Content Development Committee

Andrej Spec, MD, MSCI

Assistant Professor of Medicine
Department of Internal Medicine, Division of Infectious Diseases
Associate Director, Infectious Disease–Clinical Research Unit
Washington University
St. Louis, Missouri

Dr Andrej Spec is an Assistant Professor of Medicine at the Washington University School of Medicine, St Louis, Missouri, and a Fellow of the European Confederation of Medical Mycology (FECMM). Dr Spec’s research focuses on Cryptococcus, Histoplasma, and Candida fungal infections, particularly in immunocompromised patients, including those who underwent transplants. He studies the epidemiology and factors that affect outcomes in patients infected with fungus, both in the United States and globally in the resource-limited setting of Guatemala. He serves as the Associate Director of Washington University’s Infectious Disease Clinical Research Unit (ID-CRU) and is actively involved in the Mycoses Study Group (MSG), through which he participates in and conducts multicenter studies focused on new diagnostic tests and treatments for invasive fungal infections. In addition, he is the creator and leader of the Washington University Mycoses Group (a consortium of researchers interested in fungal infections). Dr Spec also oversees the division’s clinic that focuses on invasive fungal infections. There he takes care of both immunocompromised and immunocompetent patients with fungal infections, which he considers the best and most rewarding part of his job.

Daniel Kelmenson, MD

Assistant Professor, Medicine-Pulmonology, Allergy, and Critical Care Medicine
Department of Medicine
Medical & Quality Officer, Rapid Response & Medical Emergency Team
Assistant Medical Director, Medical Intensive Care Unit
University of Alabama at Birmingham
Birmingham, Alabama

Dr Daniel Kelmenson is a pulmonologist in Birmingham, AL and is affiliated with University of Alabama Hospital. He graduated from Case Western Reserve University School Of Medicine in 2011. Dr Kelmenson then completed his internal medicine residency at Massachusetts General Hospital in 2014, and finished his combined pulmonary/critical care medicine fellowship at the University of Colorado in 2017. He currently specializes in Critical Care Medicine and Pulmonology and is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Medicine-Pulmonology, Allergy, and Critical Care Medicine at the University of Alabama.

Dimitrios Kontoyiannis, MD, ScD, FACP, FIDSA, PhD Hon, FECMM, FAAM

Texas 4000 Distinguished Endowed Professor For Cancer Research
Deputy Head, Division of Internal Medicine
Department of Infectious Diseases
The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center
Adjunct Professor, Baylor College of Medicine
Adjunct Professor, University of Houston College of Pharmacy
Houston, Texas

Dr Dimitrios Kontoyiannis is the Texas 4000 Distinguished Endowed Professor For Cancer Research and Deputy Head in the Division of Internal Medicine at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center. He is also an adjunct professor at Baylor College of Medicine and University of Houston College of Pharmacy in Houston Texas. He received his medical degree Summa Cum Laude from the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens in Greece. Dr Kontoyiannis also completed a post-doctoral clinical research fellowship in the Section of Infectious Diseases at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, TX, followed by training in Internal Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, TX, where he served as a Chief Medical Resident. He was subsequently trained as a clinical fellow in Infectious Diseases at Massachusetts General Hospital and obtained a Master in Clinical Sciences from Harvard Medical School in Boston. He spent 3 years at the Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Sciences/Massachusetts Institute of Technology as a fellow in the Harvard MIT Clinical Investigators Training Program.

He is a fellow of the American College of Physicians and the Infectious Diseases Society of America. He is the recipient of many awards, such as the 2004 American Society for Microbiology Award for Outstanding Research in the Pathogenesis of Microbial Diseases (mentor); The America's Top Physicians from Consumer’s Research Council of America; The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center: 2004 Faculty E. N. Cobb Scholar Award; Faculty Achievement Award, MD Anderson Cancer Center, 2007; The Distinguished Clinical Faculty Mentoring Award of at MD Anderson Cancer Center, 2012; The Billy Cooper Memorial Award from The Medical Mycology Society of Americas, 2013; and the Drouhet Medal from the European Confederation of Medical Mycology, 2015. He is the president elect of Immunocompromised Host Society (2016-2018).

