakeMed Mobile Pediatric Critical Care transport team, and teaches frequently on the pre-hospital management of critically ill children. He has faculty appointments in the Departments of Pediatrics at the University of North Carolina and Duke University. Dr. Piehl presents the Fluid Resuscitation and Sepsis webinar.

Mari Pitcher, MSW, MBA

Clinical Social Worker, Pulmonary Care, University of Michigan

Mari Pitcher, MSW 2000, MBA 1986 specializes in grief work, trauma work, and patient and family centered care for individuals and families impacted by life changing illnesses. Mari is currently a member of the Michigan Medicine Pulmonary Care Team, providing support to patients and families impacted by PICs, cystic fibrosis, COPD, ILD, and ventilator needs. She has over 18 years of hospice, palliative care, and grief work experience. Additionally, she has worked as a therapist supporting individuals with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), histories of abuse and/or traumatic loss, anxiety, and depression. She is an adjunct lecturer at the University of Michigan School of Social Work teaching courses in interpersonal practice with individuals and small groups. She presents the Improving Sepsis Survivorship: A Multidisciplinary Approach to Optimize Post-Sepsis Care webinar. 

Lily Popkin, MSN, RN, CEN

Sepsis Coordinator, Lutheran Medical Center

Lily assesses and oversees the management of potential septic patients or those who have been diagnosed with sepsis. She provides clinical and professional guidance in congruence with evidence-based practice. She has implemented rapid screening and diagnosis with early intervention in the emergency room and inpatient units. Lily was nominated for the Nightingale Award in 2018 for her work in sepsis care. She presents the Sepsis Champions: How Hospital-wide Involvement Changes Sepsis Care webinar. 

Darrell Raikes

Sepsis Survivor and Advocate

In May 2015, Darrell had a routine knee replacement surgery. He developed sepsis and septic shock. Twenty days later, he woke up in the ICU. Eighteen months later, he still has lingering problems from his sepsis but uses his experience to educate others. He is a sepsis advocate by giving presentations and helping others cope with the after-effects. He also volunteers at the University of Kentucky Hospital. He presents the Communicating with Sepsis Patients: A Survivor's Story webinar.
 

Cairn Ruhumuliza, RN, MS, CPHQ

Sepsis Coordinator/Abstractor, McLaren Northern Michigan

With over 45 years of experience in nursing, Cairn has had many different roles in the profession. Cairn’s clinical background is primarily critical care, and she has maintained CCRN certification for almost her entire career. Cairn has taught nursing academically for a number of years, in addition to roles in administration/professional development, vendor support education, entrepreneurship, and international nursing. Prior to joining McLaren Northern Michigan Hospital, Cairn served 3 years as a mentor to the Dean of the School of Nursing in Rwanda, Africa, with the goal of building health care capacity for the Dean, faculty, students, and nurses in the country. This was through a partnership with the Clinton Health Access Initiative, Human Resources for Health and the University of Chicago, Illinois. In her current role as Sepsis Coordinator for McLaren Northern Michigan, and as chair of the McLaren system-wide Sepsis Excellence Team, Cairn focuses uniquely on sepsis issues and concerns. This has allowed major advances in patient outcomes, through education, systems management, and careful monitoring and mid-stream adjustments of goals based on data. Cairn is also a member of the Sepsis Coordinator Network Advisory Committee. She presents the Post-Sepsis Syndrome: Recognition and Management webinar. 

George Sakoulas, MD

Infectious Diseases Clinician, Sharp Memorial Hospital; Associate Professor at University of California, San Diego School of Medicine

Dr. Sakoulas earned his medical degree from Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, and completed his postgraduate training in internal medicine at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in 1998. From 1998-1999 he served as chief medical resident in the Department of Medicine at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. From 1999 to 2002, he was a fellow in infectious diseases at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center where he developed interests in Gram positive infections. He is an active infectious diseases clinician in the Sharp Healthcare System in San Diego. His academic affiliation is Associate Professor of Pediatrics at the University of California San Diego School of Medicine, Division of Host-Microbe Systems and Therapeutics where he is part of the Collaborative to Halt Antibiotic-Resistant Microbes (CHARM). Dr. Sakoulas presents the Antibiotic Stewardship and Sepsis: A Balancing Act webinar. 

Christa A. Schorr, DNP, MSN, RN, NEA-BC, FCCM

Clinical Nurse Scientist, Critical Care, Cooper University Healthcare

Dr. Schorr is a Clinical Nurse Scientist at Cooper University Hospital and an Associate Professor of Medicine at Cooper Medical School at Rowan University. During her 25+ years in nursing, she has practiced clinically, directed critical care quality improvement and clinical research and was the Program Manager for a North American sepsis clinical trial. Dr. Schorr received her Diploma in Nursing from Helene Fuld School of Nursing, Bachelor of Science in Nursing from Thomas Jefferson University and her Masters of Science in Nursing and Doctorate of Nursing Practice degrees from Drexel University. Dr. Schorr has lectured nationally and internationally and has authored or co-authored over 180 peer-reviewed articles, book chapters and abstracts. Working with the Institute for Healthcare Improvement, Dr. Schorr was part of the three-member team that developed, field tested and finalized the content of the Surviving Sepsis Campaign (SSC) performance improvement (PI) software and revision, which was used worldwide. Dr. Schorr has served as national faculty for Phase III and IV Society of Critical Care Medicine (SCCM) SSC Collaboratives and three statewide collaboratives in NJ, RI and MD. Dr. Schorr is a member of the Surviving Sepsis Campaign Steering Committee, is the current SSC Guidelines Committee Group Head for long-term outcomes and goals of care and is the SSCM’s Quality & Safety Committee liaison to the CDC Heathcare Infection Control Practices Advisory Committee. Dr. Schorr continues to stress the importance of early sepsis identification, care processes, outcomes and the significance of patient and family engagement. Dr. Schorr presents the Managing Healthcare Providers' Mental and Physical Wellness in the Time of COVID-19 webinar. She also participated in the Sepsis Alliance Summit 2021.  

Michael Seelman, BSN, MS

Regional Quality Officer, Bon Secours Mercy Health

Michael received his Bachelor of Science in Nursing from the University of Pittsburgh and Master’s Degree in Human Resources Management from LaRoche College. Michael joined Mercy Health in 2013 after spending 10 years in various leadership roles at Forum Health/ValleyCare hospital system including 6 years as Senior Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of hospital operations. Early in his career, Michael was published for his work in developing a home health nursing program for behavioral health patients. He expanded this effort across 30 states as part of his work with a national home health care agency in the early late 1980s. Michael remains a member of many professional organizations in the region and is very active on several community boards in the Mahoning Valley. He presents the Sepsis Data Abstraction webinar. 

Denton Shanks, DO, MPH

Assistant Professor of Medicine, Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine at KU Medical Center, University of Kansas

Denton is a Family Physician and a Medical Director of Innovation, Telehealth, & Informatics within the University of Kansas Health System where he’s championing Virtual Healthcare projects and driving the digital health strategy forward. He’s also an Assistant Professor at the University of Kansas Medical Center, and works with the Inter-professional Clinic with students and resident physicians. He is active in global health organizations that engage student learners, and helps to promote public health and sustainable continuity primary care around the world. He earned bachelor’s degrees in Biochemistry, Spanish, and Chemistry at Kansas State University, a Master’s in Public Health at Drexel University in Philadelphia, a Doctorate of Osteopathic Medicine at Arizona College of Osteopathic Medicine, and completed Family Medicine Residency at Unity Health Care in Washington D.C. He presents the Mobilizing Telehealth During the COVID-19 Pandemic webinar.

Steven Q. Simpson, MD

Professor of Medicine, University of Kansas, Division of Pulmonary, Critical Care, and Sleep Medicine
Chief Medical Officer, Sepsis Alliance

Dr. Steven Q. Simpson is Professor of Medicine at the University of Kansas in the Division of Pulmonary, Critical Care, and Sleep Medicine, where he previously served as Division Director, Director of three ICUs, Chair of the Sepsis Team, and Chair of Multidisciplinary Critical Care. He has done research in all areas of severe sepsis from molecular and cellular mechanisms, to translational studies, to quality improvement studies. He was a founder, in 2005, of the Midwest Critical Care Collaborative, a multidisciplinary and interprofessional collaborative effort to improve the quality of critical care services throughout the Midwest. In 2007, he initiated the Kansas Sepsis Project, a statewide program to improve severe sepsis care and outcomes throughout the state via continuing education both in sepsis and in quality improvement principles, and via inter-professional collaboration. He is currently heading a BCBS-sponsored sepsis collaborative among Kansas City metro area hospitals and is a contributing faculty member of the ongoing Surviving Sepsis Campaign collaboratives, leading the effort in the Midwest. He is a participant in the 2016 review and update of the Surviving Sepsis Campaign Guidelines. Dr. Simpson presents the COVID-19: Current Treatment Guidelines for the Critically Ill webinar. He also participated in Sepsis Tech & Innovation 2021, the Sepsis Alliance Summit 2021 and presented Surviving Sepsis Campaign 2021 Adult Guidelines Update. 

Sue Sirianni, RN, DNP, ACNP-BC, ANP-BC, CCRN

Lead Nurse Practitioner, SICU, Sinai Grace Hospital

Sue Sirianni DNP ACNP-BC ANP-BC CCRN is the SICU Lead Nurse Practitioner at the Detroit Medical Center Sinai-Grace Hospital.  She practices with the Surgical Intensive Care Unit (SICU) service where she manages critically ill and injured patients along with the SICU resident team. Dr. Sirianni’s DNP research was based on improving sepsis care across the DMC adult hospitals by improving application of the Sepsis guidelines. Her research resulted in improved time to antibiotics, decreased time to obtaining blood cultures and improvement of obtaining lactic acid. She is the hospital sepsis lead and has helped the hospital achieve a sepsis mortality rate of just over 10% by ensuring application of evidence-based practice. She has lectured extensively on the management of sepsis for a variety of different providers. She also started the first ever public awareness program with Dr. Palleschi in Michigan. She presents the Sepsis for the Advanced Practice Provider webinar. 

Scott Stewart, LSSBB, PMP, CSM

Senior Process Improvement Engineer, Sentara Healthcare

Scott Stewart is a full-time project manager and process improvement engineer for one of the largest healthcare systems in the state of Virginia. He has been in this line of work for over 10 years and has completed multiple projects in the realm of corporate change and innovation.  He holds certifications in project management, agile scrum methodologies, and is a lean six sigma black belt. He presents the Unlocking the Potential of AI in Sepsis Care webinar.

Valerie Vaughn, MD, MSc

Assistant Professor, University of Michigan Medical School and Ann Arbor VA Healthcare System

Valerie Vaughn, MD, MSc is an Assistant Professor of Medicine and hospitalist physician at the University of Michigan Medical School and Ann Arbor Veteran’s Association Hospital. Her research focuses on improving the safety of hospitalized patients by combating healthcare associated infections and reducing antibiotic overuse, particularly at hospital discharge. She is Hospitalist Lead for an initiative to improve antibiotic prescribing in a 46-hospital collaborative, the Hospital Medicine Safety Consortium. She has authored over 20 peer-reviewed papers, including high-profile articles for JAMA, BMJ, Clinical Infectious Diseases, and Annals of Internal Medicine. She serves as Liaison for the Society of Hospital Medicine to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Healthcare Infection Control Practices Advisory Committee and as a member of the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America’s Research Committee. Dr. Vaughn presents the Blind Spot of Antibiotic Stewardship: Antibiotic Overuse at Discharge webinar.

Scott L. Weiss, MD, MSCE, FCCM

Assistant Professor, Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine

Dr. Weiss completed medical school at Harvard, pediatric residency at Boston Children’s Hospital, and a critical care fellowship at Northwestern/Lurie Children’s Hospital. He serves as the co-Vice Chair for the SCCM/ESICM Pediatric Surviving Sepsis Campaign Taskforce. Dr. Weiss co-directs the Pediatric Sepsis Program at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, which includes post-hospital follow-up for children and their families through the Pediatric Sepsis Survivorship Program. Dr. Weiss presents the Surviving Pediatric Sepsis: What's Next?  and the Sepsis in Kids: It's Not a Small Problem webinars.

E. Wesley Ely, MD, MPH

Professor of Medicine and Critical Care, Associate Director of Aging Research, VA GRECC, Vanderbilt University School of Medicine

Dr. E. Wesley Ely, MD, MPH is a professor of medicine at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine and the Associate Director for Research for the VA Tennessee Valley Geriatric Research and Education Clinical Center (GRECC). He is also the co-director of the Center for Critical Illness, Brain Dysfunction, and Survivorship (CIBS) Center. He has a subspecialty training in Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine and a particular passion for care of older critically ill patients. During the COVID-19 Pandemic, Dr. Ely and the CIBS Center designed and conducted multiple federally and institutionally funded COVID-related investigations Dr. Ely’s research has focused on improving the care and outcomes of critically ill patients with ICU-acquired brain disease (manifested acutely as delirium and chronically as acquired dementia.) The CIBS Center has amassed thousands of patients into cohort studies and randomized trials answering vital questions about ICU acquired brain disease and other components of ICU survivorship. His team developed the primary tool (CAM-ICU, translated into 30+ languages) which is used to measure delirium in ICU-based trials and clinically at the bedside in ICUs worldwide. Dr. Ely has been continuously federally funded (NIA and/or VA) for over 15 years. He has over 450 peer-reviewed publications and over 50 published book chapters and editorials. He presents the Surviving COVID-19: The Path to Optimal Recovery webinar. 

Carla Sevin, MD

Director, The ICU Recovery Center at Vanderbilt; Medical Director, Pulmonary Patient Care Center; Associate Professor of Medicine

Dr. Carla Sevin received her undergraduate degree from Duke University and her M.D. from the University of South Florida. She trained in Internal Medicine at Vanderbilt University and completed a Pulmonary and Critical Care Fellowship there. She has received additional sub specialty training at the Universtitäts Spital in Zürich, Switzerland, and the University of California in San Francisco, CA. She is board certified in Internal Medicine, Pulmonary Medicine, and Critical Care Medicine. Her professional interests and experience focus strongly on inpatient pulmonary and critical care medicine as well as the care of patients after critical illness. Since 2011 she has led the development and implementation of the ICU Recovery Center at Vanderbilt (formerly the Vanderbilt ICU Survivor Clinic). In 2014 she assumed the directorship of the Pulmonary Patient Care Center at Vanderbilt. In addition to caring for a robust inpatient and outpatient population of pulmonary patients, including those recovering from critical illness, she has worked with the THRIVE Task force of the Society of Critical Care Medicine (SCCM) to further awareness, research, and education about post intensive care syndrome (PICS), and in 2017 started the THRIVE Post ICU Clinic Collaborative. Through these efforts she has had the opportunity to speak with patients, caregivers, intensivists, primary care physicians, allied health professionals and hospital administrators about the pressing need to define this syndrome and develop a means to diagnose and treat it. She is often invited to speak on the role of ICU aftercare programs in our changing healthcare environment, and the benefits and barriers to creating such programs in practice. She presents the Surviving COVID-19: The Path to Optimal Recovery webinar

James C. Jackson, PsyD

Director of Long-Term Outcomes, ICU Recovery Center, Vanderbilt University School of Medicine

James Jackson, PsyD is the Assistant Director of The ICU Recovery Center at Vanderbilt (one of the only clinics in the United States devoted to treating survivors of critical illness), a Research Associate Professor, and the lead psychologist for the CIBS Center at the Vanderbilt University School of Medicine. He earned his PsyD degree in Clinical Psychology at Biola University in July 2001, completed a psychology residency at the Vanderbilt/VA Psychology Consortium, and was a VA Clinical Research Center of Excellence (CRCOE) Fellow and a Visiting Scholar at the Oliver Zangwill Center in Ely, England, where he received extensive training in neuropsychological rehabilitation. A licensed psychologist and active researcher and clinician, he is one of the world’s leading authorities on depression, PTSD, and cognitive functioning in survivors of critical illness. He has authored over 90 scientific publications in leading scientific journals and has been interviewed in articles in the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Boston Globe, and many other prominent media venues. Dr. Jackson is a popular lecturer and has spoken at academic meetings, major universities and medical centers around the globe. He presents the Surviving COVID-19: The Path to Optimal Recovery webinar

Kelly Nguyen, MSN, RN, PHN

Clinical Advisor, Sepsis Alliance

For over ten years, Kelly has worked to improve care for patients with sepsis. With a background in emergency nursing and performance improvement, Kelly created the sepsis program for a hospital system in the Bay Area. She also initiated a county collaborative of sepsis coordinators to enhance care delivery for patients with sepsis throughout the healthcare continuum. Kelly has presented both educational and facility specific outcomes at a number of venues locally, nationally, and abroad. She presents the Strategies for Improving Sepsis Care and Sepsis 101 for Nurses webinars. 

Marianne Kraemer, RN, MPA, Ed. M, CENP, CCRN-K

AVP, Quality and Safety, Jefferson Health - New Jersey

Marianne Kraemer, RN is AVP Quality and Safety for Jefferson Health -New Jersey.  She has been co chair of the Sepsis committee since 2013.  She has been instrumental in working with the various clinical departments for improvement in work flows which has lead to earlier recognition of sepsis.  Marianne is also an original member of the Antibiotic Stewardship committee.  Marianne was also part of the faculty for New Jersey Hospital Association Antibiotic Stewardship 3 year project ending 2019. She presents the Hospital Acquired Sepsis: Early Recognition and Intervention webinar.  

Amesh Adalja, MD, FIDSA

Senior Scholar, Johns Hopkins University Center for Health Security

Dr. Adalja is a Senior Scholar at the Johns Hopkins University Center for Health Security. His work is focused on emerging infectious disease, pandemic preparedness, and biosecurity. Dr. Adalja has served on US government panels tasked with developing guidelines for the treatment of plague, botulism, and anthrax in mass casualty settings and the system of care for infectious disease emergencies. He is currently a member of the Infectious Diseases Society of America’s (IDSA) Precision Medicine working group; he previously served on their public health and diagnostics committees. He was formerly a member of the National Quality Forum’s Infectious Disease Standing Committee and the US Department of Health and Human Services’ National Disaster Medical System, with which he was deployed to Haiti after the 2010 earthquake; he was also selected for their mobile acute care strike team. Dr. Adalja’s expertise is frequently sought by international and national media.
Dr. Adalja completed 2 fellowships at the University of Pittsburgh—one in infectious diseases, for which he served as chief fellow, and one in critical care medicine. He completed a combined residency in internal medicine and emergency medicine at Allegheny General Hospital in Pittsburgh, where he served as chief resident and as a member of the infection control committee. He was a Clinical Assistant Professor at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine from 2010 through 2017 and is currently an adjunct assistant professor there.He is a graduate of the American University of the Caribbean School of Medicine, and he obtained a bachelor of science degree in industrial management from Carnegie Mellon University. He presents the Sepsis and Emerging Infectious Diseases: Understanding the Connection webinar. 

Pat Posa, RN, BSN, MSA, CCRN-K, FAAN

Quality and Patient Safety Program Manager, UH/CVC, Michigan Medicine

Pat Posa is the Quality and Patient Safety Program Manager for UH/CVC at Michigan Medicine. In this role she is responsible for development, measurement and sustainability of the UH/CVC segment quality and patient safety program. Pat most recently was a Quality Excellence Leader for St. Joseph Mercy Health System in Southeastern Michigan leading initiatives to reduce hospital acquired conditions, improve patient outcomes for critically ill patients and reduce readmissions. She also works as the Population Health Clinical Integration Leader. In this role she has implemented a risk prediction tool and associated interventions within the hospital and post-acute settings. She also works as a Quality Excellence Leader for St. Joseph Mercy Hospital. She has held various roles in healthcare in the hospital, ambulatory setting and health plan over her 40 years in practice including manager of inpatient critical care units, Director of Nursing and administrator of an outpatient multispecialty/primary care clinic. Pat has been involved in many quality and patient safety programs such as hospital- and system-wide sepsis management programs and a statewide Keystone ICU patient safety initiative. She has been faculty for multiple state and national clinical collaboratives including the Surviving Sepsis Campaign Phase IV Collaborative, the national project on Comprehensive Unit Safety Program (CUSP) for Mechanically Ventilated Patients and Society of Critical Care Medicine’s ICU Liberation Collaborative. Through Pat's leadership, St. Joseph Mercy Hospital was awarded the HHS/Critical Care Societies Outstanding Leadership in Eliminating CLABSI and VAP in 2011. She was inducted as a fellow into the American Academy of Nursing in 2013. Pat was also awarded the Michigan Hospital Association Quality and Patient Safety Leadership Award in 2017.

