Council on Microbial Sciences (COMS) Council Members

Dr. Rebecca V. Ferrell is Vice Chair for the Council on Microbial Sciences and Professor of Biology at Metropolitan State University of Denver. She holds a Ph.D. from University of Missouri—Columbia School of Medicine. Rebecca is an active member of ASM's Rocky Mtn. Branch (RMB-ASM) and currently serving as Archivist; has served in every elected office of the RMB through the years, including 3 terms as President. She served on the Council Policy Committee of ASM and has served on COMS since its inception.Her research interests include nitrification and its regulation, environmental water quality and the limitations of Escherichia coli as an indicator organism. 

Suzanne M.J. Fleiszig, O.D., Ph.D., is a professor at the University of California, Berkeley. She received a Doctor of Optometry degree and Ph.D. in Microbiology at the University of Melbourne. She completed her postdoctoral training in Infectious Disease at Harvard Medical School.
 
At UC Berkeley, Dr. Fleiszig holds appointments in Vision Science, Infectious Diseases & Immunity, Microbiology, and the School of Optometry. She studies microbe-host interactions using the eye as a model and key intrinsic defenses protecting epithelial surfaces in vivo against infection, conditions enabling susceptibility, and how the opportunistic pathogen P. aeruginosa colonizes epithelial surfaces.

Fleiszig is the current Chair of COMS. Previously she served ASM as Chair of Division D, an At-Large Division Councilor, an Interdisciplinary Councilor, and co-chaired the HMB community retreat. She serves on the editorial boards of Infection & Immunity, PLOS One, Frontiers in Cellular & Infection Microbiology, and PeerJ, and is a standing member of NIH’s Bacterial Pathogenesis (BACP) study section. She has also served as President of the International Society for Contact Lens Research, Vice-President of TFOS (ocular surface society), Chair of the Immunology & Microbiology Section for the Association for Research in Vision & Ophthalmology, and Chair of the Corneal Biology Gordon Research Conference.

My work is in the area of microbial pathogenicity, including host-microbe-microbiome interactions. We study transcription regulatory mechanisms, appling genetic, and biochemical approaches, and our work includes chemical biology and therapeutic discovery. We focus primarily on the pathogens Vibrio cholerae, Campylobacter jejuni, and antibiotic-resistant Enterobacter spp. We have also studied Group A streptococci in a mouse model of necrotizing fasciitis. Our interest is in biology and pathogenicity of microbes at different scales: from questions around single molecule biology and protein-protein interactions governing key processes, to genomic-level interrogation in animal models of infection, to the role of complex microbiota in pathogen-host biology. A major, and highly rewarding, interest has been training undergraduates, graduate students and postdoctoral fellows in the lab and towards developing their own path to the future.

Dr. Robin Patel graduated from Princeton University with a BA in Chemistry and from McGill University in Montreal, Canada with an MD. She then moved to Rochester, Minnesota, where she completed a residency in Internal Medicine and fellowships in Infectious Diseases and Clinical Microbiology at the Mayo Clinic. Upon completion of post-graduate training, she joined the staff of the Mayo Clinic. She is currently Professor of Medicine and Professor of Microbiology, the Elizabeth P. and Robert E. Allen Professor of Individualized Medicine, Co-Director of the Clinical Bacteriology Laboratory, Director of the Infectious Diseases Research Laboratory, and Chair of the Division of Clinical Microbiology, at Mayo Clinic. Doctor Patel is board certified in Infectious Diseases (American Board of Internal Medicine), Medical Microbiology/Public Health Microbiology (American Board of Medical Microbiology), Clinical Pathology/Medical Microbiology (American Board of Pathology), and Internal Medicine, Medical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases (Collège des Médecins du Québec and Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada). Doctor Patel’s research focuses on clinical bacteriology diagnostic testing, antimicrobial resistance, and microbial biofilms. She has published over 350 peer reviewed manuscripts and has delivered numerous national and international presentations. She is a Fellow of American Academy of Microbiology, past chair of the United States Medical Licensing Examination Microbiology and Immunology Test Material Development Committee, co-chair of the ASM Microbe 2016-2018 Program Planning Committee, member of NIAID Council, advisor for the CLSI Subcommittee on Antimicrobial Susceptibility Testing, member of the American Board of Pathology Medical Microbiology and Clinical Pathology for ABPath CertLinkTM Test Development and Advisory Committees, member of the ASM Board of Directors and ASM President Elect (Presidency - July 2019-June 2020). She is an associate editor for the Journal of Clinical Microbiology and Clinical Infectious Diseases and course director for the Mayo Medical School Microbiology course.

Dr. Donohue received his B.S. in Life Sciences from Polytechnic Institute of Brooklyn and his Ph.D. in Microbiology from Pennsylvania State University. He became a fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology in 2000 and a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science in 2009. Dr. Donohue served as ASM’s president in 2013. His laboratory’s research analyzes pathways and networks that microbes use to grow, generate biomass, or produce alternative fuels from sunlight or other renewable sources of energy. Dr. Donohue is also Director, Great Lakes Bioenergy Research Center. 

Dr. Yates has been a faculty member at University of California, Riverside for more than 30 years. Her research has focused on characterizing and predicting the fate and transport of human enteric pathogenic microorganisms in soils, water and wastewater; development of methods for rapid, sensitive detection of infective enteric viruses and other environmentally transmitted human pathogens in environmental and biological media, human pathogen considerations associated with wastewater reuse and biosolids application to land; and the use of indicators for predicting pathogen occurrence and behavior in the environment.

Stefano Bertuzzi, Ph.D., M.P.H., joined ASM as the Executive Director/CEO of the American Society for Microbiology on Jan. 4, 2016. Dr. Bertuzzi previously served as the Executive Director at the American Society for Cell Biology for 3 years. Before leading the American Society for Cell Biology, Dr. Bertuzzi was a senior scientific executive at the National Institutes of Health where he served as Director of the Office of Science Policy, Planning, and Communications at the National Institute of Mental Health, and as a science policy advisor to the NIH Director, Dr. Elias Zerhouni.

Bertuzzi received his Ph.D. in Molecular Biotechnology from the Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore of Milan, Italy with a fellowship in the Microbiology Institute, and his Master’s in Public Health (M.P.H.) from the Bloomberg School of Public Health at the Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore with a specialization in health policy.

Arturo Casadevall, M.D., Ph.D. is a professor of medicine at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. He holds a joint appointment in molecular microbiology and immunology at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. His research focuses on how microbes cause disease and how the immune system defends itself. Dr. Casadevall serves as chair of the W. Harry Feinstone Department of Molecular Microbiology and Immunology at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

He received his M.S., Ph.D. and M.D. from New York University. Prior to joining Johns Hopkins, he served as director of the Center for Immunological Sciences at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine. His team is currently engaged in understanding how hosts defend against the fungus Cryptococcus neoformans.

Dr. Casadevall’s work has been recognized with numerous awards, including the American Society for Microbiology Founders Distinguished Service Award, the National Institutes of Health Merit Award and the Rhoda Benham Award from Medical Mycology Society of America.
 

Candidate for ASM President-Elect
Professor of Biological Sciences and College Dean of Graduate & Professional Education
University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA

Education:

• B.A., Molecular Biology, UC Berkeley
• Ph.D., Biological Chemistry, UCLA School of Medicine

Professional Experience:

• Helen Hay Whitney Foundation Postdoctoral Fellow, Microbiology & Molecular Genetics, Harvard Medical School
• Assistant Professor, Associate Professor, and Professor of Biological Sciences, Molecular & Computational Biology Section, University of Southern California and Professor of Gerontology, USC
• Director of Graduate Studies, USC Molecular Biology Ph.D. program
• Deputy Director, USC Center for Excellence in Genomic Science, including Undergraduate & Minority Research Programs (NHGRI)
• Senior Scientist, Center for Dark Energy Biosphere Investigations (NSF Science & Technology Center)
• Director, Genomics & Geobiology Undergraduate Research Experience program
• USC Dornsife College Dean of Graduate and Professional Education

ASM Activities:

• ASM Distinguished Lecturer
• Member, ASM Awards Nominating Committee
• Fellow, American Academy of Microbiology
• ASM William A. Hinton Research Training Award
• Section Editor, EcoSal
• Editorial Board, Applied and Environmental Microbiology
• Editorial Board, Journal of Bacteriology
• Member, Colloquium Advisory Committee for the General Meeting
• ASM Judge, Intel International Science & Engineering Fair
• Member, ASM Task Force on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI)

Publications:

Nanocalorimetry Reveals the Growth Dynamics of Escherichia coli Cells Undergoing Adaptive Evolution during Long-Term Stationary Phase.
Robador A, Amend JP, Finkel SE. Appl Environ Microbiol. 2019 Jul 18;85(15). pii: e00968-19. doi: 10.1128/AEM.00968-19. Print 2019 Aug 1. PMID:31152016

Physiological, Genetic, and Transcriptomic Analysis of Alcohol-Induced Delay of Escherichia coli
Ferraro CM, Finkel SE. Appl Environ Microbiol. 2019 Jan 9;85(2). pii: e02113-18. doi: 10.1128/AEM.02113-18. Print 2019 Jan 15. PMID:30389772

Adaptation of Escherichia coli to long-term batch culture in various rich media.
Westphal LL, Lau J, Negro Z, Moreno IJ, Ismail Mohammed W, Lee H, Tang H, Finkel SE, Kram KE. Res Microbiol. 2018 Apr;169(3):145-156. doi: 10.1016/j.resmic.2018.01.003. Epub 2018 Feb 15. PMID:29454026

