William J. Steinbach, MD
William J. Steinbach, MD, is the Samuel L. Katz Distinguished Professor of Pediatrics, Professor in Molecular Genetics and Microbiology, Vice Chair of Research, and just stepped down as the Chief of Pediatric Infectious Diseases at Duke University. He also serves as the Research Co-Director for the Duke Transplant Center, and was the Medical Director of the Duke Children’s Clinical Research Unit. Dr. Steinbach was a recent member of the American Academy of Pediatrics Red Book committee (2015-2021), and completed a PIDS Board of Directors tenure (2015-2019). He served on multiple PIDS committees over the past 15 years: Programs and Meetings (2006-2009), Research Affairs (2010-2013), Membership (2010-2013), and most recently on the IDWeek Planning Committee (2021-2023). In 2018, Dr. Steinbach developed a new Division Chiefs working group for PIDS to more systematically link leaders and define workforce issues in the PID field and develop appropriate compensation strategies. In that area, he currently serves on the new IDSA Compensation Taskforce (2020-2021).
Previously, Dr. Steinbach led Duke’s pediatric ID fellowship program for a decade and has led two T32s on molecular mycology and pediatric infectious diseases. His molecular, translational, and clinical research focuses on the pathogenesis and treatment of infections in immunocompromised children. Dr. Steinbach is the Founding Director of the International Pediatric Fungal Network, a 55-site multinational NIH-funded consortium dedicated to the epidemiology, diagnosis, treatment, and outcomes of pediatric invasive fungal infections. He co-founded and continues to co-chair the biennial (2004-2020 to date) international Advances Against Aspergillosis conference and has co-edited 4 different infectious diseases textbooks, including Feigin & Cherry’s Textbook of Pediatric Infectious Diseases, Nelson’s Pediatric Antimicrobial Therapy, and most recently Pediatric Transplant and Oncology Infectious Diseases. He is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and has been elected into the American Society for Clinical Investigation and the Association of American Physicians, for which he currently serves on the Council. In 2022, he will begin as the Chair of Pediatrics at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences and Arkansas Children’s Hospital.
Gregory Storch, MD
Gregory Storch, MD, is the Ruth L. Siteman Professor of Pediatrics and Professor of Medicine and of Molecular Microbiology at Washington University School of Medicine. He received his AB degree from Harvard College and his MD from New York University School of Medicine. His post-graduate medical training included internship, residency, and infectious diseases fellowship at Washington University. Between residency and fellowship, he was an Epidemic Intelligence Service Officer for the Centers for Disease Control stationed in the Louisiana Department of Health in New Orleans. Dr. Storch became a faculty member of the Washington University Department of Pediatrics in 1981 and has served as chief of the Divisions of Pediatric Infectious Diseases and Pediatric Laboratory Medicine. He was a founder of Project ARK, a pediatric HIV service organization affiliated with the Department of Pediatrics and currently serves as Medical Director. Dr. Storch has served as President of the Pan-American Society for Clinical Virology. He is also a long-time member of the NIH-funded Collaborative Anti-Viral Study Group and is currently a member of the Executive Committee of the Congenital and Pediatric Infections Consortium. Dr. Storch has served as a PIDS Board Member and as a member of numerous PIDS Committees, including serving as Chair of the Finance Committee from 2014-20. He has been an Associate Editor of the Journal of the Pediatric Infectious Diseases Society since 2011. Dr. Storch has carried out research in the molecular diagnosis of pediatric infectious diseases and infectious diseases genomics, with an emphasis on viral infections. He currently serves as Research Integrity Officer for Washington University.
Charles R. Woods, Jr. MD, MSc
Charles R. Woods, Jr. MD, MS is Chair of the Department of Pediatrics at the University of Tennessee College of Medicine, Chattanooga and CEO of Children’s Hospital at Erlanger. He previously served as Department Chair and in other leadership roles in the Department of Pediatrics at the University of Louisville (UofL), where he founded the multidisciplinary Child and Adolescent Health Research Design & Support Unit. This unit has ongoing Medicaid database projects related to antimicrobial stewardship and childhood vaccination. Dr. Woods has received multiple teaching awards, including the Distinguished Educator Award from the UofL School of Medicine in 2013. He has extensive experience with development of national clinical practice guidelines. His clinical background includes focus on pediatric HIV infection while at Wake Forest and UofL and expertise in tick-borne infections.