Ilan Schwartz, MD, PhD, FRCPC

Assistant Professor
Department of Medicine
Division of Infectious Diseases
University of Alberta
Edmonton, Alberta

Dr Ilan Schwartz is a clinician-scientist and assistant professor in the Division of Infectious Diseases at the University of Alberta in Edmonton. His research interests include emerging fungal pathogens, infections in immunocompromised hosts, and global health. He attended medical school at the University of Manitoba, followed by internal medicine training at Queen’s University (Kingston, Ont.) and an infectious diseases residency at the University of Manitoba (Winnipeg). Dr Schwartz’s research training includes earning a PhD in medical sciences from the University of Antwerp, Belgium, based on his work in South Africa that focused on the clinical and environmental aspects of the novel fungus, Emergomyces africanus. He subsequently undertook a research fellowship at the San Antonio Center for Medical Mycology in Texas.

Kimberly E Hanson, MD, MHS

Professor of Medicine
Director, Transplant Infectious Diseases and Immunocompromised Host Service
Section Head, Clinical Microbiology
Director, Medical Microbiology Fellowship Program
University of Utah and ARUP Laboratories

Dr Kimberly E Hanson is a medical director of mycology and section chief of clinical microbiology at ARUP Laboratories. She is also the head of immunocompromised host infectious diseases services at the University Hospital and Huntsman Cancer Center and a professor of medicine and pathology at the University of Utah School of Medicine. Dr Hanson received her medical degree from Northwestern University. She served as the chief resident during her internal medicine residency at Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center. Following residency, she completed an infectious diseases fellowship, master’s degree in health sciences, and medical microbiology fellowship at Duke University Medical Center. Dr Hanson is certified in medical microbiology by the American Board of Pathology and infectious disease by the American Board of Internal Medicine. She has received the Outstanding Fellow Research award at the 43rd Annual Meeting of the Infectious Diseases Society of America. Her research interests include the development and validation of novel cost-effective diagnostic tests for infectious diseases and transplant related infectious diseases and clinical diagnostics.

Latesha Elopre, MD, MSPH

Assistant Professor
Division of Infectious Diseases
University of Alabama at Birmingham
Birmingham, Alabama

Dr Latesha Elopre is an assistant professor of infectious diseases at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. She currently sees patients living with HIV at the 1917 Clinic located at Birmingham and provides care as an internist for adults hospitalized at UAB. Dr Elopre completed her medical degree at University of Florida’s College of Medicine. She then underwent Internal Medicine residency and Infectious Diseases’ Fellowship training at University of Alabama at Birmingham. During this time, she also received her MSPH in Applied Epidemiology. In her position as Director of Diversity and Inclusion for the Internal Medicine Residency Program, she provides strategic leadership for diversity and inclusion in Graduate Medical Education, co-chairs the DCGME Subcommittee for Diversity and Inclusion, and serves as liaison for the GME to the UAB SOM Office for Diversity inclusion. She is also liaison to and adviser for the Underrepresented in Medicine House Staff Council. Her research interests have focused on social determinants of health for STDs, including HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis.

P Lewis White, PhD, FECMM, FRCPath

Public Health Wales Microbiology
Cardiff

Laboratory Working Party, Panel development and distribution
NPHS Microbiology Cardiff
University Hospital of Wales
Heath Park
United Kingdom

Dr P Lewis White is the lead clinical scientist for the regional mycology laboratory, the Wales Centre for Mycobacteria, and deputy head of molecular diagnostics for NPHS Microbiology Cardiff. In addition, he currently heads the Public Health Wales Mycology Regional Reference Unit. For the past 10 years he has researched the molecular diagnosis of invasive fungal infections, with an emphasis on Aspergillus and Candida, and applied these diagnostic tests to a clinical setting. His additional areas of investigation include antifungal susceptibility, molecular detection, and identification of mycobacteria as well as the molecular genotyping of Mycobacterium tuberculosis.

Dr White is a fellow of the European Confederation of Medical Mycologists and the Royal College. He is also a member of the Royal College of Pathologists and leads the laboratory working party of the Fungal PCR initiative. Dr White serves as Meetings Secretary for the British Society for Medical Mycology and Vice President of the Welsh Microbiological Association.

Luis Ostrosky-Zeichner, MD, FACP, FIDSA, FSHEA, FECMM

Professor of Medicine and Epidemiology
Vice-Chair of Medicine for Healthcare Quality
Chief, Division of Infectious Diseases
McGovern Medical School

Luis Ostrosky-Zeichner is a professor of medicine and epidemiology, the Vice-Chair of Medicine for Healthcare Quality, the director of the Laboratory of Mycology Research, and the Division Chief at the Division of Infectious Diseases of the McGovern Medical School (a part of UTHealth). He also serves as medical director for epidemiology and antimicrobial stewardship for Memorial Hermann Texas Medical Center and UT Physicians. He is also currently coordinating the CoVID-19 response for UTHealth and its affiliated hospitals and clinics.

