53 Members Named to Serve on Working Group Subcommittees

2017 HHSworkingGroup loThe Lyme Disease Association announces that the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has selected 53 individual to serve on one of six subcommittees of the Tick-Borne Disease Working Group (Working Group).  After reviewing the nominations, selections were made by the co-chairs overseeing each of the subcommittees. The Chair and Vice-Chair of the Working Group provided input and approved the final selections. All of the individuals were notified today, but they have not yet confirmed their availability to serve on the subcommittee that they were chosen to join. The final list of subcommittee members will be updated if any of them are no longer able to join a subcommittee.

From the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) webpage for the Tick-Borne Disease Working Group:

BenBeard PatSmith Ben Beard, PhD, Acting Deputy Dir., DVBD, CDC & Pat Smith, LDA President – Co-Chairs, HHS Working Group Disease Vectors, Surveillance, & Prevention Subcommittee The Lyme Disease Association announces that the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has selected 53 individuals to serve on one of six subcommittees of the Tick-Borne Disease Working Group (Working Group).  After reviewing the nominations, selections were made by the co-chairs overseeing each of the subcommittees. The Chair and Vice-Chair of the Working Group provided input and approved the final selections. All of the individuals were notified today, but they have not yet confirmed their availability to serve on the subcommittee that they were chosen to join. The final list of subcommittee members will be updated if any of them are no longer able to join a subcommittee.

These subcommittees were established by the Working Group members during the December 12, 2017 meeting to assist them in identifying and reviewing information that provides the background, context, and evidence needed to develop the report to Congress and the HHS Secretary as required by the 21st Century Cures Act. The subcommittees will be led by members of the Working Group. The Chair and Vice-Chair of the Working Group will work in collaboration with the subcommittee Co-Chairs and the Designated Federal Officer to ensure that the work of the subcommittees is consistent with the needs of the Working Group and committee management laws and regulations. The roles of the subcommittees, the work they will be doing, and the reports that they will provide to the Working Group will discussed at the February 12, 2018 meeting.

The members of the Tick-Borne Disease Working Group subcommittees are:

Disease Vectors, Surveillance, and Prevention

Co-Chairs: Pat Smith and Ben Beard, MS, PhD

Member Affiliation
Jill Auerbach Founder, Tick Research to Eliminate Diseases

Founder, Stop Ticks On People (S.T.O.P.)

Neeta Connally, PhD, MSPH Associate Professor, Tick-borne Disease Prevention Laboratory, Western Connecticut State
Katherine Feldman, DVM, MPH Senior Epidemiologist, MITRE
Thomas N. Mather, PhD Professor, Center for Vector-Borne Disease

Director, TickEncounter Resource Center

Phyllis Mervine President, LymeDisease.org
Colonel Robin Nadolny, PhD COL, Medical Service Team Lead, Tick-Borne Disease Laboratory, Army Public Health Center
Adalberto Perez de Leon, DVM, PhD, MS Director, Knipling-Bushland U.S. Livestock Insects Research Laboratory, United States Department of Agriculture-Agricultural Research Service
Daniel E. Sonenshine, PhD Eminent Professor of Biological Science, Old Dominion University
Jean I. Tsao, PhD Associate Professor, Departments of Fisheries and Wildlife and of Large Animal Clinical Sciences, Michigan State University
Monica M. White President and Co-founder, Colorado Tick-Borne Disease Awareness Association

LymeDisease.org, Lyme Disease Association, Inc., Public Tick IPM working group, Chaffee County Health Coalition

Stephen Wikel, PhD Professor and Chair Emeritus of Medical Sciences, St. Vincent’s Medical Center, Quinnipiac University
Pathogenesis, Transmission and Treatment

Co-Chairs: Wendy Adams, MBA and Captain Estella Jones, DVM

Member Affiliation
Nicole Baumgarth, DVM, PhD Professor, Center for Comparative Medicine and Dept. of Pathology, Microbiology & Immunology, UC Davis
Patricia K. Coyle, MD Neurology Professor and Vice Chair, Dept. of Neurology

Director, MS Comprehensive Care Center, Stony Brook University Medical Center

Sam Donta, MD Fellow Infectious Diseases, Infectious Disease Society of America

Consultant, Infectious Diseases

Brian Fallon, MD, MPH Professor of Clinical Psychiatry, and Director, Lyme and Tick-Borne Diseases Research Center, Columbia University
Lorraine Johnson, JD, MBA CEO, LymeDisease.org
Elizabeth Maloney, MD President, Partnership for Tick-Borne Diseases Education
Jon Skare, PhD Professor and Associate Head, Dept. of Microbial Pathogenesis and Immunology, Texas A & M University
Brian Stevenson, PhD Professor, Department of Microbiology, Immunology & Molecular Genetics, University of Kentucky College of Medicine
Testing and Diagnostics

