Dr. Carol M. McLay is a leading consultant in infection prevention and control, healthcare epidemiology, and public health, with over 25 years of experience advancing clinical practice, research, and education in the field.

A passionate advocate for certification and education, Dr. McLay is dedicated to mentoring the next generation of infection preventionists. She frequently speaks at state, national, and international conferences and is the author of several key resources, including The Infection Prevention Competency Review Guide, 4th Edition, and APIC’s Certification Study Guide (5th–7th editions).

Dr. McLay will serve as the 2025 APIC President and holds leadership roles as a Director on the International Federation for Infection Control (IFIC) Board and the AJIC Editorial Board. She is certified in infection prevention and control (CIC), a Fellow of both APIC and SHEA, and a certified ISO 9001 Lead Auditor.

Dr. McLay earned her Bachelor of Science in Nursing from the University of Ottawa (Canada), her Master of Public Health from Emory University (USA), and her Doctorate of Public Health from the University of Kentucky (USA).

Katherine (Kathy) Ward has been an Infection Preventionist for more than 20 years. Her current position is Infection Preventionist, Team Lead, at Roper St. Francis Healthcare in Charleston, SC. As a member of APIC-Palmetto Chapter, she has served as President, President-Elect, Program Chair and Co-chair as well as member and Chair of Governmental Affairs. Currently, she is a member of the SC Healthcare Infections Disclosure Advisory Council as well as Chair of the APIC Palmetto LASIC.

Kathy has also served at the National level as Member/Chair of Nominating and Awards Committee; Board of Directors in addition to Member and Chair of Practice Guidance Committee.

Her interests include focus on reducing the labor of data collection and reporting in order to allow the IP to utilize the expertise to prevent HAIs.

Kathy believes APIC will continue to be the leader with the ever changing healthcare environment while remaining cognizant of the challenges facing IPs at the local level.

Kathy received her Bachelor of Science degree from Florida International University and Master in Public Health from Emory University. She has been certified in Infection Control since 1993.

Dr. Tania Bubb is Senior Director of Infection Prevention & Control at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in NY, NY. She has worked as an Infection Preventionist since 2006 at major academic medical centers with responsibilities spanning the continuum of care. She’s served her local and national APIC board of directors. Prior to serving at the national level, Dr. Bubb chaired the APIC Professional Development Committee, was a member of the American Journal of Infection Control Editorial Review Board, and APIC’s Practice Resource Editorial Panel. Most recently, Dr. Bubb co-chaired APIC’s Health Inequities and Disparities Taskforce and is the 2024 APIC President. She is an experienced speaker and author, having presented at local and national APIC events as well as other conferences, and authored publications related to the field of infection prevention and control.

Dr. Bubb received Bachelor and Master of Science Degrees in Nursing from City University of New York Herbert H. Lehman College and earned Doctor of Philosophy Degree in Nursing from New York University.

Stephanie Carraway has accumulated a wealth of expertise in the field of infection prevention during her twelve years as an Infection Preventionist at Moffitt Cancer Center. She holds a Bachelor of Science degree from The Florida State University, which she earned in 2006. In 2013, Stephanie earned a graduate certificate in Infection Control from the University of South Florida, followed by a Master’s in Public Health in 2015, also from the University of South Florida. Stephanie is board certified in both Infection Control & Epidemiology as well as Long-term care.

Stephanie’s dedication to her profession extends beyond her daily work. She has been actively involved in national, state, and local infection control associations since 2011. In 2017, she served as President for APIC chapter 055 (Bay Area). She also served on the APIC conference committee from 2021-2023. Her experience with Catheter Associated Urinary Tract Infection (CAUTI) improvement efforts has earned her invitations to speak twice for the Florida Hospital Association, and she has presented several poster abstracts at national APIC.

Stephanie’s expertise in infection prevention is not limited to her clinical experience. She is certified by the Healthcare Sterile Processing Association (HSPA) as an endoscope reprocessor (CER). Her extensive knowledge in this area has led her to serve on the CER Job Analysis Task force and standard setting committee for HSPA.