Pat has published many articles in both clinical and quality journals. She lectures and consults extensively nationally on sepsis, various critical care, patient safety and quality topics. She received a Bachelor in Nursing from Wayne State University in Detroit Michigan and her Masters of Science in Administration from Central Michigan University in Mt. Pleasant Michigan. She presents the Sepsis: Skilled Nursing and Long Term Care webinar and facilitates the Sepsis Alliance Clinical Community Roundtable: Sepsis Program Performance Improvement. 

Kristen M.J. Azar, R.N., MSN/MPH

Research Scientist, Sutter Health Center for Health Systems Research 

Ms. Azar is a health services researcher at the Sutter Health Center for Health Systems Research (East Campus, currently operating as Sutter's Research Development and Dissemination) and has worked with Sutter’s Research Enterprise since 2009. She has diverse clinical experience as a public health and preventive cardiology nurse both domestically and abroad, and has worked with vulnerable and socioeconomically diverse populations throughout her career. Her research expertise includes improving the prevention and management of chronic conditions such as cardiometabolic diseases and mental illness. She also develops and evaluates innovative behavioral interventions, exploring how health technology can be used to enhance care and improve care outcomes. Ms. Azar’s research is aimed at identifying and addressing health disparities and examining the impact of social determinants of health on chronic disease risk and management. She is a founding member of Sutter’s Advancing Health Equity initiative, led by Dr. Steve Lockhart, and continues to serve on Sutter’s Health Equity Leadership Team.  She is currently enrolled in a doctoral program for Epidemiology and Translational Science at the University of California, San Francisco. She presents the Health Disparities and Opportunities During the COVID-19 Pandemic webinar. 

Oscar Casillas, MD 

Medical Director, Emergency Department, Martin Luther King Jr Community Hospital 

Born in Santa Monica, CA and raised in Los Angeles, Dr. Casillas obtained a B.S. in Business Administration from the University of Southern California. He then completed medical school at UC San Diego before returning home to Los Angeles for Emergency Medicine residency at Harbor UCLA Medical Center. In 2007, he joined the medical staff at Santa Monica UCLA Medical Center. In 2015, Dr. Casillas moved into a new position as Medical Director for the Emergency Department at Martin Luther King Jr. Community Hospital (MLKCH) and helped open this new non-profit hospital in South Los Angeles. Since 2015, MLKCH has quickly grown into one of the busiest Emergency Departments in Los Angeles County. While at MLKCH, Dr. Casillas has been an active medical staff participant, serving on the Medical Executive Committee and numerous other clinical committees. Dr. Casillas is married with four children and has also enjoyed coaching sports at the youth and high school levels for the past 20 years. He presents the Health Disparities and Opportunities During the COVID-19 Pandemic webinar. He also participated in the Sepsis Alliance Summit 2021. 

Selena A Gilles, DNP, ANP-BC, CNEcl, CCRN

Clinical Assistant Professor, NYU Rory Meyers College of Nursing

Selena Ann Gilles is a clinical assistant professor at NYU Rory Meyers College of Nursing. She is certified in critical care nursing and has been an adult NP for ten years, specializing in neuro and pain management. Gilles is passionate about opioid overdose prevention and the management of acute and chronic pain. She is a strong community advocate who works with organizations serving underprivileged communities in Haiti and Ghana. Gilles is currently a member of six professional organizations/associations, including the Meyers Sigma Theta Tau International Nursing Honor Society Upsilon Chapter, on which she serves as president, the Greater NYC Black Nurses Association, for which she is the programming and community service committee chair. Gilles holds a DNP from Monmouth University, an MS from Hunter College, and a BS from Long Island University. Her doctoral research focused on childhood obesity among African American children, with an emphasis on educational interventions for families that aim to decrease the epidemic.She presents the Health Disparities and Opportunities During the COVID-19 Pandemic webinar

Mary Owen, MD

Director, Center of American Indian and Minority Health; President, Association of American Indian Physicians

On completion of her training at the University of Minnesota Family Medicine Residency Program in Minneapolis, MN, Dr. Owen returned to Juneau, Alaska to serve her tribal community. After 11 years of full-scope family practice, she returned to Minnesota to lead the Center of American Indian and Minority Health at the University of Minnesota, where she teaches on issues in Native American health and serves the broader Native American community by recruiting Native American students to medical school. She practices medicine once weekly for a Minnesota Ojibwe community. She presents the Health Disparities and Opportunities During the COVID-19 Pandemic webinar

Mary Ann Barnes-Daly, MS, RN, CCRN-K, DC

Clinical Performance Improvement Consultant – Quality & Clinical Effectiveness Team, Sutter Health

Mary Ann Barnes-Daly has been involved in sepsis care improvements since 2004, working with health systems and with the Society of Critical Care Medicine as faculty on the Surviving Sepsis Campaign. Dr. Barnes-Daly specializes in sepsis and ICU Liberation and has lectured nationally on both topics, and is currently leading a septic shock improvement initiative for the Sutter Health System in northern California. She presents the Standardizing Sepsis Care for Optimal Outcomes webinar. 

Nimalie Stone, MD

Medical Epidemiologist for Long-term Care in the Division of Healthcare Quality Promotion, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

Dr. Stone is a Board-certified infectious disease physician who has a research and clinical background in managing infections and antibiotic resistant pathogens in post-acute and long-term care settings. She addresses the needs for infection prevention programs in long-term care. Dr. Stone develops guidelines, educational resources and quality improvement programs to reduce healthcare associated infections and promote antibiotic stewardship in nursing homes. She oversees the inclusion of infection surveillance infrastructure designed for use by nursing homes and assisted living facilities within the CDC’s National Healthcare Safety Network. Dr. Stone serves as a technical expert for multiple AHRQ funded projects promoting infection prevention and antibiotic stewardship in long-term care and works closely with the CMS divisions focused on quality improvement and infection prevention oversight in nursing homes. She serves as an infection prevention resource for state health departments and national quality improvement initiatives such as the Advancing Excellence in America’s Nursing Homes Campaign. She presents the Sepsis in Nursing Homes: Recognition and Response webinar. 

Theresa A. Rowe, DO, MS

Assistant Professor of Medicine, Department of Medicine, Division of General Internal Medicine and Geriatrics, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine

Dr. Rowe is an Assistant Professor of Medicine in the Department of Medicine, Division of General Internal Medicine and Geriatrics at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. She completed a Geriatric Medicine fellowship at Northwestern University McGaw Medical Center and an Infectious Disease Fellowship at Yale University, and is board certified in both specialties. She has extensive clinical and research experience in health care associated infections in long-term care settings, including management of sepsis in older adults. She presents the Sepsis in Nursing Homes: Recognition and Response and the Sepsis in Older Adults: Are We Up for the Challenge? webinars. 

Sarah Kabbani, MD, MSc 

Medical Officer, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention 

Dr. Kabbani is an adult infectious disease physician in the Office of Antibiotic Stewardship, Division of Healthcare Quality Promotion, National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. She completed her internal medicine residency at Wayne State University in Michigan. After working as an academic hospitalist for two years at Beaumont Health System, she joined Emory University in 2011 for her post-doctoral infectious disease fellowship. During her fellowship, she completed a Master of Science in Clinical Research at Emory working with population surveillance data and was awarded an NIH T32 training grant in vaccinology. In 2016, Dr. Kabbani joined the Office of Antibiotic Stewardship where her areas of concentration include older adult and long-term care antibiotic stewardship. She presents the Sepsis in Nursing Homes: Recognition and Response webinar. 

Timothy G. Buchman, PhD, MD, FACS, FCCP, MCCM

Professor of Surgery, Professor of Anesthesiology, Professor of Biomedical Informatics, Emory University School of Medicine

Timothy G. Buchman, PhD, MD, FACS, FCCP, MCCM has four decades of bedside experience caring for septic patients. A general surgeon, intensive care doctor and virologist, he is currently Senior Advisor, IPA to the Division of Research, Innovation, and Ventures (DRIVe), Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA), Office of Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response (ASPR), US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). Dr. Buchman’s other current roles include Professor of Surgery, Anesthesiology, and Biomedical Informatics at Emory University, where he founded the Emory Critical Care Center. Dr. Buchman is past president of the Shock Society, of the Society for Complex Acute Illness and of the Society of Critical Care Medicine, the latter being the largest organization of critical care professionals in the world. He is Editor-in-Chief of Critical Care Medicine (www.ccmjournal.org) and Critical Care Explorations (www.ccejournal.org). He is a member of the External Faculty of the Santa Fe Institute. He also serves as site director of the military-civilian partnership, Surgical Critical Care Institute (www.sc2i.org). He presents the Close Encounters of the Worst Kind: Sepsis from the Wrong Side of the Sheet webinar. 

Maren Monsen, MD

Founding Director, Program in Bioethics and Film, Senior Research Scholar Emerita, Center for Biomedical Ethics, Stanford University School of Medicine

Dr. Maren Monsen is a physician, filmmaker, and clinical ethicist who uses film to share patient stories and shine light on challenging issues in public health and medicine. She founded the Program in Bioethics and Film at the Stanford University Center for Biomedical Ethics which she ran for 21 years, and produced multiple internationally acclaimed documentary films. She Co-Directed Emmy-nominated The Revolutionary Optimists, about kids in Kolkata India making grassroots change to improve global health in the slums and brickfields where they live. Previous films include Worlds Apart and Hold Your Breath, a large-scale project on racial and ethnic health disparities, which was broadcast on national public television and has been used in the majority of US medical schools. Past films are Rare, the story of one extraordinary mother's race against time to find a cure for her daughter's rare genetic disease, and The Vanishing Line, a chronicle of her journey toward understanding the art and issues of dying. She has worked clinically seeing patients as an emergency physician, palliative care physician and clinical ethicist, and taught clinical and research ethics. She presents the Spiritual Care for Patients, Families, and Providers in the Era of COVID-19 webinar. 

Gale Kennebrew, DMin, BCC, ACPE

Director, Spiritual Care and Education, MD Anderson Cancer Center, University of Texas

The Reverend Dr. Gale Francine Kennebrew is a native of Chicago, Illinois. She is Director of Spiritual Care and Education at The University of Texas M D Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Texas. She received her Bachelor of Arts Degree from Columbia College Chicago and worked in radio and television. She is a pioneer in spiritual care and education, earning a Master of Divinity degree from Chicago Theological Seminary and a Doctor of Ministry Degree from United Theological Seminary. Her love for spiritual care began as a chaplain trainee at the University of Chicago Hospitals. She has served in health care settings for over twenty eight years. She is a Board-Certified Chaplain with the Association of Professional Chaplains, a Certified Educator with the Association for Clinical Pastoral Education, Inc., and a United Church of Christ clergywoman. She teaches spiritual care skills, and lectures on spirituality and healthcare nationally and internationally. She is the proud mother of two sons and one daughter, and enjoys spending time virtually with her seven grandchildren. She presents the Spiritual Care for Patients, Families, and Providers in the Era of COVID-19 webinar.

Nicholas Mohr, MD, MS

Professor of Emergency Medicine, Anesthesia Critical Care, and Epidemiology at University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine

Dr. Nick Mohr is a Professor of Emergency Medicine, Anesthesia Critical Care, and Epidemiology and the Vice Chair for Emergency Care Research at the University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine. Dr. Mohr is interested in rural health, sepsis systems of care, and emergency telemedicine, and his research has been funded by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, the Federal Office of Rural Health Policy, the Veterans Administration Office of Rural Health, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. He presents the Developing Systems for Rural Sepsis Care webinar. 

Radu Postelnicu, MD

Assistant Professor of Medicine, NYU School of Medicine; Associate Director, Bellevue Medical ICU; Assistant Program Director, NYU Pulmonary/ Critical Care Fellowship

Dr. Postelnicu is an Assistant Professor of Medicine at New York University School of Medicine and the Associate Director of the Medical ICU at Bellevue Hospital and Assistant Program Director for the NYU Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine fellowship program. He earned his BA at Northwestern University and his MD at Tulane University School of Medicine. Dr. Postelnicu did his residency in internal medicine at NYU School of Medicine, where he also completed pulmonary and critical care medicine fellowship training. His interests focus on long-term consequences of sepsis and critical illness, as well as patient safety and quality improvement. He is actively involved in several professional societies as well as in the National Emerging Special Pathogens Training and Education Center (NETEC). He presents the Strategies for Identification, Isolation, and Treatment of Special Pathogens/ COVID-19 and Sepsis: Similarities and Differences webinar. 

Greg S. Martin, MD, MSc, FCCM, FCCP, ATS-F

Professor of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, Emory University; President-Elect, Society of Critical Care Medicine

Greg S. Martin, M.D., M.Sc. is Professor of Medicine and Executive Associate Division Director at Emory University in the Division of Pulmonary, Allergy, Critical Care and Sleep Medicine. Dr. Martin is the Research Director for the Emory Critical Care Center (ECCC), Director of the Emory/Georgia Tech Predictive Health Institute, chair of the Critical Care Committee at Grady Memorial Hospital, and Co-Director of the Atlanta Center for Microsystems Engineered Point-of-Care Technologies program charged with accelerating COVID-19 diagnostics in the NIH RADx program. Dr. Martin’s research focuses on sepsis and the acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS) and spans epidemiology and health services research through device platforms and biomarker studies to randomized trials of new treatments. He is a member of several professional societies and will serve in 2021 as President for the Society of Critical Care Medicine. He presents the Strategies for Identification, Isolation, and Treatment of Special Pathogens/ COVID-19 and Sepsis: Similarities and Differences webinar. 

Sandy Cayo, DNP, FNP-BC

Vice President of Clinical Performance and Transformation; New Jersey Hospital Association

Dr. Cayo provides leadership for the Health Research Education Trust of NJ which has initiatives related to perinatal quality, hospital quality improvement, opioid prevention, HIV prevention, and implicit bias training. Sandy’s research interests focus on social determinants of health and improving access and overall health outcomes for African American patients. She serves as a mentor and advisor for various student groups, including Student Nurses for Advocacy & Policy, Black Student Nurses Association, and Nursing Students for Global Health. She has worked with first-generation and minority nursing studies to help improve retention in academic nursing programs and continues to work with disadvantaged populations through education of wellness. Sandy travels once a year to both Ghana and Haiti on medical missions. She currently serves as the director of education for HEAL (Health Education Action League) Haiti. Her project includes the implementation of a pre-licensure nurse residency program to help bridge the current knowledge and practice gap for nurses in St. Marc, Haiti. As a lifelong learner, Sandy is in the process of completing her DNP-PhD program where her research focuses on the impact of discrimination on cardiovascular health in African American women. She presents the Racial Disparity: Incidence, Care, and Outcomes of Sepsis in Vulnerable Populations webinar. She also participated in the Sepsis Alliance Summit 2021. 

Mary Kate Abbadessa, MSN, ACCNS-P, RN, RN-BC, CPEN

Emergency Department Clinical Nurse Specialist, The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia

Mary Kate Abbadessa is the Clinical Nurse Specialist in the Emergency Department (ED) at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP). She completed undergraduate and graduate studies at Villanova University, earning a Bachelor of Science in Nursing and a Master of Science in Nursing Education, as well as a Post-Master’s certificate from the Pediatric Critical Care Clinical Nurse Specialist program at the University of Pennsylvania. She joined the CHOP ED in 2009, with past experience in pre-hospital and adult emergency care, as well as pediatric PACU and neonatal nursing. Ms. Abbadessa’s clinical and research interests include the care of the child with fever, resuscitation, and trauma. Ms. Abbadessa has been the ED nursing clinical champion for sepsis since 2012, serves as the nursing lead for CHOP’s Pediatric Sepsis Program and the co-lead for the hospital’s sepsis governance committee for quality improvement. Ms. Abbadessa is an active member of the Children’s Hospital Association’s Sepsis Collaborative and a 2018 recipient of the Erin’s Campaign for Kids Nursing award for Sepsis. She presents the Sepsis in Kids: It's Not a Small Problem and the Filling the Tank: An Update on Fluid Resuscitation on Pediatric Sepsis webinars. 

David Carlbom, MD

Medical Director, Harborview Respiratory Care Department; Associate Professor of Medicine, Pulmonary Critical Care & Sleep Medicine; Harborview Medical Center, University of Washington

Dr. Carlbom is an Associate Professor of Medicine, Pulmonary Critical Care & Sleep Medicine at Harborview Medical Center within University of Washington. He is actively involved in leadership and teaching activities at the local, regional, and international level. He is a major resource for sepsis resuscitation and pre-ICU critical care expertise at UW Medicine. He lectures extensively to multiple different professionals and works systematically to identify and initiate rapid treatment of critically ill sepsis patients. Regionally, Dr. Carlbom participates in special programs to improve the care of critically ill patients, teaches at multiple venues and serves as a referral source for both questions and patient referrals regarding sepsis. His bias is “good people trying hard, of any educational level, can take great care of critically ill patients if they work as a team, communicate, and have compassion for humans.” Dr. Carlbom presents the Rising Tide: Lessons Learned from Early Days of COVID-19 Pandemic Response in Seattle webinar.

Darcy Jaffe, MN, ARNP, NE-BC, PMH-CNS-BC, FACHE

Senior Vice President for Safety & Quality, Washington State Hospital Association

Darcy was the past Chief Nursing Officer and Senior Associate Administrator at Harborview Medical Center, University of Washington Medicine in Seattle and Co-Director of the UW Medicine Center for Scholarship in Patient Care Safety and Quality. She is a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Executive Nurse Fellow Alumnus, an honorary Assistant Clinical Dean at the UW School of Nursing and a Fellow of the American College of Healthcare Executives. Darcy is Board Certified by the American Nurses’ Credentialing Center as a Psychiatric-Mental Health Clinical Nurse Specialist and a Nurse Executive. She has been a sponsor, leader or member of multiple national, state and local quality and safety initiatives in areas such as behavioral health, vulnerable populations, resiliency and building cultures of safety. Previous appointments include The Washington State Speaker of the House Mental Health Task Force, the King County Mental Illness and Drug Dependency Oversight Committee, the King County-Seattle Task Force on Heroin and Prescription Opiate Addiction, the Vice-Chair of the Vizient/University Health System Consortium Chief Nursing Officer, Behavioral Health Advisory Board, and faculty for The Institute for Behavioral Healthcare Improvement. She presents the Rising Tide: Lessons Learned from Early Days of COVID-19 Pandemic Response in Seattle webinar.

Sharukh Lokhandwala, MD, MSc

Pulmonary & Critical Care Medicine, Evergreen Health

Sharukh Lokhandwala received his bachelor’s degree in Biology and Political Science from UCLA. He then went to medical school at UC Davis, and then residency at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center.  There, he worked in the Harvard Center for Resuscitation Science under Dr. Michael Donnino on ED-ICU Triage strategies for patients with Sepsis.  He then worked at the Harvard-MIT Division of Health Science and Technology using large datasets to model long-term outcomes of critical illness.  Sharukh then went to the University of Washington for Pulmonary and Critical Care Fellowship where he obtained a Master’s in Epidemiology in the School of Public Health, and studied the early management of respiratory failure and sedation practices.  He now works as a Pulmonary & Critical Care physician at Evergreen Health. Dr. Lokhandwala presents the Rising Tide: Lessons Learned from Early Days of COVID-19 Pandemic Response in Seattle webinar.

