ANDRE C. KALIL. USA
Professor of Medicine University of Nebraska Medical Center (Omaha, Nebraska, USA).
Dr. Kalil is a practicing physician, professor of medicine, and researcher at the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha, Nebraska.
He is currently the Director of the Transplant Infectious Diseases Program at the University of Nebraska, and has been the principal investigator for multiple randomized controlled trials in Sepsis, Pneumonia, and COVID-19.
Dr. Kalil has received numerous honors and awards, including the 2021 Scientist Laureate Award, has been a peer-reviewer and editor for major medical journals, and has published over three hundred PubMed indexed scientific articles.
ANTON POZNIAK. UNITED KINGDOM
Anton Pozniak started caring for patients with HIV in 1983 in London. In 1989 he did his doctorate in TB/HIV in Zimbabwe. Currently he is Consultant Physician at the Chelsea and Westminster Hospital and was Director of the HIV service from 2008 until 2018. He is Honorary Professor (at the LSHTM. He was President of the International AIDS Society from 2018-2020.He is President of the European AIDS Trial Network NEAT-ID. He is Principal Investigator for a Test and Treat project in Tanzania. He is Guidelines panel member of the European AIDS Clinical Society and BHIVA. He is a DSMB chair for MRC and PENTA studies.
LILIAN ABBO. USA
Dr. Lilian Abbo, is the Associate Chief Medical Officer for Infectious Diseases at Jackson Health System and a Professor of Clinical Infectious Diseases at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine and the Miami Transplant Institute. Dr Abbo has been a patient advocate, health system leader and frontline infectious diseases expert managing infection prevention and antimicrobial stewardship through a complex ecosystem in Miami, Florida. She oversees across Jackson Health System, 7 acute care hospitals (including pediatrics and behavioral health), 2 nursing homes, 5 urgent care centers and 3 of the Miami Dade County jails. She graduated from the Universidad Central de Venezuela and completed her residency trainings at Jacobi Medical Center, NY and Mount Sinai Medical Center, Miami Beach, and a fellowship in Infectious Diseases at Jackson Memorial Hospital. She holds an Executive master’s in business administration (MBA) from the University of Miami Herbert Business School. Lilian has co-authored over 130 peer-reviewed publications, several book chapters, and has been an invited speaker in hundreds national and international meetings. She has been frequently interviewed by local, National, and international media outlets for her expertise in Infectious Diseases. Her research is focused on the management of complex solid organ transplant patients with multidrug resistant infections, infection prevention and antimicrobial stewardship. She is the past president of Women in Academic Medicine at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, and a Fellow of the 25th Executive Leadership in Academic Medicine (ELAM) Program for Women at Drexel University College of Medicine. She received the May Brunson University of Miami Women’s Commission Award in 2016; The UM Department of Medicine Diversity Award (2017) and the Women in Academic Medicine Leadership Award (2017). Dr Abbo is a Fellow of the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA) and currently serves in the IDSA Board of Directors.
RACHEL SMITH. ARGENTINA
Rachel Mann Smith is a board-certified, internal medicine physician who has worked in international public health at CDC for the past twelve years. Originally from San Diego, California, Dr. Smith received her medical degree and completed her residency in Internal Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco. She also received a master’s in public health from the University of California, Berkeley. She entered CDC as an Epidemic Intelligence Service (EIS) Officer in the Mycotic Diseases Branch. There, Dr. Smith was the lead EIS Officer investigating the 2012-2013 multi-state Fungal Meningitis outbreak caused by contaminated injectable steroid. For publications related to this work Dr. Smith was awarded the Charles C. Shepard Award, CDC’s highest award for scientific scholarship. She also led the implementation of the first programs for detection and early treatment for cryptococcal meningitis infections in persons living with AIDS in Vietnam, Mozambique, and South Africa.
In 2015 Dr. Smith was recruited to lead a team within the newly created International Infection Control Program (IICP), a program focusing on prevention and control of antibiotic resistance (AR) and healthcare associated infections (HAI). In this role, she has worked with international stakeholders, such as Ministries of Health, theWorld Health Organization (WHO) and academic partners, to strengthen surveillance for AR bacteria and HAI to improve the quality of healthcare in low-and-middle income countries. She has also overseen the Antibiotic Resistance in Communities and Hospital research consortium which seeks to understand the prevalence and risk factors for clinically important AR bacteria in six sites worldwide. She also led the development and launch of the Global Action in Healthcare Network, HAI module in 2021, a global network led by CDC with an aim to implement SARS-CoV-2 genomic surveillance in 12 hospitals in 4 countries to inform COVID-19 mitigation and control efforts.
In 2022, Dr. Smith was selected as CDC’s first Regional Advisor with assignment to the South American Regional Office. In this role she focuses on prevention and control of AR and improving IPC in the South American region.
Dr. Smith continues to respond to critical international outbreaks at CDC and has deployed to support Agency-wide responses such as Ebola, Zika, and COVID-19. At the outset of the COVID-19 outbreak Dr. Smith was seconded to the WHO to support the World Health Emergencies Infection Prevention and Control (IPC) Team and served as the Deputy Task Force Lead on the CDC Health Services and Worker Safety Task Force. Dr. Smith continues to stay clinically active and holds an adjunct assistant professorship at Emory University Hospital, Division of Hospital Medicine.