Featured Speakers

Paul E. Sax, MD, FIDSA

Brigham and Women’s Hospital

Opening Plenary (Moderator), Wednesday, Oct. 19, 3:30–5:30 p.m. ET

Dr. Paul E. Sax is clinical director of the Division of Infectious Diseases at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School. He holds the Bruce A. Beal and Robert L. Beal Distinguished Chair in Infectious Diseases. He is editor-in-chief of Clinical Infectious Diseases, section editor of HIV/AIDS in UpToDate, on the editorial board of NEJM Journal Watch Infectious Diseases (where he writes the HIV and ID Observations blog) and on the editorial advisory board of Medscape HIV/AIDS. Dr. Sax is the associate program director for the Mass General Brigham fellowship in infectious diseases, is on the core faculty of the International Antiviral Society – USA, and teaches regularly on HIV and infectious diseases locally, nationally and internationally. In addition to his clinical practice and teaching, Dr. Sax’s ongoing areas of research include clinical trials of antiretroviral therapies, cost-effectiveness of management strategies for HIV and toxicity of antiretroviral therapy. 

Carlos del Rio, MD

Emory School of Medicine at Grady Health System

Opening Plenary (Panelist), Wednesday, Oct. 19, 3:30–5:30 p.m. ET

Carlos del Rio, MD is a Distinguished Professor of Medicine in the Division of Infectious Diseases at Emory University School of Medicine and Professor of Global Health and Epidemiology at the Rollins School of Public Health. He is also Executive Associate Dean for Emory at Grady, PI and co-Director of the Emory Center for AIDS Research (CFAR) and co-PI of the Emory-CDC HIV Clinical Trials Unit and the Emory Vaccine Treatment and Evaluation Unit. Dr. del Rio is a native of Mexico where he attended medical school at Universidad La Salle, graduating in 1983. He did his Internal Medicine and Infectious Diseases residencies at Emory University. In 1989 he returned to Mexico where he was Executive Director of the National AIDS Council of Mexico (CONASIDA, the Federal agency of the Mexican Government responsible for AIDS Policy throughout Mexico), from 1992 through 1996. In November of 1996 he returned to Emory where he has been involved in teaching and research. Dr. del Rio was Chief of the Emory Medical Service at Grady Memorial Hospital from 2001-2009 and Chair of the Hubert Department of Global Health from 2009-2019. His research interests include the epidemiology of opportunistic infections in HIV and other immune deficiencies the epidemiology and transmission dynamics of HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases and issues related to early diagnosis of HIV, access to care and compliance with antiretrovirals.

Dr. del Rio is a Member of the Scientific Advisory Committee of the Latin-American AIDS Initiative (SIDALAC), Member of the Monitoring of the AIDS Pandemic (MAP) Network, Member of the Board of the IAS-USA, member of the UNAIDS Scientific Technical Advisory Committee and Chair of the PEPFAR Scientific Advisory Board. He is Associate Editor for Clinical Infectious Diseases and Senior Editor for HIV for NEJM Journal Watch Infectious Diseases as well as an editorial board member of Global Public Health, Journal of AIDS and Women, Children & HIV. He has co-authored 5 books, 30 book chapters, and over 500 scientific papers.

Baruch Fischhoff, PhD

Carnegie Mellon University

Opening Plenary (Panelist), Wednesday, Oct. 19, 3:30–5:30 p.m. ET

Dr. Baruch Fischhoff is the Howard Heinz University Professor in the Department of Engineering and Public Policy and the Institute for Politics and Strategy at Carnegie Mellon University. A graduate of the Detroit Public Schools, he holds a BS (mathematics, psychology) from Wayne State University and a PhD (psychology) from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He is a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the National Academy of Medicine. He is past president of the Society for Judgment and Decision Making and of the Society for Risk Analysis. He has chaired the Food and Drug Administration Risk Communication Advisory Committee and been a member of the Eugene (Oregon) Commission on the Rights of Women, the Department of Homeland Security Science and Technology Advisory Committee and the Environmental Protection Agency Scientific Advisory Board, where he chaired the Homeland Security Advisory Committee. He has received the American Psychological Association Award for Distinguished Contribution to Psychology, Carnegie Mellon’s Ryan Award for Meritorious Teaching, a Doctorate of Humanities honoris causa from Lund University, an Andrew Carnegie Fellowship and the Sigma Xi William Procter Prize for Scientific Achievement. He is a fellow of APA, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the Association for Psychological Science, the Society of Experimental Psychologists and the Society for Risk Analysis. His books include Acceptable Risk (1981), A Two-State Solution in the Middle East (1993), Risk: A Very Short Introduction (2011), Communicating Risks and Benefits (2011) and Counting Civilian Casualties (2013). He has served on many committees of the National Academies, including recent ones on science communication, intelligence analysis, cybersecurity, global change and pandemic disease. 

