2023 Keynote Addresses
The 2023 GPEID Conference was structured differently from previous years. This year the GPEID Conference focused on students in Public Health and Infectious Disease programs. This allowed students to network with other students, researchers, and professors in the Infectious Diseases field. Approximately 10 individuals gave short presentations highlighting their career path, their current work, and upcoming projects. Each presentation allotted time for students to ask questions. The 2023 GPEID conference ended with networking, dinner, and drinks at Iowa Chop House in Iowa City.
2022 Keynote Addresses
Watch Dr. Ian Lipkin’s Keynote HERE!
Dr. Ian Lipkin, MD
Director of the Center for Solutions for ME/CFS, the John Snow Professor of Epidemiology at the Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons, and the Director for the Center of Infection and Immunity with the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University.
Title: Mind the GAPP: A Vision for Ending Pandemics
Dr. Ian Lipkin is the Director of the Center for Solutions for ME/CFS, the John Snow Professor of Epidemiology at the Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons, and the Director for the Center of Infection and Immunity with the Mailman School of Public Health at Columbia University.
He is internationally recognized for his contributions to global public health by being at the forefront of outbreak response and through the innovative methods he developed for infectious diseases diagnosis, surveillance, and discovery. These advances have been critical in replacing culture-dependent methods of global health management by creating new criteria for disease causation and de-linking spurious associations between putative agents and diseases. Such examples include refuting the MMR vaccine having a role in autism and XMRV in ME/CFS.
Some of his most prestigious honors include Pew Scholar (Biomedical Sciences), Walter Reed Distinguished Lecturer, the Drexel Prize in Translational Medicine, the Mendel Medal (Villanova University), the International Science and Technology Cooperation Award of the Peoples Republic of China, and recipient of an award of appreciation given by the Chinese government in the 70th anniversary of the People’s Republic of China for his service to the country during the SARS epidemic along with the subsequent scientific support he has given since.
Lipkin consulted on testing and site safety protocols for the 2020 Democratic National Convention and the 2021 Academy Awards. He promotes public health awareness via print and broadcast media and served as scientific advisor to the 2011 Soderbergh film “Contagion”.
Watch Dr. Jennifer Blackhurst’s Keynote HERE!
Dr. Jennifer Blackhurst, Ph.D
Associate Dean for Graduate Programs and the Leonard A. Hadley Professor of Business Analytics in Tippie College of Business at the University of Iowa.
Title: Creating a Vaccine Distribution Supply Chain: Coordination of Efforts to Save Lives
Dr. Jennifer Blackhurst is the Associate Dean for Graduate Programs and the Leonard A. Hadley Professor of Business Analytics in Tippie College of Business. In her role as Associate Dean, she leads the efforts of the development and innovation of graduate education programs in the Tippie College. Prior to this role, she has served in a number of administrative roles including the Director of the Kathleen Dore – Henry B. Tippie Women’s Leadership Program, Chair of the MBA Curriculum Committee, Chair of the Elected Faculty Council (EFC), as well as roles serving her profession, the university and her department.
Blackhurst received her doctorate in Industrial Engineering from the University of Iowa in 2002. Her research is focused in the areas of supply chain risk and disruption management; supplier assessment and selection; and supply chain design and coordination. Blackhurst has also been actively involved in the national and international supply chain management discipline by serving on a variety of editorial review boards. She is associate editor for Decision Sciences Journal, Senior Editor for Journal of Business Logistics and she serves on the editorial review boards for Journal of Operations Management, Journal of Business Logistics, Journal of Supply Chain Management, and IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management. She has served on the Decision Sciences Board of Directors in a number of roles. In 2013 and again in 2017, Blackhurst was recognized as Outstanding Associate Editor for Decision Sciences Journal.
2021 Keynote Addresses
Watch Dr. Jonna Mazet’s Keynote Here!
Dr. Jonna Mazet, DVM, MPVM, PhD
Professor of Epidemiology and Disease Ecology in the UC Davis One Health Institute and UC San Francisco Institute for Global Health Sciences
Title: The power of working across sectors: Using a One Health approach to identify and mitigate emerging health threats
Jonna Mazet, DVM, MPVM, PhD, is Professor of Epidemiology and Disease Ecology in the UC Davis One Health Institute and UC San Francisco Institute for Global Health Sciences. She employs the One Health approach to understand and mitigate disease transmission among wildlife, domestic animals, and people, considering the ecological drivers of disease emergence. She is the Co-Director of USAID’s One Health Workforce – Next Generation, an educational strengthening project empowering professionals in Africa and Southeast Asia to address complex health threats. She is a member of the US National Academy of Medicine and serves on the NASEM’s Forum on Microbial Threats and One Health Action Collaborative. She was appointed to the National Academies Standing Committee on Emerging Infectious Diseases and 21st Century Health Threats, which was created to assist the federal government with critical science and policy issues related to the COVID-19 crisis and other emerging health threats.
Watch Dr. Stanley Perlman’s Keynote Here!