Dr. Woods’ editorial experience includes roles as Associate Editor for the Journal of the Pediatric Infectious Diseases Society and Assistant Editor for Biostatistical Review for Pediatrics. He has served as Chair of the AAP Section on Epidemiology, Public Health and Evidence and as a local health department consultant. He is an author of 126 journal publications and 46 chapters and has given 120 national and regional lectures and presentations. He completed medical school, pediatrics residency, and pediatric infectious diseases fellowship at the Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, TX. He earned his Master’s Degree in Epidemiology from the Wake Forest School of Medicine.
Dr. Woods’ vision for PIDS: We are doing many great things collectively and individually and can continue to build on these: Promotion of the value of Pediatric ID both nationally and regionally within healthcare systems is vital to the future of our subspecialty. Recruiting talented young physicians into our field is critically important; advocacy for enhanced value-based reimbursement is essential. Related, expanding efforts in Diversity and Inclusion: This work must touch every level of medical training, but also should include support for pipeline efforts in our communities that begin in elementary school—not just for our specialty, but for all of medicine. Career Development Support: Expand our efforts for Research, Antimicrobial Stewardship, Infection Prevention…AND increase support for careers focused on Education, Informatics/Decision Support, Quality Improvement, Public Health, and more. Broader Recognition of Excellence among our Members: Current recognition of excellence in research is important, but many of our members provide outstanding service daily at the bedside and as educators. Development of new annual awards and support programs to recognize excellence in teaching and clinical care, including “unsung heroes” in both small and larger programs, is a goal I would bring to PIDS leadership.
Debra Palazzi, MD, MEd
Debra Palazzi, MD, MEd is Professor of Pediatrics at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, TX. She received her medical degree from the University of North Carolina School of Medicine. She completed her pediatric residency at Carolinas Medical Center and pediatric infectious diseases fellowship at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, TX. Dr. Palazzi is the Medical Director of the Antimicrobial Stewardship Program at Texas Children’s Hospital and participates in national antimicrobial stewardship educational and research activities. She has a strong interest in medical education and completed a Master’s of Education in teaching with an emphasis in the health sciences through the University of Houston. Dr. Palazzi is Director of the Pediatric Infectious Diseases Fellowship Program as well as Co-director of Fellows’ College in the Department of Pediatrics at Baylor College of Medicine. She is the Deputy Editor of the American Academy of Pediatrics’ Pediatric Review and Education Program (PREP) for Infectious Diseases and Co-Chair of the 2021 PREP ID Course. Dr. Palazzi is an Associate Editor for JAMA Pediatrics and the Journal of the Pediatric Infectious Diseases Society. She has been a member of the Pediatric Infectious Diseases Society’s (PIDS) Board of Directors since 2017, member of the Pediatric Committee on Antimicrobial Stewardship since 2016, and is Chair of the PIDS Education Committee. She also serves as the PIDS Liaison to the Infectious Diseases Society of America’s Education Committee.
Miriam Laufer, MD, MPH
Miriam Laufer, MD, MPH is Professor of Pediatrics and Associate Dean for Student Research at the University of Maryland School of Medicine. Her focus is on global child health, especially malaria, and training the next generation of infectious diseases clinical and research specialists. As the Director of the Malaria Research Program at the Center for Vaccine Development and Global Health, Dr. Laufer leads an interdisciplinary team to develop and apply innovative scientific tools to fight global infectious diseases, eliminate malaria and train the next generation of scientists. She serves as Principal Investigator for clinical trials, epidemiological studies, and a Fogarty International Center Global Infectious Diseases Training Grant that funds training and collaborations with colleagues throughout the US, Europe and Africa. Dr. Laufer also received an NIH K24 award to support her commitment to mentoring students, clinical fellows, and junior faculty.
