The following individuals are scheduled to speak during the Antimicrobial Stewardship in Long-Term Care Facilities Kick-off Summit on Friday, Sept. 12, 2018.
Lucy Wilson, MD, ScM
Lucy Wilson, MD, ScM, is an infectious disease physician who is a professor and graduate program director at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County in the Department of Emergency Health Services since August 2018. She was formerly a medical epidemiologist for the Maryland Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, and served as the chief of the Center for Surveillance, Infection Prevention and Outbreak Response. Dr. Wilson is the principal investigator for the Healthcare Associated Infections (HAI) branch of the CDC/Maryland Emerging Infections Program, conducting HAI surveillance, antibiotic resistance, and use research. In 2016, she initiated, then directed the Maryland antibiotic stewardship collaborative, CAAUSE, which targets antibiotic stewardship in acute and long-term care settings. She received her MD from the University of Maryland School of Medicine, her master's degree from Harvard School of Public Health, and underwent internal medicine residency and infectious disease fellowship training at Yale University and Johns Hopkins University.
Nicole Brandt, PharmD, MBA, BCPP, BCGP, FASCP
Dr. Brandt is a professor of pharmacy practice and science and executive director of the Peter Lamy Center on Drug Therapy and Aging. Since joining the University of Maryland School of Pharmacy, she has expanded the range of geriatric training opportunities available at the School, including its geriatrics pathway, ASHP-accredited geriatrics residency, geriatric fellowship, as well as served as co-investigator on a geriatric education consortium. She also has worked on various interdisciplinary teams across numerous practice settings and is currently leading initiatives to integrate sustainable pharmacist-directed services to help older adults with multiple co-morbidities age in place at the MedStar Center for Successful Aging.
Dr. Brandt has been active in promoting optimal care for older adults and has affected this through her educational, clinical, as well as health care policy work. She has directed projects such as Medication Use Safety Training for Seniors and Medicare Part D Medication Therapy Management programs. Her public policy advocacy occurs on both a state and national level, through which she has worked with the Maryland Board of Pharmacy on the Maryland Assisted Living Regulations. She also completed tenure at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) as a special technical director in the Nursing Home Survey and Certification program, working on interpretive guidance regarding medication management in nursing homes. She is one of the authors of the 2012, 2015 and 2018 American Geriatrics Society Beer’s Criteria and the past President and Board Chairman of American Society of Consultant Pharmacists.
Richard B. Brooks, MD, MPH
Dr. Brooks is a medical officer at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Division of Healthcare Quality Promotion and Maryland Department of Health, Office of Antimicrobial Resistance and Healthcare Associated Infection Response.
Dr. Brooks attended medical school at Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, and while there completed a masters degree's in public health at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. He completed his internship and residency in internal medicine at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). After working as a hospitalist in San Francisco and at George Washington University (GWU) in Washington, DC, for the following seven years, he transitioned to the world of public health and completed two years of field epidemiology training with CDC's Epidemic Intelligence Service at the Maryland Department of Health. He now works at the Maryland Department of Health as a field medical officer for CDC's Division of Healthcare Quality Promotion, focusing on antibiotic resistance and healthcare associated infections.
Sarah Kabbani, MD, MSc
Sarah Kabbani, MD, MSc, is an adult infectious disease physician in the Office of Antibiotic Stewardship, Division of Healthcare Quality Promotion, National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Dr. Kabbani completed her internal medicine residency at Wayne State University in Michigan. After working as an academic hospitalist for two years at Beaumont Health System, she joined Emory University in 2011, for her post-doctoral infectious disease fellowship. During her fellowship, she completed a Master of Science in clinical research at Emory, working with population surveillance data and was awarded an NIH T32 training grant in vaccinology. In 2016, she joined the Office of Antibiotic Stewardship as a medical officer, where her areas of concentration include older adult and long term care antibiotic stewardship.
William (Bill) M. Vaughan, RN
In 2013, Bill Vaughan joined Remedi SeniorCare after a 26 year career with Maryland’s state survey agency. Bill was a CMS certified health facility surveyor who evaluated the care delivered in Maryland’s nursing homes and assisted living facilities for 14 years. In 2001, he became chief nurse of Maryland’s Office of Health Care Quality and was responsible for the clinical oversight of the agency’s approximately 120 surveyors. After earning a Bachelor of Science in nursing from the University of Maryland, Baltimore in 1982, Bill gained clinical experience at the Johns Hopkins and University of Maryland Hospitals. He has taught pharmacy and nursing students at the University of the Sciences in Philadelphia, the University of Maryland School of Nursing, and Towson University. Bill speaks nationally on the regulation of health care facilities and was on CMS expert panels which developed guidance to surveyors on pain management and end of life care. He is currently a member of the Institute for Safe Medication Practices’ Clinical Advisory Board for their LTC newsletter.
Jennifer Hardesty, PharmD, FASCP
Jennifer Hardesty, PharmD, FASCP, is a clinical pharmacist with special interests in geriatric drug therapy and medication management. She received her PharmD from the University of Maryland School of Pharmacy, and completed a geriatrics residency at the Peter Lamy Center on Drug Therapy and Aging. Dr. Hardesty has since served as a clinical assistant professor at the Peter Lamy Center on Drugs and Aging, as a LTC consultant pharmacist, and as a geriatrics clinical advisor for Caremark/CVS. She has worked for Remedi SeniorCare for the past 10 years in various clinical leadership roles, and currently serves as Remedi SeniorCare’s Chief Clinical Officer.
