Town Hall Meeting Speakers

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Speakers' Biographies

Dan Baden, MD

Senior Medical Advisor, Office of State, Tribal, Local and Territorial Support, CDC

Dr. Dan Baden is a family physician with CDC. He currently serves as the associate director for External Partner Outreach and Connectivity in the Stakeholder Outreach and Engagement Unit in the Office for State, Tribal, Local and Territorial Support. Previously, he served as the director of the Division of Public Health Capacity Development, acting director of the Division of Issues Management and Executive Secretariat, and chief of the Emergency Communications Branch. His public health career began in Ghana, West Africa, where he developed a rural health network and served as a liaison between tribal elders and the Ghanaian Ministry of Health.

Dr. Baden is a board-certified family physician. He earned his medical degree from the University of Nebraska Medical Center and undergraduate degree in math/computer science and natural science from Concordia University Irvine.

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Scott K. Fridkin, MD

Senior Advisor, Antibiotic Resistance in Healthcare, Division of Healthcare Quality Promotion, National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases, CDC

Scott K. Fridkin, MD, is senior advisor for Antibiotic Resistance in Healthcare in the Division of Healthcare Quality Promotion, National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infections Diseases, CDC. In this position, he is responsible for the strategic direction of antimicrobial resistance activities for the Division. Dr. Fridkin has been an epidemic intelligence officer at CDC and trained as an infectious disease fellow at Rush-Presbyterian-St. Luke’s Medical Center and Cook County Hospital in Chicago, Illinois.

Dr. Fridkin is an active committee member of the Infectious Diseases Society of America and recently served on the Board of Directors of the Society of Healthcare Epidemiology of America. He is the author or coauthor of more than 80 papers on infectious disease topics related to health care epidemiology and infection control.

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Marion A. Kainer, MD, MPH, FRACP

Director, Healthcare Associated Infections and Antimicrobial Resistance Program, Tennessee Department of Health

Dr. Kainer is an adult infectious diseases physician and healthcare epidemiologist, and has served as an Epidemic Intelligence Service officer at the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), Division of Healthcare Quality Promotion. In 2003, she joined the Tennessee Department of Health as director of the Healthcare Associated Infections and Antimicrobial Resistance Program.

Dr. Kainer chairs the Healthcare Associated Infections (HAI) subcommittee of the Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologists (CSTE) and co-chairs both the CSTE HAI Data Standards Committee and the National Healthcare Safety Network (NHSN) Steering Work Group. She also serves as CSTE liaison to the Healthcare Infection Control Practices Advisory Committee (HICPAC), the NHSN Change Control Board, and the Public Policy and Governmental Affairs Committee of the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America (SHEA). Dr. Kainer led the Tennessee Department of Health’s investigation of the 2012 fungal meningitis outbreak and was named Tennessean of the Year by Nashville’s The Tennessean newspaper.

Honored by the White House as a Champion of Change for Prevention and Public Health, she also served as a member of the Antibiotic Resistance Work Group for the President’s Council of Advisors in Science and Technology (PCAST). On September 18, 2014, President Obama released the PCAST report and national strategy, issuing an executive order on combating antibiotic-resistant bacteria.

Dr. Kainer earned her medical degree and master of public health in Melbourne, Australia.

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Erica Runningdeer, MSN, MPH, RN

Healthcare Associated Infection Prevention Coordinator, Division of Patient Safety and Quality, Illinois Department of Public Health

Erica Runningdeer is the healthcare associated infection prevention coordinator for the Illinois Department of Public Health, Division of Patient Safety and Quality (IDPH). She began her work at IDPH in October 2011 as project director for the Illinois Antimicrobial Stewardship Collaborative and co-leader of the Illinois Campaign to EliminateClostridium difficile(ICE C. diff).

Erica holds both a master of public health and a master of science in nursing from the University of Illinois at Chicago and has been inducted into Delta Omega Honorary Society in Public Health and Sigma Theta Tau International Honor Society of Nursing. She is also a member of the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology (APIC) and the Council of State and Territorial Epidemiologists (CSTE).

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Gwen Borlaug, MPH, CIC

Coordinator, Healthcare-Associated Infections Prevention Program, Division of Public Health, Wisconsin Department of Health Services

Gwen Borlaug is coordinator of the Wisconsin Division of Public Health Healthcare-Associated Infections (HAI) Prevention Program. Prior to joining the Division of Public Health (DPH), Borlaug was a hospital infection control practitioner and worked in both clinical and public health laboratories. At DPH, she directs activities associated with the HAI Prevention Program and consults with infection preventionists in a variety of healthcare settings.

Borlaug is an active member of the Badger and Southeastern Wisconsin APIC chapters and received the 2010 Badger Chapter Leadership Award. She also is a member of the DPH Healthcare Personnel Influenza Vaccination Team that won a 2010 national APIC Heroes of Infection Prevention Award.

Borlaug earned a master of public health from the University of Minnesota and a bachelor of medical technology from North Dakota State University.

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