Heather Rathod, BSN, MSN, CCRN

ICU nurse, University of Washington Medical Center Northwest Campus

Heather has been a nurse for 8 years. She always knew she wanted to be a nurse because her mom is a PACU nurse. She went into nursing school straight out of high school, at Lake Washington Institute of Technology and received her ADN. She then went on to complete her BSN at University of Washington Bothell Campus. Heather then earned her Master’s in Health systems Leadership at Gonzaga University. She has worked on a medical surgical unit, an outpatient surgery center, PCU, and is currently an ICU nurse at University of Washington Medical Center Northwest Campus. She loves being an ICU nurse as she finds it rewarding and feels that her coworkers make every day better. She presents the Rising Tide: Lessons Learned from Early Days of COVID-19 Pandemic Response in Seattle webinar.

Niuvis Ferro-Gonzalez

Caseworker Cultural Mediator & Advocate, Interpreter Services Department, Harborview Medical Center, UW Medicine

Niuvis has worked at Harborview for eight years, initially as Medical Interpreter and for the last four months in the role of Caseworker Cultural Mediator. In her new role, she serves as a Cultural broker/Community health worker/ Mediator between Spanish speaking patients and health providers in order to ensure culturally sensitive care. She assists patients and their families in navigating the complexity of our health care system; advocates and facilitates their consistent communication with health care teams. Prior to her work at Harborview, Niuvis worked as a Spanish Medical Interpreter and Interpreter Coordinator for NeighborCare Health in Seattle, WA. Previously, she worked as a teacher in Cuba, her natal country. Niuvis is credentialed with Medical Interpreter Certification from Washington State Department of Social and Health Services DSHS; she is a National Certified Medical Interpreter CCHI and also has a Master Degree in Education from Instituto Superior Pedagógico (Teachers University), Santiago de Cuba. Niuvis is always on the lookout for continuing education opportunities. She is a clear communicator and enjoys working with her community. She presents the Rising Tide: Lessons Learned from Early Days of COVID-19 Pandemic Response in Seattle webinar. 

Keelee Moseley

Sepsis Survivor

Keelee is a seasoned IT professional with over 15 years of experience in software development, a happy wife, a mother of three amazing humans, and a survivor of maternal sepsis and necrotizing fasciitis. On a mission to share her story about the fight against the post-partum infection that threatened her life, Keelee strives to be an advocate for women, both locally and globally. One of her main goals is to raise awareness amongst other women to help them have safe pregnancies and deliveries, by advocating for themselves during their maternal health journey. Her primary points of focus are patient advocacy, timely interventions, revised workforce policies that extend maternity leave for childbirth complications and NICU stays, developing patient guidance with educational materials and support structures, accountability for the systematic reviews of causes of maternal death with a lens on the racial disparities, and the advancement of near-miss reporting and redefining the standard level of care and best practices. Keelee has a BS degree in Information Science and Technology from Penn State University and is currently completing an MBA in Information Technology Management. She presents the Enhancing Recovery from Sepsis and COVID-19 webinar. 

Fran Balamuth, MD, PhD, MSCE 

Assistant Professor of Pediatrics, University of Pennsylvania

Fran Balamuth MD, PhD, MSCE is Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Pennsylvania, and an attending physician in the emergency department at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. Dr. Balamuth’s research interests focus on pediatric sepsis recognition using both epidemiologic and translational approaches, for which she has received both NIH and foundational funding. She has published over 40 peer-reviewed research publications in this field, including several studies prospectively enrolling hundreds of children with suspected sepsis. She is the co-PI of the PROMPT BOLUS trial, a multinational pragmatic trial which compares saline vs balanced fluids in pediatric sepsis, and will be the largest acute care pediatric trial in history. In addition, she co-leads the CHOP Pediatric Sepsis Program, which supports and promotes local clinical, research, educational, and quality improvement initiatives around sepsis. She is an internationally recognized sepsis leader, and has been invited to serve on the national steering committee for the Improving Pediatric Sepsis Outcomes quality collaborative through the US Children’s Hospital Association, and 2 international task forces focused on defining pediatric sepsis through the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Society of Critical Care Medicine. Dr. Balamuth presents the Filling the Tank: An Update on Fluid Resuscitation in Pediatric Sepsis webinar. 

Dian Baker, PhD, RN

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). She presents the Healthcare-Associated Infection Mini-Summit and Healthcare-Associated Infection Mini-Summit 2021. 

Michael Klompas, MD, MPH 

Hospital Epidemiologist, Brigham and Women’s Hospital; Professor of Population Medicine, Harvard Medical School 

Dr. Michael Klompas is an Infectious Disease physician and the Hospital Epidemiologist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston as well as Professor of Population Medicine in Harvard Medical School. He has published widely on surveillance, diagnosis, prevention, and treatment of hospital-acquired pneumonia, ventilator-associated events, Covid-19, and sepsis. He was a member of the ATS-IDSA guideline panel on Management of Hospital-Acquired Pneumonia, is currently co-chair of the SHEA panel on Strategies to Prevent Ventilator-Associated Pneumonia, and serves on the Surviving Sepsis Campaign guideline panel. He presents the Healthcare-Associated Infection Mini-Summit webinar. 

Alice Guh, MD, MPH, FIDSA 

Medical Officer, CDC, Division of Healthcare Quality Promotion 

CDR Alice Guh, MD, MPH, is a U.S. Public Health Service Medical Officer in the Division of Healthcare Quality Promotion (DHQP) at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). She is board certified in Internal Medicine and Infectious Diseases. CDR Guh first joined CDC in 2007 as an Epidemic Intelligence Service Officer, where she was assigned to the Connecticut State Department of Public Health. She joined DHQP in 2009, where she provided technical expertise in investigations of healthcare-associated outbreaks and management of infection control breaches. In August 2014, CDR Guh assumed leadership of the Clostridioides difficile infection surveillance activity, which covers a population of 12 million persons, conducted through the CDC Emerging Infections Program. In this capacity, she leads special projects to advance C. difficile research and provides subject matter expertise on C. difficile epidemiology and surveillance. She presents the Healthcare-Associated Infection Mini-Summit webinar. 

John Mazuski, MD, PhD 

Professor of Surgery, Washington University School of Medicine

John E. Mazuski, MD, PhD is a Professor of Surgery at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri. He received his medical degree from the University of California, Los Angeles in 1981. He completed surgical residency in 1990, a fellowship in surgical critical care, and a PhD degree in biochemistry in 1993, all from the University of Minnesota. Dr. Mazuski is board certified in surgery and in surgical critical care by the American Board of Surgery. Dr. Mazuski’s clinical practice is centered on surgical critical care. He is the previous co-director of the Surgical Intensive Care Unit at Barnes-Jewish Hospital. His research interests focus on surgical infections, particularly intra-abdominal and soft tissue infections, and antimicrobial stewardship in surgical patients. Dr. Mazuski has been active in the development of evidence-based guidelines for the treatment of surgical and critically ill patients; these include several guidelines for the management of intra-abdominal infections, sepsis and septic shock, and prevention of surgical site infection. Dr. Mazuski is a past president of the Surgical Infection Society and has been recognized as a Master of Critical Care Medicine (MCCM) by the American College of Critical Care Medicine. He presents the Healthcare-Associated Infection Mini-Summit webinar. 

Uzma Syed, DO, FIDSA 

Infectious Disease Specialist, Good Samaritan Hospital Medical Center

Dr. Uzma Syed is a board-certified Infectious Disease specialist, Chair of the COVID-19 Task Force, and is the Director of the Antimicrobial Stewardship Center of Excellence at Good Samaritan Hospital Medical Center. Dr. Syed is well-published in pneumonia-related research and has been leading several COVID-19 clinical trials. She teaches students of all ages as well as medical residents about her specialty. Dr. Syed is a member of the Inclusion, Diversity, Access & Equity Task Force of the Infectious Disease Society of America. Dr. Syed has been featured on several media outlets as an expert in Infectious Diseases. She presents the Healthcare-Associated Infection Mini-Summit webinar. 

June McKoy, MD, MPH, JD, MBA

Associate Professor of Medicine, Preventive Medicine, and Medical Education, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine

June M. McKoy, MD MPH JD MBA. Dr. McKoy is an Associate Professor of Medicine, Preventive Medicine, and Medical Education, anboard certified academic geriatrician, and a NIH funded health services researcher at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine (Feinberg). She is an Associate Editor of the Journal of the National Comprehensive Cancer Network and a member of the Editorial Board of the Journal of Geriatric Oncology. A national expert in the field of aging, Dr. McKoy has provided her expertise to organizations and the media as it relates to multiple medical conditions, including infections in older adults. She serves as the program director for the Geriatric Medicine Fellowship at Feinberg and is responsible for all aspects of geriatrics education, including the education of residents and fellows about healthcare associated infections, including sepsis, in long-term care facilities. A licensed Illinois attorney, Dr. McKoy provides pro bono legal services on the local and national levels where she often addresses issues at the intersection of law and medicine. Dr. McKoy presents the Sepsis in Older Adults: Are We Up for the Challenge? webinar. She also participated in Sepsis Tech & Innovation 2021. 

Sean Townsend, MD

Vice President of Quality & Safety, California Pacific Medical Center

Dr. Sean R. Townsend, M.D., is Vice President of Quality & Safety at California Pacific Medical Center (CPMC) in San Francisco, California.  He is also Clinical Associate Professor of Medicine at University of California, San Francisco.  Dr. Townsend is a practicing intensivist in the Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care at CPMC.  Dr. Townsend led IHI's work on sepsis and served on the Surviving Sepsis Campaign (SSC) steering committee for many years.  Dr. Townsend serves as measure steward for CMS’s national sepsis quality measure, SEP-1. He presents the SEP-1 The Nation's First Sepsis Measure: What are the Downstream Effects? webinar. He also participated in the Sepsis Alliance Summit 2021 in a solo session and with Dr. Emanuel Rivers. 

Kate Holler

Parent of Rowan Holler

Kate Holler is the mother of 5-year-old Rowan, who was born with a rare and serious condition which has required frequent hospitalizations including treatment for sepsis. Kate has been a dedicated advocate for Rowan’s medical needs and those of other children who require specialized care at children’s hospitals. In June, 2019,  the Holler family participated in the Children’s Hospital Association Speak Now for Kids Family Advocacy Day in Washington DC. There they met with members of congress to share Rowan’s medical journey and the critical need for children's hospital funding with members of Congress. She presents the Recognizing Pediatric Sepsis: Through the Eyes of Patients and Families webinar. 

Nora Raynor, MSN, RN, CNS, CPN

Clinical Nurse Specialist, Atrium Health Levine Children's Hospital

Nora is a Clinical Nurse Specialist at Levine Children’s Hospital. She has 39 years of pediatric nursing experience, including as Nurse Manager of a Level 1 Pediatric ICU and Trauma Program Manager for a Level 1 Pediatric Trauma Center. Currently, as a CNS, Nora is responsible for clinical program development, nursing education and clinical advancement, and leading quality improvement initiatives. This includes her work on sepsis early recognition and treatment through participation in the IPSO collaborative. She presents the Recognizing Pediatric Sepsis: Through the Eyes of Patients and Families webinar. 

Cathryn Jordan, BSN, RN, CPHON

Pediatric Hematology, Oncology and BMT Program, Atrium Health Levine Children's Hospital

Cathryn Jordan is a Clinical Supervisor with Levine Children’s Cancer and Blood Disorders Clinic in Charlotte, NC. She has been with Levine Children’s for eight years as a Solid Tumor Clinic RN, Clinical Lead and Triage RN. Cathryn has been a hematology and oncology nurse for her entire career and has a passion for helping improve care for this population. She presents the Recognizing Pediatric Sepsis: Through the Eyes of Patients and Families webinar. 

Jamie Roney, DNP, RN, NPD-BC, BSHCM, CCRN-K

Regional Sepsis Coordinator, Covenant Health

Dr. Jamie Roney functions as patient management resource to the ministry, providing key evidence and guidance in the care of the septic patient, providing education to clinical staff, and coaching nurses seeking clinical advancement using evidence-based methods for a one thousand and five bed hospital while participating in several clinical work groups. Dr. Roney collaborated with regional healthcare leaders, organizations, and providers as Project Manager for $11,413,376 Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services 7-year regional sepsis project to improve population health in West Texas from 2012 through 20219. She is an alumna of The Academy for Emerging Leaders in Patient Safety: The Telluride Experience. Current National Quality Forum (NQF) Infections Disease and Patient Safety Standing Committees member. Dr. Roney completed research to develop a Modified Early Warning Scoring (MEWS) tool aligned with Systemic Inflammatory Response Syndrome (SIRS) criteria. Implementation of the tool has led to a sustained 24% reduction in sepsis -related mortality over five years. Publications of development and findings in peer-reviewed literature have led to multiple nation and and international sepsis presentations in the United States, Czech Republic, Puerto Rico, and Canada. Dr. Roney's sepsis-specific continuing education courses are used by all branches of the U.S. military by nurses, doctors, respiratory therapists, and emergency personnel. Current work includes a systematic review comparing effectiveness of MEWS/NEWS versus SIRS/qSOFA for identifying in-hospital mortality and transfer into an intensive care unit. She presents  Sepsis in the Time of COVID-19: Perspectives From Front-line Sepsis Coordinators webinar. 

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. He presents the Antimicrobial Stewardship and Management of Sepsis: Two Sides of the Same Coin webinar. He also participated in Sepsis Tech & Innovation 2021 and the Healthcare-Associated Infection Mini-Summit 2021. 

Roy Adams, PhD

Assistant Professor, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine

Roy Adams is an Assistant Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences in the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine where he works on machine learning and statistical methods for understanding electronic medical data. He uses these methods to provide insight into complex medical conditions and to improve the safety, efficiency, and efficacy of patient care, with particular focus on sepsis, addiction, and Alzheimer’s disease. He received his PhD in computer science from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst in 2018 and completed a postdoctoral fellowship in computer science and biostatistics at Johns Hopkins University in 2021. He participated in Sepsis Tech & Innovation 2021. 

Catherine Afarian

Head Of Corporate Communications, AKASA

Catherine Afarian spent 40 days in the hospital and an additional 3 months at home fighting a septic liver infection in 2018. Now fully recovered, Catherine serves as the Head of Corporate Communications for AKASA. Catherine is a communications and media relations executive with 20+ years of experience in Silicon Valley working for disruptive and innovative internet companies, including Netflix, eBay and 23andMe. Catherine holds a BA in journalism from California State University, Chico.

Rajesh Aggarwal, MBBS, MA(Cantab), PhD, FRCS, FACS

Chief Growth and Strategy Officer, Panda Health

Rajesh Aggarwal is a physician executive leader with an exceptional track record of success, in areas of education, innovation, patient safety and service quality, to transform clinical care delivery across complex academic and community health systems. His work focuses upon clinical, scientific and technological expertise with respect to healthcare innovations, encompassing digital applications and health IT platforms, virtual and augmented reality solutions, medical devices and interventional robotics, and advanced analytics. In his roles at Imperial College London, University of Pennsylvania, McGill University and Jefferson Health, Rajesh has experience with leading venture, strategic, research and commercial partnership deals for health systems to garner real impact with external parties. Most recently, Rajesh joined Panda Health in a leadership role. Panda Health is an early-stage company that is building a digital health enablement platform, for health systems to source, connect and manage best in class digital health solutions economically, safely, and at speed. He participated in Sepsis Tech & Innovation 2021. 

Ella Balasa

Patient Advocacy and Engagement Consultant, Self Employed

Ella Balasa was diagnosed with cystic fibrosis at the age of 1. Having a biology background, she is an advocate for the development of novel therapies for the treatment of antibiotic-resistant infections including phage therapy, as well as speaking publicly at conferences about the value of the patient voice in research. She serves as a member of research committees for the CF Foundation, is a director for the US Adult CF Association, and has been published on MedPage Today, HuffPost, and Pulmonary Therapy Journal. Through opportunities working with healthcare organizations and sharing her journey through writing and speaking, she aims to affect the healthcare landscape to promote self-advocacy to patients and valuable insights to organizations. More of her work and experiences can be found at www.ellabalasa.com. She participated in Sepsis Tech & Innovation 2021.

Valerie Barton, MA

Senior Advisor, National Sepsis Registry Initiative

Ms. Valerie Barton is a Senior Advisor with the National Sepsis Registry Initiative (NSRI) where she leads business and operational planning. Ms. Barton has served in leadership roles in data rich-organizations, including at the Patient-Centered Clinical Research Network (PCORnet) where she worked with academic researchers to integrate claims and registry data into the clinical data assets of PCORnet. During her nearly 20 years as a consultant, she assisted clients by bringing data-informed approaches to their health policy development and business strategies. Ms. Barton founded and built research and data practices at both Manatt Health LLP and Avalere Health LLC. Under her leadership, her teams conducted quantitative analytics and economic modeling with observational data for pharmaceutical manufacturers, biotech and medical device firms, patient organizations, and foundations. She began her career as an analyst at the Congressional Budget Office and, later, at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. She participated in Sepsis Tech & Innovation 2021.

Kevin Breen

Sepsis Survivor, Husband and Father

The 2016 holiday season took an unexpected turn for a Michigan family when Kevin Breen, father of three, became ill the day after Christmas. Kevin came home early from work because he knew something wasn’t right. What started as a severe sore throat had turned into mysterious abdominal pain. The pain and illness continued to get worse, so Kevin’s wife Julie rushed him to the emergency room. At the hospital, his condition continued to deteriorate. Doctors explained that the strep infection had traveled to his abdomen, which led to sepsis and septic shock. Over the next two months, this rare complication led to amputations of both legs below-the-knee, his left hand, and parts of the fingers on his right hand. https://hangerclinic.com/prosthetics/. He participated in Sepsis Tech & Innovation 2021. 

Niall Brennan, MPP

President and Chief Executive Officer, Health Care Cost Institute (HCCI)

Mr. Brennan is the President and CEO of the Health Care Cost Institute. In this role, he is responsible for overseeing HCCI’s overall research agenda that seeks to highlight trends in U.S. health care spending and the factors behind those trends. Niall also works to maximize the reach of HCCI's data by licensing directly to leading academic researchers and through HCCI's role as a Medicare certified Qualified Entity. Niall works closely with federal and state policymakers, including the U.S. Congress on key health policy issues. He is a nationally recognized expert in health care policy, the use of health care data to enable and accelerate health system change, and data transparency. He has published widely in leading academic journals, including the Journal of the American Medical Association, the New England Journal of Medicine and Health Affairs. Prior to joining HCCI, Mr. Brennan was Chief Data Officer at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS). He has also worked at the Brookings Institution, the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission, the Congressional Budget Office, the Urban Institute, and PriceWaterhouseCoopers. Mr. Brennan received his MPP from Georgetown University and his BA from University College Dublin, Ireland. When not in the office, Niall enjoys spending time with his family, watching soccer and rugby, and road and mountain bike riding. He participated in Sepsis Tech & Innovation 2021. 

Inger Brueckner, PT

Speaker for continuing education for therapists, Educational Resources Inc

Inger Brueckner, PT received her BS in Physiology from the University of California at Davis and her Masters in Physical Therapy from Boston University. She has worked primarily with patients who have limb loss for the last 10 years of her 20 plus year career. She has co-authored an article on pre-prosthetic training for Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation Clinics of North America and is currently one of the primary investigators in a randomized clinical trial for transtibial amputations. Inger has been invited to speak at several local, national, and international medical conferences for patients, therapists, physicians and case workers concerning amputee rehabilitation. She is excited to share her experiences working with a multidisciplinary team to achieve the highest level of outcomes. She participated in Sepsis Tech & Innovation 2021. 