Adaptation of Escherichia colito Long-Term Serial Passage in Complex Medium: Evidence of Parallel Evolution.
Kram KE, Geiger C, Ismail WM, Lee H, Tang H, Foster PL, Finkel SE. mSystems. 2017 Mar 7;2(2). pii: e00192-16. doi: 10.1128/mSystems.00192-16. eCollection 2017 Mar-Apr. PMID:28289732

Genomewide Dam Methylation in Escherichia coliduring Long-Term Stationary Phase.
Westphal LL, Sauvey P, Champion MM, Ehrenreich IM, Finkel SE. mSystems. 2016 Dec 13;1(6). pii: e00130-16. eCollection 2016 Nov-Dec. PMID:27981240

Fitness Cost of Fluoroquinolone Resistance in Clinical Isolates of Pseudomonas aeruginosaDiffers by Type III Secretion Genotype.
Agnello M, Finkel SE, Wong-Beringer A. Front Microbiol. 2016 Oct 4;7:1591. eCollection 2016. PMID: 27757111

Culture volume and vessel affect long-term survival, mutation frequency, and oxidative stress of Escherichia coli.
Kram KE, Finkel SE. Appl Environ Microbiol. 2014 Mar;80(5):1732-8. doi: 10.1128/AEM.03150-13. Epub 2013 Dec 27. PMID: 24375138

Competitive fitness during feast and famine: how SOS DNA polymerases influence physiology and evolution in Escherichia coli.
Corzett CH, Goodman MF, Finkel SE. Genetics. 2013 Jun;194(2):409-20. doi: 10.1534/genetics.113.151837. Epub 2013 Apr 15. PMID:23589461

Long-term survival during stationary phase: evolution and the GASP phenotype.
Finkel SE. Nat Rev Microbiol. 2006 Feb;4(2):113-20. Review. PMID:16415927

Research Interests:
Long-term survival and evolution of bacteria under both laboratory and environmental conditions; Characterization of the Growth Advantage in Stationary Phase (GASP) phenotype; Role of error-prone DNA polymerases on generation of genetic diversity and relative fitness; Effects of laboratory culture medium and conditions on long-term survival of bacteria; Role of extracellular electron transport in electricity production, bacterial respiration and survival; Mechanisms of survival of human microbiome organisms and communities; DNA organization during stationary phase in bacteria.

Statement:
As we emerge from significant reorganization, this is an exciting time for the ASM and its members. We have the opportunity to consider in what directions we should take the organization and how we can best continue ASM’s central role in elucidating the importance of microbiology in all sectors of society and spread appreciation of the fact that we are all “mainly microbe.”
As a member-focused organization, the primary function of the ASM should be to bring the membership together to further our scientific and professional interests. Clearly, the long-term health of the organization depends on maintaining our relevance with all members of the broad microbiology community, but, paramount must be a focus on our younger members. Nationwide, thousands of undergraduate and graduate students pursue studies in microbiology and allied fields and they will go on to address important societal issues, from the threat of antibiotic resistance to the effects of global warming. It is essential that the ASM engage with these students as early as possible. While ASM regional and student branches do an excellent job in this outreach, I would like to propose that the ASM take a more active approach, assuring that every undergraduate and graduate student nationwide becomes an ASM member as soon as they declare their major or path of study.
Ask what the ASM means to any member and you will probably receive as many answers as the number of people asked. While we cannot be all things to all people, we must pay attention to the needs of the membership. As I consider my role, should I enjoy the privilege of leading the ASM, I thought back to why I first joined as a student. Two factors drew me into the organization: the annual meeting and the journals. Receiving the Journal of Bacteriology, to mark-up at my leisure, not only was a great convenience, but was a tangible indication of my arrival as a full-fledged member of our scientific community. What I had not anticipated was being embraced by a broad community of scholars and the accompanying sense of belonging.
Today, with the advent of myriad new technologies, some of the old modes of interaction no longer exist, but the new platforms present exciting opportunities. However, gathering at conferences and having “face time” with colleagues in person never goes out of style. Therefore, one of the challenges for any organization as large as ours is how to enjoy the advantages of new technology while continuing to capitalize on those things we do best. To that end, while we continue to embrace new modes of publication and make the most of social media, we need to rekindle the kinds of interactions that only conferences, large and small, can provide. These personal interactions provide the “glue” that holds us together as individuals and as a nationally and internationally vital organization. All of these activities must be considered to be maximally relevant to the younger generation of microbiologists now being trained.

Back to Ballot

Vaughn Cooper is an evolutionary biologist and microbiologist. He received his bachelor’s degree from Amherst College and his Ph.D. in 2000 from Michigan State University under the mentorship of Richard Lenski, where he studied the evolution of specialization in the Long-Term Evolution Experiment of E. coli populations. He was a Postdoctoral Fellow of the Michigan Society of Fellows at the University of Michigan, studying pathogens of the cystic fibrosis airway with John LiPuma. He was Assistant and Associate Professor at the University of New Hampshire from 2004-2015, moving to the University of Pittsburgh in 2015. He is currently Professor of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics, and Computational and Systems Biology, at the University of Pittsburgh, School of Medicine. He co-founded and is Director of the Center for Evolutionary Biology and Medicine (CEBaM), founded and directs the Microbial Genomics Sequencing center (MiGS). His awards include the 2010 Outstanding Assistant Professor at UNH and an NSF CAREER award. His research is supported by the NIH, NSF, NASA, and by the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. Dr. Cooper has published more than 70 peer-reviewed publications and invited chapters, and currently is supported by 12 active grants or contracts. The Cooper laboratory studies how bacterial populations (e.g. Burkholderia, Pseudomonas, Acinetobacter, and multispecies communities) evolve to adapt to new hosts and environments, particularly in biofilms. Other major interests include the evolution of antimicrobial resistance and why genome regions mutate/evolve at different rates. We also develop and promote a laboratory curriculum called EvolvingSTEM that enables high school students to learn key topics in evolution and heredity by conducting a weeklong experiment with bacteria.

Dr. Elizabeth Marlowe is currently the Scientific Director and Head of R&D for Quest Diagnostics Infectious Diseases. She received her Ph.D. from the University of Arizona in 1999 and completed a Clinical/Public Health Microbiology Postdoctoral Fellowship in 2001 at the UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine. After her fellowship, she continued as an Adjunct Professor and Research Coordinator at the Wadsworth Anaerobe Laboratory where her research focused on the microbiome of the autistic gut and the role of toxin producing anaerobes. In 2002, Dr. Marlowe joined Gen-Probe with her primary research in the development of rapid molecular diagnostics for infectious diseases. Her team conducted some of the initial prototype and assay feasibility work on the Panther Fusion System. From 2005 – 2016 she provided laboratory leadership within the Kaiser Permanente Regional Laboratories in both Southern California, as the Assistant Director, and Northern California, as Director of Microbiology. At Kaiser she oversaw the translational research program that included participation in > 10 clinical trials. From 2016-2019, she held the position of Global Director of Medical Affairs at Roche Molecular Systems where she supported several product launches including the cobas CT/NG, TV/MG, MTB, MAI & RIF/INH assays. At Quest her team has led the diagnostic testing efforts for Coronavirus Pandemic.

She is a diplomat of the American Board of Medical Microbiology, past president for Southern California ASM, past editor for the Clinical Microbiology Newsletter and an inaugural member to the Council on Microbial Sciences for ASM. She has served as a member of CLIAC, the federal advisory committee for CLIA. Her research areas of interest are focused on the translation of new infectious disease diagnostics for use in evidence-based research for clinical microbiology practice.
 

Alison Criss, Ph.D. is Associate Professor of Microbiology, Immunology, and Cancer Biology at the University of Virginia School of Medicine and Director of the UVA Global Infectious Diseases Institute.

Her laboratory investigates how Neisseria gonorrhoeae initiates innate immune responses at human mucosal surfaces, yet resists killing by neutrophils recruited during infection. The ultimate goal of this research is to identify host and bacterial targets for new antimicrobials and vaccines, while limiting the inflammatory damage in gonorrhea.

Dr. Criss’ honors include selection as an American Public Health Association Thought Leader and ASM/ICAAC Young Investigator Awardee. She is committed to mentoring the next generation of scientists and serves as co-principal investigator of the UVA Infectious Diseases T32 Training Grant, teaches in graduate and medical courses, and advises graduate students, postdoctoral fellows and undergraduates in her lab.

Dr. Criss serves on the NIH Host Interactions with Bacterial Pathogens study section (2018-2022) and the editorial boards of Infection and Immunity and Journal of Bacteriology. She earned her B.A. in biology and chemistry from Williams College, Ph.D. in cell biology from Harvard Medical School and performed postdoctoral research at Northwestern University in microbiology and immunology.
 

Amy Mathers, M.D., is an associate professor of Medicine and Pathology at the University of Virginia, Charlottesville. She received her B.S. in Cellular and Molecular Biology from Humbolt State University and her M.D. from the Loyola Stritch School of Medicine. She then did an Infectious Disease Fellowship and microbiology training at the University of Virginia.

Dr. Mathers's research focuses on the urgent problem of carbapenem resistance in Enterobacteriaceae. She has been evaluating detection methods in clinical microbiology and molecular transmission of carbapenemase genes for the last 12 years, with a focus on the hospital environment. Molecular characterization has included analysis of mobile resistance mechanisms with evaluation of plasmid evolution and mobility across species with next generation sequencing paired with more traditional techniques. Recently, Dr. Mathers has investigated the role that the hospital environment can play in evolution and dissemination of carbapenemase genes.

Biography coming soon.

Kristine Wylie is an assistant professor in the Department of Pediatrics at Washington University in St. Louis.

She studies the effects of the virome/microbiome on reproductive health. As a virologist, she is particularly interested in mechanisms underlying virus-host dynamics throughout the lifespan. Her work involves human studies carried out with clinical collaborators in addition to in vitro infection models, molecular biology, and genomics/bioinformatics.