Dr. Laufer’s dedication to the Pediatric Infectious Diseases community and the future of the field began early in her career and has developed as she has taken on larger leadership roles. She directed the University of Maryland Pediatric Infectious Diseases Fellowship Program for seven years. Within the institution, Dr. Laufer serves on our T32 Vaccinology fellowship steering committee, the Faculty Career Development and Mentoring Advisory Program, and the Research Affairs Advisory Committee to the Dean. As a standing member of the NIH MID study section, she reviews career development and institutional training grants.
Over the past 16 years, Dr. Laufer has enjoyed participating in a wide range of PIDS committees and activities. She served as a member on the Public Policy Committee (2005-8), International Affairs Committee (2006-9 and 2015-19), Research Affairs Committee (2014-18), and Nominations and Awards Committee (2019-present). Dr. Laufer also helped to lead the expansion of the St. Jude/PIDS Research Conference to include a global health focus. She also delivered invited lectures at the annual meeting including Frontiers in Infectious Diseases (2017) and Luminaries in Global Health (2021).
Monica I. Ardura, DO, MSCS
Monica I. Ardura, DO, MSCS, is a pediatric infectious diseases physician at Nationwide Children’s Hospital where she is the Medical Director of the ID Host Defense Program and Associate Professor of Pediatrics at The Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio. Her clinical and research interests focus on the prevention and management of infections in immunocompromised children. Dr. Ardura is a clinical educator committed to fellow education in this area, serving as the Program Director for the Infectious Diseases Host Defense Fellowship and the Associate Program Director for the Pediatric Infectious Diseases Fellowship.
Dr. Ardura is past Chair of the American Society of Transplantation (AST) ID Community of Practice Pediatrics Working Group, Chair of the Infectious Disease Committee of the International Pediatric Transplantation Association (IPTA) of The Transplantation Society (TTS), and recently became a member of the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) Committee on Infectious Diseases (COID).
Dr. Ardura has been a full PIDS member since completing her pediatric ID fellowship at the University of Texas Southwestern and Children’s Medical Center Dallas in 2007. She has served as a member of the PIDS Clinical Affairs Committee (2014-17), Vaccine Advocacy Committee (2017-20), Pediatric Transplant ID workgroup (2014-18) and currently serves on the PIDS TID Committee (2018-21) as co-chair of its Education Subcommittee. She is also an elected member of the PIDS Nominations and Awards Committee (2019-21).
Robert W. Frenck, Jr., MD
Robert W. Frenck, Jr, MD, received his undergraduate degree from the Univ. of Calif at San Diego in 1977 followed by his doctor of medicine degree from the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston in 1981 as part of the Health Professions Scholarship Program. He trained at the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland completing his pediatric residency in 1984. After 3 years as a general pediatrician at the US Naval Hospital, Japan, Dr. Frenck entered pediatric infectious diseases fellowship training at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston which he completed in 1990. Dr. Frenck is board-certified in both pediatrics and infectious diseases. Dr. Frenck maintains an active research portfolio including therapeutic and vaccine clinical trials with special interest in enteric diseases. Dr. Frenck is a Professor of Pediatrics in the Division of Infectious Diseases at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital and is the Director for their Center for Vaccine Research.
Candace Johnson, MD
Candace “Cece” Johnson, MD, is an Assistant Professor of Pediatrics in the Division of Pediatric Infectious Diseases at Columbia University Irving Medical Center (CUIMC) and also an attending physician and hospital epidemiologist at New York-Presbyterian Morgan Stanley Children’s Hospital. Her clinical and research interests focus on antibiotic use and stewardship across the spectrum of pediatric healthcare settings and prevention of healthcare associated infections. She is actively involved in medical education at the undergraduate and graduate medical education, serving as the course director for the Pediatric Infectious Diseases medical student elective and as an Associate Program Director for CUIMC’s pediatric residency program. Dr. Johnson is also deeply committed to promoting diversity and inclusion in medicine and acts as a faculty liaison for the Pediatric Diversity and Inclusion Council in the Department of Pediatrics at CUIMC.