John C. Chang, MD, MBA, MHCDS

Region VP, Regional Chief Medical Officer, UnitedHealthCare (UHC)

Dr. Chang is the Regional Vice President, and Regional Chief Medical Officer for UnitedHealthCare (UHC), representing health benefits coverage for 3.3 million Commercial lives spanning 14 markets. He is a physician executive leader with deep experience leading clinical teams and strategic programs focused on achieving the Triple Aim to improve the per capita cost of healthcare, improve the health of populations, and optimizing the patient experience. Dr. Chang has also served in similar physician executive roles with Blue Shield of CA, and Anthem Blue Cross/Blue Shield. Dr. Chang earned his MD from Hahnemann University School of Medicine, completed his clinical training in Otolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery at U.C. Irvine Medical Center, and earned his MBA from the Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan. He recently completed dedicated study focused on Healthcare Delivery Science at Dartmouth Tuck School of Business and The Geisel School of Medicine. He participated in Sepsis Tech & Innovation 2021. 

Joshua Clark, MHA, RN

Senior Vice President Quality and Safety Operations, Jefferson Health

Josh Clark is the Senior Vice President of Quality and Safety Operations for Jefferson Health, a 14-hospital system covering the greater Philadelphia region and southern New Jersey. Josh led the implementation of the OnPoint Program for advancing care excellence which included launching an industry leading serious safety event review program, enterprise escalating huddles, an organizational learning and triage platform and a state-of-the-art enterprise analytics platform. Josh obtained his RN and Master of Healthcare Administration degrees from Jefferson College of Health Sciences. After ten years of critical care nursing in Virginia and NYC, Josh transitioned his focus to the science of healthcare delivery. He helped lead a quality and safety transformation at Virginia’s second largest health system which included one of the only Applied Human Factors departments in the country. His work to integrate translational Human Factors within clinical operations was recognized by the National Quality Forum, Next Generation Innovator Award. Josh has led sepsis improvement efforts since 2008 and has served on expert panels with Dr. Emmanuel Rivers and presented to the Society of Critical Care Medicine on establishing a comprehensive sepsis program. Josh holds certifications for quality and safety from the National Association of Healthcare Quality and the Institute for Healthcare Improvement. He participated in Sepsis Tech & Innovation 2021.

Carol A. Cunningham, MD, FAAEM, FAEMS

State Medical Director, Ohio Department of Public Safety, Division of EMS

Dr. Cunningham received her medical degree and completed an emergency medicine residency at the University of Cincinnati. She completed the National Preparedness Leadership Initiative, Women and Power, and Advanced Crisis Leadership: Innovative Strategies and Designs programs at the Harvard Kennedy School of Executive Education and the Homeland Security Executive Leadership Program at The Naval Postgraduate School & The U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Center for Homeland Defense and Security. She is the 2012 recipient of the American Academy of Emergency Medicine’s James Keaney Leadership Award, is the co-principal investigator for the National Association of State EMS Officials (NASEMSO) National Model EMS Clinical Guidelines project, and served two terms on the National EMS Advisory Council (NEMSAC). Dr. Cunningham was appointed to the Executive Steering Committee of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Science & Technology Directorate’s First Responder Resource Group and serves on multiple organizational boards including the Journal of EMS (JEMS), the Committee for Tactical Emergency Casualty Care, Eversight, the Tri-C Jazzfest, and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum. She participated in Sepsis Tech & Innovation 2021.

Erin M. Duffy, PhD

Chief of Research and Development, CARB-X

Erin Duffy Jorgensen is the Chief of Research & Development at CARB-X. CARB-X is a global non-profit partnership dedicated to accelerating antibacterial research to tackle the global rising threat of drug-resistant bacteria. With up to US$480 million to invest in 2016-22, CARB-X funds the world’s largest early development pipeline of new antibiotics, vaccines, rapid diagnostics, and other products to prevent, diagnose and treat life-threatening bacterial infections. Prior to CARB-X, she spent most of her career at Melinta Therapeutics (fka Rib-X Pharmaceuticals) ultimately as EVP, Chief Scientific Officer; Erin began her career in the pharmaceutical industry with Pfizer. She holds a PhD in Chemistry from Yale University. She participated in Sepsis Tech & Innovation 2021.

Scott Flanders, MD

University of Michigan, Professor of Medicine, Chief Clinical Strategy Officer

Scott A. Flanders, M.D. is currently Chief Clinical Strategy Officer for Michigan Medicine, where in partnership with the Chief Strategy Officer, he is responsible for developing and operationalizing Michigan Medicine’s growing statewide network. Dr. Flanders is a Professor of Medicine in the Division of Hospital Medicine at the University of Michigan, where he serves as Vice Chair for the Department of Internal Medicine. He was the founding leader of Michigan’s Hospital Medicine Program, and from 2003-2017 grew the program from four faculty to over 100, while concurrently developing robust clinical, educational, quality and research programs within the section. Dr. Flanders was a founding member of the Board of Directors of the Society of Hospital Medicine (SHM) and is a Past-President of SHM. In 2013, Dr. Flanders was awarded the designation of Master in Hospital Medicine by the Society of Hospital Medicine. Dr. Flanders’ research interests include hospitalists, hospital-acquired conditions and their prevention, dissemination of patient safety and quality improvement practices, and the diagnosis and treatment of lower respiratory infections. Dr. Flanders developed and leads the Michigan Hospital Medicine Safety (HMS) Consortium, focused on preventing adverse events in hospitalized patients. He has authored over 150 journal articles and book chapters, and has edited two textbooks and a book series in the field of Hospital Medicine. Dr. Flanders received his Medical Degree from the University of Chicago Pritzker School of Medicine and completed his residency and chief residency at the University of California, San Francisco. He participated in Sepsis Tech & Innovation 2021. 

Greg Frank, PhD

Director, Global Public Policy, Merck

Gregory Frank is Director, Global Public Policy with Merck, where he leads Merck’s global antimicrobial resistance (AMR) policy. Previously Dr. Frank served as Senior Director, Infectious Disease Policy at the Biotechnology Innovation Organization (BIO), where he led several infectious diseases policy issues, including AMR and vaccine regulatory policy. Dr. Frank received his doctorate in immunology at the University of Pittsburgh and pursued his postdoctoral training at the Laboratory of Viral Diseases at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. He has published multiple scientific articles in the field of infectious disease. He participated in Sepsis Tech & Innovation 2021. 

Christine Ginocchio, PhD, MT(ASCP)

VP Global Medical Affairs bioMérieux, VP Scientific/Medical Affairs BioFire, Retired Professor of Medicine, Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra Northwell, NY

Dr. Christine Ginocchio is VP, Global Medical Affairs, bioMérieux/BioFire, retired Professor of Medicine, Zucker School of Medicine, at Northwell, NY. Previously, she was Senior Medical Director, Division of Infectious Disease Diagnostics, Northwell Health, Research Professor, Feinstein Institute for Medical Research, NY. She has 40 yr experience in diagnostics and Medical Education. She was principal investigator for 60 industry and pharmaceutical trials. Honors include: Irving Abrahams Award for outstanding research, Sarber Fellowship, PASCV Diagnostic Virology Award, ASM Research in Clinical Microbiology Award. She has 115 peer reviewed publications and has been a speaker at more than 250 National/International Conferences. She was an advisor for CDC, FDA, WHO, NIH, Biothreat/Influenze Preparedness Committees. She was President PASCV, Co-Editor-in-Chief, Journal of Clinical Virology, member of CAP Microbiology Committee, ASM Lab Practices Committee, and IDSA Research Committee. She is currently a voting member of the Presidential Advisory Council on Combating Antimicrobial Resistant Bacteria (PACCARB) and IDSA Diagnostics Committee.She participated in Sepsis Tech & Innovation 2021. 

Debra Goff, PharmD, FCCP

Professor of Pharmacy Practice, Infectious Disease Specialist, The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center

Dr. Goff is an Infectious Disease Specialist pharmacist, global antibiotic stewardship expert and founding member of the Antimicrobial Stewardship Program (ASP) at The Ohio State University (OSU) Wexner Medical Center (OSUWMC) and Professor of Pharmacy Practice in the College of Pharmacy in Columbus Ohio USA. She received the 2019 OSU Distinguished International Outreach and Engagement Award for her ongoing work in South Africa and hospitals across six continents. Dr. Goff is one of twenty-five global experts selected by the World Health Organization (WHO) to implement stewardship programs in low-middle income countries (LMIC). She participated in Sepsis Tech & Innovation 2021. 

Runa Gokhale, MD, MPH

Medical Officer, Division of Healthcare Quality Promotion, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

Runa Hatti Gokhale is a team lead in CDC’s Division of Healthcare Quality Promotion where she oversees invasive Staphylococcus aureus surveillance and serves as science lead for Agency sepsis activities. She is a Commander in the Commissioned Corps of the US Public Health Service. Runa is board certified in Internal Medicine and Preventive Medicine, and before joining CDC worked as a hospitalist at the Atlanta VA Medical Center, where she continues to attend on the inpatient medicine service. Runa received a BA from Brown University, an MD from Jefferson Medical College, and an MPH from Emory University’s Rollins School of Public Health. She participated in Sepsis Tech & Innovation 2021. 

Vipin Gopal

Chief Data and Analytics Officer, Eli Lilly and Company

Vipin Gopal, PhD, MBA, is the Chief Data and Analytics Officer at Eli Lilly, a Fortune 150 Global Pharmaceutical company. In this role, he is responsible for leading next-gen, transformational data strategy and execution across the Lilly enterprise, as well as development of advanced analytics capabilities and data science solutions for the company. Vipin is a 20+ year veteran in the space of advanced data and analytics, and has a significant track record of building high-performance data analytics functions and creating business value with advanced technologies. His prior leadership experience spans four Fortune 100 companies in industries ranging from healthcare to aerospace. Before joining Eli Lilly, Vipin was the Senior Vice President of Analytics at Humana, where he was responsible for the corporate organization that developed and applied data science and analytics solutions to advance Humana’s strategy, operations, quality and clinical outcomes. Prior to Humana, he was with Cigna Healthcare, United Technologies Corporation and Honeywell. Vipin is a thought leader and frequent speaker on the transformational power of advanced data analytics for a broad range of strategic topics in healthcare. For his contributions in the space of data and analytics, Vipin was recognized as a 2018 Top 100 Innovator in Data and Analytics and was a recipient of the Analytics Leadership Award by Indiana University Kelly School of Business. Vipin has also served on the organizing/advisory committees of many national and international analytics conferences and is the founding chair of the Indianapolis Chief Data Officer (CDO) Forum. His most recent media mentions includes those in Harvard Business Review, Scientific American, Nature and Forbes. Vipin obtained his doctorate from Carnegie Mellon University and B. Tech. from the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Bombay, both in engineering, and has an MBA from the New York University Stern School of Business. He participated in Sepsis Tech & Innovation 2021.

James Graham

Chief Executive Officer, Recce Pharmaceuticals Ltd

James Graham is the Chief Executive Officer of Recce Pharmaceuticals. Mr Graham has a background in marketing, business development and commercialisation of early stage technologies with global potential. Mr Graham continues to work closely with the growth and direction of the Company, routinely investing alongside shareholders in capital rounds to date. He participated in Sepsis Tech & Innovation 2021. 

Katy Grainger

Sepsis Survivor, Sepsis Alliance Board of Directors

Katy Grainger is a recent sepsis survivor and multiple amputee. In September 2018, she became ill with what she thought was "just the flu" but was admitted into the hospital 2 days later with life-threatening septic shock. Fortunately, her physicians identified sepsis and began a protocol that saved her life. They were unable to save her lower legs and 7 of her fingertips. Katy has found a new energy and passion to spread sepsis awareness in the hopes of preventing others from having her experience. Katy joined the Board of Sepsis Alliance in January 2020 and has been sharing her sepsis patient experience to enlighten others about this horrible syndrome. Sepsis Alliance posted a video of her story on YouTube. In the past 3 months this video has been viewed over 120,000 times by people worldwide. The video can be found here for more of her story: https://youtu.be/B_8NN1KpMx4. She participated in Sepsis Tech & Innovation 2021 and the Sepsis Alliance Summit 2021. 

Jeffrey S. Guy, MD, MSc, MMHC, FACS

Vice President, Care Process Design and Clinical Engineering, HCA Healthcare

Dr. Jeffrey Guy oversees Care Delivery and Clinical Innovation, Clinical and Economic Effectiveness, and Research. Previously, he served as the Chief Medical Officer of the TriStar Division of HCA, a hospital system of twenty hospitals in Tennessee, Kentucky, and Georgia. Before taking Division Chief Medical Officer's role, he was Chief Medical Officer of TriStar Centennial Medical Center in Nashville. Dr. Guy joined the HCA Healthcare in 2012 as the founding Chief Medical Officer for the Children’s Hospital at Centennial. Before joining HCA, he was Associate Professor of Surgery and Director of the Regional Burn Center at Vanderbilt University and course director of Critical Care Physiology at Vanderbilt School of Medicine. His clinical expertise is in the areas of trauma, burn, emergency surgery, and critical care. Dr. Guy has academic interests in smoke inhalation, ARDS, prehospital emergency care, and abdominal wall reconstruction following trauma. He has published over seventy-five articles and chapters and edited twelve textbooks in the areas of trauma, burn, and prehospital emergency care. Dr. Guy obtained his medical degree from Northeastern Ohio Medical University. He trained in General Surgery at Cleveland Clinic Akron General; Research Fellowship at Case Western Reserve; Surgical Critical Care, Trauma, and Burn Surgery at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He also earned a Master’s in physiology at the University of Akron and a Masters of Management in Healthcare from the Owen Graduate School of Management at Vanderbilt. He participated in Sepsis Tech & Innovation 2021. 

Lucienne Ide, MD, PhD

Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Rimidi, Inc

Dr Lucienne (Lucie) Ide, a healthcare innovator and founder of Rimidi, Inc., brings her diverse experiences in medicine, science, venture capital and technology to transform the delivery of healthcare. Dr. Ide founded Rimidi with the purpose of improving the health of people living with chronic diseases and the healthcare system as a whole. Prior to starting Rimidi in 2012, Dr. Ide worked as a physicist at the National Security Agency, Raytheon Systems Corporation and Monarch Capital Partners. She holds joint M.D. and Ph.D. (pharmacology) degrees from Emory University, and completed her medical training at the University Pittsburgh Medical Center. Dr. Ide serves on the Steering Committee for the Connected Health Initiative which advocates for health policy reform and is Co-Chair of the Health Equity and Access Leadership (HEAL) Coalition . Dr. Ide was named one of the Most Influential Women in Health IT by HIMSS in 2020. She also serves as a Trustee of Middlebury College in Vermont. Dr. Ide lives in Atlanta with her husband and their four sons. She participated in Sepsis Tech & Innovation 2021. 

Alvin D. Jeffery, PhD, RN-BC, CCRN-K, FNP-BC

Assistant Professor, Nursing and Biomedical Informatics, Vanderbilt University

Dr. Alvin Jeffery is an Assistant Professor with the School of Nursing and the Department of Biomedical Informatics. He recently completed a Medical Informatics Post-Doctoral Fellowship with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs in Nashville, TN. He has a background in pediatric critical care nursing and as a staff educator at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center. Dr. Jeffery focuses on the design, development, and evaluation of probability-based clinical decision support tools. He leverages machine learning and data science techniques for developing prediction models, and he incorporates qualitative methods for exploring how to implement CDS tools within nurses' cognitive and physical workflows. Dr. Jeffery has been elected to serve a 3-year term (2020-2023) on the Board of Directors for the American Association of Critical-Care Nurses. He participated in Sepsis Tech & Innovation 2021 and the Sepsis Alliance Summit 2021.  

Markus Kostrzewa, PhD

SVP Microbiology & Diagnostics Innovations, R&D, Regulatory and Scientific Affairs / Director Bioanalytical Development, Bruker Daltonics

Dr. Markus Kostrzewa joined Bruker in 1998 as Head of the new R&D group “Bioanalytical Development“, establishing molecular biology and biology related development at Bruker Daltonik GmbH. The initial focus went to development of DNA analysis methods by MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry, and “Clinical Proteomics”, the latter covering methods, consumables and software for mass spectrometry profiling of body fluids and tissues. His R&D group progressed to successful development of microorganism identification by Bruker’s MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry, today globally known as the “MALDI Biotyper” system. Dr. Kostrzewa became Director Molecular Biology R&D in 2005, then promoted to Vice President Clinical Mass Spectrometry R&D in 2012, which was broadened to Vice President Microbiology & Diagnostics R&D in 2017. Since 2019, Dr. Kostrzewa is Bruker’s Senior Vice President Microbiology & Diagnostics R&D, Regulatory and Scientific Affairs, heading innovation at Bruker Microbiology and Diagnostics. This includes strategic planning of innovative products and driving regulatory approval processes (IVD-CE labelling, FDA clearance, ISO/AOAC certification for Food market). He participated in Sepsis Tech & Innovation 2021. 

Jason LaBonte, PhD

Chief Strategy Officer, Datavant

Jason has over 15 years of experience in health information, market research, and commercial benchmarking, and has held executive leadership roles at Decision Resources Group, MedPanel, and UPK. Jason has designed and launched successful new products at every stage of his career. Jason has an AB in Molecular Biology from Princeton and a PhD in Virology from Harvard. He participated in Sepsis Tech & Innovation 2021. 

Tom Lawry

National Director for Artificial Intelligence - Health and Life Sciences, Microsoft

Tom Lawry serves as National Director of AI for Health & Life Sciences at Microsoft and previously served as Director of Worldwide Health. Tom works with providers, payors and life science organizations in planning & implementing innovative analytical solutions that improve the quality and efficiency of health services delivered around the globe. He focuses on strategies for digital transformation applied to performance optimization including Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Learning (ML) and Cognitive Services. Tom previously served as Director of Organizational Performance for Microsoft’s health incubator (Health Solutions Group). Prior to Microsoft Tom served as a Senior Director at GE Healthcare with global responsibilities for revenue cycle management analytics and operational performance solutions. Lawry was founder and CEO of Verus, a healthcare software company named as one of the Top 100 Fastest Growing Washington Companies for three consecutive years and to the Deloitte Fast 500 Technologies list. For twelve years Lawry served in various executive management roles in hospitals and integrated delivery networks. He has published numerous articles on topics relating to use technology to innovate healthcare and recently published a new book is: Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare: A Leader’s Guide to Winning in the New Age of Intelligent Health Systems. He participated in Sepsis Tech & Innovation 2021. 

Amy McKenzie, MD, MBA

Associate Chief Medical Officer, Provider Engagement, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan

Dr. McKenzie is a board-certified family medicine physician with 13 years of experience in private practice and over seven years of experience in healthcare administration and clinical leadership. She joined Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan in 2013 as a physician consultant supporting Quality Management and Accreditation and is now the Associate Chief Medical Officer leading Provider Engagement. Her team provides clinical leadership for provider value-based programs and risk contracting and helps to enable and support the network through education, communication, and partnering on practice transformation efforts. Dr. McKenzie also leads the Behavioral Health Strategy and Planning team responsible for development and implementation of the BH strategy. She serves on the State of Michigan Certificate of Need Commission and has served as a former board member and president of the Michigan Academy of Family Practice Foundation. She graduated from Northeast Ohio Medical University and completed her residency at St. John Providence Health System in Southfield, Michigan. In 2017, she completed her MBA with a focus in medical management at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. She participated in Sepsis Tech & Innovation 2021. 

Michelle McMurry-Heath, MD, PhD

President & CEO / Chief Executive Officer, Biotechnology Innovation Organization

Dr. Michelle McMurry-Heath became BIO’s new President and CEO on June 1st . A medical doctor and molecular immunologist by training, she becomes just the third leader of BIO since the organization’s founding in 1993. She is a clinician-scientist with an MD/PHD in molecular immunology from Duke. Her leadership spans the executive branch, the U.S. Senate, the nonprofit sector and the biopharmaceutical industry. Driven by her own family experiences navigating clinical trials and funding uncertainties within the rare disease community, McMurry-Heath calls “the distribution of scientific progress the social justice issue of our age.” As an FDA official during the Obama administration, she was a champion of clinical trial evolution, the use of real-world evidence, and bringing the patient voice into agency decision-making. In government, she catalyzed collaborations between patients and life sciences leaders – creating new entities like the Medical Device Innovation Consortium and the National Evaluation System for Health Technology. She is someone who understands the biotech sector’s unique start-up culture, having played a key role in J&J’s commitment to business incubation and helping to lead JLABS in the nation’s capital. The good folks at BIO point out that the “I” in BIO stands for innovation. I think it’s evident that the career journey of BIO’s new leader embodies that spirit. Thanks for being with us, Dr. McMurry Heath. She participated in Sepsis Tech & Innovation 2021. 

