Leadership
President: Trish M Perl, MD, MSc
Dr. Trish M. Perl is the Associate Dean for Faculty Affairs at the O’Donnell School of Public Health and the H. Ben and Isabelle T. Decherd Chair in Internal Medicine (Infectious Diseases and Geographic Medicine) at UT Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas TX. Prior to moving to the O’Donnell School of Public Health at UT Southwestern Medical Center, she served as the Chief of the Division of Infectious Diseases and Geographic Medicine and was instrumental in rebuilding the division, recruiting multiple faculty including clinical educators, informaticists, and physician scientists, expanding and enhancing the fellowship program, mentoring new faculty and facilitating their career development awards and expanding the research support.
Dr. Perl received her Medical Degree from the University of North Carolina (Chapel Hill) and a Master of Science from McGill University in Montreal, Canada. She trained in Internal Medicine at the Royal Victoria Hospital at McGill and in Infectious Diseases and Clinical Epidemiology at the University of Iowa. She rose through the ranks to Professor of Medicine at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and in Epidemiology at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and is recognized globally for her innovation and research in healthcare associated infections, antimicrobial resistance, and their transmission and prevention. While at the Bloomberg School of Public Health she taught the course in healthcare associated infections and developed a certificate program in healthcare epidemiology. As the Hospital Epidemiologist at Johns Hopkins Hospital and then the John Hopkins Health System Epidemiologist, she developed extensive practical and research experience. Internationally, she has helped with outbreak management and mitigation including caused by SARS, MERS CoV, Ebola and consults on guideline development and strategies to prevent emerging threats in healthcare. With her interests in healthcare epidemiology and respiratory viruses, she has been actively involved in pandemic planning supporting the national and local outbreak responses.
Past President: Jason Bowling, MD
Dr. Jason Bowling received his medical degree from the Texas A&M College of Medicine and completed internship, residency, and a fellowship in Infectious Diseases at University of Texas Health San Antonio. He is an associate professor of Internal Medicine and Infectious Diseases at UT Health San Antonio. He is the medical director of infection prevention at UT Health San Antonio, director of hospital epidemiology for University Health, and medical director of the University Health Antimicrobial Stewardship program. His areas of focus are hospital epidemiology, infection prevention, antimicrobial stewardship and emerging infections.
Past President: James Cutrell, MD
James Cutrell, M.D., is an Associate Professor in the Department of Internal Medicine at UT Southwestern Medical Center. He specializes in the care of COVID-19 patients, outpatient parenteral antimicrobial therapy, cardiovascular and orthopaedic infections, antimicrobial stewardship, and medical education.
Dr. Cutrell completed all of his medical education and advanced training at UT Southwestern, earning his medical degree in 2007, finishing his residency (the final year as Chief Resident) in 2010, and completing his fellowship in infectious diseases in 2013 before joining the faculty at UT Southwestern.
As a COVID-19 treatment and vaccines expert, Dr. Cutrell is advancing COVID-19 research, education, and patient care. His article "Pharmacologic Treatments for Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19): A Review" in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) is one of the most cited articles to date about COVID-19. He is quoted frequently in national and regional media outlets, including The Washington Post, MSNBC, and Bloomberg News, for his knowledge on COVID-19 treatments and vaccines.
Dr. Cutrell is currently leading the antibiotic stewardship program at UT Southwestern Hospital and Clinics in addition to providing clinical care in the UTSW Infectious Disease faculty clinics and ID consult service. He has a strong interest in graduate medical education and teaches medical students, residents, and fellows in infectious disease. In addition, he directs the adult fellowship programs for infectious diseases and for HIV medicine.
In 2018 and 2019, his peers named him one of the top five doctors in the VA North Texas Health Care System. In 2020, he was voted a D Magazine Best Doctor in infectious diseases, and in 2021 he was selected as a Texas Monthly Super Doctors Rising Star.
Past President: Jason Okulicz, MD
Dr. Okulicz is Professor of Medicine at the Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences and Adjoint Professor at UT Health San Antonio. He also serves as Chief of the Infectious Disease Service at the San Antonio Military Medical Center (SAMMC) and is a United States Air Force ID Consultant. He received his medical degree from Rutgers New Jersey Medical School and completed his residency in Internal Medicine and fellowship in Infectious Disease at Wilford Hall Medical Center and Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio. Dr. Okulicz has coauthored numerous articles that have been published in peer-reviewed journals such as JAMA Internal Medicine, Clinical Infectious Disease, and New England Journal of Medicine. He is a fellow of the American College of Physicians and Infectious Disease Society of America, and member of the HIV Medicine Association and the Armed Forced Infectious Disease Society.
