Faculty

Dr. Patricia Bray is a Board certified Occupational Medicine physician and Medial Officer at the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) in Washington, D.C.  She received her graduate medial training at the National Naval Medical Center, Tulane University School of Public Health and Johns Hopkins School of Public Health.  Prior to joining OSHA, she worked in private practice as a family practitioner and Aviation Medical Examiner.  She is also a former Naval Flight Surgeon.  She is a member of OSHA's Specialized Biologic Response Team and one of the principle authors of the OSHA Guidance document: Pandemic Influenza Preparedness and Response Guidance for Healthcare Workers and Healthcare Employers.

Currently, Dr. Bray is the Acting Director of Occupational Medicine, Directorate of Science, Technology and Medicine, United States Department of Labor, Occupational Safety and Health Administration (USDOL-OSHA).

Darrell A. Campbell, Jr., M.D

Darrell A. Campbell, Jr., M.D., is Chief of Clinical Affairs at the University of Michigan Health System.  He is also Henry King Ransom Professor of Surgery in the Department of Surgery and has for many years specialized in solid organ transplantation, particularly kidney, liver, and pancreas.  As Chief of Clinical Affairs, Dr. Campbell is responsible for the overall quality of care delivered at the University of Michigan Health System, and has a special interest in patient safety. 

Dr. Campbell received his BS degree in zoology from Michigan State University in 1968, and graduated with distinction from George Washington University, receiving an MD degree in 1972.  Subsequently, Dr. Campbell received his General Surgery training at the University of Michigan Medical School from 1972 through 1979.  During this period, he spent two years as an investigator in the National Cancer Institute, National Institutes of Health, working in the laboratory of Ronald B. Herberman, Chief of Immunodiagnostics.  Following General Surgery training, Dr. Campbell began his special interest in transplantation, a field which he has pursued and in which he continues to be actively involved.  Dr. Campbell spent six months on sabbatical with Professor Sir Roy Calne learning the intricacies of liver transplantation in Cambridge, England, in 1986. Subsequently he became Chief of the Section of General Surgery and continued in this position until 1997.

Elizabeth Coughlin, MPA, BSN

Elizabeth Coughlin has been a nurse since 1972 and received her BSN from SUNY Stony Brook in 1979.  She subsequently was awarded a MPA in Disaster and Emergency Management from Metropolitan College of New York in January 2007.  Ms. Coughlin has been a Nurse Epidemiologist since 1986 and certified in Infection Control since 1995.

In her role as a Nurse Epidemiologist, Ms. Coughlin has been involved in a myriad of challenging experiences ranging from responding to one of the largest outbreaks of salmonella enteritidis in NYC in 1986 to working with the Hepatitis Branch of the CDC from 1994-1999 in a cooperative, multi-agency, school based effort to establish the sero-prevalance of hepatitis b in the Asian community in lower Manhattan and immunize 10,000 school age children at risk for acquiring the infection.

She is currently the Assistant Director of Infection Control at the Mount Sinai Medical Center

in New York and is pursuing a post-graduate certification in Medical Informatics. Prior to that she was the Director of Infection Control at New York Westchester Medical Center.  Her interest in epidemiology is matched only by her interest in data management.  She has been designing data bases for over ten years.

Thanh Dao is an infection control professional from St. Luke's Episcopal Health System, Houston, TX.  St. Luke's Hospital has successfully implemented a data mining program with an addition of a single lab interface to an infection control database.  Through data mining, enormous amounts of data are transformed into valuable information used for early identification and detection of microbial clusters to prevent costly outbreaks.  The creation of an in-house data mining system saves money for St. Luke's hospital and allows the busy ICP time to focus their efforts on reducing healthcare-associated infections and impact patient care.

Loretta Litz Fauerbach, BS, MS, CIC

Loretta Litz Fauerbach, BS, MS, CIC is Infection Control Director for Shands at the University of Florida, the academic medical center affiliated with UF and Shands HealthCare System.  Her expertise encompasses the healthcare spectrum -- from pre-hospital settings (including homecare and ambulatory surgical centers and clinical practices) to community hospitals and the quarternary care medical center, pediatric hospitals, burn and transplant centers.  