Dr. Johnson has been a member of PIDS since 2014 and was a recipient of a PIDS ASP Fellowship Award for her work assessing antibiotic use and stewardship in pediatric post-acute care facilities. This award facilitated her introduction to and involvement in the PIDS Pediatric Committee on Antimicrobial Stewardship (PCAS) where she continues to serve as a committee member on the PCAS Education subcommittee. Dr. Johnson is an elected member of the PIDS Nomination and Awards Committee and also serves on the PIDS Telehealth Working Group.
Tanvi Sharma, MD, MPH
Tanvi Sharma, MD, MPH, serves as co-director of the immunocompromised hosts infectious diseases (ID) service and co-director of ID in the Pediatric Transplant Center at Boston Children’s Hospital. She is an assistant professor of pediatrics at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Sharma serves as the Associate Chief and Clinical Director within the division of pediatric ID, as well as Director of the Pediatric ID Fellowship Program at Boston Children’s Hospital. Dr. Sharma completed her medical training, residency in pediatrics, and fellowship in pediatric ID and immunology at University of Miami/Jackson Memorial Medical Center. She joined the faculty with the divisions of pediatric ID/immunology and pediatric clinical research at the University of Miami before moving to Boston. Her early research interests focused on metabolic complications in children with perinatally-acquired HIV infection receiving antiretroviral therapy, and have since evolved to evaluating infectious outcomes in children undergoing solid organ and hematopoietic stem cell transplantation as well as other pediatric immunocompromised hosts. As both an educator and clinician caring for children with immunocompromising conditions, Dr. Sharma has additionally taken on an active role in the development of curricula and specialized training experiences focused on pediatric immunocompromised hosts ID. Dr. Sharma recently served as Chair of the American Society of Transplantation (AST) ID Community of Practice Pediatrics Working Group, which has been leading collaborative efforts with the Pediatric Infectious Diseases Society (PIDS) to develop interactive educational modules and clinical conferences for pediatric transplant ID clinicians. Dr. Sharma serves on the PIDS Transplant ID Subcommittee and has previously served on the PIDS Education Committee and PIDS Training Program Directors Committee. Dr. Sharma was recently selected as a Fellow of the Pediatric Infectious Diseases Society. Dr. Sharma is actively engaged in quality improvement, educational scholarship, and research related to immunocompromised ID and has mentored many trainees and junior faculty in these efforts. Dr. Sharma has been invited as a speaker at regional and national conferences and has authored a broad range of publications in her fields of interest.
Dr. Sharma is an active and engaged member of the Pediatric Infectious Diseases Society (PIDS) since she began pediatric infectious diseases (ID) fellowship training in 2002. She has served on several PIDS committees and taken on leadership roles within PIDS over time. Dr. Sharma previously served as a member of the PIDS Training Programs Committee and remained involved in critical efforts to support pediatric ID fellowship training and recruitment to the field since then. In addition, she has served as a member of the PIDS Education Committee and currently as a member of the PIDS Transplant ID Committee. Within the PIDS Transplant ID Committee, she serves as part of the St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital/PIDS Transplant and Immunocompromised Hosts ID Symposium subcommittee and currently the Vice-Chair of this annual conference. As both an educator and clinician caring for children with immunocompromising conditions, Dr. Sharma has further served as Co-Chair, Chair, and now Past-Chair, of the American Society of Transplantation ID Community of Practice Pediatrics Working Group which has led collaborative efforts with PIDS to develop interactive educational modules for pediatric transplant ID, a pediatric transplant ID virtual clinical case conference, and undertaken many other joint program efforts. Over the last several years, she has been invited to serve as faculty discussant for case presentations at the Pediatric Fellows’ Day during the IDWeek National Meeting. Dr. Sharma was recently recognized as a Fellow of the Pediatric Infectious Diseases Society for her contributions to the society and commitment to supporting its essential endeavors.
Through the various opportunities, Dr. Sharma has become deeply invested in and dedicated to the mission of PIDS. I look forward to serving as a member of the PIDS Board of Directors and contributing to the future goals and direction of our society.