Lisa is the Infection Prevention Coordinator at Genesis Health System in Davenport, IA. She has more than 40 years of nursing experience 25 of which have been in infection prevention and control. Her practice settings include acute care and critical access hospitals and ambulatory care. She is an active member of Eastern Iowa APIC and the Iowa Nurses Association where she served at president 2019-2021.

Lisa is a current member of the APIC Board of Directors serving as a director at-large. She is the chair of the APIC Ethics Committee and co-chair of the APIC/IPAC-Canada Task Force working on the publication of an Infection Prevention and Control Ethical Framework. She is a member of the APIC By-Laws and Finance Committees.

Lisa is a clinical editor for the APIC Text-On-line, and served as a contributing author to the 2014 and 2014 editions of the CIC Certification Study Guide. She has presented at both local, state and national conferences on multiple infection prevention & control topics, including professional development.

She is a past chair of the APIC Professional Development Committee, and served as a member of the APIC Competency Revision Task Force. In these roles, Lisa was instrumental in the revision and publication of the APIC Competency Model, Professional Practice Standards and the development of the APIC Fellows recognition program.

She received her Bachelor of Science in Nursing from Marycrest /college in Davenport, IA and Master in Healthcare Administration from the University of St. Francis in Joliet, IL. She has been certified in Infection Prevention and Control since 2004 and Medical-Surgical Nursing through the American Nurses Credentialing Center since 1993. In 2016, she received recognition as an APIC Fellow.

Dr. Pogorzelska-Maziarz is a Professor at Villanova University’s M. Louise Fitzpatrick College of Nursing in Villanova, PA. Her research focuses on infection prevention and control across the continuum of healthcare. She is the Principal Investigator on an AHRQ-funded study to validate infection prevention staffing measures and describe the impact of COVID-19 on infection control departments and healthcare-associated infections in acute care. Dr. Pogorzelska-Maziarz has authored and co-authored more than 80 peer-reviewed manuscripts and several book chapters.

In recognition of her work in infection prevention and control, she was the recipient of APIC’s New Investigator Award in 2009 and became a Fellow of APIC in 2017. Dr. Pogorzelska-Maziarz has contributed to APIC in numerous ways over the past decade including service on the Editorial Review Board of the American Journal of Infection Control and as a clinical editor of the APIC Text. She has also developed and edited the “Fundamentals of Statistics and Epidemiology” textbook published by APIC in 2016. She completed a two-year term as the Chair of APIC’s Research Committee and led APIC’s effort in conducting and analyzing APIC’s 2020 MegaSurvey.

Sarah Smathers, MPH, CIC, FAPIC is the System Director of Infection Prevention and Control (IPC) for the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP). Sarah serves on the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology (APIC) Board of Directors. She has recently served as Chair of the Public Policy Committee for APIC and previously served as President of the Delaware Valley/Philadelphia APIC Chapter. Sarah is a member of the APIC Infection Prevention Academic Pathway and has a passion for growing the next generation of infection preventionists. She is an Affiliate Faculty and co-founder of the Infectious Disease Prevention and Control Certificate and Infection Prevention Master of Science at Drexel University’s Dornsife School of Public Health. In 2020, she joined the Public Health Steering Committee to establish the first county health department for Delaware County, PA, where she resides. She also recently served as the APIC liaison to the Healthcare Infection Control Practices Advisory Committee (HICPAC). Sarah is certified in Infection Control and an APIC fellow with a special interest in infection prevention program development.

MJ Morrison had been with Regions Hospital, which is part of the HealthPartners family of care, since 2017. She had overall leadership for the staff and teams that that support the delivery of safe, quality, equitable care to patients which includes Quality, Safety, Accreditation, Infection Prevention, Patient Representatives, Emergency Preparedness, Data Analytics, Clinical Documentation Improvement, Capacity Management/Patient Placement, and the Patient Access Center.

Morrison was the recipient of the APIC 2022 Healthcare Administrator award for her leadership in establishing an organizational culture that enables and supports infection prevention and control.