Loretta was the 2007 Carole DeMille Achievement Award winner from APIC.  She has served on APIC's Board of Directors, represented APIC on HICPAC and was the practice Guidance Team chair.  With 30 years experience in infection control, Fauerbach has played key roles in numerous professional organizations.  She is a member of APIC, SHEA and ASM. She also has served as APIC's liaison to AAMI, HICPAC and IDSA during which multiple sentinel guidelines were produced by those agencies/associations.  Loretta is APIC's representative to Joint Commission's expert advisory panel on monitoring hand hygiene.  She is also APIC's leader for the SHEA APIC Communication Network.  She is also active in Florida as a board member of the Florida Professionals in Infection Control, serves on the Florida AHCA workgroup on healthcare infection reporting and on the Florida Hospital Association Hospital Acquired Infection Prevention Advisory Panel.  Ms. Fauerbach has published in peer review journals and has authored several chapters on infection prevention and control.   Loretta frequently presents at national and state meetings.

Lisa Gorski, MS, APRN, BC, CRNI, FAAN   

Lisa Gorski is the recent past President of the Infusion Nurses Society. She is a frequent presenter and is widely published - she has written three books on home infusion therapy and has contributed many articles on this topic to a variety of nursing journals. Lisa serves on the Editorial Board of Home Health Care Nurse and writes a recurring column, "Speaking of Standards," for the Journal of Infusion Nursing. Currently, Lisa is a Clinical Nurse Specialist for a large Milwaukee home care agency since 1985. Lisa was given the Alumni Achievement Award by University of Wisconsin- Milwaukee College of Nursing in 2001, was honored as the Certified Infusion Nurse (CRNI) of the Year in 2003 by INS, and was inducted as a Fellow in the prestigious American Academy of Nursing in 2006.

Lisa has her master's degree in nursing from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee College of Nursing and is certified as a clinical nurse specialist in home health nursing by the ANCC and in infusion nursing by INS.

Lisa Greene RN, BSN, C, CIC

Lisa Greene RN, is currently the Corporate Compliance Officer, Nursing Director, and Infection Control Officer for Perseus House, Inc. in Erie, PA. 

Lisa is board certified in Infection Control through the CBIC and Medical Surgical Nursing through the ANCC.  She has also been a member of APIC both nationally and locally since 1999.  She will be completing her Masters Degree in Nursing and is going to be sitting for her board certification as a Nurse Practitioner in this year.

Barbara Jordan, RN, MSN, CCRN, CNAA-BC

In her current role as the Clinical Director of Infection Control/Regulatory Compliance at UPMC St. Margaret in Pittsburgh, PA, Barbara is responsible and accountable for the management and leadership of the hospital-wide infection control program to improve the quality of patient care for inpatients, outpatients, employees and the community.  Responsibilities also include coordination of compliance with The Joint Commission, Pennsylvania Department of Health, OSHA, and CMS regulations and standards. She assists irectors/managers/supervisors in identifying indicators and developing performance improvement monitoring tools as well as process improvements. She also collaborates with Medical Staff Committees and hospital departments to assure compliance with related standards.

Barbara graduated from Duquesne University with a Bachelor of Science in Nursing and from The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with a Master of Science in Nursing. During most of her 27 years in nursing she has held various leadership positions in critical care nursing. She has worked in a variety of settings including community hospitals, tertiary care facilities, staffing agency, and a telephone advice call center. She also teaches in the RN to BSN Program at Waynesburg University. Barbara has given presentations on MRSA, CLABS prevention, Avian Flu preparedness and UTI reduction and prevention.

Louise Kuhny, RN, MPH, MBA, CIC
Senior Associate Director, Standards Interpretation
The Joint Commission

Louise Kuhny currently holds the position of Senior Associate Director, Standards Interpretation at the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations.

Ms. Kuhny's primary responsibility is assisting accredited organizations, surveyors, consumers and other individuals in the interpretation of Joint Commission standards. She is also a Joint Commission Surveyor for the Hospital Accreditation Program. Ms. Kuhny has 20 years of nursing experience. Prior to joining the Joint Commission, she worked in the fields of hospital epidemiology, employee health and critical care, at several hospitals in the Chicago area.