Dr Ostrosky-Zeichner obtained his medical degree from Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico. He completed his internal medicine residency at Instituto Nacional de Ciencias Medicas y Nutricion Salvador Zubiran, and his infectious diseases fellowship at the University of Texas Medical School at Houston and MD Anderson Cancer Center combined fellowship program.

Dr Ostrosky-Zeichner is a fellow of the American College of Physicians, the Infectious Diseases Society of America, the Society of Healthcare Epidemiology of America, and the Academy of the European Confederation of Medical Mycology. He is a Senior Editor for Journal of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy, as well as an editorial board member of Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy and Clinical Infectious Diseases. He is Vice President of the Mycoses Study Group and Educational Consortium and a Vice-President of the International Immunocompromised Host Society. He is also a past chair of the Infectious Diseases Society of America Standards and Practice Guidelines Committee and has been a consultant to the US FDA and CDC. He has advanced training and experience in medical mycology, healthcare epidemiology, emerging infections, antimicrobial stewardship, general and transplant infectious diseases, and healthcare quality and has published over 175 peer-reviewed articles on those topics.

Melissa D Johnson, PharmD, MHS

Associate Professor of Medicine
Duke University Medical Center
Durham, North Carolina

Dr Melissa D Johnson is Clinical Pharmacist/Associate Professor of Medicine in the Division of Infectious Diseases & International Health at Duke University Medical Center (DUMC) and Associate Professor at Campbell University College of Pharmacy & Health Sciences, Buies Creek, NC. After obtaining a Bachelor of Science in Biochemistry from the University of Georgia, she completed her Doctor of Pharmacy at Campbell University, and a Fellowship in Infectious Diseases Pharmacotherapy at DUMC. She also completed a Masters of Health Science in Clinical Research at Duke University School of Medicine, concentrating on biostatistics and epidemiology. Currently, she is taking courses in the graduate school of education at North Carolina State University, to obtain a graduate certificate in e-learning. Dr Johnson maintains a clinical practice in internal medicine/infectious diseases at DUMC and outpatient HIV care at the Durham Veterans Affairs Medical Center (VAMC). Her clinical research interests include invasive fungal infections in immunocompromised hosts with special focus on immunogenetics, pharmacogenetics, and pharmacodynamics.

Minh-Hong Thi Nguyen, MD

Professor of Medicine
Director, Transplant Infectious Diseases
Director, Antimicrobial Management Program
Division of Infectious Diseases
University of Pittsburgh
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

Dr Minh-Hong Thi Nguyen is Professor of Medicine and the Director of the Transplant Infectious Diseases Unit and Antimicrobial Management Program at the University of Pittsburgh. She directs quality improvement and research projects related to infectious complications after organ transplantation and their association with specific induction therapy. Her laboratory has focuses on the non-culture diagnostics of fungal infections, as well as identifying fungal genes that contribute to the pathogenesis of invasive infections. The underlying hypothesis of her laboratory is that selected in vivo expressed genes are important virulence factors for Candida and other fungi and can serve as targets for diagnostics and/or vaccine against fungal infection.

Scott Kopf, DNP, MSN, CRNP, ACNP-BC

Advance Practice Provider–Lead
Division of Pulmonary, Allergy, and Critical Care
University of Alabama at Birmingham Hospital
Birmingham, Alabama

Dr Scott Kopf, is a nurse practitioner specializing in acute care. He practices in Birmingham, Alabama and has the professional credentials of DNP, ACNP. Dr Kopf graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Nursing degree from University of Southern Mississippi College of Nursing in 2006. He then entered the Master of Science in Nursing Program in the Adult Acute Care NP Specialty Track and Registered Nurse First Assist Subspecialty Course, earning his degree from the University of Alabama School of Medicine in 2011. He graduated from the Post-MSN to DNP pathway from the UAB School of Nursing Doctor of Nursing Practice in 2017. Dr Kopf currently works with patients in the Division of Pulmonary, Allergy, and Critical Care at UAB Hospital, and is an adjunct clinical instructor in the school’s Master of Science in Nursing Program, Adult-Gerontology Acute Care Nurse Practitioner Specialty Track.