Kari A. Simonsen, MD
Kari A. Simonsen, MD is the Chair of the Department of Pediatrics at the University of Nebraska Medical Center and Pediatrician-in-Chief of Children’s Hospital and Medical Center, Omaha, Nebraska. She is a Professor of Pediatric Infectious Diseases, and served for over a decade as division chief of Pediatric ID, as well as previous service as Hospital Epidemiologist of Children’s Hospital and Medical Center in Omaha, NE. She also previously served as Assistant Vice Chancellor for Faculty Affairs at UNMC.
Dr. Simonsen received her undergraduate degree in Biological Sciences from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, her medical degree at the University of Nebraska Medical Center, and her MBA at the University of Nebraska-Omaha. She completed pediatric residency at Indiana University, and fellowship in Pediatric Infectious Diseases at Brown University. Her research interests include pediatric infection prevention, hospital preparedness, and antimicrobial drug discovery clinical trials.
Dr. Simonsen is a Fellow of the American Academy of Pediatrics, the Infectious Diseases Society of America, and the Pediatric Infectious Diseases Society, and a member of the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America. She is a certified executive coach from the Center for Executive Coaching, a Gallup certified Strengths Coach, and certified in the Center for Creative Leadership’s Benchmark Series of 360 Assessment tools. She is an internal coach for career development at the University of Nebraska Medical Center, Omaha, NE and a faculty member of the IDSA Leadership Institute.
Joshua Wolf, MBBS, PhD, FRACP
Joshua Wolf MBBS, PhD, FRACP is a Pediatric Infectious Diseases Physician, Medical Director of Antimicrobial Stewardship, and Division Director for Hematology and Oncology Infectious Diseases at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, and an Associate Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center.
His clinical activities include care of immunocompromised children, especially those with device-associated infections, and improvement of antibiotic use through antimicrobial stewardship at St. Jude, an IDSA Antimicrobial Stewardship Center of Excellence. His clinical and translational research focuses on prediction and prevention of infections in children with cancer, with a particular focus on the risks and benefits of antimicrobial prophylaxis.
Dr. Wolf has been a PIDS member since 2013, and a Fellow of IDSA and PIDS since 2019. He has served on the PIDS Research Affairs Committee (2015-2018), Clinical Affairs Committee (2018-present), and Nominations and Awards Committee (2019-present). In these roles, he has been involved in coordinating scientific content for the St. Jude/PIDS meeting, contributing to PIDS journal club, reviewing guidelines for PIDS endorsement, and fielding nominations for awards, grants and official positions. Dr. Wolf was the PIDS representative to the Surviving Sepsis Pediatric Guideline Development Panel tasked with incorporating antimicrobial stewardship considerations, and has contributed to other published pediatric guidelines including: management of COVID-19, antimicrobial prophylaxis in patients with cancer, aminoglycoside pharmacogenomics, and intravascular catheter use. He also serves on the IDSA Antimicrobial Stewardship Centers of Excellence review panel and is a regular presenter at the Pediatric Academic Societies’ annual meeting, IDWeek and the St. Jude/PIDS meeting.
He is excited to take on a new representative role in PIDS, and his vision is to better serve patients and families by advocating for the vital importance of pediatric infectious diseases clinicians and researchers in the modern world.
Andres Camacho-Gonzalez, MD
Andres Camacho-Gonzalez, MD is an Associate Professor of Pediatrics at Emory University School of Medicine. He received his Doctor of Medicine degree from Universidad del Rosario in Bogota, Colombia. After completing a residency in Pediatrics at Albert Einstein Medical Center/Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia, he pursued a fellowship in Pediatric Infectious Diseases at Emory University in Atlanta, GA.
