Kara Jacobs Slifka, MD, MPH

Kara Jacobs Slifka, MD, MPH, is an infectious diseases physician, medical epidemiologist, and Commander in the United States Public Health Service. In her role at CDC, she leads the long-term care team in the Division of Healthcare Quality Promotion and focuses on improving infection prevention and containing and preventing the spread of infectious pathogens in the post-acute and long-term care settings through collaboration with health departments and partners, guidance and educational material development and outbreak response.

Janell Routh, MD, MHS

Janell Routh, MD, MHS, graduated from the University of California San Francisco/UC Berkeley Joint Medical Program in 1998, and UCSF Pediatric Residency Program in 2004. After residency, she practiced pediatric HIV and general tropical medicine for three years in Malawi with the Baylor International Pediatric AIDS Initiative. She returned to the US to start the Epidemic Intelligence Service (EIS) fellowship with CDC in Atlanta in 2010. Her CDC experience has spanned food and waterborne outbreaks, cholera prevention in Haiti, Acute Flaccid Myelitis, and polio. She recently returned from Malawi as the CDC Resident Advisor to the President’s Malaria Initiative and is now the Associate Director for Medical Affairs in CDC’s Immunization Services Division.

Pragna Patel, MD, MPH

Pragna Patel, MD, MPH, is a chief medical officer in the National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. She assumed this role after serving on the CDC COVID-19 response in numerous leadership positions where she was instrumental in leading clinical activities, guidance, and priority setting. Dr. Patel also contributed to CDC responses for HIV, H1N1, Ebola, H5N1, and seasonal respiratory viruses (SARS CoV-2, influenza, and RSV). She made notable contributions to the national HIV diagnostic algorithm; led ground-breaking research about cancer and HIV; initiated and led global HIV prevention activities that reached ~2 million people with pre-exposure prophylaxis; and led priority projects to inform global cardiovascular disease prevention in >20 countries. She has over 25 years of experience in the practice of public health and medicine with a breadth of knowledge in both infectious and non-communicable diseases. She is a board-certified physician and has provided care at the Atlanta VA Infectious Disease clinic since 2004. She is an Adjunct Assistant Professor of Medicine with Emory School of Medicine and an Adjunct Professor of Epidemiology at the Emory University Rollins School of Public Health.

Erica Kaufman West, MD

Erica Kaufman West, MD, completed her undergraduate degrees at Valparaiso University in Indiana. She received her medical degree from Georgetown University School of Medicine. She finished her Internal Medicine residency and her chief resident year at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, California. She stayed to complete her fellowship in Infectious Diseases at the West LA VA/Cedars-Sinai/Olive View-UCLA Medical Center program. She has been working in the Midwest since then, focusing on acute inpatient as well as outpatient care in HIV, Hepatitis C and wound care. She now works as the AMA’s Director of Infectious Diseases while maintaining her clinical practice.