Dr. Ellen Taylor is Vice President for Research at the Center for Health Design, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit. She has a bachelor’s degree in architecture from Cornell University’s College of Architecture, Art and Planning, Global Executive MBA degrees from Columbia University and London Business School, and a PhD in design, patient safety and human factors from Loughborough University in England. She serves on the Facility Guidelines Institute Health Guidelines Revisions Committee (FGI HGRC) as Vice Chair, on the Editorial Advisory Board of the American Journal of Infection Control (AJIC), as co-editor of the Health Environments Research and Design (HERD) Journal, and she was a board member of the AIA Academy of Architecture for Health (2019-2023), serving as president in 2022. Dr. Taylor was recognized by Healthcare Design as one of the HCD10 (Research) in 2017 and by the Facility Guidelines Institute in 2023 with the Pioneer Award.

As an external director, Dr. Taylor will bring her passion for patient and staff safety to the APIC Board, with a particular focus on the role of the built environment. Additionally, she will bring her experience in both collaborating toward and leading consensus-based initiatives. She led the FGI HGRC workgroup to establish minimum requirements for seven components of a Safety Risk Assessment (SRA), and she simultaneously worked with The Center for Health Design’s team, and more than 120 volunteers, to advance the SRA toolkit to support the Guidelines requirements. She led the development of the open-access online SRA tool that launched in 2017. A nationally and internationally recognized writer and speaker, she has participated in grant-funded research programs and published numerous peer-reviewed papers. She has authored numerous guidance documents, as well, including the Infection Control Risk Assessment chapter in the 2018 ASHE publication, Using the health care physical environment to prevent and control infection.

Beth Wallace is currently Director of Infection Prevention and Epidemiology at Corewell Health Southfield, Michigan.

She has been an infection preventionist for 16 years in hospitals of varying sizes and settings, including both community and academic care sites.

As an APIC member since 2006, Wallace has served at the local chapter and national level. Local chapter engagement includes president-elect and president of the Dallas-Fort Worth and Great Lakes chapters of APIC. Nationally, she was a member of the steering committee for APIC’s 2018 consensus conference “The Role of the Infection Preventionist in a Transformed Healthcare System: Meeting Healthcare Needs in the 21st Century” and contributed to APIC’s COVID-19 white paper published in 2022 “Between a Rock and a Hard Place: Recommendations for Balancing Patient Safety and Pandemic Response.” She also served as Chair of APIC’s national Communications Committee. She has been a speaker at local APIC chapter events and at the national conference.

Wallace received her Bachelor of Science Degree in Biology from Valparaiso University and her Master of Public Health degree with a focus on hospital and molecular epidemiology from the University of Michigan. She has been certified in infection control (CIC) since 2008.

Paula Pintar most recently served as the Enterprise Director for Infection Prevention and Control at Froedtert & The Medical College of Wisconsin in Milwaukee. Paula has more than two decades of experience working as a Registered Nurse in critical care, hospice and home care and more than ten years in the field of infection prevention and control. She has held local APIC positions including chapter president and board of directors in Wisconsin and served on the national Professional Development committee. Paula has leadership experience in the private and public health sectors. She served as the Chief Quality officer at our nation’s first and only integrated Department of Veterans Affairs and Department of Defense / Navy health care center, Captain James A. Lovell Federal Health Care Center in North Chicago, Illinois this facility is integrated with the Great Lakes naval base, serving our veterans and active-duty service men and women. She has authored and presented conference abstracts locally and at the state, published works in peer reviewed journals focused on supporting and advancing the Infection Prevention professional. She has also been a speaker at local and state conferences highlighting infection prevention and control topics.

Justin Smyer is a certified infection preventionist and the director of the Department of Clinical Epidemiology and High-Level Disinfection Team, at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center. He is also a fellow of the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology (APIC).

Smyer has been in infection prevention since 2011 working in an acute care/academic medical center in a variety of settings including community, rehabilitation, psychiatric and oncology hospitals. He served as the Education Chair (2016-2017) and President (2020-2021) for the Central Ohio APIC Chapter. He also served on the Nominating Committee (2015) and as the Chairman (2017) for the national Comprehensive Cancer Center Infection Prevention group (C3IC).