Kristine is passionate about education and outreach, and she is the co-PI of a Science Education Partnership Award that aims to provide genomics/bioinformatics education and research opportunities to underserved high school students. She is an enthusiastic supporter of ASM and its promotion of innovative science, effective communication, and mentored career development. 

Natividad Ruiz studied microbiology and chemistry at the University of Kansas, where she received her B.A. in 1993. She obtained her Ph.D. from Washington University in St. Louis in 1998 in Molecular Microbiology and Microbial Pathogenesis.

During her graduate thesis, Natividad worked with Professor Michael Caparon on Streptococcus pyogenes. She then joined Professor Thomas J. Silhavy’s laboratory at Princeton University to study Escherichia coli as a postdoc and later a research scientist.

In 2010, Natividad joined The Ohio State University, where she is currently a Professor of Microbiology. Her laboratory investigates the biogenesis of the cell envelope in Gram-negative bacteria primarily by using genetics to understand the mechanism of function of glycolipid transporters.

Dr. Trish Simner is an associate professor of pathology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and the Director of the Medical Bacteriology and Infectious Disease Sequencing Laboratories at the Johns Hopkins Hospital.

Her research has focused on understanding the epidemiology and molecular mechanisms of antimicrobial resistance of gram-negative bacteria, in particular those harboring β-lactamase enzymes. Simner is interested in novel diagnostic tools for infectious diseases and is actively involved in developing metagenomic next-generation sequencing as a diagnostic tool.

Simner is a voting member on the Subcommittee on Antimicrobial Susceptibility Testing for the Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute. She is the Early Career At-Large representative for the American Society for Microbiology (ASM) Council on Microbial Science, a member of the College of American Pathologist Microbiology Committee and an editor for the Journal of Clinical Microbiology. 

Professor Paul Brown is a tenured professor of molecular biology at the University of the West Indies and has been studying infectious diseases for over 30 years. He is involved in academic advising and mentorship, both locally and internationally. 

As an infectious disease investigator, his contributions to science have included primary and secondary data analyses of clinical and post-mortem leptospirosis; risk analysis and role of socio-economic factors in transmission; effects of genetic and climate/environmental factors on disease incidence and virulence; and cultural and molecular aspects of antimicrobial resistance and pathogenesis. His research has enhanced research capacity and fostered collaboration in molecular ecological investigation of infectious diseases in the Caribbean. 

Professor Brown has served as Country Liaison for Jamaica (2008-2010); ASM Ambassador for Central America and Caribbean Basin (2010-2012); ASM Ambassador to Jamaica (2012-2017); Chair, Inaugural Ambassador Leadership Circle (2014-2016); Chair, Evaluation Committee for Country Ambassadors (2014-2015); Member, Membership Board Task Force (2014-2015); Member, International Board (2015-2016); and Member, Council on Microbial Sciences (2017-present and Inaugural Vice-Chair). He previously served as Council Member of the International Society for Infectious Diseases (2012-2020) and was a Fulbright Fellow in 2010.

Dr. Rebecca V. Ferrell is Vice Chair for the Council on Microbial Sciences and Professor of Biology at Metropolitan State University of Denver. She holds a Ph.D. from University of Missouri—Columbia School of Medicine. Rebecca is an active member of ASM's Rocky Mtn. Branch (RMB-ASM) and currently serving as Archivist; has served in every elected office of the RMB through the years, including 3 terms as President. She served on the Council Policy Committee of ASM and has served on COMS since its inception.Her research interests include nitrification and its regulation, environmental water quality and the limitations of Escherichia coli as an indicator organism. 

Sean Crosson is currently Rudolph Hugh Professor in the Department of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics at Michigan State University. 

He grew up in Grayson County, Texas, and received his B.A. in Biology from Earlham College in 1996, a Ph.D. in Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics from The University of Chicago in 2002, and was a postdoctoral fellow at Stanford University from 2003‐2005. Sean spent the first fourteen years of his faculty career at the University of Chicago, and moved to Michigan State University in 2019.

Students and postdocs in the Crosson Lab study the biology of bacteria that inhabit environments ranging from freshwater, to soil, to the interior of mammalian cells. His group utilizes a cross-disciplinary set of experimental tools as they work to understand how bacteria adapt their physiology to survive changing physical and chemical landscapes. Their work primarily focuses on Alphaproteobacteria including mammalian pathogens of the genus Brucella, the freshwater/soil bacterium Caulobacter crescentus, and the marine photoheterotroph Erythrobacter litoralis. In addition, his lab collaborates with clinicians and ecologists on studies of Bacteroides fragilis and other microbes that reside in the human gut.

Dr. Shannon McQuaig Ulrich is a full professor at St. Petersburg College in Clearwater, Fla. 

She earned her B.S. in Microbiology and Cell Science from the University of Florida in 2003.  During her time as an undergraduate she worked in an Environmental Microbiology laboratory and her passion for water-quality microbiology was cultivated. She earned her Masters of Science in Microbiology and Cell Science in 2005. She then attended the University of South Florida where she developed a real-time PCR assay to detect human polyomaviruses in environmental waters as an indication of microbial water quality. In 2009, she earned her Ph.D. in biology with a concentration in environmental and ecological microbiology from the University of South Florida. 

After graduation, Ulrich joined the University of South Florida as a visiting instructor teaching cell biology and biology. In 2010, she accepted a position at St. Petersburg College teaching a variety of courses including biology, microbiology, genetics, immunology, molecular biology and undergraduate research. 

Ulrich has published 10 peer reviewed articles and a book chapter and continues her research interests working with undergraduate students.

David Aronoff, M.D. received his B.S. in Microbiology (summa cum laude) from Indiana University and his M.D. from Tufts University. Following internship and residency training in internal medicine at Vanderbilt University, he completed both a clinical fellowship in infectious diseases and a research fellowship in clinical pharmacology. Aronoff then moved to the University of Michigan, where he completed a research postdoctoral fellowship in immunology.

Aronoff joined the faculty of the University of Michigan in 2002. He rose to the rank of Associate Professor with tenure in the Departments of Internal Medicine and Microbiology and Immunology, and in 2013 was recruited back to Vanderbilt University as Director of the Division of Infectious Diseases, with secondary faculty appointments in the Department of Pathology, Microbiology, and Immunology and the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, and the Department of Microbiology and Immunology at Meharry Medical College.

Aronoff’s research focuses on bacterial infections that complicate pregnancy. He has also been on the frontlines of his institution’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Dr. Mary Sánchez Lanier, assistant vice provost at Washington State University (WSU) and professor (scholarly track) in molecular biosciences, has been in higher education over 29 years and particularly active in the support of underrepresented minority students and women and minority faculty. She was PI or co-PI on NSF Advance and LSAMP grants and is currently a PI for an NIH ESTEEMED grant in support of STEM students from underrepresented groups.

She has received numerous awards including WSU’s highest award for leadership (Sahlin Faculty Excellence Award), the College of Veterinary Medicine Outstanding Undergraduate Teaching award, the Martin Luther King, Jr. Distinguished Service Award for her role in the Team Mentoring program and the global community for academic advising, NACADA, Outstanding Faculty Advisor award. Dr. Sánchez Lanier chaired the ASM Robert D. Watkins Predoctoral Minority Fellowship committee, the Minority Undergraduate Research Fellowship committee and the Committee for Minority Education. She is the ASM Education Board chair and represents ASM on the steering committee for the Annual Biomedical Research Conference for Minority Students. Dr. Sánchez Lanier received her Ph.D. in medical sciences from the University of New Mexico School of Medicine. She was a research associate at the Centers for Disease Control before joining WSU.

Dr. Melissa Miller is a professor of pathology and laboratory medicine at the University of North Carolina (UNC) at Chapel Hill School of Medicine. She is also the Director of the Clinical Microbiology and Molecular Microbiology Laboratories for UNC Medical Center.

She received her Ph.D. in Molecular Biology from Princeton University and completed the Medical and Public Health Microbiology Fellowship at UNC. She is the chair of the American Society for Microbiology Clinical and Public Health Microbiology Committee, a fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology and an editor for the Journal of Clinical Microbiology.

Miller’s research interests include the development of accurate and cost-effective molecular tests for viral infections and the assessment of patient and healthcare outcomes associated with the implementation of new molecular technologies. 
 

Biography coming soon.

Stacey Schultz-Cherry, Ph.D. is a Full Member (Professor) in the Department of Infectious Diseases at St Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis, TN where she serves as the Deputy Director of the World Health Organization (WHO) Influenza Collaborating Center, Co-Director for the NIAID-funded Center for Excellence in Influenza Research and Surveillance (CEIRS) and Co-Director for the NIAID-funded Collaborative Influenza Vaccine Innovation Center (CIVIC). 

She received her Ph.D. in Molecular and Cellular Pathology from the University of Alabama at Birmingham and did postdoctoral training in influenza virology at the University of Wisconsin. Before joining the faculty at St Jude Children’s Research Hospital in 2009, she was a tenured Associate Professor in the Department of Medical Microbiology and Immunology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. 

Dr. Schultz-Cherry is recognized internationally for her studies on the pathogenesis influenza and enteric viruses in high risk populations and influenza at the animal-human interface. She is the author and co-author of over 190 research articles, reviews and book chapters, is the past President of the American Society for Virology, and the current chair of the Public and Scientific Affairs Committee for ASM. 

