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The AHRQ Safety Program for Healthcare-Associated Infection (HAI) Prevention is funded and guided by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) and led by NORC at the University of Chicago and the Johns Hopkins University.
Sara Cosgrove, M.D., M.S., is a professor of medicine in the Division of Infectious Diseases at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and has a joint appointment in the Department of Epidemiology at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. She serves as the director of the Department of Antimicrobial Stewardship and the associate hospital epidemiologist at the Johns Hopkins Hospital. Her research interests include the epidemiology and outcomes of antimicrobial resistance, the development of tools and programs to promote the rational use of antimicrobials, the prevention of hospital-acquired infections, and the epidemiology and management of Staphylococcus aureus bacteremia. Dr. Cosgrove led the AHRQ Safety Program for Improving Antibiotic Use and is a co-investigator for the AHRQ Safety Program for Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) Prevention. She is a past president of the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology’s board of directors.
Prashila Dullabh, M.D., is a vice president and senior fellow at NORC at the University of the Chicago. She also directs the NORC Health Implementation Science Center. Dr. Dullabh is a clinician with more than 20 years of experience in healthcare and health services research. She has led several technical assistance, evaluation, and strategic projects for federal agencies and foundations. Her work includes large-scale implementation science projects focused on patient safety. Dr. Dullabh is the co-investigator for the AHRQ Safety Program for MRSA Prevention and is also involved in other patient safety initiatives including the Maryland Statewide Prevention and Reduction of COVID-19 (SPARC), the AHRQ Nursing Home COVID-19 Coordinating Center, and the AHRQ Safety Program for Telemedicine.
Bradford Winters, M.D., Ph.D., is a professor of critical care medicine, anesthesiology and surgery at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and an intensive care unit (ICU) intensivist in the Johns Hopkins Hospital surgical ICUs, which developed the original AHRQ Comprehensive Unit-based Safety Program (CUSP) strategy to drive central line-associated bloodstream infection improvement programs. He has supported the AHRQ CUSP for Catheter-Associated Urinary Tract Infections Prevention project and provided CUSP content expertise and education for the “Empower and Educate All Staff on the Science of Safety” program for the U.S. Navy Bureau of Medicine and Surgery. Dr. Winters served as the principal investigator for the AHRQ ACTION III projects validating the AHRQ Quality Safety Review system software outside of federal hospital databases and co-led the Society for Critical Care Medicine’s Alarm and Alert Fatigue Task Force as a patient safety threat. Dr. Winters is also a co-principal investigator for the AHRQ Safety Program for Telemedicine.
Roy Ahn, M.P.H., Sc.D., is a vice president in the Public Health Department at NORC at the University of Chicago. He was the project director of one of the evaluation portfolios of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ Health Care Innovation Award portfolios, and currently leads public health projects for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Ahn has worked for over 20 years at the intersection of program leadership and research in the areas of health policy, nonprofit/civil society organization management and strategy, and public health innovation. Prior to NORC, Ahn served as the founding associate director of the Division of Global Health & Human Rights in the Massachusetts General Hospital’s Department of Emergency Medicine, where he helped design, implement, and evaluate health innovation programs. He was also assistant professor of emergency medicine at Harvard Medical School. Ahn also leads evaluation for both the AHRQ Safety Program for MRSA Prevention and the AHRQ Safety Program for Telemedicine.
Cheryl Connors, D.N.P., R.N., N.E.A.-B.C., is the program director of organizational resilience for the Johns Hopkins Armstrong Institute for Patient Safety and Quality. She fosters a positive culture for Johns Hopkins Medicine that allows the health system to anticipate, prepare, respond, and recover within a dynamic, complex, and challenging environment. Connors is responsible for assessing culture, collaborating with member organization leaders, and planning interventions that effectively target safety issues. Her primary responsibility is director for the RISE (Resiliency in Stressful Events) program, which she co-created in 2010. In this role, Connors established a partnership with the Maryland Patient Safety Center to help healthcare organizations implement RISE model programs globally. Additionally, she is responsible for safety culture assessments and serves as faculty for the Team Strategies and Tools to Enhance Performance and Patient Safety (TeamSTEPPS) training program at the Johns Hopkins Armstrong Institute for Patient Safety and Quality.