J. Kristie Johnson, PhD, D(ABMM)
Dr. Kristie Johnson is a professor at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, Departments of Pathology and Epidemiology and Public Health and Microbiology and Immunology, and the medical director of the Clinical Microbiology Laboratory at the University of Maryland Medical Center. Dr. Johnson is a Diplomate of the American Board of Medical Microbiology and has expertise in the diagnosis of infectious disease. Dr. Johnson’s research focuses on the detection, transmission, and control of antimicrobial resistant organisms concentrating on methicillin resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) and resistant Gram-negative bacteria to include multi-drug resistant Enterobacteriaceae (KPC, ESBLs, and plasmid mediated AmpC), Acinetobacter baumannii, and Pseudomonas aeruginosa. She is currently funded through both federal and industry grants in the area of detection and epidemiology of antimicrobial resistance.
Kimberly Claeys, PharmD
Kimberly Claeys, PharmD, is an assistant professor at the in the Department of Pharmacy Practice and Science at the University of Maryland School of Pharmacy, specializing in infectious diseases. Dr. Claeys completed her PharmD at Wayne State University Eugene Applebaum College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences in Detroit, Michigan. She then completed her pharmacy practice residency at the University of Illinois at Chicago College of Pharmacy and University of Illinois at Chicago Hospital and Health Sciences System in Chicago, Illinois. After residency, she completed a two-year Infectious Diseases Pharmacotherapy and Health Outcomes Fellowship at the Anti-Infective Research Laboratory at Wayne State University as well as a graduate certificate in public health from Wayne State University School of Medicine. Her research interests include: infectious diseases epidemiology; antimicrobial and diagnostic stewardship, and clinical and economic outcomes of health care associated infections and drug-resistant bacterial infections.
Emily Heil, PharmD
Emily Heil, PharmD, is an assistant professor in the Department of Pharmacy Practice and Science at the University of Maryland School of Pharmacy. She also serves as the pharmacy director of the Antimicrobial Stewardship Program at the University of Maryland Medical Center. She completed her undergraduate and PharmD at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill and subsequently completed her pharmacy practice and infectious diseases pharmacy residency training at the University of North Carolina Hospitals. She is currently serving as the secretary/treasurer of the Society of Infectious Diseases Pharmacists. Her research interests include individualization of antimicrobial dosing, particularly in critically ill patients, antibiotic allergies, gram-negative resistance, and antimicrobial stewardship.
Surbhi Leekha MBBS, MPH
Surbhi Leekha MBBS, MPH, is an infectious diseases physician and associate professor in the Department of Epidemiology and Public Health at University of Maryland School of Medicine. She received her medical degree from the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, and a Master of Public Health in epidemiology from the University of Massachusetts. She completed her internal medicine residency and infectious diseases fellowship at Mayo Clinic in Rochester. She serves as the medical director for Infection Prevention and Hospital Epidemiology at the University of Maryland Medical Center. She conducts research on health care associated infections, with focus on surveillance methodology, implementation science, and infectious disease diagnostic stewardship.
Natalia Blanco Herrera, PhD, MPH
Dr. Blanco Herrera earned an MPH in epidemiology from the School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine at Tulane University and a PhD in epidemiological sciences from the School of Public Health at University of Michigan. She has strong training in laboratory sciences, clinical microbiology, and mathematical modeling. She worked in Guatemala City with the Influenza Program at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Central American Regional Office (CDC-CAR) through their Cooperative Agreement with Universidad del Valle. She now works at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, where her research focuses in antibiotic resistance and health care-associated infections.
Barbara J. Zarowitz, PharmD, FCCP, FCCM, BCPS, BCGP, FASCP
Dr. Zarowitz is self-employed as an independent consultant striving to advance geriatric pharmacotherapy solutions. In her current capacity, she has academic affiliations with Wayne State University, the University of Michigan Colleges of Pharmacy, and the Peter Lamy Center on Drug Therapy and Aging at the University of Maryland School of Pharmacy, where she participates in research and clinical program development for aging adults and their families. Barbara serves as a clinical expert for Curavi Health, a subsidiary of UPMC in Pittsburgh, and Think Research in Toronto, Canada.
Previously, Dr. Zarowitz was vice president, pharmacy care management at Henry Ford Health System; vice president and chief clinical office at Omnicare, Inc; chief clinical officer, long-term care for CVS Health. She created clinical programs for Omnicare, Inc.- subsequently a CVS Health Company, and developed strategies and tactics to manage drug utilization, including disease management and formulary management to optimize clinical outcomes. Omnicare provided care for 1.4 million older adults living in long-term care facilities.
She is board certified in pharmacotherapy (BCPS) and geriatric pharmacotherapy (BCGP) and is a fellow of the Society of Critical Care Medicine, American College of Clinical Pharmacy, and American Society of Consultant Pharmacists.
She has published 10 chapters, 125 peer-reviewed articles; 120 abstracts, editorials, letters and columns. Nationally and internationally, she has presented 75 original research papers and 76 invited lectures. She has been honored with 11 leadership, research, teaching, and practice awards.
Barbara is a past president of the American College of Clinical Pharmacy, a founding member of the Pharmacotherapy Specialty Council, and recipient of the ACCP Research Award and the ASCP George F. Archambauld Award for outstanding contributions to senior care pharmacy.