 

Matifazda Hlatshwayo Davis, MD, MPH

St. Louis Department of Health

Opening Plenary (Panelist), Wednesday, Oct. 19, 3:30–5:30 p.m. ET

Dr. Matifadza Hlatshwayo Davis is the director of health for the city of St. Louis. Dr. Hlatshwayo Davis received her medical degree from Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine and a master of public health degree from Case Western Reserve University. She completed her internal medicine residency at University Hospitals Case Medical Center. She went on to complete her infectious diseases fellowship at the Washington University School of Medicine, also completing a one-year dedicated non-ACGME HIV fellowship and a two-year dedicated sexually transmitted infections fellowship. 

At the Washington University School of Medicine, she was a clinical instructor, the associate program director of the Division of Infectious Diseases fellowship program and served in the leadership of the Office of Inclusion and Diversity. She was also an infectious diseases physician at the John Cochran VA Medical Center, where she was the lead HIV clinician, graduate medical education coordinator and outpatient parenteral antibiotic therapy supervisor. 

Her passion for community engagement, health equity and patients with HIV culminated in her becoming the co-chair for the Fast Track Cities initiative in St. Louis, and she was later appointed to the St. Louis Board of Health. Dr. Hlatshwayo Davis is now a national and international medical contributor on COVID-19 with a particular focus on marginalized populations and has been featured in outlets such as CNN, BBC, Al Jazeera, MSNBC and Newsweek, among others. She is also an associate editor for disparities and competent care for IDSA’s and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s COVID-19 Real-Time Learning Network. 

David Leonhardt

The New York Times

Opening Plenary (Panelist), Wednesday, Oct. 19, 3:30–5:30 p.m. ET

David Leonhardt is a senior writer for The New York Times. He writes The Morning, the Times’s flagship daily newsletter, and also writes for Sunday Review. He has worked at the Times since 1999 and has previously been an op-ed columnist, Washington bureau chief, co-host of “The Argument” podcast, founding editor of The Upshot section and a staff writer for The Times Magazine. He also led a strategy group that helped Times leadership shape the newsroom’s digital future. In 2011, he received the Pulitzer Prize for commentary. He is a third-generation native of New York City. 

PC: Rachel Hulin

Emily Oster, PhD

Brown University

Opening Plenary (Panelist), Wednesday, Oct. 19, 3:30–5:30 p.m. ET

Dr. Emily Oster is a professor of economics at Brown University and the author of The Family Firm: A Data-Driven Guide to Better Decision Making in the Early School Years, Cribsheet: A Data-Driven Guide to Better, More Relaxed Parenting, From Birth to Preschool, and Expecting Better: Why the Conventional Pregnancy Wisdom Is Wrong — and What You Really Need to Know. She writes the newsletter ParentData and her work has been featured in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, The Atlantic and Bloomberg. She has two children.