Ms. Kuhny is certified in infection control by the Certification Board of Infection Control and Epidemiology, is a member of the American College of Healthcare Executives and had led an emergency services team for the Suburban Emergency Management Project (SEMP). She also contributed a chapter to "The First 72 Hours," a book by Margaret O'Leary, on community disaster-preparedness.

Ms. Kuhny holds Master of Public Health and Master of Business Administration degrees, both from Benedictine University, Lisle, Illinois. She received her Bachelor of Science in Nursing from the University of Illinois at Chicago.

Jeremias Murillo, MD

Dr. Murillo is the Hospital Epidemiologist of Newark Beth Israel Medical Center.  He is board-certified in pediatrics and infectious diseases.  He received a certificate of special training in hospital epidemiology at the University of Minnesota.  He is Clinical Associate Professor of Pediatrics at the New York College of Osteopathic Medicine, a Fellow of the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America, member of IDSA and Infections Disease Society.  He is a leader in innovative research on developing protocols for the prevention of MRSA in the Saint Barnabas Health Care System and in New Jersey.

Victoria Nathum

Victoria Nathum and her husband Armando established Safe Care Campaign after their son, Josh died from an infection he caught from his care in October of 2006.  Victoria is the Executive Director for Safe Care Campaign and works closely with the CDC, APIC, hospitals and health care systems throughout the country, in the effort to prevent these infections.  They developed a website to better education patients and families regarding a good, safe care and now works closely with organizations to prevent these infections thru a variety of educational projects, hand hygiene, videos and speaking engagements.

Dr. O'Boyle has more than 30 years of experience in health care, including infection control in both domestic and international health care settings and application of infection control principles in community and home environments. She brings an accomplished record of infection control experience to her role as a Joint Commission Resources, Inc. (JCR) consultant. Before joining JCR, Dr. O'Boyle served as a supervisor in the epidemiology section of the Minnesota Department of Health, and she managed infection control programs in acute care facilities as a nurse epidemiologist. At the University of Minnesota, she served as coordinator of the Public Health Nursing graduate area of study. In addition to her usual course work, she developed and taught a course on international infection control to students from all over the world.

Dr. O'Boyle possesses strong analytical, communication and presentation skills, and she facilitates creative problem-solving for realistic application of infection control principles in contemporary health care facilities.

Dr. O'Boyle's experience includes providing infection prevention and control consultation to a variety of health care settings, including hospitals, clinics, and surgery centers both in the United States and abroad. She has conducted hospital assessments and developed educational programs responsive to the needs of the community, geographic region, and country. Her research has included health care worker adherence to infection control recommendations, infection control staffing requirements, and nurses' responses to bioterrorism threats. She has authored articles and book chapters on infection control.

Dr. O'Boyle has served on the board of the Association of Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology (APIC) and has held leadership positions on many APIC national committees. She also has served as a member of the Society of Hospital Epidemiologists' International Assistance Committee. She is on the HealthCare Infection Control Practices Advisory Committee, which provides advice to the U.S. surgeon general and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. She is an Associate Member of the Graduate School, School of Nursing, University of Minnesota, and an Affiliate Senior Member in Environmental Health, School of Public Health, University of Minnesota.

Dr. O'Boyle received her Bachelor's of Science, her Master's of Science in Public Health Nursing, and her Doctorate in Nursing with a minor in Public Health from University of Minnesota, Minneapolis.

Her professional affiliations include Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology, Society of Hospital Epidemiologists, and Sigma Theta Tau.