Steven Specter is professor emeritus, Department of Molecular Medicine, University of South Florida, Morsani College of Medicine. He has a B.A. in Biology and Ph.D. in Microbiology and Immunology from Temple University, Philadelphia, PA. He was a post-doctoral fellow in Experimental Immunology, then Director of Clinical Virology at Albert Einstein Medical Center, Philadelphia. He was appointed Associate Dean for Pre-Clinical Education in 1997, Student Affairs in May, 2001-2014, Admissions in 2002-2008,  and Alumni Affairs 2014-201. He served as annual Clinical Virology Symposium Chair 1985-2020, Chair, Clinical Immunology Division of ASM, Editor-in-Chief, ASM Cumitech series, President, Pan American Society for Clinical Virology and President of Florida Branch ASM. 

He served on numerous journal editorial boards and professional councils. Research included retrovirus induced immune deficiency and effects of abused drugs on immunity. He authored over 175 scientific publications and edited 12 books. He received two outstanding teaching awards (1991, 1996) and the Theodore and Vanette Askonas-Ashford Distinguished Scholar Award, University of South Florida (1997). Dr. Specter received a CDC Grant as Principal Investigator for a project on Capacity Building Assistance for Global HIV/AIDS Microbiology Laboratory Program Development on behalf of ASM September 2005-2014. He is currently ASM Membership Chair.

Tara C. Smith is a professor of epidemiology at the Kent State University College of Public Health. She spent 9 years in the Department of Epidemiology at the University of Iowa College of Public Health, where she directed the College’s Center for Emerging Infectious Diseases and attained the rank of Associate Professor with tenure. She completed post-doctoral training in molecular epidemiology at the University of Michigan, and obtained her Ph.D. at the University of Toledo and her B.S. in Biology from Yale University. 

Dr. Smith’s research generally focuses on zoonotic infections. She was the first to identify livestock-associated strains of MRSA in the United States, and has pioneered the investigation of this organism in the U.S.  She has presented her research at numerous national and international events. She has also published work on vaccine hesitancy, science communication, and COVID-19.

Smith is active in science communication and outreach. She maintained a science blog for 11 years and has written books on Group A Streptococcus, Group B Streptococcus, and Ebola. She published her second book on Ebola, "Ebola's Message," with MIT Press in 2016. She writes about infectious disease for many outlets, and is a member of the Zombie Research Society’s advisory board. 

Vanessa Sperandio is a professor in the departments of microbiology and biochemistry at UT Southwestern Medical Center. She got a B.S., M.S. and Ph.D. at the State University of Campinas (UNICAMP) in Brazil. She did her post-doctoral training at the University of Maryland School of Medicine. 

She was a Latin American Pew Fellow in Biomedical Sciences, an Ellison Foundation New Scholar, a Burroughs Wellcome Fund Investigator in the Pathogenesis of Infectious Diseases, and a National Academy Kavli Frontiers of Science Fellow. She is the recipient of the ASM Eli Lilly and Company-Elanco Research award, and a winner of the GSK Discovery Fast-track challenge. She is a fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology. 

Her research investigates chemical, stress, and nutritional signaling among the mammalian host, beneficial microbiota, and bacterial pathogens. The main tenet of her research is the study of how bacterial cells sense several mammalian hormones, leading to rewiring and reprogramming of bacterial transcription toward host and niche adaptation. She has also identified several bacterial receptors to mammalian hormones and reported that pathogens hijack these interkingdom signaling systems to promote virulence expression. She also translated these basic science concepts into strategies to develop novel approaches to antimicrobial therapy.

Amanda Harrington, Ph.D., D(ABMM), is an associate professor and Vice Chair for Clinical Pathology in the Department of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine at Loyola University Chicago and Director of the Clinical Microbiology Laboratory at Loyola University Medical Center in Maywood, Ill.

She earned her doctoral degree in microbiology from the University of Kansas, did her postdoctoral fellowship training in clinical microbiology at the University of Washington in Seattle and is a diplomate of the American Board of Medical Microbiology. She is currently serving as the President of the Illinois Society for Microbiology and the Community Leader for Clinical and Public Health Microbiology on the Council on Microbial Sciences for the American Society for Clinical Microbiology. She is also serving as the ASM Liaison to the American Society of Clinical Pathology Board of Governors. Her research interests include clinical diagnostic testing and utilization, as well as quality metrics for clinical microbiology.

Andrea Furuya, Ph.D., earned her doctoral degree in Microbiology and Immunology from Albany Medical College. She then joined the Diagnostic Immunology Laboratory as a research scientist at the Wadsworth Center of the New York State Department of Health.

Her work focuses on clinical diagnostic testing and the development of serological assays to aid in the diagnosis of infectious agents, particularly vector-borne and vaccine preventable diseases, such as dengue, Zika, West Nile, Powassan and measles.

As part of her role in the clinical laboratory, she also evaluates serologic assays for the diagnosis of infections caused by viruses, such as SARS-CoV-2. In addition to her role in the public health setting, she also teaches immunology and public health microbiology to graduate and undergraduate students.  

Biography coming soon.

RJC (Bob) McLean received his undergraduate degree from the University of Guelph and his Ph.D. from the University of Calgary, where he was first introduced to biofilms. He returned to Guelph for a postdoc, where he studied bacterial cell surface metal interactions. His first academic position was at Queen’s University, where he continued his studies of bacteria-metal interactions, notably in the context of struvite urinary calculus formation due to Proteus mirabilis and other urinary infections. At Texas State University, his research has focused on the biology of biofilms and, more recently, polymicrobial interactions.

In microbial physiology and ecology courses, he incorporates undergraduate research. Dr. McLean has been very active in the promotion of microbiology. At Queen’s, he was involved with the Canadian Society of Microbiologists. He has been very active with the Texas Branch of ASM, serving as Branch President from 2003-5. More recently, he has become involved with the national ASM where he has served on several committees, including the Branch Organization Committee, the Postdoctoral Women Committee and, currently, the Council of Microbial Sciences (COMS), where he focuses on Applied and Environmental Science. He is also on the editorial board of Applied and Environmental Microbiology.

Boo Shan Tseng, Ph.D., is an assistant professor in the School of Life Sciences at the University of Nevada Las Vegas (UNLV). She completed her S.B. in Biology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 2003 and received her Ph.D. with Dr. Hironori Funabiki at Rockefeller University in 2010, studying the regulation of eukaryotic chromosome segregation. Dr. Tseng transitioned to studying Pseudomonas aeruginosa for her postdoctoral studies with Dr. Matthew R. Parsek at the University of Washington. Her postdoctoral work mainly focused on biofilm formation of this microbe. Dr. Tseng started her faculty position at UNLV in 2016, where her group continues to study the functions of the extracellular matrix in biofilm formation and has recently branched into studying the envelope stress response.

Catherine Loc-Carrillo is a research assistant professor at the University of Utah and an investigator at the Salt Lake City VA Health Care System. She works on translational research bridging the gap between bench and bedside healthcare. Her research interests fall within the fields of microbiology and infectious disease, with faculty appointments in the Departments of Internal Medicine, Pathology, and Surgery.
 
She obtained her BSc. in Biomedical Sciences from the University of Wales Institute Cardiff (1998); MSc. in Biotechnology from Nottingham Trent University (1999); and Ph.D. from the University of Nottingham, U.K (2005). Since her Ph.D., she has investigated the application of bacteriophages in the food and medical fields. She worked in biotech as a Lead Scientist for 3 years, then returned to academia in 2010 to teach research students how to become critical thinkers.
 
Nationally, she has been a member of the ASM Organization Committee for Student and Postdoc Membership (2012-2015); a scientific reviewer for the DOD; and serves as a reviewer for the NIH’s Exploration of Antimicrobial Therapeutics and Resistance study section. She is currently a review editor for Frontiers in Microbiology and reviews for a number of journals within the field of microbiology, including the ASM journals.

Dr. Denise M. Akob is a microbial ecologist and biogeochemist whose research aims to understand interactions between microbes and their environment in order to solve anthropogenic issues. She obtained her Ph.D. in Biogeochemical Oceanography from the Florida State University in 2008 then was a Marie-Curie postdoctoral research fellow at the Friedrich Schiller University Jena from 2008-2012. Akob joined the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) in 2012 as the head of the Reston Microbiology Laboratory.

She has published over 40 papers on uranium bioremediation, microbe-metal interactions, subsurface biodiversity, acetylenotrophy, and environmental effects of oil and gas development. Akob is an Associate Editor for Biogeosciences and serves on the Editorial Board of Applied and Environmental Microbiology and FEMS Microbiology Ecology. In addition, she is the Councilor of the Washington, D.C. Branch of ASM, and Vice-Chair of the 2021 Applied and Environmental Microbiology Gordon Research Conference. She received a USGS Early Career Leadership Award in 2017 for her outstanding service and scientific achievements in representing the agency.

Akob co-leads the USGS Environmental Health Energy Integrated Science Team Project, which aims to understand the environmental health impacts associated with the lifecycle of energy resource development. 

Elaine Haase began her career working as a clinical microbiologist performing bacteriology, mycology and parasitology assays. She went on to earn a MS degree in Medical Technology studying antibiotic resistance in Pseudomonas aeruginosa strains from cystic fibrosis patients. She continued in research earning a doctoral degree in Microbiology and Immunology from the University at Buffalo focusing on the P2 porin protein of non-typeable Haemophilus influenzae from patients with otitis media. Through protein isolation by gel chromatography and the production of monoclonal antibodies, she was able to epitope map the P2 protein. She transitioned to the Department of Oral Biology in the School of Dental Medicine at UB serving as a research scientist and lecturer.

One investigation focused on the identification, transcription, and gene regulation of flp fimbriae from the periodontal pathogen Aggregatibacter actinomycetemcomitans.  Other research involved proteomic and transcriptomic studies of the interaction of commensal Streptococcus gordonii and its amylase-binding proteins with salivary proteins and other oral microbes. An understanding of the acquisition of these proteins among oral streptococcal strains has been gained through comparative genomics. Currently, she is working on the discovery of bacteriophages in oral microbes and their effect on oral ecology.