Helen Boucher, MD, FIDSA

Tufts Center for Integrated Management of Antimicrobial Resistance

Maxwell Finland Lecture, Thursday, Oct. 20, 9:15–10 a.m. ET

Dr. Helen Boucher is director of the Tufts Center for Integrated Management of Antimicrobial Resistance, a collaborative, cross-disciplinary initiative between Tufts University and Tufts Medical Center with a mission to deliver innovative solutions to combat antimicrobial resistance through research, policy and education. She also serves as director of the Infectious Diseases Fellowship Program at Tufts Medical Center, director of TMC’s Heart Transplant and Ventricular Assist Device Infectious Diseases Program, and professor of medicine at Tufts University School of Medicine. Dr. Boucher’s clinical interests include infections in immunocompromised patients and S. aureus infections. Her research interests focus on S. aureus and the development of new anti-infective agents. She is the author or co-author of numerous abstracts, chapters and peer-reviewed articles, which have been published in such journals as The New England Journal of Medicine, Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy, Clinical Infectious Diseases and The Annals of Internal Medicine; she is associate editor of Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy. Since 2009, Dr. Boucher has been included in Best Doctors in America, a nomination-based list that is limited to about 5% of practicing physicians in the U.S. each year. In 2011, she was elected fellow and member of the Board of Directors of IDSA. She was also elected to the American Board of Internal Medicine Infectious Disease Exam Writing Committee in 2012 and to the American Board of Internal Medicine Infectious Diseases Subspecialty Board in 2014. In 2015, Dr. Boucher was appointed a voting member of the Presidential Advisory Council on Combating Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria and elected treasurer of IDSA. She was awarded the IDSA Society Citation Award in October 2015. Dr. Boucher serves on the Board of Trustees of the Physicians of Tufts Medical Center and The College of the Holy Cross.

Anne H. Rowley, MD, FIDSA, FPIDS

Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine

Caroline B. Hall Lecture, Thursday, Oct. 20, 3:15–4:30 p.m. ET

Dr. Anne Rowley is professor of pediatrics and of microbiology/immunology at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine and an attending physician in the Division of Infectious Diseases at the Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago. She has devoted most of her research career to the study of the immunology, pathology and pathogenesis of Kawasaki disease. She has served in leadership positions in the Pediatric Infectious Diseases Society; the American Heart Association Committee on Rheumatic Fever, Endocarditis and Kawasaki Disease; the American Academy of Pediatrics NCE Planning Committee; and the Pediatric Infectious Diseases Sub-Board of the American Board of Pediatrics. Her work on Kawasaki disease pathogenesis has been funded by the National Institutes of Health for more than 25 years.

David M. Aronoff, MD, FIDSA, FAAM

Indiana University School of Medicine

Joseph E. Smadel Lecture, Thursday, Oct. 20, 4:45–5:45 p.m. ET

Dr. David M. Aronoff is the John B. Hickam Professor of Medicine and chair of the Department of Medicine at the Indiana University School of Medicine. Dr. Aronoff received his bachelor of science degree in microbiology from Indiana University and his medical degree from Tufts University. He completed internship and residency training, including a year as chief resident, in internal medicine at Vanderbilt University. Dr. Aronoff stayed at Vanderbilt to complete a clinical fellowship in infectious diseases and a research fellowship in clinical pharmacology. He then joined the faculty in infectious diseases at the University of Michigan, where he also completed a postdoctoral research fellowship in immunology. He returned to Vanderbilt in 2013 as director of the Division of Infectious Diseases in the Department of Medicine with secondary faculty appointments in the Department of Pathology, Microbiology & Immunology and the Department of Obstetrics & Gynecology. In 2022, Dr. Aronoff was recruited back to Indiana University to serve as chair of the Department of Medicine. Dr. Aronoff is an elected member of the American Society for Clinical Investigation and a fellow of both IDSA and the American Academy of Microbiology. His research lab studies reproductive immunology and infections that complicate pregnancy. Dr. Aronoff has published more than 230 peer-reviewed manuscripts. He has held national leadership roles in IDSA, the American Society for Microbiology, the Anaerobe Society of the Americas and the American Society for Reproductive Immunology. He has received numerous governmental and nongovernmental research grants, including support from the National Institutes of Health, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, the Burroughs Wellcome Fund, the March of Dimes and the Global Alliance to Prevent Prematurity & Stillbirth.

Archana Chatterjee, MD, PhD, FIDSA

Chicago Medical School

Edward H. Kass Lecture, Friday, Oct. 21, 9:15–10 a.m. ET

Dr. Archana Chatterjee serves as the dean of Chicago Medical School and vice president for medical affairs at Rosalind Franklin University of Medicine and Science. Trained as a pediatric infectious diseases specialist, Dr. Chatterjee has practiced in her field for more than 20 years; conducted more than 120 clinical trials; and published more than 90 peer-reviewed articles, 26 invited review articles, 24 book chapters and one book. She serves as a reviewer for 35 journals. In the past 20 years, Dr. Chatterjee has delivered more than 700 lectures and 200 scientific presentations at various international, national, regional and local venues. She has served as the course director for more than 30 CME programs, given more than 95 media interviews and published 30 newspaper articles. 

