Speakers

Amanda Bacon has been a nurse for 14 years, practicing in medical/surgical units, pediatrics, obstetrics, case management and women’s health in the outpatient setting. She has practiced infection control for the past six years; her infection prevention experience includes acute care, ambulatory care and long-term care. Bacon pursued her nursing education and obtained a bachelor’s degree in nursing from SUNY College of Technology, Delhi in 2013. She received her certification in infection control in long-term care in 2022.

Michael Bailey is the principal with Bailey Consulting Services, an LLC formed in 2010. He is an internationally recognized, award-winning professional with more than 30 years of operational and project experience, including operational review and assessment studies, service integration (multi-service/multi-unit), implementation processes and request for proposal leadership. Bailey has extensive knowledge in all aspects of hospitality management, with an emphasis on the environmental services field including management of daily operations, laundry and linen operations, financial management, system integration and contract negotiations. He is experienced in conducting facility audits and feasibility studies and has extensive experience in education and training programs for environmental services leaders and technicians.

Ernest Clement has been a nurse for over 35 years with experience in critical care, inpatient and outpatient oncology, and infection control and prevention. He has worked in the acute care and office settings. Currently, Clement is the director of the Bureau of Healthcare Associated Infections for DOH. The bureau is responsible for providing infection control and prevention guidance to healthcare facilities in New York state, auditing hospital NHSN reporting for certain reportable infections and addressing antimicrobial resistance and stewardship across the state. He received his BSN from SUNY Utica-Rome and his MSN from the University of Phoenix.

Mary Cole has more than 30 years of nursing experience in critical and long-term care. She has worked at the Highlands at Brighton in various capacities for over 20 years.

Cole has always been drawn towards complex patient care situations; hence, the unique blend of infection prevention, long-term care and critical care. Her current focus is changing the dialogue regarding long-term care. Cole is currently an adjunct clinical instructor for the Wegmans School of Nursing at St. John Fisher University. This role allows her to expose student nurses to the variety of patient populations and community health needs in long-term care.

Cole is actively involved with APIC, serving on the local chapter board and national member services committee. She has also been involved in various projects with the CDC, the emerging infections program, APIC and CBIC. She strives to help shape the future of infection prevention in long-term care. She is actively involved in bringing research initiatives and advancing technology in long-term care settings through collaboration with professional societies and industry.

Cole completed her Bachelor of Science in nursing at Alfred University in 1991 and her Master of Science in organizational management from Roberts Wesleyan University in 1999.

Dr. Ghinwa Khalid Dumyati is an infectious diseases physician and professor of medicine at the University of Rochester Medical Center. She is the principal investigator of the Rochester/New York state CDC Emerging Infection Program. Her research focuses on surveillance and prevention of HAIs and multidrug-resistant organisms. Over the past several years, Dumyati helped several nursing homes in the Rochester area implement antimicrobial stewardship programs. Their collaboration resulted in a reduction in quinolones use and C. difficile infections. Dumyati also helped HANYS with its antibiotic stewardship toolkit for nursing homes.

Russ Grant serves as the system director of infection prevention for Bassett Healthcare Network. Grant is nationally certified in infection control and epidemiology and has a Long-Term Care Certification in infection prevention from CBIC.

Grant has worked in infection prevention for 17 years and has a broad range of infection prevention experience in healthcare settings including acute care, long-term care, ambulatory surgical centers, outpatient settings, dialysis, dental and critical access. His expertise was instrumental in leading the Bassett Network through the COVID-19 pandemic. His current focus is developing a system-wide infection prevention program for an integrated healthcare network. He also serves in a consultative, supportive and collaborative capacity with various healthcare organizations.

Grant has been an active member of APIC since 2007. He served as a member of the New York State Antimicrobial Resistance Task Force from 2018 to 2019. Grant has been a guest speaker in many forums and conferences including APIC conferences, HANYS educational events, Excellus Healthcare Improvement conferences and various public health programs. He is also a guest speaker at several New York colleges.

Linda Greene has more than 30 years of infection prevention experience in acute care, long-term care and ambulatory surgery settings. She has served in various leadership roles, most recently as director of infection prevention at Highland Hospital. She retired in 2022 and is now an infection prevention consultant for acute and long-term care and provides per diem support at Highland Hospital.

She held leadership roles in her local APIC chapter before becoming a member of the APIC board of directors in 2010. She was secretary of the APIC board from 2012-2013 and served as APIC president in 2017. Greene was also president of the board for APIC Consulting Services in 2015, and continues to serve as an advisor and contributor to APIC position papers and implementation guides. She was an APIC representative to the 2020 CDC Decennial Steering Committee and is a frequent presenter at regional, national and international conferences.