Biography coming soon.

Biography coming soon.

Esther Babady, Ph.D., D(ABMM), FIDSA is the Director of the Clinical Microbiology Service, the Director of the CPEP Clinical Microbiology Fellowship program, an Attending Microbiologist and Member in the Departments of Laboratory Medicine and Medicine at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer (MSKCC) in New York City.

She received her Ph.D. in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology and completed a post-doctoral CPEP fellowship in Clinical Microbiology both at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN before joining MSKCC. She is board certified by the American Board of Medical Microbiology and serves on the editorial boards of the Journal of Clinical Microbiology, Journal of Molecular Diagnostics, the Journal of Clinical Virology and Clinical Microbiology Reviews.

Her research interests include rapid diagnosis of infections in immunocompromised hosts, fungal diagnostics and the development and evaluation of the clinical utility of molecular microbiology assays.

Biography coming soon.

Biography coming soon.

Irving Nachamkin, Ph.D., M.P.H. is professor of pathology and laboratory medicine in the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia. He is past director of the Division of Laboratory Medicine (2009-20) and associate director of clinical microbiology (1982-2020) at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, where he will assume the position of emeritus professor in January 2021.

His research interests are in diagnostic microbiology with a specific interest in gastrointestinal infections. He has been very active in his local Eastern Penn. ASM Branch as well as ASM. Currently, he is a member of the ASM Evidence Based Laboratory Medicine Guidelines Committee and the AAM Subcommittee on Awards. Dr. Nachamkin is board certified in Medical Microbiology (D-ABMM) as well as a fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology, Infectious Disease Society of America and the College of Physicians of Philadelphia. 

Jack Brothers is the microbiology technical supervisor in charge of technical operations in microbiology, serology and the Homeland Defense Lab for the 673^rd Medical Group DOD/VA Joint Venture Hospital in Anchorage, Alaska, where he has been since June 2003. 

Throughout his career, Jack implemented improved procedures for the detection, reporting and tracking of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), resulting in a 60% reduction of MRSA over a 10-year period. He revised tuberculosis (TB) testing protocols to both reduce costs and improve turn-around times, as well as initiated in-house Gram stain challenges to improve tech training. In addition, he developed the Elmendorf Reportable Organism Database (ELROD) to improve epidemiology and infection control efforts and prepared the solutions for the first stool transplant ever performed at the Elmendorf Joint Venture Hospital.

Jack was selected as the 2007 Medical Support Squadron Category II Civilian of the Year and the USAF Laboratory Supervisory Level Civilian of the Year for 2010. Jack currently serves as councilor on ASM’s Council on Microbial Sciences (COMS) and served as a consultant for ASM’s lab capacity program from 2009-2011. Jack has been registered as a Medical Technologist with the American Society for Clinical Pathologists since 1976. He earned his B.A. in microbiology and botany at the University of Florida and his certification in medical technology from Midwestern State University.

Biography coming soon.

Dr. Jennifer Gaddy is an assistant professor in the Department of Medicine, Division of Infectious Diseases and in the Department of Pathology, Microbiology and Immunology at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville. Her research interests include bacterial pathogenesis, innate immunity, antimicrobial resistance and environmental factors that influence bacterial virulence and disease outcome (such as micronutrient status). Gaddy specifically focuses on the impact micronutrient deficiency has on alteration of expression of virulence factors in bacterial pathogens, biofilm formation and engagement with innate immune system cells, such as macrophages and neutrophils. She studies how dietary micronutrient intake can alter disease outcomes, which occur as a consequence of infection with bacterial pathogens.  

Biography coming soon.

Biography coming soon.

Dr. Laura K. Harris is the Director of Training for the Institute for Cyber-Enabled Research at Michigan State University. She previously served as Assistant Professor and Science Laboratory Coordinator for Davenport University, and Founder and Principal Investigator of Harris Interdisciplinary Research.

Harris is an educator who enjoys developing curriculum that involves use of computational resources. She also enjoys conducting, and mentoring others in, data science and biomedical research. Her projects use bioinformatic and/or basic laboratory approaches to examine differential gene expression changes associated with antibiotic resistance in a variety of bacterial species, microbial-induced cancer and, more recently, SARS-CoV. 

Harris has received several honors for her leadership excellence, including LeadLikeAWoman by the Michigan Chamber of Commerce (2019) and honorary membership to the National Society of Leadership and Success, Sigma Alpha Pi (2018).

Harris is inspired daily by her husband and their two daughters. In her free time, she likes to train for half-marathons / sprint triathlons, help her daughters with extra-curricular school science projects, and play video games.
 

Biography coming soon.

Biography coming soon.

Dr. Knodler obtained her Ph.D, from the University of New South Wales in Australia in 1995. Her thesis focused on novel metabolic pathways in the protozoan parasite, Giardia intestinalis.

From 1996 to 1999 she was a postdoctoral fellow at the University of California at San Diego studying gene regulation during the developmental cycle of G. intestinalis. In 1998, she saw Dr Stanley Falkow give a seminar at a regional ASM meeting and it changed the course of her research career—Dr Falkow’s seminar had introduced her to what was then the burgeoning field of cellular microbiology.

In 2000 she moved to Vancouver, Canada for a postdoctoral position in the laboratory of Dr. B. Brett Finlay where she studied the pathogenesis of Salmonella enterica. She continued her studies on Salmonella-host cell interactions at the Rocky Mountain Laboratories, NIAID in Montana from 2002-2012, first as a Research Fellow and then as a Staff Scientist. Knodler was recruited to the WSU Paul G. Allen School for Global Animal Health as an Assistant Professor in October 2012 and received tenure and promotion in July 2019.

Lisa Cuchara, Ph.D., is a professor at Quinnipiac University (QU), Conn. She has several research interests in the field of infectious diseases: vaccine hesitancy, vaccine-preventable diseases, the presence of antibiotic resistance genes in water, soil & food, the existence of antibiotic resistant bacteria on fomites in both the public & healthcare venues, MRSA, the colonization of bacterial species in healthy individuals, nosocomial infections, emerging diseases caused by antibiotic resistant bacteria and commensals & opportunistic bacteria. She has had over 160 QU undergraduate and grad students involved in research projects, and they have presented many research posters at scientific conferences.

She believes that the love of learning and "the big picture" are more important than just filling a student’s head with facts that are only retained until the exam takes place. Hence her teaching philosophy: "Education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire." She believes that while everyone talks about IQ (and now EQ), CQ (curiosity quotient) and PQ (passion quotient) are equally important. Her philosophy is that learning is an active process involving an intellectual presence. She is passionate about creating "citizen scientists," incorporating it into all of her classes.

After obtaining her B.S. in chemistry and biology from Mississippi College and doing some post-graduate work, Temple took a hiatus from the academic science world at a time when “plasmid” was a little known term. When she returned a decade later to get an M.S. in biochemistry from Louisiana Tech University and a Ph.D. from Medical College of Virginia, the genetic revolution was in full swing. Postdoctoral work provided opportunities to work with Bordetella and bacteriophages; these research interests continue to the present. She taught for 10 years at Drew University, a small liberal arts college in New Jersey (1,400 undergraduates) and now for 15 years at James Madison University. Teaching microbiology, molecular biology and genomics, and partnering with students and peers in research has been a driving passion for her. She has also been involved in faculty mentoring and active in ASM for many years, and has a network of colleagues around the globe. 

Melanie Mormile currently serves as the Associate Dean for Research and External Relations for the College of Arts, Sciences and Business at the Missouri University of Science and Technology (Missouri S&T). She is also a professor of biological sciences. She began her career at Missouri S&T in 1999 as an assistant professor. Prior to joining S&T, she did postdoctoral work for Drs. Jim Fredrickson and Brent Peyton at the Pacific Northwest National Lab. She holds a Ph.D. in microbiology from the University of Oklahoma.

At Missouri S&T, Mormile has published on many topics in environmental microbiology that span the fate of antibiotics in pig waste lagoons, identifying new species of halophilic bacteria, to possible industrial uses of halophiles. She holds 2 patents on biohydrogen production from cellulosic materials and 1 on the production of propanediol from waste glycerol, all under alkaline and saline conditions. In addition, Mormile has served as the main faculty advisor for the Mars Rover Design Team (MRDT) of Missouri S&T since its inception in 2012. Along with research, administration and advising MRDT, she also teaches courses that range from the Introduction to Biological Sciences (freshmen) to Bioremediation (graduate level).

Michael J. Schurr earned his Ph.D. at the University of North Texas (Molecular Biology, 1992), studying pyrimidine metabolism in Pseudomonas putida and Pseudomonas aeruginosa (Pa). His postdoctoral training occurred at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio and he identified mechanisms for Pa conversion to the mucoid phenotype, commonly found in cystic fibrosis Pa isolates.

He joined the faculty at the University of Michigan Medical School (1996) as a research assistant professor and worked on the regulation of Pa mucoid phenotype studying a 2-component regulatory system, AlgZR, that has proven to be a global regulator for virulence. He joined the faculty at Tulane Medical School (1998) and relocated to the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus (CUAMC, 2006). His research team focuses on Pa regulation of virulence to identify potential therapeutic targets for this opportunistic pathogen. 

He has served on NIH bacterial pathogenesis grant review panels since 2006. He serves on the editorial boards of Infection & Immunity, Journal of Bacteriology and Frontiers in Cellular and Infection Microbiology. The Schurr laboratory is and has been supported by CUAMC SPARK Translational Research Program, the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation and the NIH National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

Michael Lieberman has a Ph.D. in microbiology from the University of Chicago, is a Diplomate of the American Board of Medical Laboratory Immunology (ABLMI) and a licensed Clinical Laboratory Director (state of Hawaii). He has done both research and clinical laboratory work for over 50 years and served as a U.S. Army Medical Service Corps officer for 20 years, where he was assigned to several military hospitals, before retiring in 1996.  