Jomana Musmar, MS, PhD

Senior Public Health Advisor, Presidential Advisory Council on Combating Antibiotic Resistant Bacteria, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services

Jomana Musmar, MS, PhD, is the Designated Federal Office for the Presidential Advisory Council on Combating Antibiotic Resistant Bacteria (PACCARB). She also serves as a Senior Public Health Advisor within the Office of Infectious Diseases and HIV/AIDs Policy (OIDP). Dr. Musmar first joined OASH in 2015 to help establish the PACCARB per Executive Order 13676 and has been managing the council ever since. She has over 10 years of professional experience managing federal advisory committees, including subject matter expertise within the interdisciplinary fields of biodefense, public health security, and health policy at grassroots, national, and international levels. Dr. Musmar holds a Master’s of Science in Biomedical Science Policy from Georgetown University, and a Doctorate in Biodefense with a concentration in International and Homeland Security from George Mason University. She participated in Sepsis Tech & Innovation 2021. 

Uriridiakoghene "Ulili" Onovakpuri, MBA

Partner, Kapor Capital

Uriridiakoghene “Ulili” Onovakpuri is a partner at Kapor Capital, an Oakland-based, early stage social impact venture capital firm. She is focused on sourcing investment opportunities, conducting diligence and supporting Kapor Capital’s portfolio companies particularly those in the digital health and medical technology industries. She received her MBA with a concentration in Health sector management from Duke University's Fuqua School of Business. She is a native San Franciscan and a proud UC Berkeley Alum. She participated in Sepsis Tech & Innovation 2021. 

Katherine M. Reitz, MD, MSc

General and Early Specialization Vascular Surgery Resident, UPMC, T32 Post-doctoral fellow, University of Pittsburgh

Katherine M. Reitz, MD MSc is a General Surgery Resident at UPMC who is completing her Vascular Surgery training at UPMC. Throughout her Post-Doctoral Fellowship, funded by the NIH NHLBI, she worked to bridge the research interests of the Critical Care Medicine and Vascular Surgery departments. In this setting, she focused on the risk of limb threat and amputation following the onset of sepsis. Their collaborative research team plans to continue this important work, as such outcomes are so very important to patients. She participated in Sepsis Tech & Innovation 2021. 

Karsten Russell-Wood, MBA, MPH

Executive Director, Portfolio Management, Philips

Karsten Russell-Wood, MBA, MPH, is a healthcare marketing executive with over 20 years of global product development and strategy experience. He currently serves as the Global Portfolio Marketing Leader for the Connected Care Cluster of Philips Healthcare. He is responsible for linking the innovations of Philip’s product teams to the prospect and customer-focused commercial operations of the business unit to build the Philips global brand, create consumer awareness, dominate thought leadership, and drive customer preference for the solutions through all channels, every day. Prior to joining Philips, Karsten held global product management roles within GE’s healthcare businesses with an orientation to targeted patient populations and continues to be active in venture capital and start-up phase HealthTech businesses. Karsten received both undergraduate and graduate degrees from The Johns Hopkins University, and holds an MPH from University of Massachusetts. Karsten presently is pursuing doctoral work at the LeBow College of Business, Drexel University where his dissertation concentrates on adoption of online health and pharmacy into consumer populations and new marketing approaches in the healthcare solution market. He participated in Sepsis Tech & Innovation 2021. 

Suchi Saria, PhD, MSc

John C. Malone Associate Professor, Founder and CEO, Bayesian Health and Johns Hopkins University

Suchi Saria is the Founder and CEO of Bayesian Health, the John C. Malone Associate Professor of computer science, statistics and health policy and the Director of the Machine Learning and Healthcare Lab at Johns Hopkins University. She has published over 50 peer-reviewed articles with over 3000 citations, and was recently described as “the future of 21st century medicine” by The Sloan Foundation. Her research has pioneered the development of next generation diagnostic and treatment planning tools that use statistical machine learning methods to individualize care. At Bayesian Health, Dr. Saria is leading the charge to unleash the full power of data to improve healthcare, unburdening caregivers and empowering them to save lives. Backed by 21 patents and peer reviewed publications in leading technical and clinical journals, Bayesian leverages best-in-class machine learning and behavior change management expertise to help health organizations unlock improved patient care outcomes at scale by providing real-time precise, patient-specific, and actionable insights in the EMR. She participated in Sepsis Tech & Innovation 2021. 

Kristin Schneeman

FasterCures, Director

Kristin Schneeman joined FasterCures in April 2005 as director of programs, with primary responsibility for its innovation portfolio of projects and activities, focused on best practices in the funding and conduct of medical research and innovative collaborations among players in the research enterprise. Among other initiatives, she runs the TRAIN (The Research Acceleration and Innovation Network) program, which provides a platform for knowledge sharing and relationship building to support the growth of venture philanthropy in medical research. Kristin brings to FasterCures more than 25 years' experience in public policy, politics, academia, and the media. Schneeman served for three years as a senior adviser and policy director to a gubernatorial candidate in Massachusetts, as a policy aide to a U.S. Congressman, and for four years as the front-line manager and chief-of-staff for a senior adviser to Vice President Al Gore. At Harvard University she directed research projects on future challenges facing governments, and on complex negotiations in business, politics, and international relations. Schneeman began her career as a producer of documentary films, for which she was the recipient of an Emmy Award in 1990. She participated in Sepsis Tech & Innovation 2021.  

Kimberly Sciarretta, PhD

DRIVe Solving Sepsis Program Manager, HHS/ASPR/BARDA

Kimberly Sciarretta, PhD is the Solving Sepsis Program Manager within the Division of Research Innovation and Ventures (DRIVe), Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA), part of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response (ASPR), within the United States Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).  Previously Dr. Sciarretta was a Project Officer within the BARDA CBRN Division, and prior to that, was a technical consultant to multiple US Government Agencies.  Dr. Sciarretta was one of the inaugural members of DRIVe and is leading efforts towards improving patient outcomes for sepsis through strategic interagency activities and critical technology investments with external partners. Dr. Sciarretta received her PhD from the University of Chicago in Molecular Genetics and Cell Biology. Her expertise broadly spans medical countermeasure development, biochemistry, synthetic biology, advanced manufacturing and chemical and biological defense technologies. She participated in Sepsis Tech & Innovation 2021.

Sebastian Seiguer, JD, MBA

Chief Executive Officer & Co-Founder, emocha Health

Sebastian Seiguer (CEO) co-founded emocha with Dr. Robert Bollinger and several other adherence experts at Johns Hopkins in 2014. emocha partners with health plans, health systems, employers and public health departments across the country to support patients at every dose through a Digital Medication Adherence Program. Sebastian has led emocha to become the leading platform for video Directly Observed Therapy in the United States with over 100 customers spanning the healthcare landscape. Sebastian serves as Primary Investigator on 3 NIH medication adherence research grants (tuberculosis, addiction, transplant) and is a National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA) Innovation Grant Reviewer. He participated in Sepsis Tech & Innovation 2021.

Lisa Shieh, MD, PhD

Clinical Professor, Stanford University School of Medicine

Lisa Shieh, MD, PhD, is a clinical professor of medicine and hospitalist in the Department of Medicine at Stanford University. She earned an MD from Harvard Medical School and PhD in medical engineering from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She moved to California, where she did her residency in internal medicine at Stanford Hospital and Clinics and later joined the faculty. Dr. Shieh is currently the medical director for quality in the Division of Hospital Medicine and the associate physician improvement leader in the Department of Medicine. She recently became an associate chief quality officer for Stanford HealthCare (SHC). Dr. Shieh is known for her creation of Septris, an online sepsis education game, which was the winner of the Society of Hospital Medicine (SHM) innovation competition in 2013. She was selected as the SHM representative at the 2016 update of the Surviving Sepsis Guidelines. In 2018, her newest online game “Safety Quest: Teaching QI through Gamification” was an SHM top five innovation oral presentation. At SHC, Dr. Shieh was the inaugural winner of the SHC 2018 Excellence in Quality and Safety Award. Her interests also include mentoring and teaching learners about QI and patient safety. She is currently the medical director of QI programs for Graduate Medical Education and the faculty sponsor for Stanford’s Medical Student QI interest Group. She participated in Sepsis Tech & Innovation 2021.

Leroy Sims, MD, MSC, CAQSM

Senior Vice President, Medical Affairs, National Basketball Association (NBA)

Dr. Sims is board-certified in Emergency Medicine and Primary Care Sports Medicine. He is Senior Vice President of Medical Affairs for the National Basketball Association (NBA) and a practicing emergency medicine physician at Mills Peninsula Medical Center in Burlingame, California. At the NBA, Dr. Sims leads medical operations, develops and implements health and safety policies and protocols, investigates medical technologies to optimize the employee and fan experience, conducts medical risk assessments, and delivers innovative strategies and processes to keep the NBA safe and healthy. He was heavily involved in the creation and execution of the stringent medical protocols the NBA implemented to successfully resume and complete its 2020 season and playoffs, bringing 22 teams and supporting staff to a campus environment at Walt Disney World Resort. Additionally, Dr. Sims served as a team physician for the USA Track and Field (USATF) team at the 2016 Summer Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. He was the Medical Director and team physician for the NBA’s Golden State Warriors from 2011-2014. A graduate of Stanford University with Bachelor of Science and Master of Science degrees in Biological Sciences, Dr. Sims received his Doctor of Medicine degree from Stanford University School of Medicine, during which time he was awarded a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Fellowship. He completed his Emergency Medicine residency at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center in Torrance, CA. He went on to complete a fellowship in Primary Care Sports Medicine at Stanford University School of Medicine. He participated in Sepsis Tech & Innovation 2021. 

Karandeep Singh, MD, MMSc

Assistant Professor of Learning Health Sciences, Internal Medicine, Urology, and Information, University of Michigan

Dr. Singh is an Assistant Professor of Learning Health Sciences, Internal Medicine, Urology, and Information at the University of Michigan. He is a nephrologist with a background in biomedical informatics who uses machine learning methods to model electronic health record and registry data in support of a learning health system. He directs the Machine Learning for Learning Health Systems lab which focuses on using machine learning and biomedical informatics methods to understand and improve health at scale. His research spans multiple clinical domains including nephrology, urology, emergency medicine, obstetrics, and ophthalmology. He chairs the Michigan Medicine Clinical Intelligence Committee, which focuses on implementation of machine learning models across the health system. He teaches a graduate-level health data science course. He completed his internal medicine residency at UCLA Medical Center, where he served as chief resident, and a nephrology fellowship in the combined Brigham and Women’s Hospital/Massachusetts General Hospital program in Boston, MA. He completed his medical education at the University of Michigan Medical School and holds a master’s degree in medical sciences in Biomedical Informatics from Harvard Medical School. He is board certified in internal medicine, nephrology, and clinical informatics. He participated in Sepsis Tech & Innovation 2021. 

John Stanford

Executive Director, Incubate

John Stanford is the Executive Director of Incubate where he advocates on behalf of the early stage life science ecosystem. His leadership of the organization builds on his experience championing pro-growth and innovation agendas. His relationships on Capitol Hill build on nearly a decade of leveraging entrepreneurship to close wealth gap in low-income communities while also advancing breakthrough scientific entrepreneurship and commercialization. John provides regular commentary on key issues around innovation, healthcare and the economy, including in the Wall Street Journal, STAT, Washington Post, CNBC and has been featured on cable television. He participated in Sepsis Tech & Innovation 2021. 

Tim Sweeney, MD, PhD

Co-Founder and CEO, Inflammatix, Inc.

Tim Sweeney, MD, PhD, is co-founder and CEO of Inflammatix. Tim has experience across medical practice (general surgery & critical care), bench research, and bioinformatics / machine learning. While training at Stanford he helped invent the core technology on which Inflammatix is based, is named on over a dozen patents related to medical diagnostics, and has published >100 manuscripts & abstracts. He is PI (through Inflammatix) on multiple development contracts from DARPA, BARDA, and NIH, and brought Inflammatix to recognition as the ‘Most Disruptive Technology’ at AACC in 2019, and the “Fierce 15” list in 2020. He participated in Sepsis Tech & Innovation 2021 and presents the Advanced Immune Response Diagnostics in Clinical Practice for Acute Infection and Sepsis webinar, sponsored by Inflammatix. 

John Syrjamaki, MPH

Michigan Value Collaborative and University of Michigan, Manager of Data Analytics

John Syrjamaki is the Manager of Data Analytics for the Michigan Value Collaborative (MVC) and a member of the Department of Surgery at the University of Michigan. After graduating from Michigan State University with a Bachelor of Science in Physiology, Mr. Syrjamaki earned a Master of Public Health in Environmental Health Sciences and Toxicology from the University of Michigan. He is responsible for leading all analytic and data-related efforts of the Collaborative, including the creation of custom performance reports and management of the online MVC data platform. He provides direct analytic consulting services to 87 member hospitals and 40 physician organizations, manages partnerships with other Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan (BCBSM) Collaborative Quality Initiatives (CQIs), and works closely with BCBSM and outside vendors concerning data needs and improvements. He participated in Sepsis Tech & Innovation 2021. 

Ambalika Tanak, MS

Research Assistant / Doctoral Candidate, The University of Texas at Dallas

Ambalika Tanak is a doctoral candidate in the Bioengineering department at the University of Texas at Dallas. Her research focuses on developing rapid point-of-care biosensors enabling minimal sample volume to provide accurate diagnostic outcomes in detecting infections at an early stage. Her current interdisciplinary research focuses on understanding biomolecular interactions of host immune biomarkers for the detection of sepsis. In this regard, she has 9 peer reviewed journal publications, and has received several distinguished awards for her research. Ambalika recently won the Baxter Young Investigator Award for her work on a first-of-its-kind point-of-care sepsis biosensor, which facilitates efforts to improve medical devices and treatment that could save and support patients' lives. She plans to continue working on developing innovative medical technologies to improve healthcare outcomes. She participated in Sepsis Tech & Innovation 2021. 

Christopher B. Thomas, MD

Medical Director of System Quality and Patient Safety at Franciscan Missionaries of Our Lady Health System, Assistant Professor of Clinical Medicine at Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center: Baton Rouge

Dr. Thomas is the Medical Director of System Quality and Patient Safety at Franciscan Missionaries of Our Lady Health System and assistant professor of clinical medicine at the Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center: Baton Rouge. His clinical responsibilities involve supervising the LSU Pulmonary and Critical Care Services at Our Lady of the Lake Regional Medical Center. His Quality Improvement responsibilities as well as his research focus on the application or investigation of evidence-based interventions. Using interdisciplinary frameworks, he leads system-wide efforts to drive improvement across thematic areas including sepsis, hospital immobility, and prevention of hospital acquired harm. He participated in Sepsis Tech & Innovation 2021. 

Mark Tornero, MD

Medical Director of Vascular Rehabilitation, The Ohio State Wexner Medical Center

Mark Tornero, MD, is the Medical Director of Vascular Rehabilitation at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center, Columbus, Ohio, and is board certified in physical medicine and rehabilitation. He is highly involved with Resident educational training and quality improvement and at the medical center holds a number of additional administrative roles and responsibilities. His work includes vascular rehabilitation and he serves on multiple national committees advancing care. He has lectured nationally and internationally and is involved with the development of multiple continuing medical education (CME) activities, developing national conferences, and is an exam writer of national and international examinations. He participated in Sepsis Tech & Innovation 2021. 

Sylvain “Syl” Trepanier, DNP, RN, CENP, FAAN, FAONL

Senior Vice-President, System Chief Nursing Officer, Providence St. Joseph Health

Sylvain “Syl” Trepanier, DNP, RN, CENP, FAAN, FAONL is the System Chief Nursing Officer for Providence St. Joseph Health representing nursing practice for 38 thousand nurses in 51 hospitals, 1085 clinics in seven states. Dr. Trepanier is a seasoned nurse executive with healthcare system experience in executive leadership, organizational transformation, and system standardization. Dr. Trepanier is a Fellow of the American Academy of Nursing and the American Organization of Nursing Leadership (AONL). He obtained his bachelor’s and master’s degree in Nursing from the University of Montreal Canada and a Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) from Texas Tech University Health Science Center (TTUHSC), Anita Thigpen Perry School of Nursing. He currently serves as a member of the Audit Committee for CGFNS International, on the Advisory Board for the Institute of Human Caring, and is one of three appointed nurse leaders serving on AHA’s, Clinical Leadership Committee. He participated in Sepsis Tech & Innovation 2021. 

Eric VanGieson, PhD

Program Manager, Biological Technologies Office (BTO) at Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA)

Dr. Van Gieson has the goal of using host-based methods to mitigate the impacts of emerging threats. He explores epigenetic and real-time monitoring approaches that can dynamically guide healthcare decisions and therapy as well as new methods of increasing patient survival in austere environments using intelligent systems partnered with local care providers. Prior to joining DARPA, Dr. Van Gieson served as the Chief Technology Officer at the National Strategic Research Institute and before that as Director of Biosurveillance and Diagnostics at MRIGlobal. He has also served as Chief of the Diagnostics, Disease Surveillance, and Threat Detection Division within the Defense Threat Reduction Agency, and as Principal Professional Staff at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory. Dr. Van Gieson has served as the Chief Judge on the Nokia Sensing XChallenge and a Judge on the QualComm Tricorder XChallenge on behalf of the XPrize Foundation. He received his Doctor of Philosophy degree in Biomedical Engineering and a Bachelor of Science degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of Virginia. He has published on topics ranging from genomic analysis to autonomous systems. He participated in Sepsis Tech & Innovation 2021. 

Susan VanMeter

Executive Director, AdvaMedDx

Susan Van Meter is executive director of AdvaMedDx. AdvaMedDx represents manufacturers of in vitro diagnostic (IVD) tests and technologies. AdvaMedDx member company innovations allow early detection of disease, facilitate evidence-based medicine, improve patient health and health care, and enable personalized medicine, while often lowering overall health care costs. AdvaMedDx is the only advocacy organization exclusively addressing policy issues facing diagnostics manufacturers in the U.S. and around the world. Prior to joining AdvaMedDx in 2018, Ms. Van Meter was senior vice president at the Healthcare Association of New York State (HANYS), focused on hospital and health system policy, payment, quality and health information technology priorities. Prior to joining HANYS she in the Center for Medicare and Medicare Services (CMS) Office of Legislation. Ms. Van Meter holds undergraduate and graduate degrees from Villanova University and Boston University, respectively. Ms. Van Meter is a member of the AMR Industry Alliance Board of Directors. She participated in Sepsis Tech & Innovation 2021. 

Andre Vovan, MD, MBA

Vice President of Quality and Patient Safety, Tenet Health

Dr. Vovan is currently Vice President of quality and patient safety for Tenet Health. Previously he was Chief of clinical effective for Providence St Joseph Health southern CA region. He is a critical care physician with a heavy interest in the marriage of clinical operations, technology, artificial intelligence and the science of performance improvement to enable better health care for more people at lower cost. He participated in Sepsis Tech & Innovation 2021. 

Stefan Willemsen

Chief Executive Officer, Covid Apollo

Stefan Willemsen is a member of Sepsis Alliance Advisory Board and an Executive leader with over 20 years of experience in the IVD and Life Science Industries. Stefan currently is CEO of Covid Apollo, a consortium of healthcare-oriented investment funds led by RA Capital that funded the X-Prize Foundation Covid19 fast diagnostics challenge and seeks to invest in technologies and companies that accelerate. Simplify and democratize Covid19 and other infectious disease testing. Before, Stefan was President and CEO of bioMérieux Inc., from 2014 until 2020 leading all of Biomérieux operations in the US and the Americas region and also serving as a board member of AdvamedDx. Stefan has also worked at Roche Diagnostics as VP Head of Business Development and Program Management for custom PCR Assays. He is a lawyer by training with degrees from the University of Bonn in Germany and the George Washington University in US and an Alumni of the 2013 INSEAD Advanced Management Program. He participated in Sepsis Tech & Innovation 2021.