Greene serves as faculty for several national HAI reduction projects. She has served on advisory panels on public reporting of HAIs and received several awards in infection prevention, leadership and nursing.

The author of several peer-reviewed publications, Greene is an expert on quality improvement, antimicrobial stewardship and HAIs. She served on the American Journal of Infection Control editorial board from 2015 to 2017. In 2020, APIC awarded her with the prestigious Carole DeMille award which is given annually to an IP with visionary leadership and extraordinary contributions to the profession.

As senior vice president of nursing at Erie County Medical Center, Charlene J. Ludlow is responsible for nursing operations and high-quality care delivery to diverse populations across multiple service lines including medical-surgical, critical care, emergency, outpatient and behavioral health. Ludlow’s experience includes more than ten years as chief patient safety officer at ECMC, overseeing facility-wide infection prevention and patient safety, and serving as vice president of quality and patient safety at Great Lakes Health. Ludlow is a board member of the New York State APIC Coordinating Council and a member of the New York State Technical Advisory for Infection Prevention.

President

American Board of Post-Acute and Long-Term Care Medicine

Dr. Dallas Nelson is an associate professor of medicine at the University of Rochester’s geriatrics and aging division. She is medical director of the UR Medicine Geriatrics Group, which serves about 3,000 patients across the long-term care spectrum in the Rochester metro area. She also serves as medical director of two nursing facilities. Nelson is the primary care physician for residents across the long-term care continuum. Nelson’s main interests are improving healthcare delivery to older adults and educating practicing providers in geriatric medicine.

Past President

New York State APIC Coordinating Council

Rodolfo Simons has been an active member of APIC, Chapter 13, for more than 20 years and held the position of chapter president in 2013. He is the current past president of the New York State APIC Coordinating Council. Since 2019, Simons has been an assistant director at Mount Sinai Hospital. Before joining Mount Sinai Hospital, he worked at Montefiore Medical Center from 2009 until 2019 and worked for seven years as an infection control practitioner at Maimonides Medical Center.

Anne Tatreau has more than 30 years of experience working in acute care and long-term care/assisted living residences, with 20 of those years in long-term care, assisted living and independent living residence facilities. Tatreau began her career as a nurse’s aide and moved into environmental services and facilities maintenance where she eventually was tasked with running the housekeeping and facilities departments at Holland Home in Grand Rapids. She has achieved CHESP and CMIP certification through the American Association for Health Care Environment, a division of American Society for Health Care Engineering.

President

New York State APIC Coordinating Council

Michelle L. Vignari is the director of infection prevention for University of Rochester, Highland Hospital and also an independent infection prevention consultant. Currently working in an acute care hospital setting, Vignari also has vast experience in ambulatory and long-term care.

She has more than 27 years of practical clinical and leadership experience and is board certified in infection prevention and epidemiology.

In 2011, she was one of 12 professionals nationally chosen by APIC as a “Hero in Infection Prevention” and, in 2017, was awarded the March of Dimes’ Nurse of the Year Award in infection prevention.

She is an active APIC member and is currently the past president of her local chapter: Rochester Finger Lakes, Chapter 107. Vignari is president of the New York APIC Coordinating Council and serves on the DOH Technical Advisory Committee, a council of subject matter experts who work with DOH.

Vignari has published extensively in peer-reviewed journals and continues to contribute to the infection prevention and scientific community.

Maureen Wilbert has been a registered nurse for 33 years. She completed her Bachelor of Science in nursing at Keuka College in 1990. After graduation, she received the New York State Health Corps Scholarship and worked at Rochester Psychiatric Center. She worked with pediatric patients with various psychiatric disorders for three years. In 1993, Wilbert returned to Rochester General Hospital and worked on an acute medicine floor. Then, in 1997, she took on the role of nurse clinical leader at the Rochester Cardiopulmonary Group. Wilbert enjoyed this position for 15 years before moving on to the University of Rochester Medical Center as the nurse manager of the Paul Yu Heart Center in 2011. In 2013, Wilbert decided to pursue her master’s in healthcare leadership at the URMC School of Nursing.

As a nurse manager, she developed skills and expertise in OSHA regulations, work safety compliance, respiratory safety and employee vaccination programs. Wilbert is currently the occupational health manager for three long-term care facilities in Rochester. She transitioned to this position at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.