Co-Chairs: Lise E. Nigrovic, MD, MPH and Co-chair to be determined

Member Affiliation
Charles Y. Chiu, MD, PhD Director, Abbott Viral Diagnostics and Discovery Center, UCSF
Roberta DeBiasi, MD, MS Chief, CNMC Division of Pediatric Infectious Diseases

Director, Fetal Infectious Diseases Program

Co-Director, Congenital Zika Program at Children’s National

Noel Gerald, PhD Biologist and Senior Scientific Reviewer, Office of In Vitro Diagnostics and Radiological Health, FDA
Deborah Hoadley, MD, MPH Director, New England Institute for Lyme Disease and Tick-Borne Illnesses
Maliha Ilias, PhD Program Officer, Lyme Disease Research Bacteriology and Mycology Branch, National Institute of Infectious Diseases, NIH
Bobbi Pritt, MD, MSc Professor of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology, and Co-Director, Vector-Borne Diseases Laboratory Services,

Mayo Clinic

David Roth, JD Retired senior managing director of a private equity firm (Blackstone)
Steven Schutzer, MD Professor of Medicine, Rutgers New Jersey Medical School
Access to Care Services and Support to Patients

Co-Chairs: Karen Vanderhoof-Forschner, JD, MBA and Commander Scott Cooper, MMSc, PA-C

Member Affiliation
Ana Frost, PhD The Institute for Functional Medicine
Holiday Goodreau President and Executive Director, The LiveLyme Foundation
Susan Green, JD Legislative Counsel, NatCapLyme
Enid Haller, LCSW, PhD Executive Director, Lyme Center of Martha’s Vineyard

Martha’s Vineyard Lyme Support Group

Paula Jones Jackson President & Co-Founder, Midcoast Lyme Disease Support & Education (MLDSE)
Colonel Nicole Malachowski Retired, US Air Force
Leonard Schuchman, DO, MPH, FAAFP Osteopathic Physician
Sheila M. Statlender, PhD Clinical Psychologist, Private Practice
Kathleen Steele, LCSW Psychotherapist
Vaccine and Therapeutics

Co-Chairs: Robert Smith, MD, MPH, FACP, FIDSA and Dennis Dixon, PhD

Member Affiliation
Felipe C. Cabello, MD Professor of Microbiology and Immunology, New York Medical College
Monica E. Embers, PhD Assistant Professor, and Director, TNPRC Vector-borne Diseases Core, Division of Bacteriology and Parasitology, Tulane National Primate Research Center
Maria Gomes-Solecki, PhD Associate Professor, Department of Microbiology, Immunology and Biochemistry, University of Tennessee Health Science Center
Utpal Pal, PhD Professor, University of Maryland
Stanley A. Plotkin, MD Emeritus Professor of Pediatrics, University of Pennsylvania
Juan Salazar, MD, MPH, FAAP Professor and Chair, Department of Pediatrics, University of Connecticut Medical School, and Physician in Chief and Executive VP, Connecticut Children’s Medical Center
Leigh Ann Soltysiak, MS Self-employed, Owner, Principal Commercialization & Strategy Consultant, Silverleaf Consulting, LLC
David H. Walker, MD The Carmage and Martha Walls Distinguished University Chair in Tropical Diseases, and Professor, Department of Pathology, and Executive Director, Center for Biodefense and Emerging Infectious Diseases, The University of Texas Medical Branch
Other Tick-Borne Diseases and Co-Infections

Co-Chairs: Richard Horowitz, MD and Allen Richards, PhD

Member Affiliation
Megan Dulaney, MS Senior Interagency Liaison, DOD Center for Health Engagement, Uniformed Services University for the Health Sciences, Henry M. Jackson Foundation for the Advancement of Military Medicine
Marna Ericson, PhD Assistant Professor, Department of Dermatology, and Director, Dermatology Imaging Center, University of Minnesota
Christine Green, MD Physician, Green Oaks Medical Center, PC, and Director, LymeDisease.org
Charles Lubelczyk, MPH Vector Ecologist, Maine Medical Center Research Institute
Ulrike G. Munderloh, DVM, PhD Professor, University of Minnesota, Department of Entomology
Garth Nicolson, MD, PhD President, Chief Scientific Officer and Emeritus Professor of Molecular Pathology, The Institute for Molecular Medicine
Christopher D. Paddock, MD, MPHTM Rickettsial Zoonoses Branch, CDC
Samuel S. Perdue, PhD Section Chief, Basic Sciences, Bacteriology and Mycology Branch, DMID/NIAID/NIH
Sam R. Telford III, ScD Professor of Infectious Disease and Global Health

Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine, Tufts University