Past President: Jose Cadena Zuluaga, MD
Dr. Jose Cadena Zuluaga was awarded his Doctorate in Medicine from Instituto de Ciencias de la Sulud, Colombia in 2001 and completed his Residency in Internal Medicine and Fellowship in Infectious Diseases at the University of Texas Health Science Center. He is an Associate Professor in Infectious Diseases UT Health San Antonio and a staff physician at South Texas Veterans Healthcare System. He is the Medical Director of Infection Control & Hospital Epidemiology and Assistant Chief of Infectious Diseases at South Texas Veterans Healthcare System. His expertise are antibiotic stewardship, infection prevention and control, and quality improvement in healthcare.
Past President: Chetan Jinadatha, MD, MPH
Dr. Chetan Jinadatha received his Medical Doctor from JJM Medical College, in India, and his Masters in Public Health from the School of Public Health, Texas A & M Health Science Center, Bryan, Texas. He completed his internship, residency and a fellowship in infectious diseases at Scott & White Memorial Hospital, in Temple, Texas. Dr. Chetan Jinadatha currently is the Chief of Infectious Diseases at Central Texas Veterans Health Care System in Temple, Texas. He is also an Assistant Professor of Medicine at Texas A & M Health Science Center, Bryan, TX. He has extensive experience in prevention of healthcare acquired infections (HAIs). His clinical and research interests focus on the role of surfaces in causation of HAIs and how technology might be able to solve the problem of HAIs. Dr. Jinadatha has also testified as an expert witness on the use of technology for prevention of HAI in front of Science, Technology and Space Committee of US Congress in June, 2014. Dr. Jinadatha has also authored a chapter in the APIC text book of Infection prevention and control and has published several manuscripts in peer reviewed journals.
Past President: Elizabeth A. Walter, MD
Dr. Walter completed her undergraduate training in Electrical Engineering at the Ohio State University and went to Medical School at the University of Cincinnati. She completed her Internal Medicine residency with the U.S. Air Force and her fellowship in Infectious Diseases at the University of Washington in Seattle. She is the current Program Director of the Infectious Disease Fellowship at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio and the Chief of Infectious Diseases at the Audie L. Murphy VA Hospital in San Antonio.
Past President: Edward J. Septimus, M.D., F.I.D.S.A, F.A.C.P, F.S.H.E.A.
Dr. Ed Septimus is originally from New York City. He received his medical degree from Baylor College of Medicine in Houston in 1972. Dr. Septimus went on to complete his postgraduate training in internal medicine and infectious diseases at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston. For the next 30 years Dr. Septimus practiced infectious diseases where he formed a 3 person specialty group in infectious diseases in Houston. He was also medical director of infectious diseases and employee health at Memorial Hermann Healthcare System until November 2005. Dr. Septimus then moved to Montana to become Medical Director of Patient Safety and Infection Control at Billings Clinic. His current position is Medical Director Infection Prevention and Epidemiology Clinical Services Group HCA Healthcare System. He has just finished a 3 year term on the Board of Directors of the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA), and is on the IDSA Quality Improvement Task Force, and IDSA Antimicrobial Resistance Work Group. He has also served on the IDSA Clinical Affairs Committee, IDSA Program Committee, and IDSA State and Regional Board including chair for two years. He was the first recipient of the IDSA Annual Clinician Award. He served on the Houston Medical Advisory Steering Committee on Terrorism and the MRSA Work Group for the Texas Department of Health and recently was appointed to the Infectious Diseases Workgroup for the Texas Department of Health and the FDA Anti-Infective Drug Advisory Group. He holds a faculty position as Clinical Professor at Texas A&M Medical School and Affiliate Professor, Distinguished Senior Fellow, School of Public Health, George Mason University.
He also serves on the Leading Practice Advisory Panel for VHA, the Board International Society for Antimicrobial Resistance, the SHEA/IDSA Antimicrobial Stewardship Task Force and the SHEA HCW Influenza Vaccine Working Group. Current interests include patient safety, infection prevention, public health, sepsis, medical informatics, clinical integration, and human factors engineering. Dr. Septimus has lectured nationally and internationally on surviving sepsis, reduction of healthcare-associated infections, antimicrobial stewardship, MRSA, the economic case for quality, and employee health.