Smyer was a chapter author of APIC Text, 4th edition and The Infection Preventionist’s Guide to the Lab. He also received APIC’s New Investigator Award in 2016 for developing an electronic VAE surveillance program. Smyer is a certified Medical Laboratory Scientist with six years of experience working in Clinical Microbiology. Smyer is a graduate of The Ohio State University College of Public Health’s Master of Public Health program and Fisher College of Business Master of Business Administration program.

Lisa Sturm has been in the field of infection prevention for more than 30 years, is certified in infection prevention and is a Fellow of APIC. Prior to working in infection prevention and control, she was a nuclear medicine technologist, but her passion has always been rooted in germ theory.

Sturm has worked in various capacities during her career in academic and community hospital settings, and most recently in a system role as senior director of Infection Prevention at Ascension, the largest non-profit health system in the United States. She has served APIC as Chair of APIC’s national Public Policy Committee and the Chapter Legislative Representative (CLR) for the APIC Great Lakes Chapter. Prior to that Sturm served her APIC chapter in various other board roles over the years.

Sturm has been published in numerous peer-review journals including the American Journal of Infection Control (AJIC) and Infection Control & Epidemiology (ICHE). She is the author of book chapters on infection prevention and control and has presented internationally. Her most recent research is centered around the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on healthcare-associated infections.

Sturm loves working in infection prevention and believes it is one of the most important and rewarding jobs in healthcare today.

Aimee Baerlocher MPH, CIC, FAPIC, has been an Infection Preventionist for 20 years at St. Luke’s Health System in Boise, Idaho and certified (CIC) since 2007 and received a Fellow of APIC (FAPIC) in 2017. She currently is the System Director of Infection Prevention, having program oversite in Acute Care, Critical Access, Rehab, LTC, Home Health, and Ambulatory settings to ensure best practice implementation, standardization, and building collaborations. Aimee’s journey in IP also consists of volunteering for her local APIC Chapter (Intermountain 123) in President, Secretary, and committee roles and serving on the national APIC Member Services Committee (2017-2019) and most recently on the Nominating and Awards Committee (NAC) (2021-2023) and participating with APIC’s Corporate Group, networking with system directors and other IP programs. Volunteering at a local and national level leads to a path of leadership, gaining new knowledge, experiences, networks, and advancements in the profession. IPs learn and grow from each other every day. Aimee has been dedicated to growing and mentoring IPs, ultimately building pathways for professional and career advancement through training, competencies, and certification in the field, and presented on the topic at the APIC virtual conference in 2021. She is always looking for ways to advance and support the profession and is a true champion of APIC and the IP role. There are many opportunities for sharing best practices and improvements in infection prevention, decreasing HAIs, and providing safe patient care. Aimee is looking forward to building new relationships and collaborations and bringing best practices to the membership and continuing to advance the profession.

Chaz earned a Master of Public Health in Epidemiology from the University of Florida and began his career as an Infection Preventionist in 2007. He is currently the Assistant Vice President of Infection Prevention at HCA Healthcare North Florida Division where he oversees infection prevention operations and strategy for 15 acute care facilities and all associated sites of care. Chaz became certified in infection prevention in 2012, recognized as an APIC Hero (2016), APIC Fellow (2019), and APIC Champion (2022).

His professional passions include advancing the field of IP through leadership development of IPs and advocating for MPH-ers as equally qualified candidates for IP positions. To that end, he serves as co-chair of the APIC Academic Pathway Steering Committee (2021 – present), and recently served on the APIC Professional Development Committee (2020 – 2022).

On a personal note, Chaz is a New Orleans native, an extroverted introvert, violinist, Jeep enthusiast, and “sneakerhead”. He is a husband to Tara, who also works in infection prevention, and a girldad to Lily (9) and Iris (6).

Dr. Jopp joined APIC as CEO on December 7, 2020. He brings to APIC more than two decades of association leadership with a wide array of experience and accomplishments from across the healthcare and nonprofit sectors. He has been recognized as one of the top 100 most influential healthcare leaders by Healthcare Management International Magazine and one of the top 50 healthcare IT experts by Health Data Management Magazine.