After retirement from the Army, Dr. Lieberman was employed as a research scientist at Hawaii Biotech, Inc. in Aiea, Hawaii, working on the development of vaccines against West Nile and dengue viruses. In 2007, he consulted for another local biotech company, as well as served as laboratory director for Aloha Toxicology Lab in Honolulu, until retiring yet again at the end of 2015.  

Currently, he is employed as an immunologist in the Department of Tropical Medicine, Medical Microbiology and Pharmacology and as laboratory director of the Tropical Medicine Clinical Laboratory in the John A. Burns School of Medicine at the University of Hawaii. He has been a member of ASM for 49 years, has attended many national annual meetings and was a participant in round tables and a convener of a symposium. He has also been a member of ASM’s Hawaii Branch for many years, where he is active in local branch meetings and has served as Secretary, Treasurer and Councilor.

Michael G. Schmidt earned his Ph.D. from Indiana University, Bloomington, and rose through the ranks of The Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC), where he is presently professor of microbiology and immunology. He was elected to fellowship in the American Academy of Microbiology and the American College of Dentists. In 2017, he was selected as the South Carolina Governor’s Awardee for Excellence in Science and Scientific Awareness and, in 2019, he was elected as chair of the ASM Council on Microbial Sciences.

Currently, he is leading an inter-institutional-interdisciplinary team of professionals investigating the role that microbes in the built clinical environment serve in the acquisition of healthcare-associated infections (HAI). Building on the results of a successful multi-center clinical trial, where they established that by controlling the microbial burden in the built clinical environment, through the introduction of limited and targeted placement of copper alloys, a significant reduction (58%, p<0.0013) of HAI was achieved. The results from this study were the basis of a talk he provided to TEDxCharleston, and featured in articles in the Smithsonian Magazine and Vice. Finally, he is a regular contributor to the internationally recognized podcast This Week In Microbiology (TWiM) and is the Councilor to the South Carolina Branch of ASM.

Silvia Piñeiro received her Ph.D. from the University of Bahia Blanca, Argentina, and has held positions as a post-doctoral research associate, assistant professor, professor and senior scientific associate, at the University of Iowa, University of Buenos Aires, University of Salvador, and BioSidus, and University of Maryland. Since 2009, she holds a faculty visiting scientist position at the School of Medicine, Johns Hopkins University. She is a senior regulatory review scientist in the area of microbial food safety, Division of Human Food Safety, CVM/FDA.  

Much of the work in Dr. Piñeiro’s division is on Agency policy development and national/international work on microbial resistance and microbiome issues. Her primary role is reviewing submissions towards the drug approval of new animal drugs from the perspective of the human intestinal microbiome (FDA/GFI#159) and antimicrobial resistance (FDA/GFI#152); also collaborates on research projects addressing regulatory questions and data gaps on antimicrobial resistance and the impact of residues on human intestinal microbiome.

Additionally, she has over 30 peer-reviewed research manuscripts, a book chapter, two patents, over 50 research abstracts, over 10 regulatory abstracts and 20 special invitations as speaker.  Since 2016, she has been appointed scientific expert member of the FAO/WHO Expert Committee on Food Additives (JECFA).

Siobain Duffy is an Associate Professor of viral evolution in the Department of Ecology, Evolution and Natural Resources at the School of Environmental and Biological Sciences at Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey.  

She has a B.A. in Molecular Biology and Biochemistry from Rutgers, and a Ph.D. in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology from Yale University.  Her lab uses bioinformatic, molecular and experimental evolution approaches to understand patterns in viral evolution, with an emphasis on understanding how fast-evolving single-stranded DNA and RNA viruses emerge in novel hosts. She first joined ASM as an undergraduate researcher in food microbiology, received the Raymond Sarber award and a Women’s Career Development Grant and is a past president of the Theobald Smith Society.

Biography coming soon.

Terri Ellis is a medical microbiologist and associate professor of biology at the University of North Florida in Jacksonville, Fla.

She received her bachelor’s degree from Duke University and her Ph.D. in 2004 from UC Davis under the mentorship of Blaine Beaman, investigating innate immune responses to Nocardia asteroides. She was a postdoctoral fellow at the NIH/NIEHS, and Duke University where she studied outer membrane vesicles with Dr. Meta Kuehn.

The Ellis lab investigates how modifications to the outer surface components of Klebsiella pneumoniae, such as outer membrane vesicles, porins, and polysaccharide capsule, contribute to virulence and antibiotic resistance. The Ellis lab utilizes a range of proteomic, biochemical, cell biology, genetic, and immunology based techniques to investigate how small changes to the outer surface of these bacteria trigger larger downstream alterations in virulence. Incorporated into all investigations is student training.

Dr. Ellis has a particular interest in science pedagogy, student mentorship, and undergraduate research opportunities. She has been a participant in both the the NSF CREATE and FIRST IV initiatives, to improve science teaching and incorporate primary literature into undergraduate coursework. She is an active member of the leadership for the Florida Branch of ASM.

Biography coming soon.

Biography coming soon.

Vaughn Cooper is an evolutionary biologist and microbiologist. He received his bachelor’s degree from Amherst College and his Ph.D. in 2000 from Michigan State University under the mentorship of Richard Lenski, where he studied the evolution of specialization in the Long-Term Evolution Experiment of E. coli populations. He was a Postdoctoral Fellow of the Michigan Society of Fellows at the University of Michigan, studying pathogens of the cystic fibrosis airway with John LiPuma. He was Assistant and Associate Professor at the University of New Hampshire from 2004-2015, moving to the University of Pittsburgh in 2015. He is currently Professor of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics, and Computational and Systems Biology, at the University of Pittsburgh, School of Medicine. He co-founded and is Director of the Center for Evolutionary Biology and Medicine (CEBaM), founded and directs the Microbial Genomics Sequencing center (MiGS). His awards include the 2010 Outstanding Assistant Professor at UNH and an NSF CAREER award. His research is supported by the NIH, NSF, NASA, and by the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. Dr. Cooper has published more than 70 peer-reviewed publications and invited chapters, and currently is supported by 12 active grants or contracts. The Cooper laboratory studies how bacterial populations (e.g. Burkholderia, Pseudomonas, Acinetobacter, and multispecies communities) evolve to adapt to new hosts and environments, particularly in biofilms. Other major interests include the evolution of antimicrobial resistance and why genome regions mutate/evolve at different rates. We also develop and promote a laboratory curriculum called EvolvingSTEM that enables high school students to learn key topics in evolution and heredity by conducting a weeklong experiment with bacteria.

Alison Buchan, Ph.D. is a marine microbial ecologist studying the interactions heterotrophic marine bacteria have with one another; other members of the microbial community; phytoplankton; living and detrital organic matter; and the viruses (phages) that infect them. Her lab uses representatives of the environmentally relevant Roseobacter group of marine bacteria to uncover the molecular mechanisms that underlie these diverse interactions. She received her B.Sc. in Biology from James Madison University in 1994. She received both a M.Sc. in Microbiology with Robert Hodson (1997) and Ph.D. in Marine Sciences under the advisement of Mary Ann Moran (2001) from the University of Georgia. Her doctoral work elucidated the pathways utilized by Roseobacters to degrade plant-related aromatic compounds. Buchan was awarded an NSF Postdoctoral Fellowship in Microbial Ecology to work with Nicholas Ornston at Yale University. During her time there, she investigated aromatic compound transporters in the soil bacterium, Acinetobacter. She joined the University of Tennessee in 2005, where she is now the Carolyn Fite Professor and Associate Head of Microbiology.

Anthony Richardson, Ph.D., is an associate professor in the Department of Microbiology and Molecular Genetics at the University of Pittsburgh. He received his B.S. in Genetics & Bioengineering from Purdue University and his Ph.D. in Microbiology & Molecular Genetics from Emory University.

His research is primarily focused on the effects of immunometabolism on infectious disease outcomes, specifically in the context of infections caused by the gram-positive pathogen Staphylococcus aureus.


 

Dr. Ostrowsky is currently a field medical officer at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Division of Quality Healthcare Promotion (CDC, DHQP) in New York. She works closely with NYSDOH, other public health, facility and professional groups on Healthcare Associated infections (HAI), Antimicrobial Resistance (AR) and Antimicrobial Stewardship Program (ASP) topics, including C. auris, multi-drug resistant gram negatives and most recently COVID-19. She formerly was the Director of Epidemiology, Stewardship, and Infection Prevention at Montefiore/ Einstein, Bronx, N.Y. and remains an Associate Professional at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine. Dr. Ostrowsky has worked locally in the N.Y. area and nationally on a series of ASP and HAI collaboratives. This included being the co-lead context expert for the United Hospital Fund (UHF) Outpatient Stewardship Initiatives for Acute Respiratory Infections and a series of collaboratives on C. difficile and ASP (with Greater NY Hospital Association (GNYHA)]. She is a fellow of the Infectious Disease Society of American (IDSA) and the Society for Health Care Epidemiologist of America (SHEA).  She was the chair of the SHEA Annual Spring Meeting in 2017 and is the current chair of the SHEA Education Committee.  She’s a current member of the IDweek Program Committee.

Bradley Bearson, Ph.D., is a research microbiologist at the USDA, ARS, National Laboratory for Agriculture and the Environment (NLAE) in Ames, Iowa. He earned his Ph.D. at the University of South Alabama College of Medicine investigating the acid tolerance response of Salmonella Typhimurium in the laboratory of John W. Foster, Ph.D. He performed a Clinical Microbiology Postdoctoral Fellowship at the University of California at Los Angeles Medical Center. Dr. Bearson represents the ASM Division Animal Health (Z).