Dr. Camacho-Gonzalez is a board-certified pediatrician and pediatric infectious diseases specialist and the director of the Pediatric Infectious Diseases Fellowship Program at Emory University School of Medicine. He also serves as a small group advisor for the School of Medicine. Dr. Camacho-Gonzalez has clinical appointment at Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta were he serves as an infectious disease consultant. His main area of expertise is pediatric and adolescent HIV and he is the director of the pediatric HIV clinical trials unit at Emory. As part of his HIV work he has serve as an advisor for the World Health Organization in the development of Adolescent HIV Treatment Guidelines, he is part of the Fulton county HIV/AIDS Task Force, the Perinatal HIV Services Coordination Team and he is the Emory PI for the International Maternal Pediatric and Adolescent Clinical Trials Network. In addition to his clinical work, Dr. Camacho-Gonzalez’s main research interest has been committed to understand ways to improve linkage, retention and viral suppression of adolescents and young adults infected with HIV.
Dr. Camacho-Gonzalez’s prior participation in PIDS includes service as a member of the Training Programs Committee since 2018 and the Fellowship Awards Committee since 2021.
Scott H. James, MD
Scott H. James, MD is an Associate Professor in the Division of Pediatric Infectious Diseases at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB). He serves as the UAB Peds ID Fellowship Program Director and is also Principal Investigator of the NIH-funded UAB Antiviral Screening Laboratory, where he leads a translational research program developing novel antiviral agents. He earned two undergraduate degrees with honors from the University of Florida prior to completing medical school and pediatrics residency at the University of South Florida, followed by a Peds ID fellowship at UAB. Dr. James has been an active member of PIDS since 2008, serving in a variety of committees and volunteer positions on behalf of the Society. He served on the PIDS Research Affairs Committee and held a leadership role on the planning committee for the annual St. Jude/PIDS Pediatric Infectious Diseases Research Conference. As a past recipient of the JPIDS-Ralph D. Feigin Editorial Apprenticeship Award, he also had the privilege of serving on the Editorial Board of the Journal of the Pediatric Infectious Diseases Society. More recently, he has been a part of a PIDS-endorsed multicenter collaborative workgroup tasked with providing guidance on COVID-19 therapeutics in infants and children. Dr. James currently serves as Vice Chair and Chair-Elect of the PIDS Training Programs Committee. He is also the PIDS Liaison to the IDSA Training Committee, is a participant in PIDS Strategic Planning Sessions, and serves as a Peds ID representative on the APPD Subspecialty Pediatrics Investigator Network (SPIN). With his background in academic research, medical education, and national service on behalf of pediatric patients, Dr. James will bring a well-rounded perspective to the PIDS Nominations and Awards Committee. Though he has relished every opportunity to contribute to the mission of PIDS, Dr. James still feels as if he owes our Society a debt of gratitude for the many ways in which PIDS membership has enriched his life and career. He would love the chance to give back by serving you in this role.
Tanya Rogo, MD, MPH&TM
Tanya Rogo, MD, MPH&TM, is Clinical Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York. She practices pediatric infectious diseases at the BronxCare Health System in the Bronx, where she serves as the Associate Program Director of the Pediatric Residency Program, the resident research director, as well as the director of the Curriculum in International Child Health which she designed and implemented.
Dr. Rogo was born in Kenya and completed her undergraduate education at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and then graduated from the dual MD/MPH program at Tulane University. She completed pediatric residency at Inova Fairfax Hospital for Children, and fellowship in Pediatric Infectious Diseases at Brown University.
After fellowship, Dr. Rogo spent 4 years in Rwanda as Brown University faculty for the Human Resources for Health partnership with the Rwanda Ministry of Health, where she helped develop the pediatric residency program at the University of Rwanda. In 2017, Dr. Rogo was the first recipient of the Velji Young African Leader Award at the Consortium of Universities for Global Health annual conference.
Dr. Rogo currently serves as the Secretary of the Manhattan Central Medical Society (MCMS), the largest National Medical Association affiliate in New York state. At the National Medical Association, Dr. Rogo is a member of the Nominations Committee. In 2021, Dr. Rogo was selected as a NMA Top Physician Under 40.
Dr. Rogo is an active a member of the Pediatric Infectious Diseases Society (PIDS) where she serves on two national committees: the International Affairs Committee; and the Inclusion, Diversity, Access and Equity Task Force. In April 2021, she was featured as the Member Spotlight on the PIDS website (https://pids.org/2021/04/23/member-spotlight-dr-tanya-rogo/).