Prior to APIC, he served as CEO for the American College Health Association, the principal leadership organization for advancing the health and well-being of the nation’s 20 million college students and their campus communities through advocacy, education, and research.  He has also previously served as president and CEO for the Workgroup for Electronic Data Interchange (WEDI), a national nonprofit advisor to the Secretary of Health and Human Services focused on enhancing the exchange of healthcare information.  Before joining WEDI, he served as chief operating officer for the Service Corp of Retired Executives, a national nonprofit organization that provides business mentoring and training to American entrepreneurs.  Earlier in his career, Dr. Jopp held leadership positions at URAC, an independent, nonprofit healthcare accreditation organization, and at the Health Insurance Association of America.

Dr. Jopp received a Bachelor of Arts in computer information systems from the College of Notre Dame of Maryland, a Master of Science in computer and information sciences from Hood College, and a Doctor of Education in human and organizational learning (EdD) from the George Washington University.

Carole DeMille served as APIC president from 1975-76. One of APIC’s visionary founders, she later became an internationally recognized authority in the developing field of hospital infection control. She passed away in 1979, but her vision lives on in the work of infection preventionists and front-line care teams throughout the world. In 1980, APIC established an award in her honor. Learn more about past recipients. Below, past presidents reflect on Carole DeMille and her contribution to the infection prevention field.

Patricia Lynch:

“I was inspired by her, laughed with her, got kicked into gear by her. Carole was unstoppable, inventive and wildly fun to work with. One night after a long day of an APIC Board meeting we were tired and discouraged. We couldn’t afford elections AND a conference so we would all have to re-up for another year; also, we were eating burgers from McDonald’s—again—and bedtime was too far off. Carole made us stop what we were working on and develop a budget for $100,000, a sum well beyond what we had even dreamed about. She made us do it! We were absolutely energized by the budget exercise and our vision improved immediately. Carole was like that. Long after she passed on, her influence still flowed through us.”

George Counts:

“I first joined the APIC board in 1977, which was then under the leadership of Carole DeMille. Aside from her enormous fund of knowledge about infection control and hospitals, Carole had impressive leadership skills. She had the ability to interact with persons, make them comfortable, and make them willing to follow her. She could also laugh at circumstances and at herself. I was very pleased when APIC decided to honor her memory by establishing in her name its highest award. She represented a level of professionalism toward which all of us could properly aim.”

Cathryn Murphy:
“Rather than try and condense the enormous respect, affection and commitment I feel for APIC and its members I would prefer to submit this poem dedicated to Carole DeMille as the closing part of my 2010 presidential address. It tells far better than I could how Carole’s vision for the organization has grown to be the organization so loved by us all.”

So Carole

I’ve told you lots of stories, I’ve shared my biggest fears,
I’ve done it with great pride but I’m holding back the tears
You now know about your APIC, the one you helped us build.
You’ve heard about its growth, you know it leads the field;
I wonder how you find us? I wonder are you proud?
Should we bask a while in sunlight or cower under cloud?
Have we carried on your passion, your integrity, your direction?
Have we honoured your intention, your vision and your perfection?
Have we been relentless, successful and courageous?
How do you really find us?  Well intended or outrageous?
Have we made preventing infection appealing, perhaps inviting
Would it still attract you, would it be exciting?
Whatever your answer, whatever your view
On behalf of APIC, its members and its crew,
Let, me say it loudly
Carole DeMille rest well, we miss you, and
Thank you

Barbara Russell:
“I was very fortunate to know Carole DeMille and believe many of her traits rubbed off on me. She even visited us in South Florida. I remember saying to myself, I want to be like her some day and that made it very special when I received the Carole DeMille Award in 2002.”

Lorraine Harkavy:
“Carole DeMille was a warm, kind person. I never saw Carole when she didn’t have a smile on her face. She was passionate about infection control and prevention and had every patient on her mind and the importance of protecting them and the staff…. When I started in infection control, I contacted Carole for advice and guidance. She was always willing to help and was gracious to share her time and knowledge. Along the way, we always took our work seriously, but not ourselves. So we had a few good laughs at ourselves when we realized we were still learning and always would be.”