Bearson investigates pathogenesis and colonization of Salmonella, including multi-drug resistant (MDR) isolates in swine and turkeys, to identify, improve and/or develop novel approaches of pathogen control for animal production. His research focus includes the development and evaluation of an attenuated Salmonella DIVA (differentiation of infected from vaccinated animals) vaccine strain and determination of whether vaccination confers protective immunity against virulent Salmonella colonization and pathogenesis in swine and turkeys. Dietary modifications and biotherapeutics are investigated to determine the ability of these interventions to reduce and/or prevent intestinal colonization by Salmonella. Bearson also characterizes the selective pressure of antibiotic exposure on MDR Salmonella for enhanced colonization fitness, horizontal gene transfer and environmental persistence.

Dr. Cari Vanderpool is a professor and the Associate Head of Microbiology and a member of the Carl R. Woese Institute for Genomic Biology (IGB) Microbiome Metabolic Engineering Theme at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Her NIH-funded research program focuses on molecular mechanisms of gene regulation in bacteria, and how these mechanisms control bacterial metabolism, growth and stress responses. Her work on small RNA regulators has led to the discovery of new, RNA-based regulatory mechanisms and uncovered new stress-responsive mechanisms controlling bacterial physiology.

Vanderpool has trained 2 postdoctoral fellows, 8 Ph.D. students, and over 20 undergraduate researchers. She has served in numerous leadership roles within the School of Molecular and Cellular Biology, the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences and the Graduate College. She leads the University of Illinois Microbial Systems Initiative, a cross-campus collaboration to promote scholarship and education in microbial sciences.
 

Biography coming soon.

Biography coming soon.

Daniel R. Brown, Ph.D., is Associate Professor of Infectious Diseases and Immunology at the University of Florida. Brown received his B.S. in Agriculture from Purdue University in 1978, an M.S. in Animal Science from Louisiana State University in 1980 and a Ph.D. in Genetics from the University of Arizona in 1987. His expertise includes pathogen discovery, cellular microbiology and applied bacterial systematics with a focus on Mycoplasma spp. and related organisms. Brown is a former Executive Board member of the International Committee on Systematics of Prokaryotes, has served as chairman of the International Organization for Mycoplasmology and has been chairman, advisor and councilor for the American Society for Microbiology's Division G (Mycoplasmology).

Dr. Elitza (Elli) Theel is Director of the Infectious Diseases Serology Laboratory and Co-Director of the Vector-Borne Diseases Service Line at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn. She is an Associate Professor of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology at Mayo Clinic, and is the program director for the Clinical Microbiology CPEP progam.

Theel received her Ph.D. in Medical Microbiology and Immunology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and subsequently completed a Clinical Microbiology fellowship at Mayo Clinic. She is certified by the American Board of Medical Microbiology. She is a member of the editorial board for multiple journals, including the Journal of Clinical Microbiology and Clinical Infectious Diseases, and  serves on a number of national committees and working groups, including the CAP Microbiology Resource Committee and the APHL/CDC working group for standardization of reporting language for Lyme disease serologic testing. 

Her research interests revolve around the evaluation and development of serologic assays for vector-borne diseases and fungal pathogens. Finally, she also spearheads a philanthropic, international laboratory outreach initiative in Belize, focused on increasing the in-country testing capacity for vector-borne diseases, establishing seroprevalence rates for these pathogens, and enhancing the quality assurance/quality control practices in clinical laboratories throughout the country.

George Sprague is professor emeritus in the Department of Biology at the University of Oregon. His research interests center on transcription regulation and signal transduction in the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae. He served as Head of the Department of Biology for 10 years.

He is a fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology and a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. He served on the Board of Governors of the American Academy of Microbiology and the Board of Directors of the Genetics Society of America. He served as editor of Molecular and Cellular Biology and was on the editorial board of Cell.  He was chair of the American Cancer Society advisory panel on Virology and Molecular Genetics and was a longstanding member of the NIH Cell and Development fellowship panel.

He served as councilor for the ASM Division on Molecular, Cellular, and General Biology of Eukaryotes and is currently Division X representative on the ASM Council.

Biography coming soon.

Biography coming soon.

Biography coming soon.

Kyle MacLea is associate professor of biological sciences and biotechnology at the University of New Hampshire. He is the program coordinator for undergraduate and graduate biosciences on the Manchester campus of UNH and teaches courses in microbiology and molecular biology.

His research work spans the microbial sciences from the genomics of bacteria, archaea, and bacteriophages to the molecular and cellular biology of prions in Saccharomyces cerevisiae. In science education, his focus is on educating the next generation of biologists and microbiologists, with a particular focus on teaching students to communicate their science with the general public.

He holds an A.B. in Biology from Cornell and a Ph.D. in Pharmacology/Toxicology from Dartmouth. 

Manuela Raffatellu is a Professor in the Department of Pediatrics at the University of California, San Diego School of Medicine. She received her M.D. at the University of Sassari, Italy, in 2000, followed by postdoctoral training at Texas A&M University and at the University of California, Davis.  She started her own lab at the University of California, Irvine in 2008, where she was promoted to Associate Professor with tenure in 2014. She then relocated to the University of California, San Diego in 2017. Her research focuses on many aspects of Salmonella interaction with the mucosal immune response and with the intestinal microbiota in the inflamed gut. Her recent efforts aim to design strategies to reduce intestinal colonization of enteric pathogens without affecting the gut microbiota composition. She is the recipient of several awards, including the IDSA ERF/NFID Astellas Young Investigator Award, the ICAAC Young Investigator Award from the American Society for Microbiology and the Burroughs Wellcome Fund Investigator in the Pathogenesis of Infectious Disease Award. In 2019, she was elected to the American Society for Clinical Investigation, and she became a fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology. She serves as editor for Infection and Immunity. 

Marie-Claire Rowlinson, Ph.D., D(ABMM) received her undergraduate and doctoral degrees in Medical Microbiology in the U.K. and then completed a postdoctoral fellowship in Medical and Public Health Laboratory Microbiology at University of California, Los Angeles. Following the fellowship,  Rowlinson worked with the Association of Public Health Laboratories (APHL) in their Global Health program, building laboratory capacity in countries around the globe. Since 2012, she has been at the Florida Department of Health, Bureau of Public Health Laboratories in Jacksonville as the Assistant Laboratory Director and CLIA Laboratory Director. Additionally, Rowlinson holds an Adjunct Assistant Professor position in the Department of Medicine, Emerging Pathogens Institute at University of Florida in Gainesville.

Rowlinson participates in organizational work. She is the Chair of the APHL Infectious Diseases Committee and a member of the APHL TB Subcommittee. She also continues to work with APHL on an international level, consulting with the Global Health program, most recently working with the Ukraine Ministry of Health. Rowlinson is the American Society for Microbiology Division Y (Public Health) Chair and is a member of the College of American Pathologists Microbiology Committee.

If you will excuse the strained metaphor, my route in microbiology has been more “tumbles” than “runs.” After earning my B.A. in Biology at the University of California, Los Angeles, Ph.D. in Biological Sciences at Stanford and completing postdoctoral work at the University of California, San Diego, I eventually worked in biotech for nearly 10 years. Then I returned to academia against steep odds.  

To return to my microbiological metaphor, I chemotactically arrived as a tenured biology professor in the Pacific Northwest, teaching courses on microbiology, symbioses and introductory cell and molecular biology. My classroom focus is both conceptual and “ownership based” (I encourage creative “science art” in myriad forms to encourage engagement, ownership and accomplishment). In my undergraduate research lab, we study bacterial predators, bioluminescence and symbiosis. My laboratory has been a proven incubator of student success; I have sent 24 of my research students to Ph.D. programs, and 5 are currently in faculty positions. To me, individual students and their successes are everything.

Dr. Prahathees Eswara grew up in India with a fascination for science. He received his B.S. in Applied Sciences from Periyar University in India and became a first-generation college graduate. Because of his persistent interest in biology and computer programming, he obtained a M.S. in bioinformatics from the same university. During this time, he gained experience in structural biology at Madras University, All India Institute of Medical Sciences and the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, which motivated him to pursue a career in research.

Dr. Eswara earned his Ph.D. in Biochemistry at the University of Houston. His dissertation research focused on sporulation initiation pathways in Bacillus subtilis. Dr. Eswara then joined the National Institutes of Health (NIH) at Bethesda, Md. for his postdoctoral research, where he applied advanced, super-resolution microscopy techniques to understand how bacterial cells divide. Subsequently, he accepted a faculty position at the University of South Florida.

In addition to studying diverse processes in B. subtilis, Dr. Eswara expanded his research program to include Staphylococcus aureus cell division and antibiotic resistance mechanisms. The projects in his lab are funded by the 5-year NIH R35 Outstanding Investigator Award.

Pranav Danthi received his Ph.D. in Microbiology and Immunology from the University of Arkansas, focused on medical sciences investigating poliovirus biology. After completing his postdoctoral training at Vanderbilt University, he started as an assistant professor in the Department of Biology at Indiana University in 2008. He was tenured and promoted to associate professor in 2016.

Dr. Danthi's laboratory performs structure-function studies of mammalian reovirus as a model to understand how non-enveloped viruses overcome the host membrane barrier to launch infection. The Danthi laboratory also investigates mechanisms by which interactions between viral components and host molecules results in the induction of cell death. He is a former Chair of the American Society of Virology Membership Review Committee. He currently serves on the editorial board of the Journal of Virology.

Biography coming soon.

Sunny Shin, Ph.D. is an associate professor in the Department of Microbiology at the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine. Dr. Shin received her B.S. degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, her Ph.D. from Stanford University School of Medicine, and her postdoctoral training from Yale University School of Medicine.