Past President: Duane Russell Hospenthal, MD, PhD, FACP, FIDSA
Dr. Hospenthal is an infectious disease physician currently practicing in San Antonio, Texas. He is an Adjunct Professor of Medicine at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio and serves as a member of the Executive Committee of the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA) Emerging Infections Network. Originally from Benzonia, Michigan, Dr. Hospenthal earned his undergraduate, graduate and medical degrees from Michigan State University, and completed his postgraduate training (Internal Medicine and Infectious Disease) at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, DC. He served in the US Army from 1984-2012, with assignments at the 121st General Hospital in Seoul, South Korea, Tripler Army Medical Center, Hononlulu, Hawaii, and Brooke Army Medical Center, Fort Sam Houston, Texas. He has served as the Infectious Disease Consultant to the US Army Surgeon General (2005-2011) and as the Department of Defense representative to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Office of Infectious Diseases Board of Scientific Counselors (CDC OID BSC, 2004-2012). Dr. Hospenthal has also served as a member of the IDSA State and Regional Societies Board (2004-2007) and Standards and Practices Guidelines Committee (2007-2010). In addition to serving as President of the Texas Infectious Disease Society (2008-2010), he has served as Secretary-Treasurer, Vice President, and President of the Armed Forces Infectious Disease Society. Dr. Hospenthal has over 250 publications and has served as editor of his own textbook (Diagnosis and Treatment of Human Mycoses) and four journal supplements. His recent work has focused on response to multidrug-resistant (MDR) bacteria and invasive fungal infections of combat-injured US military personnel. In addition to published research and infection prevention and control efforts in the combat zone, Dr. Hospenthal has led efforts to produce IDSA endorsed prevention guidelines on this subject.
Past President: Jan E. Patterson, MD, FACP
Dr. Patterson is Director for the Center for Patient Safety & Health Policy and Professor of Medicine, Pathology and Infectious Diseases, at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio. She has been at the institution since 1993 when she moved from Yale University School of Medicine where she was on the faculty in Infectious Diseases. She is an AOA M.D. graduate from the University of Texas Medical School at Houston, completed her Internal Medicine residency at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, and a postdoctoral fellowship in Infectious Diseases at Yale University School of Medicine. She was Assistant Professor of Medicine (Infectious Diseases) and Laboratory Medicine there, and served as Associate Hospital Epidemiologist for Yale-New Haven Hospital and Hospital Epidemiologist at the West Haven Veterans Affairs Hospital in West Haven, Connecticut prior to coming to San Antonio. She served as Vice Chair of the Department of Medicine before becoming Interim Chair, and has also served as the Chief of Medicine at the South Texas Veterans Health Care System from 2004-06.
She is active in the field of hospital epidemiology and infectious diseases, and served as Medical Director of Infection Control at the University Health System and South Texas Veterans Health Care System for 13 years. She is board-certified in Internal Medicine and Infectious Diseases, and has a Certificate of Knowledge in Tropical Medicine and Travelers’ Health. She is active at the national level in professional organizations including the Infectious Diseases Society of America, Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America, and American Committee on Clinical Tropical Medicine and Travelers Health of the American Society of Tropical Medicine. She was recently elected to the Board of Directors of the Infectious Disease Society of America. She has been a consultant and advisor to the Regional Emergency Medical Preparedness Steering Committee in San Antonio and Medical Director of the Infection Control Workgroup of the Emergency Hospital Disaster Group. She is the author of numerous publications and has had an active research program in the fields of healthcare-associated infections and antimicrobial resistance. In addition to her longstanding interest in hospital infections and antibiotic resistance, she is also interested in leadership, health policy and medical education.
Past President: Michael G. Rinaldi, PhD
Professor of Pathology, Medicine, Microbiology, and Clinical Laboratory Sciences Director, Fungus Testing Laboratory
Department of Pathology
University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio and Chief, Clinical Microbiology Laboratories Director, Department of Veterans Affairs Mycology Reference Laboratory Pathology and Laboratory Medicine Service
Audie L. Murphy Memorial Veterans' Hospital
Audie L. Murphy Division, South Texas Veterans Health Care System San Antonio , Texas
Treasurer: Thomas F. Patterson, MD
CME Committee:
Trish M. Perl, MD
Jason Bowling, MD
James Brad Cutrell, MD
Chetan Jinadatha, MD
Thomas F. Patterson, MD
Jose A. Cadena-Zuluaga, MD
Laura K. Najvar