Jessica Snowden, MD, MS, MHPTT
Jessica Snowden, MD, MS, MHPTT is a Professor of Pediatrics at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences and Chief of Pediatric Infectious Disease at Arkansas Children’s Hospital. She is the Vice Chair for Research and Associate Director of Clinical and Translational Research at Arkansas Children’s Research Institute. Dr. Snowden is the co-Principal Investigator of the IDeA States Pediatric Clinical Trial Network’s Data Coordinating and Operations center, directing clinical operations for trial implementation and professional development across an 18-state NIH-funded research group. She also has an active, NIH-funded basic science laboratory studying the role of age on the immune responses and neurologic outcomes following infections in the brain, so that might design improved prevention and treatment strategies for these infections. Dr. Snowden holds the Horace C. Cabe Distinguished Chair in Pediatric Infectious Disease. In addition to her basic science and clinical research, she has a long history of active involvement in medical student, resident, and fellow education and multiple teaching awards. Her contributions to pediatrics and infectious diseases have been recognized as a Fellow of the American Academy of Pediatrics (FAAP), Fellow of the Pediatric Infectious Diseases Society (FPIDS), and Fellow of the Infectious Diseases Society of America (FIDSA). She is a member of several national committees focused on medical research, including the AAP Committee on Pediatric Research and the IDSA Research Affairs committee. Dr. Snowden has been a member of the Pediatric Infectious Diseases Society since 2006. Her participation in PIDS includes serving as a member of the Research Affairs Committee since 2014, which includes participation in planning the annual St. Jude/PIDS Pediatric Infectious Diseases Research Conference and co-leading the meeting’s career development track with Dr. Scott James for several years; the Training Programs Committee from 2015-2018; and the Inclusion, Diversity, Access, and Equity Task Force (2020-present).
Matthew Laurens, MD, MPH
Matthew Laurens, MD, MPH is a pediatric infectious diseases specialist with a primary research interest in vaccine development. He conducts clinical studies at the Center for Vaccine Development and Global Health (CVD), University of Maryland School of Medicine in Baltimore and at international sites in Burkina Faso, Mali, and Malawi. Dr. Laurens evaluates vaccines and therapeutics that target infectious pathogens, studies the interaction of HIV and malaria and investigates the acquisition of immunity through natural exposure and vaccination. The broad goal of Dr. Laurens’ research is to illuminate the mechanisms of immunity to inform development of vaccines and therapeutics. He is also a co-Principal Investigator for COVID-19 vaccine studies at CVD. Dr. Laurens directs the fellowship training program in Pediatric Infectious Diseases at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, and his work serves as a backdrop to train students, fellows, and early career clinician researchers both in Baltimore and internationally.
Dr. Laurens served on the PIDS Education Committee from 2017-2019, and currently serves on the Program and Meetings Committee since 2020. He served as a panelist for the Global Network Session, St. Jude/PIDS Pediatric Infectious Diseases Research Conference in 2021. He has also participated in the PIDS networking session in 2021.
William J. Muller, MD, PhD
William J. Muller, MD, PhD is Associate Professor of Pediatrics at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, Attending Physician, Pediatric Infectious Diseases, Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children’s Hospital of Chicago, and Scientific Director, Community & Clinical Trials, Stanley Manne Children’s Research Institute. His primary clinical interest is in infections in immunocompromised patients, including stem cell and solid organ transplant recipients. Dr. Muller is involved in numerous clinical trials involving vaccines, anti-infectives and diagnostics, in both the immunocompromised population and in other pediatric infections. He is also involved in studying the pathogenesis of viral encephalitis, using models which focus on host-pathogen interactions in neurologic disease due to herpes simplex virus in newborns.
Dr. Muller’s prior PIDS activities include participation in a focus group for strategic planning in October 2013 (at IDWeek), and service as a member on the Research Affairs Committee, 2014-2017 and Transplant Infectious Diseases Committee, 2018-present.
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