William C. "Claibe" Yarbrough, MD

National Program Director, Pulmonary, Critical Care, and Sleep Medicine and Professor of Medicine, VHA North Texas Healthcare System, University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center

Dr. Yarbrough is the Chief of Pulmonary and Critical Care at the VHA North Texas Healthcare System in Dallas and Professor of Medicine at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center. He is the national program director for Pulmonary, Critical Care, and Sleep Medicine for the Veterans Administration Central Office. He is chair of the Operations Critical Care Committee, Pulmonary Field Advisory Committee, Sleep Field Advisory Committee, member of the Surgical Advisory Board for Critical Care, and Co-chair of the CIS/ARK (ICU Clinical Information System/Anesthesia Record Keeper) Advisory Board. He is a member of the Tele-ICU steering committee. He participated in Sepsis Tech & Innovation 2021. 

Stephanie Taylor, MD, MS

Associate Professor of Internal Medicine

Dr. Stephanie Taylor is Associate Professor of Internal Medicine at Atrium Health in Charlotte, NC. Dr. Taylor’s research interests focus on applying health services methods and pragmatic clinical trials to advance the learning hospital system and improve outcomes for patients with sepsis. She is the principal investigator of multiple NIH-funded studies evaluating optimal care strategies for sepsis survivors. She presents the Transitions of Care After Sepsis Hospitalization webinar. 

Riyadh Al-Rubaye, MD

Academic Hospitalist. Northeast Georgia Medical Center

Dr. Riyadh Al-Rubaye is a provider with Northeast Georgia Physicians Group specializing in Hospital Medicine. He earned his medical degree from the University of Baghdad College of Medicine. Dr. Al-Rubaye is board certified in Internal Medicine and Nephrology and completed his fellowship at Emory University. He is currently a faculty physician in the internal medicine residency program in Northeast Georgia Medical Center. He participated in the Sepsis Alliance Summit 2021. 

Melissa E. Bauer, DO

Associate Professor of Anesthesiology, Duke University

Melissa Bauer, D.O. is an Associate Professor of Anesthesiology at Duke University. She completed residency in Anesthesiology at the University of Michigan. She subsequently completed a fellowship in Critical Care at New York Presbyterian Hospital at Columbia followed by a fellowship in Obstetric Anesthesiology at the University of Michigan. She provides anesthesia for high-risk obstetric patients and focuses her research on reducing maternal morbidity and mortality from maternal sepsis. Her research is centered on the early identification and treatment of maternal sepsis. She has published multiple studies identifying the differences and difficulties of diagnosis of sepsis in pregnant women and highlighted opportunities for improvement in maternal sepsis care. She served as an editor for the California Maternal Quality Care Collaborative Maternal Sepsis toolkit, which provides step-by-step instructions for hospitals on how to implement screening and treatment for maternal sepsis. She serves on the Advisory Board for the Sepsis Alliance, a non-profit organization dedicated to educating patients and providers about sepsis to improve outcomes worldwide. She currently serves as Chair for the national Alliance for Innovation on Maternal Health Sepsis in Obstetrical Care Patient Safety Bundle Workgroup with the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. She participated in the Sepsis Alliance Summit 2021. 

John W. Beard, MD, MBA

Chief Medical Officer, ICU Medical

Dr. John Beard, MD, is a board-certified anesthesiologist and the Chief Medical Officer at ICU Medical Inc. At ICU, Dr. Beard’s focus is on innovation, patient safety, regulatory compliance, thought leadership, and clinical evidence development. Prior to joining ICU, Dr. Beard was in clinical practice for twelve years, including roles in pre-admission clinics, operating rooms, and labor and delivery units. During the course of his practice, Dr. Beard led multiple quality improvement initiatives and held leadership positions including Chairman and Medical Director of the Department of Anesthesia. He participated in the Sepsis Alliance Summit 2021. 

Jaime Betancourt, MD

Associate Clinical Professor of Medicine, UCLA

Dr. Jaime Betancourt completed his medical training at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, his Internal Medicine residency at the UCLA-VA Greater Los Angeles Healthcare System and his Pulmonary & Critical Care fellowship at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles. He is board certified in Internal Medicine, Pulmonary Diseases and Critical Care Medicine. He has been in practice as a Pulmonary-Intensivist since 2011 and has also worked as a hospitalist and emergency room provider. As an Associate Clinical Professor of Medicine, he has extensive experience teaching medical students, residents and fellows at UCLA and its affiliated institutions in private, county and federal government facilities. His clinical focus is on providing pulmonary subspecialty outpatient & inpatient care as well as critical care in the medical intensive care unit for a diverse, medically underserved population. He participated in the Sepsis Alliance Summit 2021. 

Leah F. Binder, MA, MGA

President & CEO, The Leapfrog Group

Since 2008, Leah Binder has served as President & CEO of The Leapfrog Group, an award-winning national nonprofit based in Washington, D.C., representing employers and other purchasers of health care calling for improved safety and quality in health systems. She is a regular contributor to Forbes.com and other publications, and consistently cited among the 100 most influential people and top women in healthcare and patient safety. Under her leadership, The Leapfrog Group launched the Hospital Safety Grade, which assigns letter grades assessing the safety of general hospitals and hospital outpatient departments and ambulatory surgery centers across the country. She fostered groundbreaking innovation in the annual Leapfrog Hospital Survey, which publicly reports information on hospital quality available from no other source. Before joining Leapfrog, Leah served as the Vice President of a nationally noted rural health system in Farmington, Maine; and prior to that, as a Senior Policy Advisor in the Office of the New York City Mayor. She started her career at the National league for nursing. She has a bachelors from Brandeis and two master’s degrees from University of Pennsylvania. She participated in the Sepsis Alliance Summit 2021. 

Elizabeth Bridges, PhD, RN, CCNS, FCCM, FAAN

Professor, University of Washington School of Nursing

Clinical Nurse Researcher, UW Medical Center

Dr. Elizabeth Bridges is a professor of Biobehavioral Nursing and Health Informatics at University of Washington School of Nursing in Seattle and the clinical nurse researcher at University of Washington Medical Center. She has over 35 years of experience in critical care and is a retired colonel of the United States Air Force Nurse Corps. She is the immediate past president of the American Association of Critical-Care Nurses. Her professional research focuses on the care of patients during long-distance military aeromedical evacuation and the integration of hemodynamics into the care of critically ill patients. She has published on various topics related to sepsis including qSOFA and noninvasive assessment of perfusion. Dr. Bridges is well known for her presentations on the integration of evidence into practice that includes multiple topics related to sepsis. She participated in the Sepsis Alliance Summit 2021. 

Rick Bright, PhD

SVP Pandemic Prevention & Response, Rockefeller Foundation

Rick Bright is currently the Senior Vice President, Pandemic Prevention and Response at The Rockefeller Foundation leading the development of the Foundation’s pandemic data and action platform that will prevent future pandemics by identifying and triggering responses to the earliest alerts of a disease outbreak and stopping it in the first 100 days. Prior to this role, he served as the Deputy Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response and the Director of the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA), in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Prior to BARDA, Dr. Bright gained extensive experience in the biotechnology industry where he served in senior leadership and executive management roles. Dr. Bright has held senior scientific leadership positions in non-governmental organizations where he championed innovative vaccine development and manufacturing capacity expansion in developing countries. He also spent a decade in vaccine and therapeutics development at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. For this work, Dr. Bright received the Charles C. Shepard Science Award for Scientific Excellence. Dr. Bright serves as an international subject matter expert in biodefense, emergency preparedness and response, vaccine, drug and diagnostics development and served as an advisor to the Biden Administration, World Health Organization, development of the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations (CEPI) and the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering & Medicine Forum on Microbial Threats. Dr. Bright received a Ph.D. in Immunology and Molecular Pathogenesis from Emory University and a B.S. magna cum laude in Biology and Physical Sciences from Auburn University at Montgomery. He participated in the Sepsis Alliance Summit 2021. 

Thomas V. Caprio, MD, MPH, MS

Chief Medical Officer, University of Rochester Medicine Home Care

Dr. Thomas Caprio is Professor of Medicine, Geriatrics, Psychiatry, Dentistry, Clinical Nursing, and Public Health Sciences at the University of Rochester (UR) Medical Center in Rochester, New York. He is the Chief Medical Officer for UR Medicine Home Care and the Medical Director for the UR Medicine Hospice. Dr. Caprio is the director of the Finger Lakes Geriatric Education Center at the University of Rochester in which he oversees the federally funded Geriatric Workforce Enhancement Program funded by the federal Health Resources and Services Administration. This program provides education and training related to geriatrics, palliative care, and dementia care for health care professionals and family caregivers. He is the Past-President of the National Association of Geriatric Education Centers, Past-President of the National Association for Geriatric Education, as well as the Past-President of the State Society on Aging of New York. Dr. Caprio received his medical degree from the State University of New York at Buffalo, completed residency, fellowship, and post-doctoral studies at the University of Rochester, and earned both a Master’s of Public Health and a Master’s in Health Professions Education from the University of Rochester. He is a fellow of the American College of Physicians, Fellow of the American Geriatrics Society and Fellow of the American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine. He participated in the Sepsis Alliance Summit 2021. 

Stephanie Chalupa, BSN, RN

Sr. Director of CHHA Operations, University of Rochester Medicine Home Care

Stephanie Chalupa, BSN, RN is Senior Director of the Certified Home Health Agency (CHHA) at UR Medicine Home Care (URMHC) which provides skilled home care services in seven counties across the Finger Lakes Region. She has broad home health care knowledge from her years of experience as a field clinician, clinical manager, and most recently, Director of Patient Services for the CHHA at URMHC. She has a bachelor’s degree in nursing from the University of Rochester, a bachelor’s degree in economics from Concordia University in Montreal, Quebec, and will complete her graduate studies in Leadership in Healthcare Systems at the UR School of Nursing in August 2021. In her role at URMHC, she strives to enhance her knowledge and skills to help facilitate the provision of quality patient care across the continuum of care. She is responsible for directing the overall functions of all interdisciplinary teams and for the overall operations, financial and quality outcomes of all certified agency services within URMHC. She participated in the Sepsis Alliance Summit 2021. 

Lakhmir 'Mink' Chawla, MD

Adjunct Professor, Veterans Affairs Medical Center, San Diego, CA

Dr. Lakhmir (Mink) Chawla is Silver Creek Pharmaceutical’s Chief Medical Officer, and a Clinical Professor of Medicine at the UCSD Medical Center and Veterans Affairs Medical Center. Dr. Chawla was a Professor of Medicine at the George Washington University Medical Center in Washington, D.C. where he directed research efforts for the Division of Critical Care Medicine. He previously headed the Division of Intensive Care Medicine at the Washington DC Veterans Affairs Medical Center. With a focus on critical care and nephrology, Dr. Chawla has led and supported several grants and research projects centered on acute kidney injury, renal disease, extracorporeal therapies, shock, and sepsis. He participated in the Sepsis Alliance Summit 2021 and presents the Hope for Critically Ill COVID-19 Patients: Pathogen Hemofiltration - Latest Data & Clinical Experience: Part II webinar, sponsored by ExThera. 

Mark Cuban

Owner, NBA Dallas Mavericks

An entrepreneur at heart, at a young age Mark Cuban began selling stamps door-to-door and gave disco lessons to help pay his way through Indiana University. Cuban was inspired to strike out on his own when he was fired from a software shop for closing a $15,000 sale instead of cleaning up the store. In 1995, Cuban founded video portal Broadcast.com with fellow Indiana University alum, Todd Wagner. Four years later, he sold Broadcast.com to Yahoo for $5.7 billion. Today he owns the NBA's Dallas Mavericks and has stakes in Magnolia Pictures, AXS TV, and dozens of small startups. Cuban invests in mission-driven companies such as Luminaid, which provides lighting to disaster areas, and Mahmee, a maternal healthcare tech company. He is also well known as being an investor on the Emmy award winning show, Shark Tank. He participated in the Sepsis Alliance Summit 2021. 

Laura Evans, MD, MSc

Professor Division of Pulmonary, Critical Care and Sleep Medicine  Medical Director, Critical Care, University of Washington Medical Center

Dr. Evans is a Professor of Medicine at the University of Washington and the Medical Director of Critical Care at the University of Washington Medical Center. Her interests focus on patient safety and quality improvement, particularly sepsis, as well as preparedness for high consequence infectious diseases. Dr. Evans earned her MD at the University of Michigan and did her residency in internal medicine at Columbia University. She completed pulmonary and critical care medicine fellowship training and earned an MS in epidemiology at the U. of Washington. She joined the faculty of NYU and Bellevue Hospital in 2006. She led the evacuation of the Bellevue Hospital ICUs in the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy and was the clinical lead for New York City’s Ebola treatment center. After 14 years in NYC, she returned to Seattle in 2019. She joined the steering committee of the Surviving Sepsis Campaign in 2012 and is the current Surviving Sepsis Campaign guidelines co-chair. She serves on the Council of the Society of Critical Care Medicine. She is Associate Editor of Critical Care Explorations and a member of the editorial board of Critical Care Medicine. She participated in the Sepsis Alliance Summit 2021 and presents the Surviving Sepsis Campaign 2021 Adult Guidelines Updates webinar. 

Kristi Filmore, MS, RN, ACNP-BC

Senior Performance Improvement Coach, University of Rochester Medicine

Kristi Filmore is a Senior Performance Improvement Coach at the University of Rochester Medical Center. She engages with teams across the Medical Center, using improvement science methodologies to drive positive, measurable, and sustainable changes impacting both patients and staff. She has worked in the hospital and home as a registered nurse and in the outpatient setting as a nurse practitioner. She participated in the Sepsis Alliance Summit 2021. 

Carol Ann Gelderman, MS, BSN, RN, PMP

Sepsis Nurse Manager, Northeast Georgia Health System

Carol Ann currently serves as the Sepsis Nurse Manager for Northeast Georgia Health System, a 4-campus not-for-profit community hospital system. She attended the State University College at Plattsburgh where she obtained her Bachelor of Arts and then attended the University of Georgia where she obtained her Master of Science degree. She received her Bachelor of Science in Nursing at Brenau University. She currently holds a Six Sigma Green Belt and Project Management certification. Carol Ann began her career at Northeast Georgia Health Systems as an Oncology Research Nurse participating in Phase II and III clinical trials. She expanded her experience by transitioning to a Quality Safety Coordinator role for the system where she spearheaded the opening of a new hospital campus in April 2015 with concentration in quality, safety, and goal deployment. After the loss of her 20-year-old daughter to sepsis, she transitioned to the system’s Sepsis Coordinator where she led the development of the system’s sepsis initiatives across the pre-hospital, acute care, and post-acute care settings. In 2020, she proposed and obtained funding for a sepsis navigation program to provide 24-hour, 7-day a week concurrent cross-check of emergency department and hospitalized patients in their system identified as high risk of developing sepsis. The navigation program serves as a support of the primary care teams concurrently and provides feedback on opportunities for best practice care of the patients. She has also spearheaded the adoption of a predictive analytics program to ensure patients are identified early in the disease progression where outcomes can be affected. The Sepsis Navigation program expanded in 2021 to include an outpatient component to support sepsis patients after discharge with extensive education, follow-up calls, and coordination of services with the next level of care. Next year, she will lead the expansion of the navigation program to include support of patients in the pre-hospital setting.

Jon Glaudemans

Founder, Payment Policy Analytics

data analytics. He began his career at the White house budget office, then spent a decade at Aetna, initially as head of policy and business strategy, and then as the Market Leader for one of Aetna’s largest HMO/PPO markets. After serving at CMS and developing President Bush’s Drug Discount Program, Glaudemans returned to the policy arena in 2001, running the Washington DC office of an Austin-based lobbying and communication firm. He joined Avalere as Chief Operating Officer in 2005. From 2010-2012, Jon and his wife sailed their 44’ sailboat around the world. He then served as Chief Communications and Advocacy Officer for Ascension before returning to the East Coast to join Manatt Health. In 2017, Glaudemans served as CEO of United Rheumatology, a physician/GPO start-up, and in 2019, he to DC to found Payment Policy Analytics, providing advisory and analytic services to the healthcare market. Jon is a sepsis survivor, and is active with the Sepsis Alliance, which recognized him as a Sepsis Hero in 2017. He currently serves as Executive Advisor to the Sepsis Alliance Institute and as Executive Director of the National Sepsis Registry Initiative. He participated in the Sepsis Alliance Summit 2021.

 Tanuj K. Gupta, MD, MBA

Vice President, Cerner Intelligence, Cerner Corporation

As a VP of Cerner Intelligence, Dr. Tanuj Gupta focuses on providing clinical and strategic guidance across the population health organization. He actively collaborates with clinical intelligence, solution development and client facing teams to lead design, development and client partnership conversations. Tanuj received his medical degree from Northwestern University, a Bachelor of Science in computer science from Boston University, and an MBA in finance from Wharton at the University of Pennsylvania. He participated in the Sepsis Alliance Summit 2021. 

Louis Guzzi, MD, FCCM

Director, Critical Care Medicine, AdventHealth Medical Group

Dr. Guzzi is quadruple board-certified in critical care medicine, anesthesiology, internal medicine and neocritical care. He cares for patients at Florida Hospital Orlando and has more than 20 years of experience to his name. Dr. Guzzi is a graduate of the Georgetown University School of Medicine in Washington, D.C. and carried out his residency training at Dwight D. Eisenhower Army Medical Center and Walter Reed Army Medical Center, remaining at Walter Reed for his advanced fellowship training in critical care medicine. He actively practices both anesthesiology and critical care medicine and lectures both nationally and internationally on both topics. He presents the Biomarker-Enhanced Clinical Assessment of Sepsis and Acute Kidney Injury webinar and participated in the Sepsis Alliance Summit 2021. 

Andre L. Holder, MD, MSc

Assistant Professor, Division of Pulmonary, Allergy, Critical Care & Sleep Medicine Emory University School of Medicine

Dr. Holder is an NIH-funded clinician scientist with board certification in emergency medicine, internal medicine and critical care medicine. He is an assistant professor in the Division of Pulmonary, Allergy, Critical Care and Sleep Medicine at Emory University. His primary area of research focus is the appropriate timing and use of interventions to prevent or mitigate syndromes of critical illness (e.g. sepsis) by forecasting the evolution of patient decompensation and organ failure. Through collaborations with colleagues in Emory’s Department of Biomedical Informatics, he creates and tests data-driven, machine learning algorithms to predict clinical decompensation from sepsis. Other areas of research interest include early sepsis resuscitation and hemodynamic monitoring, cardiopulmonary resuscitation, & novel sepsis biomarkers. He is a practicing intensivist in the medical ICU at Grady Memorial Hospital and the medical/surgical ICU at Emory Midtown Hospital, both in Atlanta, GA. He participated in the Sepsis Alliance Summit 2021. 

Laura Kusisto

Maternal Sepsis Survivor, National Legal Affairs Reporter, The Wall Street Journal

Laura Kusisto is the national legal affairs reporter for The Wall Street Journal. In May, Laura wrote a story for the Journal about her experience with a life-threatening infection following the birth of her son, Jonah, and the holes in the postpartum care system in America. Laura is a co-recipient of the Newswomen's Club of New York's Nellie Bly award for a story about fatal errors in New York's coronavirus response. She has a master's degree in journalism from Columbia University and a master's degree in English from the University of Toronto, where she also completed her first year of law school. She lives in Brooklyn with her 1-year-old son, husband and two dogs. She participated in the Sepsis Alliance Summit 2021. 

