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Melissa D. Johnson, PharmD—Activity Chair Associate Professor of Clinical Research Campbell University School of Pharmacy Buies Creek, North Carolina Assistant Professor of Medicine Division of Infectious Diseases and International Health Duke University Medical Center Durham, North Carolina |
Dr. Johnson is a Clinical Pharmacist/Assistant Professor of Medicine in the Division of Infectious Diseases & International Health at Duke University Medical Center (DUMC) and Associate Professor of Clinical Research at Campbell University. After obtaining a Bachelor of Science in Biochemistry from the University of Georgia, she completed her Doctor of Pharmacy at Campbell University and a Fellowship in Infectious Diseases Pharmacotherapy at DUMC and has continued to practice there for the past nine years. Dr. Johnson maintains a clinical practice in internal medicine/infectious diseases at Duke University Medical Center and in outpatient HIV care through the Infectious Diseases Clinic at the Durham Veterans Affairs Medical Center (VAMC). Her clinical research interests include invasive fungal infections in immunocompromised hosts with special focus on immunogenetics, pharmacogenetics, and pharmacodynamics. She is the recipient of a 5-year NIH/NIAID Mentored Career Award to pursue patient-oriented research in invasive candidiasis, and is co-investigator on an NIH program grant to investigate microfluidic methods of detection for infectious pathogens including Candida spp. She has served as principal investigator or co-investigator in numerous clinical trials with antifungal, antiretroviral, and antibacterial agents. She has also obtained her Masters of Health Science in Clinical Research at Duke University School of Medicine, and teaches in both the Pharmacy Practice and Clinical Research departments at Campbell University. Dr. Johnson has been an active member of both the DUMC and Durham VAMC Antibiotic Evaluation committees for the past 10 years. She has published in numerous peer-reviewed journals, and is a reviewer for Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy, Clinical Infectious Diseases, Pharmacotherapy, Annals of Pharmacotherapy, and Journal of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy. She has been an invited speaker nationwide on topics such as antibiotic resistance, HIV, invasive fungal infections, and management of bacterial infections. She is an active member of American College of Clinical Pharmacy, American Society of Microbiology, American Society of Healthsystem Pharmacists, and has served as President of the Triangle College of Clinical Pharmacy.
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Helen L. Leather, BPharm, BCPS Clinical Pharmacy Specialist Shands at the University of Florida Gainesville, Florida |
Helen L. Leather received a BPharm from Western Australian Institute of Technology in Perth, Western Australia and a graduate diploma in hospital pharmacy (with distinction) from Curtin University of Technology in Bentley, Western Australia. She completed a specialty residency in clinical hematology/oncology at Emory University Hospital in Atlanta, Georgia.
Ms. Leather is a board-certified pharmacotherapy specialist. She holds membership in several professional societies, including the Pharmaceutical Council of Western Australia, International Society of Oncology Pharmacy Practice (ISOPP), American Society of Microbiology, American College of Clinical Pharmacy, American Society of Clinical Oncology, and the American Society of Blood and Marrow Transplantation. Additionally, she currently serves as Chair of both the International Society of Oncology Pharmacy Practitioners’ Education Committee and the Tandem BMT Pharmacists Meeting. Among her many honors, Ms. Leather in 2006 received the ISOPP Achievement Award and the ISOPP President’s Award.
Ms. Leather has authored 10 book chapters and has published articles and abstracts in such peer-reviewed journals as Journal of Clinical Microbiology, Clinical Advances in Hematology & Oncology, Clinical Infectious Diseases, and Biology of Blood and Marrow Transplantation. She also serves as a reviewer for several journals, including Annals of Pharmacotherapy, Bone Marrow Transplantation, and Biology of Blood and Marrow Transplantation. Ms. Leather is a frequent invited speaker, and she has been an investigator in several funded trials.
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Russell E. Lewis, PharmD, FCCP, BCPS Associate Professor Department of Clinical Sciences and Administration University of Houston College of Pharmacy University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center Houston, Texas |
Russell E. Lewis received a PharmD from the University of Kansas. He completed a pharmacy residency at Barnes Jewish Hospital, Washington University and a residency in infectious diseases at the University of Iowa College of Pharmacy in Iowa City. At the University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center (MDACC), Dr. Lewis currently spends 4 months on the Infectious Diseases Consultation Service, which focuses on hematological malignancies and hematopoietic cell transplantation.
Dr. Lewis is a board-certified pharmacotherapy specialist with added qualifications in infectious diseases. He is involved with several professional societies, holding membership in the American Society for Microbiology, International Society for Anti-Infective Pharmacology, American College of Clinical Pharmacy, American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy, Society of Infectious Diseases Pharmacists, and the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists.
Dr. Lewis has authored or coauthored over 85 peer-reviewed publications in the area of antifungal pharmacology and immunology. His laboratory was the first to describe the in vivo pharmacodynamics of amphotericin B and caspofungin for invasive pulmonary aspergillosis, and also the first to document that immunosuppressive metabolites secreted by Aspergillus fumigatus could be detected in sera of patients with aspergillosis. With the help of collaborators at MDACC, Dr. Lewis and his team were able to demonstrate that one of the metabolites, gliotoxin, could suppress human cell-mediated immunity through apoptosis of antigen-presenting cells. Currently, Dr. Lewis’s laboratory is focusing on how inflammation in non-neutropenic patients with invasive molds affects drug activity and host responses in the lung. He is a frequent invited speaker on topics relating to infectious diseases and has presented at numerous symposia and meetings.