Her research is focused on understanding mechanisms of immune defense against the bacterial pathogens Legionella pneumophila, Coxiella burnetii, and Salmonella Typhimurium and in turn, how these pathogens subvert host immunity. She has received several honors including the Burroughs-Wellcome Fund Investigator in the Pathogenesis of Infectious Diseases Award and the Penn Medicine Michael S. Brown New Investigator Award. She is highly committed to mentoring the next generation of scientists and promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion in academia and science, and she recently received the Penn Medicine Michael P. Nusbaum Graduate Student Mentoring Award.

Shin is vice-chair of the Cellular and Molecular Biology Graduate Group’s Microbiology, Virology, and Parasitology Program, directs or teaches graduate and medical courses, and mentors postdoctoral fellows, graduate students, and undergraduate students. She serves on the NIH Host Interactions with Bacterial Pathogens study section (2020-2024) and on the editorial board of Infection and Immunity.

Biography coming soon.

Thaddeus Ezeji received his Ph.D. (Magna cum laude) in microbiology from University of Rostock, Germany. His 6 years post-doctoral and research assistant professor efforts at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, focused on fermentation technologies and metabolic engineering of solventogenic (butanologenic) Clostridium species.

In 2007, Dr. Ezeji joined the Animal Science Department at The Ohio State University (OSU) and Ohio State Agricultural and Development Center, where he holds a professor position. Dr. Ezeji’s current research focuses on development of non-food substrates to produce fuels and chemicals, and design of advanced fermentation systems. Additionally, Dr. Ezeji’s laboratory conducts research activities on probiotics, metabolomics, genetic and metabolic engineering of bacteria of biotechnological significance. In collaboration with several OSU faculty staff, Dr. Ezeji is involved in outreach programs that address emerging issues from Ohio’s expanding bioenergy sector. He has published more than 74 scientific papers, 16 book chapters, co-edited three books, and serves as associate editor for two international journals.

Zhicheng Dou is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Biological Sciences at Clemson University in Clemson, S.C. He received his Bachelor's degree in Life Sciences with an emphasis on Biochemistry at Fudan University located in Shanghai, China, in 2002. He was awarded a Ph.D. degree in Biochemistry from the University of Southern Mississippi in 2009.

His graduate work focuses on understanding the CO2 fixation by a primitive organelle termed carboxysome in a sulfur-oxidizing bacterium, Halothiobacillus neapolitanus. He switched his research emphasis from environmental microbiology to parasite pathogenesis during his postdoctoral training at the Carruthers' lab in the Department of Microbiology and Immunology at the University of Michigan (2009 – 2015). He studied the proteolytic mechanism of Toxoplasma gondii infection in mammalian cells. He moved to Clemson University in August 2015 and accepted a tenure-track Assistant Professor position in the Department of Biological Sciences.

His current research studies nutrient acquisition and utilization in Toxoplasma parasites. Please refer to his lab website www.thedoulab.com for more information and connect with him via his Twitter account at @bigbean777.

Erin Lipp is Professor of Environmental Health Science at the University of Georgia, where she has served on the faculty since 2002. She received her Ph.D. in Marine Science from the University of South Florida and her bachelor’s degree from New College of Florida. 

Dr. Lipp has maintained an active research program on the intersecting roles of water, climate and environmental change on the microbial ecology of pathogens. She has worked with both national and international agencies on the effects of climate change on human health, with an emphasis on water and foodborne diseases.

Between 2007 and 2012 she co-directed a doctoral training program on Oceans and Human Health.  She was a contributing author on the Health Chapter for the IPCC Working Group II Fifth Assessment Report and the 2016 USGCRP Climate & Health Assessment. She was elected as fellow in the American Academy of Microbiology in 2016. 

 

Dr. Joanna B. Goldberg is a Professor in the Department of Pediatrics at Emory University School of Medicine and holds a secondary appointment in the Department of Microbiology & Immunology. She was awarded the 2012 ASM Graduate Microbiology Teaching Award. Prior to joining Emory, she was a Professor in the Department of Microbiology, Immunology, and Cancer Biology at the University of Virginia, and at the Channing Laboratory, Brigham & Women’s Hospital, Department of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. She received her B.A. in Biology from Boston University and Ph.D. in Microbiology & Immunology from the University of California at Berkeley.

Goldberg has had continuous NIH funding for research on bacterial pathogens associated with life-threatening lung infections in individuals living with cystic fibrosis, particularly Pseudomonas aeruginosa. She studies the synthesis and regulation of surface antigens, including polysaccharides and protein adhesins, their role in infection and as potential antimicrobial and vaccine targets.

She was awarded the ASM Raymond W. Sarber Fellowship Award as a graduate student. As examples of her ASM involvement, she was Chair of Division D, Councilor for Division B, Chair of the ASM Career Development Committee, Chair of the ASM Conferences Committee and President of the Virginia Branch.

Joy Sturtevant has had 30 years of experience in the academic and scientific fields. She completed her Ph.D. studies at Duke University from the Department of Microbiology and Immunology. Her professional life began with postdoctoral fellowships in Scotland, Sweden, and the Pasteur Institute, France and advancement at Georgetown University. She has been a faculty member in the Department of Microbiology, Immunology, and Parasitology at Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center New Orleans for 18 years. Her research has focused on the initial interaction between host and pathogen including parasites, fungi, and bacteria.
 
Joy’s scientific background has been a multidisciplinary approach, focusing on the basic microbiological and immunological medical sciences but incorporating biochemistry, cell biology, genetics and molecular biology. She has worked with and teaches about fungi, bacteria, and parasites. Therefore, her interest in ASM is broad-based and not discipline focused.
 
Recently Joy’s work life made a significant switch to a focus on education. For the past 3 years, her current position is split between Department of MIP and Co-Director of the Basic Science Curriculum in the Office of Medical Education.  She believes that education should continue to be a significant focus of ASM.

Maria Gloria Dominguez-Bello received her Ph.D. from University of Aberdeen, Scotland, and is currently the Henry Rutgers Professor of Microbiome and Health at Rutgers University, and the Director of the New Jersey Institute for Food Nutrition and Health. She is fellow at the American Academy of Microbiology, and at IDSA, belongs to the editorial board of several scientific journals. Her current lab focus uses multidisciplinary approaches to study impacts of modern practices on the microbiome and strategies for restoration.

She works on gradients of urbanization in South America, through global synergistic collaborations with scientists in Chile, Venezuela, Bolivia, Peru, Brazil, Tanzania, Spain, Belgium, Hong Kong and the US. She has over 140 publications on microbial ecology, and her current interest is on gradients of urbanization and the role of microbiota impacts on modern chronic diseases. She is leading the global initiative of the Microbiota Vault, to preserve the diversity of the microbes relevant to human health. 

Mary Ann Bruns is Professor of Soil Microbiology in the Department of Ecosystem Science and Management at The Pennsylvania State University. Bruns teaches and conducts research in environmental microbiology and is on the Executive Committee of Penn State’s Microbiome Center. She received a BA in Microbiology and MS in Food Science & Technology from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and PhD in Crop and Soil Sciences from Michigan State University with graduate training in the Center for Microbial Ecology. Her research investigates how land use and management affect soil and root microbiomes and soil functionality for ecosystem service delivery. Bruns served twice as President of the Allegheny Branch of ASM. As an ASM International Fellow in 2009 she conducted a molecular microbiology teaching workshop at Ahmadu Bello University in Zaria, Nigeria, and received an ASM Outstanding Service Award from the International Board. Bruns has interest in innovative microbiology training for undergraduates across disciplines to promote broader technical employment opportunities.

Peter Girguis is a professor of organismic and evolutionary biology at Harvard University. His research focuses on understanding the physiological and biochemical adaptation of microbes and animals to "extreme environments." He is renowned for building novel instruments and sensors, such as underwater mass spectrometers and microscale microbial samplers.

Dr. Girguis received his B.S. from the University of California, Los Angeles; his Ph.D. from the University of California, Santa Barbara; and completed postdoctoral research at the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute prior to joining Harvard University. He was a Distinguished Lecturer for the National Science Foundation, a Merck Co. Innovative Research Awardee and a Department of Energy E.C.-U.S. Biotechnology Fellow. Dr. Girguis has authored or co-authored over 95 publications, served as Chair of the National Deep Submergence Science Committee (2010-2016) and serves as a member of several notable ocean advisory boards, including the Ocean Exploration Trust.

Girguis’ honors include the 2007 and 2011 Lindbergh Foundation Award for Science & Sustainability, the 2018 Lowell Thomas Award for groundbreaking advances in Marine Science and Technology and the 2020 Petra Shattuck Award for Distinguished Teaching. He was named a Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation Investigator for his research on marine symbioses.

Vincent Young is the William Henry Fitzbutler Collegiate Professor in Internal Medicine/Infectious Diseases Division and Microbiology & Immunology at the University of Michigan Medical School. He received his undergraduate degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1985 and received his M.D. and Ph.D. in Microbiology & Immunology from Stanford University 1992. He completed clinical training in Internal Medicine and Infectious Diseases at the Massachusetts General Hospital. After an initial faculty position at Michigan State University he joined the University of Michigan in 2007.

Dr. Young has a long-standing interest in the pathogenesis of bacterial infections of the gastrointestinal tract and the role of the normal microbiota in human health and disease. As part of the NIH Human Microbiome Project, Young led a team that studied the role of the microbiome in inflammatory bowel disease. Current research in the Young Lab includes a "team science" effort to understand the pathogenesis Clostridium difficile infection by an integrated approach combining clinical research, bacterial genomics, microbial ecology and immunology/host response projects. He is also leading a group of investigators that is developing the use of stem cell-derived intestinal organoids as a novel alternative model system for the study of enteric disease agents.