Dr. Stanley Perlman, PhD, MD
Professor of Microbiology and Immunology, and of Pediatrics
Title: COVID-19: Immune Responses and Animal Models
Dr. Perlman received his Ph.D. in Biophysics from M.I.T., Cambridge, Massachusetts and his M.D. from the University of Miami, Miami, Florida. He was trained in Pediatrics and Pediatric Infectious Diseases at Boston Children’s Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts. His current research efforts are focused on coronavirus pathogenesis, including virusinduced demyelination and the Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS) and COVID-19. His laboratory has developed several novel animal models useful for studying pathogenesis and evaluating vaccines and anti-viral therapies. His studies are directed at understanding why aged patients and mice developed more severe disease than younger individuals after infection with SARS-CoV or SARS-CoV-2 and also on why there is a male predominance in patients with more severe disease after infection with SARSCoV, MERS-CoV or SARS-CoV-2. He and his colleagues demonstrated that transduction of mice with an adenovirus expressing the human receptor for MERS-CoV, DPP4, rendered them sensitive to infection, providing the first rodent model useful for studying MERS. Similar approaches have been used to develop a mouse model for COVID-19. He has also developed models for the loss of sense of smell (anosmia) observed in patients with COVID-19.
2020 Keynote Addresses
Watch Dr. Jean Tsao’s Keynote Here!
Dr. Jean Tsao, PhD
Associate Professor in the College of Agriculture and Natural Resources, Michigan State University, Department of Fisheries and Wildlife
Title: Predicting the Effects of Climate Change and Emergence of Ticks and Tick Borne Disease: Why Understanding Tick Biology and Ecology Matters
With more than 300,000 human cases estimated a year, Lyme disease is the leading vector-borne disease in the United States. Over the last fifteen years, I have had the opportunity to work in different regions where Lyme disease is hyperendemic, invading, or predominantly cryptic. Studying the black-legged tick and Lyme disease pathogen across such varied habitats and in different stages of establishment has given me a great appreciation for the ecological “flexibility” of the tick and bacterium and the complex roles that biotic and abiotic factors play in influencing disease risk. More knowledge about the ecology and evolution of ticks and tick-borne pathogens clearly is needed to predict and mitigate disease risk in the future. Additionally, the biologically and socially complex nature of Lyme disease requires improved communication and collaboration among many disciplines, health practitioners, patients, and the public. As such, the Lyme disease system provides an apt opportunity to conduct research in the frameworks of One Health and Conservation Medicine. My lab works closely with colleagues in public health at both the state and federal levels. I am a member of the CDC-funded Midwestern Center of Excellence for Vector Biology. Besides Ixodes scapularis and the Lyme disease pathogen, my lab also studies other emerging ticks and tick-borne pathogens.
2019 Keynote Addresses
Dr. Patrick McDermott
Director of the National Antimicrobial Resistance Monitoring System (NARMS)
Title: The National Antimicrobial Resistance Monitoring System: Measuring and Monitoring Resistance Using Genomics
Dr. Megin Nichols
Enteric Zoonoses Activity Lead at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Title: Antimicrobial Resistant Zoonotic Disease Outbreaks: A Case For One Health Data Sharing
2018 Keynote Addresses
Dr. Richard Webby
Member of the Department of Infectious Diseases at St Jude Children’s Research Hospital
Title: Current Influenza Threats: What might GPEID 3018 be remembering?
Dr. Bobbi Pritt
Professor of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology at the Mayo Clinic
Title: Ticks, Teamwork, and Emerging Pathogens
2017 Keynote Address
Dr. Karen Bush
Professor of Practice in Biotechnology
Title: Antibiotic Resistance: Past, Present, and Future
2016 Keynote Address
Dr. David O’Connor, PhD
Professor of Pathology and Laboratory Medicine
University of Wisconsin’s School of Medicine and Public Health
Title: From AIDS to ZIKV (Zika Virus)
2015 Keynote Address
Dr. Christopher N. Mores, ScD
Associate Professor, Department of Pathobiological Science
Louisiana State University’s School Of Veterinary Medicine
Title: Fighting Ebola in Sierra Leone: Isolation, Treatment, and Case Ascertainment
2014 Keynote Address
View the recording of this keynote address here.
Casey Barton Behravesh, MS, DVM, DrPH, DACVPM
Commander, U.S. Public Health Service
Deputy Branch Chief, Outbreak Response and Prevention Branch
DFWED Coordinator for Enteric Zoonoses and One Health
Division of Foodborne, Waterborne, and Environmental Diseases (DFWED),
National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Diseases (NCZEID).
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)
Title: One Health in Action and the CDC: Outbreaks of Foodborne Diseases and Enteric Zoonoses
2013 Keynote Address
Peter Daszak, PhD
President, EcoHealth Alliance
Title: Predicting and Preventing the Next Pandemic
2012 Keynote Address
W. Ian Lipkin, MD
John Snow Professor of Epidemiology
Director, Center for Infection and Immunity
Mailman School of Public Health
Columbia University
Title: Microbe Hunting