Dr. Chatterjee has been elected/selected to serve on several national advisory boards and committees including the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee, the Association of American Medical Colleges’ Group on Women in Medicine and Science, the Pediatric Infectious Diseases Society Board of Directors and the American Board of Pediatrics Sub-Board of Pediatric Infectious Diseases. 

Mentorship and sponsorship of faculty and learners has been a hallmark of Dr. Chatterjee’s entire 30-year career in academic medicine. Through her tireless efforts at guiding, promoting and encouraging faculty and learners, she has impacted the careers of numerous leaders, faculty members, fellows, residents and students, not only at her home institutions, but nationally and internationally. Another area of concentration for Dr. Chatterjee has been diversity, equity and inclusion, particularly gender diversity and intersectionality. She has focused some of her scholarly effort on collaborative projects related to faculty and leadership development as well as DEI initiatives, participating in presentations at national conferences and publishing her work in high-impact, peer-reviewed journals.

Daniel Diekema, MD, MS, FIDSA, FSHEA

University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine

SHEA Lecturer, Friday, Oct. 21, 4:45–6 p.m. ET

Dr. Daniel Diekema is a professor of internal medicine and pathology at the University of Iowa. In the Department of Internal Medicine, he served as a director for the Division of Infectious Diseases from 2010-2021. Dr. Diekema received his MD at Vanderbilt University in 1989. He did his residency in internal medicine at the University of Virginia (1989-1992). He did his fellowships in infectious diseases (1992-1995) and medical microbiology (1998-2000) at the University of Iowa. Also while at the University of Iowa, he received his master of science in preventive medicine. As a hospital epidemiologist, infectious diseases clinician and a clinical microbiologist, he has studied and published extensively on the epidemiology of antimicrobial resistance and health care-associated infections, with particular emphasis on drug-resistant pathogens and health care-associated fungal infections. Dr. Diekema has a long history of contributions to the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America, including serving as the first SHEA chair for the IDWeek 2012 meeting, and in 2014, serving as president of the SHEA Board of Trustees. He was also a member and co-chair of the CDC Healthcare Infection Control Practices Advisory Committee. In July of 2022, Dr. Diekema became an emeritus professor at the University of Iowa and in October 2022 will start a new position as vice chair for research and director of the Division of Infectious Diseases in the Department of Medicine at Maine Medical Center in Portland, Maine. Dr. Diekema continues to contribute to SHEA in his role as co-chair of the SHEA Diagnostics Stewardship Task force. 

Maria Elena Bottazzi, PhD, FASTMH

Baylor College of Medicine

Stanley A. Plotkin Lectureship in Vaccinology, Friday, Oct. 21, 4:45–6 p.m. ET

Dr. Maria Elena Bottazzi is associate dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine; professor of pediatrics, molecular virology and microbiology; division chief of Pediatric Tropical Medicine; and co-director of Texas Children’s Center for Vaccine Development at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston and Distinguished Professor in Biology at Baylor University in Waco. 

She is an internationally recognized tropical and emerging disease vaccinologist, global health advocate and co-creator of a patent-free, open-science COVID-19 vaccine technology that led to the development of Corbevax, a COVID-19 vaccine for the world. She pioneers and leads the advancement of a robust infectious and tropical disease vaccine portfolio tackling diseases such as coronavirus, hookworm, schistosomiasis and Chagas that affect disproportionally the world’s poorest populations. She also has established innovative partnerships in Latin America, the Middle East and Southeast Asia, making significant contributions to innovative educational and research programs, catalyzing policies and disseminating science information to reach a diverse set of audiences. 

As a global thought-leader she has received national and international awards, has more than 180 scientific papers and has participated in more than 250 conferences worldwide. She is a member of the National Academy of Science of Honduras and an Emerging Leader in Health and Medicine of the National Academy of Medicine in the U.S. 

Dr. Bottazzi is a fellow of the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, the Executive Leadership in Academic Medicine and the Leshner Leadership Institute for Public Engagement, and she is a Senior Fellow of the American Leadership Forum. Forbes LATAM in 2020 and 2021 selected Dr. Bottazzi as one of the 100 Most Powerful Women in Central America. Dr. Bottazzi has served on several National Academies Ad Hoc Committees and serves as co-chair of the Vaccines and Therapeutics Taskforce of the Lancet Commission on COVID-19. In 2022, alongside Dr. Peter Hotez, she was nominated by Congresswoman Lizzie Fletcher of Texas for the Nobel Peace Prize. 