Midori Lawler

Microsoft for Startups Senior Audience Evangelism Manager, Microsoft

Board of Directors, Sepsis Alliance

Midori Lawler’s passion is working with startups and giving back. She joined Microsoft in 2005 and has been working with tech startups for the past 15 years. She launched the Microsoft BizSpark program in 2008 which was the first startup program in the company’s history. In typical startup fashion, she has worn many hats, but her specialty is Marketing Communications and Events. She was initially responsible for driving awareness of the BizSpark brand and adoption of Microsoft technologies but over the years has expanded her expertise to include Program Operations, Field Enablement, Partner Programs, Data & Analytics and Content Strategy. Midori currently manages the teams that provide Program Support and Technical Enablement for startups in the Microsoft for Startups program. She is a startup ambassador, always seeking to find ways to help startups. In 2014, Midori was one of seven employees chosen to be a Microsoft Loaned Professional and run the annual Microsoft Giving Campaign. Her team was responsible for engaging all US employees, providing education and training, connecting employees to volunteer opportunities that align to their skills and interests and continuing to nurture the culture of giving. The team raised over $113M for nonprofits and schools. Midori has a strong personal interest in increasing sepsis awareness. Although she has not had sepsis herself, in the past 4 years, several people she loves have had sepsis, including her mom, best friend, cousin and family friend. She has personally witnessed how life threatening this illness can be and how difficult it is to live with the consequences of sepsis, including loss of limbs. Earlier in her career, Midori worked in Technology Marketing for several hi-tech startups, as well as established corporations such as Dell Computer, Motorola, and IBM. She has a bachelor’s degree and an MBA from Pepperdine University. Midori has two sons and is based in Seattle, Washington. She participated in the Sepsis Alliance Summit 2021. 

Stephen Liu, MD, FACEP

Medical Director and Chairman, Emergency Medicine, Adventist Health White Memorial

Dr. Stephen Liu is an Emergency Physician with USACS, and Medical Director and Chairman of Emergency Medicine, at Adventist Health White Memorial (AHWM) in Los Angeles where he was named Physician of the Year in 2016. He has served in a similar capacity at other hospitals. Dr. Liu, along with his current administrative duties, was previously a member of the Board of Directors of Cal/ACEP and VEP Healthcare, Inc. He participated in the Sepsis Alliance Institute 2021. 

Vincent Liu, MD, MS

Research Scientist, Kaiser Permanente Division of Research

Vincent Liu, MD, MS, is a research scientist at the Kaiser Permanente Northern California Division of Research. His work focuses on the intersection of sepsis, acute severe illness, informatics, and health care delivery with a goal of building towards a learning hospital system. Dr. Liu is board certified in Internal Medicine, Pulmonary Disease, Critical Care Medicine, and Clinical Informatics. He received his undergraduate degree from the University of Pennsylvania and his medical degree from New York University. He completed his residency training at New York University Hospitals (Bellevue) and a chief residency at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. He also completed a pulmonary and critical care medicine fellowship and has master’s degrees in Health Services Research and Biomedical Informatics, both from Stanford University. In addition to his clinical practice and research, Dr. Liu is also the Regional Director of Hospital Advanced Analytics in Kaiser Permanente Northern California, a role in which he leads the development & implementation, deployment, and evaluation of real-time EHR-based risk prediction models across KP’s 21 hospitals. He participated in the Sepsis Alliance Summit 2021. 

Barbara McLean, MN, RN, CCRN, CCNS-BC, NP-BC, FCCM

Critical Care Program Specialist, Grady Health Systems

Barbara McLean has been in critical care practice for over 40 years. Currently, Barbara is the critical care program specialist at Grady Health Systems in Atlanta, GA. Ms. McLean is a member of many professional organizations including the American Association of Critical Care Nurses (AACN), the Society of Critical Care Medicine (SCCM) and the American Association of Surgery and Trauma. She has received multiple awards for her innovation, practice, and volunteerism in disaster management from the AACN and the SCCM (Society of Critical Care Medicine. Her webinars and podcasts regarding sepsis and other critical issues are highly touted. Over the last year and a half, she has been invited by many media outlets and beloved podcasters to discuss the critical practice issues for the covid 19 patient. She and a small group of her colleagues managed the very first patient with Covid admitted to the Grady Health System, subsequently she and her team trained over 1600 employees in the process of safe don and doff.   She and her team initiated several innovative methods of monitoring to decrease risk exposure and PPE consumption, while maintaining excellence in clinical practice. Barbara is an avid abstract reviewer, professor and mentor and has made more than 3000 presentations nationally and internationally based on her hemodynamic, sepsis and disaster expertise She has written many chapters and articles regarding hemodynamics, sepsis, ventilation, and oxygenation and continues her pursuit of knowledge and excellence in her daily practice.  Her research has been focused on blood flow and oxygenation and she continues to expand her knowledge every day in her local and international clinical practice. As an educator, provider and practitioner, Barbara is committed to patient care and safety; critical care practice, collegial communication, and evidence-based practice implementation at the bedside. Most importantly, every day of her personal and practice life are spent working towards improving care for patients and families.

Sean-Xavier Neath, MD, PhD

Associate Professor of Clinical Emergency Medicine, University of California, San Diego

Dr. Neath earned his Ph.D. and M.D. degrees from the University of Chicago. He completed his internship at Mercy Hospital in San Diego and his residency in Emergency Medicine at the University of California, San Diego. Dr. Neath joined the faculty of the University of California San Diego in 2001. His research interests include the application of novel biomarkers in the diagnosis and management of acute medical conditions such as sepsis, heart disease, allergy and immunology. Dr. Neath served as one of the co-principal investigators at the UCSD site for the BACH (Biomarkers in Acute Heart Failure) trial, the largest natriuretic peptide acute failure study to date. He is a fellow of the American College of Emergency Physicians and a member of American Heart Association. Dr. Neath is a recipient of the Society for Academic Emergency Medicine Award, and the Wayne C. Booth Prize for Excellence in Graduate Teaching from the University of Chicago. Sean was awarded the American Red Cross “Real Heroes” award for humanitarian disaster relief work in Haiti after the earthquake of January 2010. He participated in the Sepsis Alliance Summit 2021. 

Minh- Hong Nguyen, MD

Professor of Medicine, University of Pittsburgh

Dr. Nguyen's multiple research interests are medical mycology research, including projects on the mechanisms and clinical impact of antifungal drug resistance, and molecular pathogenesis of invasive Candida infections. Since 2016, she extended her interest in Mucorales genetics and epidemiology. In addition, her research focuses on antibiotic resistant (AMR) bacterial infections and antimicrobial stewardship research, including projects on evolution of tolerance/resistance and pathogenic mechanisms of carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae (CRE) and other Gram negative bacteria; the development of novel antibiotic treatment strategies based upon bacterial genetics and pharmacokinetic-pharmacodynamic (PK-PD) principles; the clinical and economic impact of AMR infections and antimicrobial stewardship interventions; and clinical trials of new antimicrobials and diagnostic tests. Dr. Nguyen's Transplant Infectious Diseases (TID) research includes projects on the role of the microbiome in infections and outcomes among transplant recipients, the impact of rectal CRE carriage on transplant patients' outcome, and clinical studies and trials on a wide range of opportunistic fungal, bacterial, and viral infections. She has published numerous papers on the optimal use of rapid, non-culture tests in diagnosing sepsis and other acute infections, and in antimicrobial stewardship interventions. She participate in the Sepsis Alliance Summit 2021. 

Rita Olans, DNP, CPNP-PC, APRN, BC, FNAP

Associate Professor, MGH Institute of Health Professionals

Dr. Rita Olans is an Associate Professor at the MGH Institute of Health Professions and is a practicing pediatric nurse practitioner hospitalist. Rita is a nationally recognized leader on nurses’ contributions to antimicrobial stewardship. She has several publications in the nursing and medical literature, is a contributor to the National Quality Partners (NQP) Playbook for Antimicrobial Stewardship in Acute Care, and the NQP Playbook: Antimicrobial Stewardship in the Post-Acute and Long-Term Care. She is a co-author of the ANA/CDC White Paper defining the nurse’s role in stewardship. Rita consults as a technical expert to the AHRQ CUSP Safety Programs for Antimicrobial Stewardship in Acute Care Settings and Ambulatory Setting. She was invited by The Joint Commission, Pew Charitable Trust, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), American Hospital Association, and National Quality Forum to present on how nurses contribute to antimicrobial stewardship. She is a frequent presenter to pharmacists, physicians, nurses, nurse practitioners, microbiologists, public health officials, and regulatory bodies. She participated in the Sepsis Alliance Summit 2021. 

Kevin Omilusik, MD, CHCQM-PhysAdv

Medical Director, Paul Oliver Memorial Hospital

Dr Kevin Omilusik, MD, CHCQM-PhysAdv is a Board Certified, Emergency Medicine physician. He completed medical school at University of North Dakota and Emergency Medicine Residency at Butterworth Hospital (now Spectrum) in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Following residency in 1998, he moved to Traverse City where he served as physician, Regional EMS Director, Emergency Department Chairman, and then Director of Emergency Services. In this capacity, in 2011 he developed protocols and processes necessary to open Munson Medical Center’s first dedicated Observation Unit. This required an increased understanding of insurance, reimbursement, inpatient case management, hospital operations and throughput. In 2015 he became a Physician Advisor for Patient Care Management and over the next year obtained Certification in Health Care Quality and Management with sub-specialty certification as a Physician Advisor. In 2018 he transitioned to Chief Medical Officer for Munson Medical Center. After 3 years in this position, he accepted a position as Medical Director of System Transfers and Physician Advisor Services for Munson Healthcare’s nine hospital system. He currently practices and serves as Medical Director at Paul Oliver Memorial Hospital, a critical access hospital 45 minutes west of Traverse City. In his leisure time he is an outdoor enthusiast who enjoys ultra running, biking, backpacking, travel and pretty much anything that involves being in the woods. He participated in the Sepsis Alliance Summit 2021. 

George Pankey, MS, MD

Director, Infectious Disease Research, Ochsner Health

George A. Pankey, MD is Director of Infectious Disease Research at Ochsner Clinic Foundation in New Orleans, Louisiana. He is also Clinical Professor of Medicine at Tulane University in New Orleans. Dr. Pankey created the Section of Infectious Diseases and the Infectious Disease Fellowship Training Program at Oschner Health. He served as Head and Program Director, respectively, of these programs for more than 20 years. Dr. Pankey has authored or co-authored 5 books, 30 book chapters, and more than 160 peer-reviewed journal articles. Of special interest to him are the areas of antimicrobial therapy and resistance. He is a member of the Editorial Board of Infectious Disease News. He received the Clinician Award of the Infectious Diseases Society of America and Mastership in the American College of Physicians. He participated in the Sepsis Alliance Summit 2021. 

Dustin Pierce, BSN, RN, CPHQ

Quality Outcomes Coordinator, The University of Kansas Health System

Dustin has a Bachelor’s in Biological Science from Emporia State University (2004), a Bachelor of Science in Nursing (2007) from the University of Tennessee Health Science Center. He returned home to Kansas to begin his nursing career at the University of Kansas Hospital as a staff nurse on nights and weekends in the Medical ICU in 2008. In 2012, he transitioned to the Quality & Safety department to work on various initiatives regarding quality improvement in and around sepsis. Since 2012 he has given many presentations on sepsis at both KU and many hospitals, nursing homes, EMS providers, and home health providers across the state. He has been part of several improvement initiatives regarding sepsis prevention, detection, and treatment since 2012. In 2016 Dustin began working to improve the Mortality Review process as well as work on Patient Safety improvement initiatives throughout the hospital. He participated in the Sepsis Alliance Summit 2021. 

Anthony P. Pietropaoli, MD, MPH

Professor of Medicine, University of Rochester Medical Center

Dr. Anthony Pietropaoli was born and raised in Rochester, NY. He graduated from the College of the Holy Cross with a B.A. degree, majoring in English & Pre-medical studies. He attended Upstate Medical University and then moved to Pittsburgh for internship, residency, and chief residency in Internal Medicine. Dr. Pietropaoli spent two years practicing General Internal Medicine before making the decision to specialize in Pulmonary & Critical Care Medicine. He completed this fellowship at the University of Rochester in 1999, joining the faculty thereafter. He has served in a number of roles in the division and medical center, currently directing the Medical Intensive Care Unit, the Respiratory Therapy Department, and the Pulmonary Rehabilitation Program. His clinical and research interests are centered on critical illness, sepsis, and acute respiratory distress syndrome. He participated in the Sepsis Alliance Summit 2021. 

Christian Reilly

President, Mednition Inc.

Christian Reilly is a Co-Founder and President of Mednition. He leads the Engineering and Product Development teams, and was a major architect of KATE, the company’s flagship AI solution and the underlying Clinical Data Engine (CDE) platform. He has 15+ years of experience in enterprise software and machine learning, ranging from PeopleSoft to IBM. He also was a founding member of PSI, an open mainframe computing company sold to IBM in 2008. Christian received his BS in Engineering from UCSB and a Data Science specialization at Johns Hopkins University. He participated in the Sepsis Alliance Summit 2021. 

Chanu Rhee, MD, MPH

Assistant Professor of Population Medicine, Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Institute / Harvard Medical School

Dr. Rhee is an infectious disease physician, intensivist, and Associate Hospital Epidemiologist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and an Assistant Professor of Population Medicine at Harvard Medical School.  His clinical and research interest is the epidemiology, diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of sepsis and infections in critically ill patients, with a particular focus on using electronic health record data to improve disease surveillance and quality of care.  Within the Mass General Brigham healthcare system, he has been an institutional leader in improving sepsis care, preventing healthcare-associated infections, and developing and implementing the infection control response to COVID-19.  As a CDC and AHRQ-funded investigator, he has led numerous studies that have advanced our understanding of sepsis epidemiology and improved the nation’s capacity to monitor its incidence and outcomes.  Dr. Rhee is a member of the editorial board for Critical Care Medicine and is involved in several regional and national committees focusing on sepsis, including the Massachusetts Sepsis Consortium, the ACEP Sepsis Guidelines Panel, and the IDSA Sepsis Task Force. He participated in the Sepsis Alliance Summit 2021 and presents the Sepsis and Opioid Use Disorder: The Intersection of Two Public Health Crises webinar. 

Emanuel Rivers, MD, MPH

Attending Staff and Clinical Professor, Henry Ford Hospital and Wayne State University

Dr. Rivers is an emergency medicine and critical care specialist. He is Vice Chairman and Director of Research in Emergency Medicine at Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit, MI. He is also a Clinical Professor at Wayne State University.  Dr. Rivers has been at the forefront of sepsis research and care for many years and has published several articles on sepsis diagnosis and management. His landmark paper, published in November 2001, supported and expanded early goal directed therapy. This improved early sepsis care to hospitalized patients who had signs of severe sepsis or septic shock worldwide. This approach also expanded the hospital landscape to include patients from the emergency department, general practice floors, and the critical care unit. Facilities across the country and around the world took notice of this concept and adapted it to suit their needs and save lives. He participated in the Sepsis Alliance Summit solo and with Dr. Sean Townsend. 

Kristina Rudd, MD, MPH

Department of Critical Care Medicine, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine

Dr. Kristina E. Rudd, MD, MPH, is a pulmonary and critical care physician and clinical researcher in the Department of Critical Care Medicine at the University of Pittsburgh. Her research focuses on sepsis epidemiology from a global perspective, and she has expertise in both clinical and administrative methods to identify sepsis patients. Her current work investigates the relationships between social and medical features that impact an individual’s risk for developing or dying from sepsis. She has particular interest in the impact of poverty, multimorbidity, and healthcare access and quality on sepsis incidence. Dr. Rudd also studies the clinical management of patients with sepsis and other critical illnesses in resource-limited settings. She participated in the Sepsis Alliance Summit 2021. 

John J. Sperzel

Chairman & CEO, T2 Biosystems

John Sperzel is Chairman, Chief Executive Officer, and member of the Board of Directors at T2 Biosystems (NASDAQ: TTOO), a leader in the rapid detection of sepsis-causing pathogens. He has spent more than three decades advancing diagnostic technologies, having served as President, Chief Executive Officer and member of the Board of Directors for a number of public and private diagnostic companies. John earned a Bachelor of Science in Business/Management from Plymouth State University and serves on the Board of Directors for Ontera, Inc. After surviving an acute, life-threatening illness that resulted in a heart transplant, and a multidrug-resistant bacterial infection that led to sepsis, John wrote a best-selling book and continues to pursue his passion of advancing life-saving technologies. He participated in the Sepsis Alliance Summit 2021. 

Rev. Moneka Thompson, MDiv, BCC

Chaplain, UAB Medicine

Rev. Moneka A. Thompson is an ordained minister in the AME Zion (African Methodist Episcopal Zion) Church. She completed her Bachelor of Science in Criminal Justice from Alabama State University in 1998 and worked with several organizations in Montgomery, AL. She completed her Master of Science in Justice and Public Safety from Auburn University at Montgomery in 2001 and worked in corrections and reentry programs in North Carolina. She received her Master of Divinity from Hood Theological Seminary, Salisbury, North Carolina (2007) and completed her Clinical Pastoral Education (CPE) internship and residency training at Emory University Center for Pastoral Services, Atlanta, Georgia (2007-2008). During her time at Emory, she trained with the Hematology and Oncology patient populations, learning how to offer pastoral support to persons with terminal and debilitating illnesses. She began her journey with UAB Medicine in March 2009 as the Oncology Chaplain and became a Board Certified Chaplain in October 2011 with the Association of Professional Chaplains. From January 2013 to December 2014, she served as a Program Manager with the IMCCP program, which is based out of the UAB Comprehensive Cancer Center. In 2015, she became the Staff Chaplain assigned to the Kirklin Clinic of UAB Hospital, where she primarily sees oncology patients. In May of 2019, she was awarded a Medical Excellence Award by UAB Medicine. This award is given to healthcare professionals who embody exemplary core values, service and outstanding care. In December 2019, she completed her Master of Counseling degree at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. She graduated after completing a Counseling Internship with the UAB Community Counseling Clinic, which utilized Cognitive Behavioral Therapy and Family Systems Theory to assist clients grappling with traumatic histories, struggling with depression and overwhelmed by anxiety. She participated in the Sepsis Alliance Summit 2021.

Xin (Cindy) Wang, PhD

Senior Director, Strategy & Corporate Development, Dascena

As the Sr Dir of Strategy and Corporate Development, Cindy focuses on bringing Dascena’s algorithms into clinical applications. Cindy brings a diverse array of healthcare and corporate strategy experience to Dascena: previously, as an Engagement Manager at L.E.K. Consulting, Cindy advised biopharma and diagnostic companies on product development strategy, M&A recommendations, and portfolio optimization. Cindy holds a Ph.D. in Chemical Biology from UC Berkeley, and an A.B. from Harvard College. She participated in the Sepsis Alliance Summit 2021. 

Murray Cohen, PhD

Owner, Consultants in Disease and Injury Control (CDIC)

Dr. Murray Cohen is an internationally recognized expert in laboratory/hospital safety and health and biosecurity, specializing in occupationally transmitted infectious diseases, bioterrorism, and risk assessment. He is an expert in emerging pathogens, occupational medicine, hospital safety, biosafety, and epidemiology. Dr. Cohen’s career includes epidemiology posts at USPHS, CDC, and WHO. His international work has included developing model legislation for healthcare worker safety and laboratory biosafety, regulations and training for prevention of transmission of HIV/HBV/HCV, and predictive epidemiology for emerging pathogens and public health preparedness. He worked in low-resource countries in Africa, Asia, and South America as a global champion for credentialed, sustainable professional education to meet the needs for medical and laboratory manpower, and access to quality healthcare. He presents the Keeping Healthcare Healthy: Health and Safety Lessons from a Former CDC and WHO Epidemiologist webinar. 

Charuhas Thakar, MD

Director of Nephrology, Kidney C.A.R.E (Clinical Advancement, Research & Education) Program at the University of Cincinnati in OH and Chief of Nephrology at the Cincinnati VA Medical Center

Dr. Thakar is an experienced educator, having joined the University of Cincinnati as an Assistant Professor in 2004 and was promoted to Professor of Medicine in 2014. He is nationally recognized for his research related to acute kidney injury in critical care and other settings. Additionally, he completed an executive education program at Harvard Business School in Managing Healthcare Delivery. He presents the A Septic Patient with AKI: State of the Art webinar, sponsored by NxStage. 

