Virology, Emerging Diseases & Vaccines

Virginia L. Miller, Ph.D., is a professor of genetics and of microbiology & immunology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She earned her B.A. at the University of California at Santa Barbara and a Ph.D. in microbiology and molecular genetics from Harvard University (1985), where she studied regulation of cholera toxin expression with Dr. John Mekalanos. She did postdoctoral training at Stanford University with Dr. Stanley Falkow, where she began her studies on Yersinia and Salmonella. After her postdoctoral fellowship, Miller joined the faculty at UCLA (1988), then moved to Washington University in St. Louis (1996). In 2008 she moved to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, where she served as Associate Dean of Graduate Education. Miller has a long-term interest in understanding how pathogens coordinate the expression of virulence determinants during an infection; her current research focuses on Klebsiella pneumoniae.

Genetics and of Microbiology & Immunology

Dr. Robin Patel is currently a professor of medicine and a professor of microbiology, the Elizabeth P. and Robert E. Allen Professor of Individualized Medicine, co-director of the Clinical Bacteriology Laboratory, director of the Infectious Diseases Research Laboratory and chair of the Division of Clinical Microbiology at the Mayo Clinic. She is board certified in infectious diseases, as well as medical and public health microbiology. Patel’s research, supported by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), focuses on clinical bacteriology diagnostic testing, antimicrobial resistance and microbial biofilms. She has published over 500 peer-reviewed manuscripts and has delivered numerous national and international presentations. In addition to her positions at the Mayo Clinic, Patel has been a member of the NIH’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) Council, and is the director of the NIH-supported Laboratory Center for the Antibacterial Resistance Leadership Group (ARLG), an advisor to the Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute (CLSI) Subcommittee on Antimicrobial Susceptibility Testing, a member of the American Board of Pathology Medical Microbiology and Clinical Pathology for ABPath CertLinkTM Test Development and Advisory Committees, and an associate editor of Journal of Clinical Microbiology and Clinical Infectious Diseases. She is also a past chair of the U.S. Medical Licensing Examination Microbiology and Immunology Test Material Development Committee and a current member of a U.S. Medical Licensing Examination Item Review Group. Patel is a fellow of the American Academy of Microbiology, co-chair of the ASM Microbe 2016-2018 Program Planning Committee and ASM Past President (Presidency: July 2019-June 2020).

Medicine and Microbiology

Victor DiRita, Ph.D., is the Rudolph Hugh Endowed Chair in Microbial Pathogenesis and Chairman of the Department of Microbiology & Molecular Genetics at Michigan State University. His lab studies molecular mechanisms of bacterial pathogens, with particular focus on gut pathogens Vibrio cholerae and Campylobacter jejuni. DiRita also serves as Chair of the ASM Membership Board and Editor of the Journal of Bacteriology. He asks you to check out all the great things that the American Society for Microbiology has to offer, to join if you are not a member and to renew if you are! DiRita also invites you to follow him on Twitter.

Microbiology & Molecular Genetics

Kara Levinson, Ph.D., MPH, D(ABMM), received her B.S. in microbiology from Northern Arizona University, her MPH in hospital and molecular epidemiology from the University of Michigan and served as an APHL Emerging Infectious Diseases Fellow at the Iowa Public Health Laboratory. She completed her Ph.D. in immunology and infectious disease at the New York State Department of Health, Wadsworth Center, where she studied vaccine development and host-pathogen interaction in Vibrio cholerae. After obtaining her Ph.D., she completed a CPEP fellowship in clinical microbiology at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She then joined the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) as a Laboratory Leadership Service Fellow, where she focused on laboratory management and outbreak response at the New Hampshire public health laboratory. Currently, she is the Deputy Director of the Tennessee State Public Health Laboratory.

Hospital and Molecular Epidemiology

Joanna Goldberg, Ph.D., is a professor in the Department of Pediatrics at Emory University School of Medicine and holds a secondary appointment in the Department of Microbiology & Immunology. She was awarded the 2012 ASM Graduate Microbiology Teaching Award. Prior to joining Emory, she was a professor in the Department of Microbiology, Immunology and Cancer Biology at the University of Virginia and at the Channing Laboratory, Brigham & Women’s Hospital, Department of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. She received her B.A. in biology from Boston University and Ph.D. in microbiology and immunology from the University of California at Berkeley. Goldberg has had continuous NIH funding for research on bacterial pathogens associated with life-threatening lung infections in individuals living with cystic fibrosis, particularly Pseudomonas aeruginosa. She studies the synthesis and regulation of surface antigens, including polysaccharides and protein adhesins, their role in infection and as potential antimicrobial and vaccine targets. Goldberg was awarded the ASM Raymond W. Sarber Fellowship Award as a graduate student. As examples of her ASM involvement, she is a member of ASM’s Council on Microbial Sciences (COMS), she was chair of Division D, councilor for Division B, Chair of the ASM Career Development Committee, Chair of the ASM Conferences Committee and President of the ASM Virginia Branch.

Microbiology & Immunology