Kelly Podgorny, RN, MS, CPHQ

Kelly Podgorny, RN, MS, CPHQ, is a Project Director in the Division of Standards and Survey Methods at The Joint Commission.  She has worked in quality management, performance improvement and accreditation readiness for over 20 years and has held the position of director of quality management at two Midwest health care organizations. Ms Podgorny holds a Bachelors of Science Degree in Nursing from the College of St. Teresa, and a Masters Degree in Nursing Science from Northwestern University. She also is certified in health care quality from the National Association of Health Care Quality and is on the board of the Illinois Association of Health Care Quality. At The Joint Commission, Ms. Podgorny has responsibilities for both the Medication Management and Infection Control Standards.  Ms. Podgorny was actively involved in the development of the Compendium of Implementation Strategies with the HAI-Allied Task Force.

Ms. Soule has worked in health care for more than 35 years. She currently serves as practice leader for infection prevention services for Joint Commission Resources (JCR) and Joint Commission International (JCI). In this capacity she provides oversight and coordination for all infection control activities in consulting, infection control program assessment, and education across multiple health care settings. She practices both in the U.S. and international settings.

Ms. Soule has broad experience practicing and teaching about infection prevention and control and health care epidemiology and has published extensively in this area. She has also served as a consultant in strategic thinking and improving team dynamics. She is an associate editor of the American Journal of Infection Control, a former President of The Association for Practitioners of Infection Control and Epidemiology and in 2006 was appointed to the CDC's Healthcare Infections Practices Advisory Committee (HICPAC).

Ms Soule has worked in acute care organizations in a variety of capacities.  She served as Director of Infection Control and Epidemiology for 25 years at Providence St. Peter Hospital in Olympia, Washington, as Director of Safety, and Director of Quality Management Services. In this latter role she managed programs in quality and performance improvement, hospital epidemiology and infection control, risk management, clinical research, education, and care management services.

In addition to being a registered nurse, she has a degree in psychology and sociology from Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri and a Master's degree in public administration with a concentration in health policy from The Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington. She has been certified in Infection Control for over 20 years.

Sandra Stricoff, MS, RN

Sandra Stricoff, MS, RN is currently the Director of Infection Control and Employee Health at St. Anthony Community Hospital in Warwick, New York.

Sandra Stricoff is certified in infection control and is certified as an occupational health nurse specialist.  She has a Bachelors Degree in Nursing from the University of Maryland in Baltimore, MD and a Masters Degree in Nursing from Adelphi University in Garden City, NY.  She also has a Bachelors of Arts Degree in Psychology from Mount Saint Mary College in Newburgh, NY and is a member of PSI CHI, the National Honor Society in Psychology. She is an active member of APIC and AAOHN.

Dennis Tomczyk, MA

Dennis Tomczyk is the Director, Hospital Emergency Preparedness for the State of Wisconsin Division of Public Health.  For 20 years he has served in administrative roles in hospitals in both Illinois and Wisconsin.  In his present position, he is responsible for the development and implementation of preparedness plans for Wisconsin hospitals, EMS, physician offices, community health centers and non-hospital healthcare facilities and their key emergency response partners to respond to "all hazards mass casualty incidents".  He has a Masters degree in Health Care Administration from Webster University in St. Louis, Missouri.

Stephen Weber, MD is Assistant Professor of Medicine, in the Department of Medicine, Infectious Diseases at the University of Chicago Medical Center, Chicago, IL.

He attended medical school at the New York University Medical School in New York and his residency at the University of Chicago Hospitals.  Dr. Weber's clinical interests are in infectious diseases in the Geriatric patient.

Dr. Weber is currently a Joint Commission Resources consultant in infectious diseases.

Jeanne Zack, PhD, RN, CIC

Jeanne Zack is the Manager of Infection Prevention and Control at Missouri Baptist Medical Center in Saint Louis Missouri and is certified in Infection Prevention and Control. Jeanne graduated in May from the University of Missouri-St. Louis with her PhD. She has held positions as an Infection Prevention and Control Specialist, a research assistant working on a CDC grant to reduce Central Line-Associated Bloodstream Infections and Ventilator-Associated Pneumonia, and adjunct faculty at the University of Missouri-St. Louis and the Jewish College of Nursing and Allied Health Services at Washington University School of Medicine. She speaks nationally about interventions to reduce central line-associated infections and ventilator-associated pneumonia and is extensively published in the literature. Her work in reducing infections using educational interventions has been replicated in Thailand.