Itay Klaz, MD, MHCI

Medical Director, Wolters Kluwer

Dr. Klaz is responsible for directing clinical efforts toward the development, implementation and support of Wolters Kluwer suite of surveillance software solutions, primarily focusing on POC Advisor. Dr. Klaz is a clinical informatician, dermatologist, and a former military surgeon. He has specialized in the convergence of enterprise-level Electronic Health Records, EHR interoperability, health care data science, clinical governance, patient outreach, risk, value-based care models, and provider engagement. Dr. Klaz earned his doctor of medicine and bachelor of science degrees from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel and his master of health care informatics from the University of San Diego. He has served in various leadership positions as CMIO, SVP of Clinical Informatics, and Medical Director of HIT. He presents the Coordinating Sepsis Care Across Your Hospital; Best Practices and Tools to Improve Sepsis Performance and Patient Care webinar, sponsored by Wolters Kluwer. 

Joseph Kuti, PharmD

Associate Director of Clinical and Economic Studies at the Center for Anti-Infective Research and Development at Hartford Hospital in Hartford, Connecticut

Dr. Joseph Kuti received his Bachelor of Science and Doctor of Pharmacy degrees from Rutgers University, College of Pharmacy in Piscataway, New Jersey. He then completed a post-doctorate fellowship in Antibiotic Management and Pharmacoeconomics at Hartford Hospital. Dr. Kuti is a member of the American Society for Microbiology, Infectious Disease Society of America, and past-President and honorary Fellow of the Society of Infectious Diseases Pharmacists. He is also an advisor to the CLSI Antibiotic Susceptibility Testing Subcommittee. Dr. Kuti’s primary area of research includes the pharmacokinetics, pharmacodynamics, and outcomes of antimicrobial management of severe infections. His research has been published in over 200 peer-reviewed papers. He presents the Implementing Procalcitonin in Your Hospital to Maximize Antibiotic Stewardship webinar, sponsored by Roche. 

Brandie Richards, NP-C, MS, DNP, CCRN

Associate Dean, School of Nursing, Loma Linda University

Brandie is the Associate Dean in the School of Nursing at Loma Linda University and has been a nurse practitioner with Loma Linda’s internal medicine and emergency department for the last five years. Prior to working in the emergency department, she worked as a nurse in the medical ICU for 14 years. She presents the A FRESH Look at Fluid Management in Sepsis webinar, sponsored by Baxter. 

David N. Gilbert, MD, MACP

Chief of Infectious Diseases, Providence Portland Medical Center; Professor of Medicine, Oregon Health Sciences University

Dr. Gilbert did his infectious diseases fellowship training with Jay P. Sanford, MD, at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School in Dallas, Texas. Dr. Gilbert is Chief of Infectious Diseases at Providence Portland Medical Center in Portland, Oregon. He is also Professor of Medicine at Oregon Health Sciences University. In the 1970s, he was on the editorial board of the Sanford Guide where his association extends back to its early editions. He was IDSA President in 2002. Dr. Gilbert’s interest is all facets of infectious disease with an emphasis on antimicrobials. His current project is the role of rapid molecular diagnostics in antimicrobial stewardship. He presents The Role of Enhanced Pathogen Detection in the Management of Septic Pneumonia Patients webinar, sponsored by bioMérieux. 

Joseph Carcillo, MD

Professor of Critical Care Medicine and Pediatrics, University of Pittsburgh, Department of Critical Care Medicine

Dr Carcillo is Professor of Critical Care Medicine and Pediatrics at University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine.  His research career is devoted to studying sepsis in children.  He will speak to you today about using three biomarkers in children with fevers to determine their risk for developing sepsis, as well as their response to therapies you are giving to treat their sepsis.  These readily available bedside biomarkers can be implemented in your practice and evaluated as part of your ongoing sepsis quality initiative. He presents the I Got the Fever: Monitoring Sepsis and Systemic Inflammation in Children webinar. 

Dena Goffman, MD, FACOG

Chief of Obstetrics & Vice Chair Quality & Patient Safety, Columbia University Irving Medical Center

Dr. Goffman graduated from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine and completed her residency in Obstetrics and Gynecology at New York Presbyterian Hospital/Columbia University Medical Center. She went on to complete a fellowship in Maternal Fetal Medicine with additional training in Critical Care Medicine at Albert Einstein College of Medicine/Montefiore Medical Center. Dr. Goffman is currently the Chief of Obstetrics at Sloane Hospital for Women at New York-Presbyterian Hospital, Professor of Women’s Health in Obstetrics and Gynecology at Columbia University Medical Center, and Vice Chair for Quality and Patient Safety for Columbia University Irving Medical Center.She has a strong interest in improving patient safety and quality in obstetrics and decreasing severe maternal morbidity and mortality. Much of her work focuses on the use of simulation, team training, and implementation of evidence based guidelines to achieve this goal. She presents the COVID-19 in Pregnancy: Best Practices for Management of the Maternal Population webinar. 

Lisa Nathan, MD, MPH, FACOG

Director, Obstetrics Jack D. Weiler Hospital & Inpaitnet, Montefiore Medical Center

Dr. Lisa Nathan is the Director of Labor and Delivery and Inpatient Obstetrics at Jack D. Weiler Hospital, and Associate Professor at Albert Einstein College of Medicine/Montefiore Medical Center. Dr. Nathan completed her OBGYN residency training at Montefiore/Einstein and stayed on to work for several years as an academic generalist. During this time, she founded the Global Women's Health Program for the Department with grant support from the Einstein Global Health Center and the US Fulbright African Regional Research Program. After directing this program for several years, she then completed her Maternal-Fetal Medicine fellowship at Montefiore/Einstein. Dr. Nathan is currently an Associate Professor and the Medical Director of Labor and Delivery and Inpatient Obstetrics at Jack D. Weiler Hospital. In addition to her clinical and administrative duties at Montefiore/Einstein, Dr. Nathan is a consultant to the New York City Department of Health, where she serves as the senior maternal mortality case abstractor for the Maternal Mortality Review Committee. She presents the COVID-19 in Pregnancy: Best Practices for Management of the Maternal Population webinar. 

Emi Minejima, PharmD

Associate Professor of Clinical Pharmacy, USC School of Pharmacy

Dr. Minejima received her PharmD degree from University of California, San Diego Skaggs School of Pharmacy in 2005 and completed both her residency training in pharmacy practice and infectious diseases pharmacotherapy at Huntington Hospital in Pasadena, CA. After residency, she joined the faculty at the University of Southern California, School of Pharmacy where she is currently an Associate Professor of Clinical Pharmacy. Her clinical practice is based at Los Angeles County/USC Medical Center where she helps run the antimicrobial stewardship program and is the director for PGY2 infectious diseases residency program. Her research interests include S. aureus infections and optimizing the use of antibiotics to improve care for the medically underserved population. She presents the Closing the Gap: Sepsis Care in Underserved Communities webinar. 

Stanley K. Frencher Jr., MD, MPH

Associate Professor of Urology, UCLA

Stanley Frencher Jr., the son of a primary care physician and nurse practitioner, likes to say he “was born to practice medicine.” Dr. Frencher attended Albert Einstein College of Medicine in the Bronx, New York, where he was awarded the first annual Jean L. Cook, MD Memorial Award for Medical Excellence. He went on to earn a Master of Public Health degree in health management and policy at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health. He conducted research with the Center for Health and Urban Minorities to identify health disparities across racial groups. He also worked with the office of Senator Charles Schumer where he gained a firsthand insight into the politics of healthcare policy. Dr. Frencher completed his surgical residency at Yale New Haven Hospital. He interrupted his training to become a Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholar at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). Dr. Frencher is currently an Associate Professor in the Department of Urology at UCLA, Chair of Perioperative Services, and Chief of Urology at Martin Luther King, Jr. Community Health. Moreover, he is Chief Medical Officer of Wise Healthcare, as well as the Chief Executive Officer of HubMD. He is a father, husband, surgeon activist, health services researcher, physician executive, and virtual care innovator with a focus on vulnerable and underserved populations with the goal of ameliorating healthcare inequities and health disparities. When not working or lecturing, he competes in powerlifting, enjoys standup paddleboard, and is active in his church. He presented in the Prevention of Infection and Sepsis during Recovery from Cardiac and other High-Risk Surgeries event. 

Jeanna Blitz, MD, FASA

Associate Professor of Anesthesiology, Duke University

Dr. Jeanna Blitz is an associate professor of Anesthesiology at Duke University School of Medicine, where she is the Director of the Preoperative Anesthesia Surgical Screening (PASS) Clinic, and Director of the Duke Perioperative Medicine fellowship. Her primary academic interest is in the delivery of quality preoperative care and its impact on patient outcomes. Dr. Blitz serves on the American Society of Anesthesiologists National Committee on Performance and Outcomes Measurement, the American College of Surgeons Surgical Quality Alliance, and is a board examiner for the American Board of Anesthesiology. She presented in the Prevention of Infection and Sepsis during Recovery from Cardiac and other High-Risk Surgeries event. 

Steven D. Harrington, MD, MBA, FACS, ABTS, FACC 

Clinical Advisor, Corazon Inc. 

Dr Harrington recently left clinical practice after nearly 40 years as a Board-Certified Cardiothoracic surgeon.  For the majority of his career, he practiced at several major Detroit area hospitals as a private practice physician.  For the last 5 years of his career, he was privileged to be a member of the Henry Ford Medical Group, a part of the Henry Ford Health System in Detroit.  In addition to his surgical and patient care duties he served on multiple committees, chaired his divisions, was co-developer of the HFHS Heart and Vascular Institute and co-leader of the system’s Cardiovascular Clinical Council, responsible for quality, program development and business integration for the HFHS cardiovascular service line. He has served on multiple MEC’s as well as hospital and health system boards leading quality and strategic development initiatives.  Despite no longer being involved in direct patient care he has remained very active with the Michigan Society of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgeons’ Quality Collaborative in both clinical research and peer review, co-authoring several publications in peer reviewed journal.  He serves nationally with the Society of Thoracic Surgeons on the Workforce on Patient Safety and the Task Force on Quality Initiatives.  He also works with Corazon Inc., a national consulting firm, focusing on cardiovascular program and quality and peer review.  As well as his medical degree he also holds an MBA in Healthcare Administration and Quality.  Although he has many other outside interests, he is an avid aviator flying over 100 hours yearly. More importantly he studies Aviation Safety and aAcident Avoidance and Human Factors Engineering, taking the lessons learned from those studies and applying those principles and  safety practices learned in aviation to how we can, and should improve in our daily medical and surgical practices.  

Sarma Velamuri, MD

Co-founder and CEO, Luminare

Dr. Sarma Velamuri is a board-certified Internal Medicine physician, residency at Baylor College of Medicine, before working as a hospitalist at CHI-St. Luke’s Medical Center in Houston, TX. He has served on process improvement, health informatics, and patient safety committees at large hospitals in and around the greater Houston area. He currently serves as the Co-founder and CEO of Luminare, a healthcare software company with a mission to stop death and morbidity through efficient, software-driven workflow optimization and digitization of manual processes. He presents The Real Problem with Sepsis Management webinar. 

Gabriel Wardi, MD, MPH

Assistant Clinical Professor, University of California, San Diego Department of Emergency Medicine Division of Pulmonary, Critical Care, and Sleep Medicine

Dr. Gabriel Wardi completed his undergraduate and graduate education in Atlanta. He moved to San Diego for his residency in Emergency Medicine and is the first graduate of the joint Critical Care Medicine fellowship offered by the Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care and Department of Emergency Medicine. He attends in both the emergency department and the ICUs at UCSD. Dr. Wardi’s research interests include sepsis, the ED-ICU interface, resuscitation, cardiac arrest management, and development of novel educational curriculum. He is the Medical Director for Hospital Sepsis at UC San Diego and directs the Residency Transition Course for the School of Medicine. Outside the hospital he enjoys international travel, cooking, running and reading. He presents the Multi-disciplinary Healthcare Team Engagement, Education, and Empowerment: The Key Ingredients to a Sustainable Sepsis Program webinar. 

Kristin Bray, RN, MAS

Clinical Quality Improvement Specialist, UC San Diego Health, Quality and Patient Safety

Kristin Bray completed her undergraduate education at University of the Pacific in Stockton, California, earning a degree in Sport Sciences. She then went on to Nursing school at Grossmont College in San Diego, California and accepted a position as a nurse in the UC San Diego Health Emergency Department in Hillcrest. Kristin then continued her education at University of California at San Diego, graduating with a Master of Advanced Studies in Leadership of Healthcare Organizations. After 9 years in Emergency Medicine, Kristin took on a new role in Quality and Patient Safety as a Clinical Quality Improvement Specialist. Currently, she oversees hospital-wide Sepsis initiatives, Emergency Department Throughput and Perinatal Care. Outside of the hospital, she enjoys working on home projects, the beach and spending time with her family. She presents the Multi-disciplinary Healthcare Team Engagement, Education, and Empowerment: The Key Ingredients to a Sustainable Sepsis Program webinar. 

John A. Kellum, MD, MCCM

Chief Medical Officer, Spectral Medical Inc.

Dr. John Kellum is a distinguished Professor at the University of Pittsburgh, Department of Critical Care Medicine (currently on leave) and UPMC Endowed Chair in Critical Care Research. He has over 25 years experience as a practicing intensive care physician and has a Master of Critical Care Medicine from American Collage of Critical Care Medicine. Dr. Kellum has been an NIH-funded investigator for over 20 years. He is a highly-cited researcher and is an expert in sepsis, ranked by Web of Science Top 1% and by expertscape.com in the top 0.0029%. He presents the Precision Medicine for Sepsis: Targeted Therapy Based on Molecular Endotyping webinar, sponsored by Spectral Medical. 

Sean Phillip Barnett, MD

Nephrology / Critical Care, UTHSCSA / STX-VAMC

Dr. Sean Barnett is a Cardiorenal Intensivist. He studied Nephrology and Critical Care, and specializes in COVID-19, Heart Failure, ICU medicine and Extracorporeal Life Support. Over the years, he has published multiple pieces in various journals and recently presented at the American Society of Nephrology and CHEST (The American College of Chest Physicians) in their 2021 annual meetings. Most recently, he has been working on COVID-19 research and believes to have discovered part of the most significant pathology in the COVID-19 Cytokine Storm. He presents the Hope for Critically Ill COVID-19 Patients: Pathogen Hemofiltration - Latest Data & Clinical Experience: Part II webinar, sponsored by ExThera. 

Majid Afshar, MD, MSCR

Assistant Professor, Division of Pulmonary & Critical Care Department of Medicine Department of Biostatistics and Medical Informatics School of Medicine and Public Health University of Wisconsin-Madison

Dr. Majid Afshar is an Assistant Professor of Medicine in the Division of Allergy, Pulmonary, and Critical Care at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Dr. Afshar received his medical degree and internal medicine training from Rush Medical College, and then completed his clinical fellowship in Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine at the University of Maryland Medical Center. He then got his master of science degree in Research Methods and Epidemiology from Rush University. He is board-certified in pulmonary medicine, critical care medicine, and clinical informatics. Dr. Afshar works closely with hospital informatics to improve health outcomes and healthcare delivery. He co-leads the Department of Medicine Data Science Lab and is also the Director of the Learning Health System for University of Wisconsin. Dr. Afshar’s research interests include predictive analytics (diagnostics and prognostics) using electronic health record data and public health data for individuals with critical illness. His focus is on early detection and monitoring using methods in natural language processing and machine learning. He has previously developed models for identifying respiratory failure in hospitalized patients, as well as a risk prediction model for acute respiratory distress syndrome and sepsis in burn and trauma patients. Dr. Afshar practices clinically as an intensivist at University of Wisconsin-Madison where he takes care of patients with the conditions that are also the focus of his research. He has previously received an NIH F32 National Research Service Award and NIH K23 Career Development Award.  He currently has a NIH R01 to implement and study machine learning algorithms in the health system and examine the effectiveness of NLP-driven tools on health outcomes. He has served on study sections for NIH, CDC, and AHRQ, and he was the Vice-Chair of Data Science for the 2021 AMIA Informatics Summit. He mentors post-doctorate students and junior faculty with a focus in critically ill patients, including trauma and sepsis. He presents the Sepsis & Trauma: What Frontline Providers Need to Know webinar. 

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. She participated in the Healthcare-Associated Infection Mini-Summit 2021 and presents the sponsored webinar Unlocking the CBC: A Novel Marker for Early Recognition of Severity of Infection.

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. She participated in the Healthcare-Associated Infection Mini-Summit 2021. 

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. She participated in the Healthcare-Associated Infection Mini-Summit 2021. 

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). He participated in the Healthcare-Associated Infection Mini-Summit 2021. 

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. He participated in the Healthcare-Associated Infection Mini-Summit 2021.

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. She participated in the Healthcare-Associated Infection Mini-Summit 2021.

Simeon Kimmel, MD, MA

Assistant Professor of Medicine, Boston University School of Medicine and Boston Medical Center

Simeon Kimmel is an Assistant Professor of Medicine at Boston University School of Medicine and an Attending Physician in the Sections of General Internal Medicine and Infectious Diseases at Boston Medical Center. He is Medical Director of Project TRUST, Boston Medical Center’s harm reduction-focused drop-in center. He trained in Internal Medicine and Primary Care at Brigham and Women’s Hospital before completing a joint fellowship in Addiction Medicine and Infectious Diseases at Boston Medical Center. He also earned a Master’s Degree in Medical Anthropology from the Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. His research focuses on improving retention in treatment with medications for opioid use disorder following serious injection-related infections as well as the integration of addiction and harm reduction services with infectious disease care. He was awarded a Career Development Award from NIDA in 2021. He presents the Sepsis and Opioid Use Disorder: The Intersection of Two Public Health Crises webinar. 

Tiffany Osborn, MD, MPH, FCCM, FACEP, FAEEM

Professor of Surgery and Emergency Medicine, Barnes-Jewish/Washington University Medical Center

Nancy Bickel, APRN, ACNP-BC, ACNS-BC

Nurse Practitioner, Sepsis Program Coordinator, Barnes-Jewish/Washington University Medical Center

Aparna Ahuja, MD

Chief Medical Officer, T2 Biosystems

She participated in Sepsis Tech & Innovation 2021 and the Sepsis Alliance Summit 2021. 

Mary Jo Kelly, DNP, ARDP-CNS, CCNS, CCRN

Critical Care CNS, University of Washington, NW Campus

She presents the Sepsis in the Time of COVID-19: Perspectives From Front-line Sepsis Coordinators webinar. 

       Patricia Ann Tennill RN, BSN, BS H.Ec

      Associate Director of Nursing, New York Health and Hospitals/Bellevue

Patricia is an Associate Director of Nursing in Staff Development and the nursing lead for the NYC Health and Hospitals/Bellevue Special Pathogens Program. There she works to develop protocols concerning the movement and care of patients with special pathogens and subsequent hands-on training for all staff involved the Special Pathogens Program. Patricia also trains staff in PPE donning and doffing for all pathogens of concern. She has been involved with the Special Pathogens Program since 2014 as a nurse leader responsible for coordinating and overseeing all nursing operations on the Special Pathogens Unit. She graduated from The Ohio State University with a degree in Home Economics specializing in nutrition and then several years later University of Massachusetts with a degree in nursing. Her career began in Manhattan working with HIV patients at St. Vincent’s Hospital and then served as Assistant Head Nurse in the surgical intensive care unit (ICU). Since coming to Bellevue Hospital in 2010, Patricia was in leadership roles in the medical and neurosurgical ICUs. After the Ebola epidemic she became an Associate Director of Nursing and the Nurse Lead for the Special Pathogens Program. She is a member of NETEC, where she is the Task Lead for Infection Prevention, Simulation and Skills, and a Subject Matter Expert. She presents the Strategies for Identification, Isolation, and Treatment of Special Pathogens/ COVID-19 and Sepsis: Similarities and Differences webinar.