Dr. Bottazzi obtained her bachelor’s degree in microbiology and clinical chemistry from the National Autonomous University of Honduras and a doctorate in molecular immunology and experimental pathology from the University of Florida. Her postdoctoral training in cellular biology was completed at the University of Miami and the University of Pennsylvania. 

Sten H. Vermund, MD, PhD, FIDSA

Yale School of Public Health

John F. Enders Lectureship, Saturday, Oct. 22, 9:15–10 a.m. ET

Dr. Stern Vermund an infectious disease epidemiologist and pediatrician, served as the dean of the Yale School of Public Health from 2017-2022. His work has focused on diseases of resource-limited settings, including HIV/AIDS, sexually transmitted infections including human papillomavirus, parasitic diseases and the novel coronavirus. A special interest is in interventional and implementation science in child health, especially to increase coverage and quality of services to prevent mother-to-child HIV transmission. As with so many IDSA members in 2020, Dr. Vermund pivoted his work towards COVID-19 research and intervention, working with collaborators in China, the Dominican Republic and the U.S. on mask use policy, vaccine deployment and safety in schools, health care and arts organizations. 

Prior leadership roles include serving as principal investigator of collaborative NIH networks, including the Adolescent Medicine HIV/AIDS Research Network, the NIH Prevention Trials Network, and the Fogarty International Clinical Research Scholars and Fellows Program. Dr. Vermund’s work in HIV-HPV interactions informed the change in the 1993 AIDS case definition from CDC to include cervical cancer, motivating cervical cancer screening within HIV clinics worldwide. Aside from his 1988-1994 stint as a branch chief at the NIH/NIAID under Dr. Anthony Fauci, his 40-plus year career has been university-based (Columbia, Einstein, UAB, Vanderbilt), including the establishment of two nongovernmental organizations: the Center for Infectious Disease Research in Zambia and Friends in Global Health (in Mozambique and in Nigeria). Dr. Vermund is a member of the National Academy of Medicine and a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Sciences.

Taison D. Bell, MD, MBA

University of Virginia School of Medicine

Closing Plenary, Sunday, Oct. 23, 9:15–10:45 a.m. ET

Dr. Taison Bell is an assistant professor of medicine in the divisions of Infectious Disease and Pulmonary/ Critical Care Medicine at the University of Virginia. He is also the vice chair for faculty development in the Department of Medicine and director of the UVA Summer Medical Leadership Program (a medical school preparatory program for underrepresented and disadvantaged students). Dr. Bell joined the faculty in 2017 after completing a critical care fellowship at the National Institutes of Health. Prior to that, he completed his internal medicine residency at Massachusetts General Hospital — where he was as chief resident — and an infectious diseases fellowship at Mass General Brigham. Dr. Bell is co-founder and chief medical officer of Owl Peak Labs, a biotechnology startup based in Charlottesville, Virginia, working to create innovative in-home colorectal cancer screening solutions. 

Michelle Morse, MD, MPH

New York City Department of Health and Mental Hygiene

Closing Plenary, Sunday, Oct. 23, 9:15–10:45 a.m. ET

Dr. Michelle Morse is the inaugural chief medical officer and deputy commissioner for the Center for Health Equity and Community Wellness at the NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, where she leads the agency’s work in bridging public health and health care to reduce health inequities, guiding the center’s place-based and cross-cutting health equity programs, and serving as a key liaison to clinicians and clinical leaders across New York City. 

Dr. Morse is an internal medicine and public health doctor who works to achieve health equity through global solidarity, social medicine and anti-racism education, and activism. She is a general internal medicine physician, part-time hospitalist at Kings County Hospital, co-founder of EqualHealth and an assistant professor at Harvard Medical School. 

Dr. Morse’s continued commitment to advancing health equity and justice is informed by her experience in leadership roles as deputy chief medical officer of Partners In Heath, as a Soros Equality Fellow launching a global Campaign Against Racism, and as a Robert Wood Johnson Health Policy Fellow with the Ways and Means Committee in the U.S. House of Representatives. 

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