June is Men’s Health Month, a time to highlight the unique men’s health issues and advocate for awareness of preventive services for men and boys. We have some amazing men in our division who have served as clinicians, educators, leaders, and mentors.
Meet the Men of UNMC ID:
Dr. M. Salman Ashraf, MBBS is an Associate Professor of Medicine and Medical Director of the Nebraska Infection Control Assessment and Promotion Program (ICAP). He also Co-Directs the Nebraska Antimicrobial Stewardship Assessment and Promotion (ASAP) Program with Dr. Trevor Van Schooneveld, and is Associate Medical Director Infection Control and Epidemiology at Nebraska Medicine. Dr. Ashraf’s clinical and research interests in antimicrobial stewardship and infection control in long-term care facilities (LCTF) have led to countless national speaker invitations and significant research funding granted to study antimicrobial stewardship and infection control in LCTF.
Dr. Scott Bergman, PharmD is an Infectious Diseases Trained Pharmacist, Clinical Associate Professor in the College of Pharmacy and Pharmacy Coordinator for the Nebraska Medicine Antimicrobial Stewardship Program. He also serves as the co Pharmacy Coordinator for the Nebraska ASAP program and has a special interest in appropriate antibiotic use and rapid diagnostic testing as an adjunct to antimicrobial stewardship. In 2016 and 2017 he was recognized as a Fellow in the Infectious Diseases Society of America (FIDSA) and American College of Clinical Pharmacy (FCCP), respectively. He works closely with our Infectious Diseases fellows and gives regular “antibiotic basics” lectures to the fellows and Internal Medicine residents.
Dr. Bradley Britigan, MD is the Dean of the University of Nebraska Medical Center College of Medicine, and Department of Internal Medicine Stokes-Shackleford Professor. Despite his busy administrative duties, Dr. Britigan still finds time to practice clinically at the VA hospital, attends on our General ID teaching service, and contributes to our Division research meetings. His research interests include the pathogenesis of Pseudomonas spp. and Mycobacteria spp. Lung Infections, and Microbial Iron Metabolism as a target for Novel Antimicrobial Therapies.
Dr. Paul Fey, PhD
is a Professor in the Department of Pathology and Microbiology, Medical Director of the Clinical Microbiology Laboratory and Research Vice Chair of the Department of Pathology and Microbiology. Our Division collaborates closely with Dr. Fey and the microbiology lab on implementation and improvement of diagnostic testing to improve clinical care. His research interests include the Metabolism and Pathogenesis of staphylococcal infections. Just recently, Dr. Fey was honored with the 2017-2018 Outstanding Graduate Student Educator award in the department of Pathology & Microbiology at UNMC.
Dr. Josh Havens, PharmD
is an Infectious Diseases-Trained Pharmacist with primary focus in the Specialty Care Clinic (SCC) which serves persons living with HIV (PLWH) in our Omaha and neighboring communities. He is leads the management team for the Ryan Wite AIDS Drug Assistance Program (ADAP) for the state of Nebraska. In his clinical role at the SCC, Dr. Havens not only facilitates discussions with clinicians and PLWH about complex medication issues, but runs a clinic for HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP). This has fueled his primary research focus on the prevention of HIV as well as developing novel adherence strategies to keep PLWH healthy. He collaborates in these projects with Drs. Sara Bares and Susan Swindells.
Dr. Andre Kalil
, MD is a Professor of Internal Medicine, and Director of the Transplant Infectious Diseases practice group at UNMC ID. He also holds board certification in Critical Care Medicine and has a special interest in infections occurring in the intensive care unit. Dr. Kalil is nationally and internationally recognized for his work in the field of severe sepsis, hospital acquired and ventilator acquired pneumonia, and was the first author and writing group leader of the recent IDSA/American Thoracic Society Guidelines on Management of Adults With Hospital-acquired and Ventilator-associated Pneumonia. Dr. Kalil has acquired numerous grants with funding to study cytomegalovirus and other infections associated with solid organ transplantation.
Dr. James Lawler, MD
, MPH is an Associate Professor of Medicine and Fellow in the Infectious Diseases Society of America (FIDSA). He is the Director of International Programs and Innovation, at the Global Center for Health Security and has led several teams to countries in West Africa focusing on Public Health Emergency Preparedness. Dr. Lawler, a former White House Homeland Security Council biodefense policy director, has national expertise on Biosecurity and viral hemorrhagic fevers, and is the current Director of Clinical and Biodefense Research at the National Strategic Research Institute.
Dr. Mark Rupp, MD our fearless leader is a Professor of Medicine and Chief of the Division of Infectious Diseases. He is a Fellow in the Infectious Diseases Society of America (FIDSA), Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America (FSHEA), American College of Physicians (FACP) and past president of SHEA. He is also Medical Director of Infection Control & Epidemiology at Nebraska Medicine and Associate Director of Nebraska ASAP and ICAP. Dr. Rupp is also Chief of Medical Staff at Nebraska Medicine and has received the Top Teacher award in the Department of Medicine for almost a decade. He has published over 400 peer-reviewed articles and is nationally and internationally known for his expertise in healthcare associated infections, antimicrobial stewardship and staphylococcal infections.
Dr. Uriel Sandkovsky, MD is an Associate Professor of Medicine and Medical Director of Employee Health at UNMC. He attends on the Transplant Infectious Diseases service. His research interests include cardiac device infections and viral infections in transplantation.
Dr. Trevor Van Schooneveld, MD is an Associate Professor of Medicine and UNMC Infectious Diseases Fellowship Director. He is also Medical Director of our nationally recognized Nebraska Medicine Antimicrobial Stewardship program and Co-Director of the Nebraska ASAP with Dr. Ashraf. Dr. Van Schooneveld is a Fellow in the American College of Physicians (FACP) and actively involved in SHEA as an Associate Editor of the society flagship journal, Infection Control & Hospital Epidemiology (ICHE). Dr. Van Schooneveld’s areas of interest within the field of Antimicrobial Stewardship include reduction of C. difficile infections and use of infection biomarkers in clinical practice.