Melanie Curless, M.S.P.H., R.N., C.I.C., is the director for Hospital Epidemiology and Infection Control at Johns Hopkins Hospital. She has post graduate degrees in pediatric nursing and public health and is certified in infection control. During her 11 years in the field of infection prevention, Curless has assessed, planned, and led infection prevention activities and performance improvement initiatives at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore, as well as internationally. She has worked with facilities and health professionals in a variety of global settings to increase capacity and prevent infections. Curless currently works on several projects preventing bloodstream infection in neonatal intensive care units situated in low- and middle-income settings. Previously, she worked with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Global Disease Detection Center in Egypt designing a healthcare-associated infection surveillance system and coordinating infection control research and training. Her main areas of expertise include development and delivery of training workshops, mentorship of infection prevention teams, and surveillance and prevention of healthcare-associated infection.
Valeria Fabre, M.D., is an associate professor of medicine in the Division of Infectious Diseases at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. She is an associate hospital epidemiologist and the associate medical director of the Adult Antimicrobial Stewardship Program at the Johns Hopkins Hospital. Her research interests include development of strategies to promote optimal use of antibiotics in hospitals, integration of frontline nurses into diagnostic stewardship, and healthcare-associated infection prevention initiatives. Dr. Fabre is a member of the Infectious Diseases Society of America Diagnostics Committee and the Society of Healthcare Epidemiology Journal Club Committee. She is also a co-investigator for the AHRQ Safety Program for MRSA Prevention.
Sara Keller, M.D., M.P.H., M.S.P.H., is an associate professor of medicine in the Division of Infectious Diseases at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. She serves as the medical director of the Johns Hopkins Hospital Outpatient Parenteral Antimicrobial Therapy (OPAT) Service. Her research focuses on measurement and prevention of healthcare-associated infections in the outpatient setting and is currently funded by AHRQ to study central line-associated bloodstream infections in people receiving home infusion therapy. Dr. Keller also studies approaches to antibiotic stewardship in the ambulatory setting and led the ambulatory component of the AHRQ Safety Program for Improving Antibiotic Use. She is also a co-principal investigator for the AHRQ Safety Program for Telemedicine.
Lisa Maragakis, M.D., M.P.H., is a professor of medicine in the Division of Infectious Diseases at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine with a joint appointment in Epidemiology in the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and senior director of infection prevention for the Johns Hopkins Health System. She is a nationally recognized expert in prevention of healthcare-associated infection (HAI) and multidrug-resistant organism transmission. Dr. Maragakis provides national HAI prevention leadership and expertise in her role as cochair of the Healthcare Infection Control Practices Advisory Committee for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In addition, she has extensive experience leading the development of national guidance on HAI prevention and implementation strategies through her role as cochair of the 2014 and 2020 updates of the Society of Healthcare Epidemiology-Infectious Diseases Society of America Compendium of Strategies to Prevent Healthcare Associated Infections. Dr. Maragakis is also a co-principal investigator for the AHRQ Safety Program for MRSA Prevention.
Sandy Swoboda, R.N., M.S., F.C.C.M., is a simulation educator and a leader of the Simulation Team at Johns Hopkins University School of Nursing. She was the co-coordinator of the National Council of State Boards of Nursing Simulation Study at the school and has over 18 years of experience as an educator, lecturer, and mentor in the clinical education setting. Swoboda has over 20 years of clinical trial experience and is a senior research program coordinator in the Department of Surgery at the School of Medicine. Her areas of expertise include simulation education and faculty development, debriefing, Interprofessional Simulation, diversity, communication, patient safety, ethics, and clinical trial management. As a surgical critical care nurse, Swoboda continues to provide bedside care and serve in a leadership capacity to the staff.
Kriston Koepp, M.S., is a senior research director in the Health Sciences Department at NORC at the University of Chicago. She has over 15 years of experience in research, managing complex data collection, data delivery, and reporting for government clients and private foundations. Koepp also leads operational and technical activities for the AHRQ Safety Program for MRSA Prevention.
Samuel Kim, B.A., is a research program supervisor in the Armstrong Institute for Patient Safety and Quality at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine with 8 years of experience administering and leading coordination of large-cohort implementation projects, including the AHRQ Safety Program for MRSA Prevention.
Alejandra Salinas, B.S., is a research program manager at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine with 8 years of experience managing projects and programs in epidemiology, quality improvement, implementation science, and clinical research. She also serves as the program manager of the Johns Hopkins Prevention Epicenter and manages implementation of a diagnostic blood culture stewardship algorithm.
Kathleen Speck, M.P.H., is a research project administrator in the Armstrong Institute for Patient Safety and Quality at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. She has over 20 years of progressive project management experience with extensive successful experience in administering large-cohort implementation projects, such as the Cardiovascular Surgery Translational Study, the AHRQ Safety Program for Mechanically Ventilated Patients, the AHRQ Safety Program for Improving Antibiotic Use, and the AHRQ Safety Program for MRSA Prevention.