Sharon Chen, MD, PhD

Director, Centre for Infectious Diseases and Microbiology
Laboratory Services
Westmead Hospital
Sydney, NSW, Australia

Dr Sharon Chen is the Director of the Centre for Infectious Diseases and Microbiology Laboratory Services, New South Wales Health Pathology, Westmead Hospital, Sydney, Australia, with reference laboratories in bacteriology, mycology, virology and public health. She also heads the Infectious Diseases service for bone marrow, and kidney-pancreas, transplantation, for renal medicine, and the Clinical Mycology service. Her external commitments include Executive Member, Australia and New Zealand Mycoses Interest Group (ANZMIG) and member of the National Antimicrobial Committee, Australia, She is also the current secretary of the US Mycoses Study Group (MSG) Education and Research Consortium, co-convenor of the ISHAM working group on Scedosporium and scedosporiosis, and member of the EORTC/MSG group updating fungal infection definitions. Dr Chen has an active research interest in the surveillance and tracking of fungal and other transplant-related infections, infection prevention in immunocompromised hosts, cystic fibrosis, modern laboratory methods and technologies, new antifungal agents, and resistance to antimicrobial agents.

Thomas F Patterson, MD, FACP, FIDSA

Vice-Chair for Faculty Development
Chief, Division of Infectious Diseases
Professor of Medicine
Director, San Antonio Center for Medical Mycology
The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio
San Antonio, Texas

Dr Thomas F Patterson is Professor and Chief, Division of Infectious Diseases at the University of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio, Texas, where he is also the Director of the San Antonio Center for Medical Mycology and Vice-Chair for Faculty Development. Dr Patterson received his Bachelor of Arts degree from Baylor University followed by his medical degree from the University of Texas McGovern Medical School, Houston. Subsequently, he completed a medicine residency at Vanderbilt University and Yale–New Haven Hospital. He was then awarded a postdoctoral fellowship in infectious diseases at Yale University School of Medicine. Dr Patterson is a member of numerous professional committees and societies, including a Fellow of the Infectious Diseases Society of America, American Society for Microbiology, International Society for Human and Animal Mycoses, and the International Immunocompromised Host Society, where he is Past President. In addition, he currently holds several editorial positions, including being Co-Editor-in-Chief of www.drfungus.org and Current Opinions in Infectious Diseases. His research has appeared in journals such as The New England Journal of Medicine, Clinical Infectious Diseases, Journal of Clinical Microbiology, and Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy. His work has been published in print and audio formats, and he has been invited across the globe to speak as a guest lecturer.

Jose A Vazquez, MD, FACP, FIDSA

Division Chief and Professor of Medicine
Infectious Diseases at Augusta University

Dr Vazquez is the Division Chief of the Department of Infectious Diseases at Augusta University. He is also a Professor of Medicine and the Chief of the Antimicrobial Stewardship service at AU Health and Chair of the IRB at Augusta University. Prior to this, he was Professor of Medicine in the Division of Infectious Diseases at Wayne State University School of Medicine and Senior Staff Physician in the Department of Medicine, Division of Infectious Diseases at Henry Ford Hospital and Medical System both in Detroit, Michigan.

Dr Vazquez earned his medical degree from Universidad Católica Madre y Maestra in Santiago, Dominican Republic. He completed both his internship and residency in internal medicine at Finch University of Health Sciences/Chicago Medical School in North Chicago, Illinois. Thereafter, he completed a 3-year Infectious Diseases fellowship at Wayne State University School of Medicine and is board certified in internal medicine and infectious diseases.

Dr Vazquez is a member of several professional societies, including the American College of Physicians, American Society for Microbiology, HIV Medicine Association, Infectious Disease Society of America, International AIDS Society, International Society for Infectious Diseases, International Society for Human and Animal Mycology, and National Foundation for Infectious Diseases, among others. He is a Co-PI on an NIH grant evaluating the oral microbiome of HIV-positive subjects. Dr Vazquez has written numerous papers, abstracts, case reports, and book chapters on various Infectious Disease topics, especially in the area of mycology.

Dr Vazquez’s research includes investigation of the epidemiology and management of mucosal candidiasis, invasive candidiasis, as well as the management of systemic fungal infections. His current research focus also involves characterization of polymicrobial biofilms, especially Candida/Staphylococcus and Aspergillus/Pseudomonas. In addition, he has ongoing clinical interests in chronic wound infections, antifungal susceptibility, antifungal resistance mechanisms and the rapid diagnosis of fungal infections.