Our Speakers

Ms. Anuszewski is currently the Infection Prevention Manager at Virtua Mount Holly.  She provides education to hospital staff, physicians on infection prevention policies, procedures and strategies to reduce infections and exposes within the facility.  She also reviews patient electronic medical record system for healthcare-associated infections and is responsible for compliance with local, state and government guidelines for reporting communicable diseases, outbreaks, and other infection control indicators (include but not limited to MRSA screening, NHSN reporting). She reviews infection prevention policies to align with current data/strategies/practices to reduce infection transmission; performs environmental rounding to identify potential risks of infection transmission; reviews products and manufacturer guidelines to ensure compliance with standards and guidelines; provides infection rates/data to units, departments and select committees (includes, but not limited to – hand hygiene, bloodborne pathogen exposures, surgical infection rates, central line/urinary tract infections, C. difficile rates)

Ms. Anuszewski has a Masters in Health Administration from Rider University and a Bachelor’s of Science, Medical Technology from Douglass College, Rutgers University.

Ms. Anuszewski is certified by the Certification Board of Infection Control and Epidemiology (CBIC) and the American Society of Clinical Pathologists, Board of Registry (ASCP).     

Karen Brody has worked in healthcare for over 20 years- starting as a CNA in a nursing home in 2002 as she started her career in healthcare and worked her way through nursing school. She became an RN in 2008 and kept pursuing her education while working to achieve her MSN in nursing education in 2018. She worked at Trinitas Regional Medical Center as a staff nurse from 2008-2010 and then moved on at the same institution to become an RN Clinical Coordinator from 2010-2016.   While in that role she became certified in gerontological nursing in 2014.  She then moved into infection control at the same facility and obtained her CIC in 2018. She even attended this NICE course in 2016 as a student when she first began in her role of Infection Preventionist.  She has worked at Trinitas Regional Medical Center in Elizabeth NJ as an Infection Preventionist from 2016-2021 managing infection prevention in various settings including acute care, long term care, behavioral health, and dialysis settings. She currently works as an Infection Preventionist at Mount Sinai Brooklyn from 2021 to present and is serving as a director for the Greater NY APIC chapter.

Jamie Desai, Pharm.D, BCPS, BCIDP is a Clinical Pharmacy Specialist in Infectious Disease at Capital Health System. She earned her Doctor of Pharmacy degree from Ernest Mario School of Pharmacy at Rutgers University. After graduating, she completed a PGY-1 Residency at Capital Health Regional Medical Center. She is board certified in pharmacotherapy and infectious diseases. As part of her role at Capital Health, she works closely with the Chief Infectious Disease doctor and Manager of Infection Prevention on the Antimicrobial Stewardship Committee to ensure appropriate and effective antimicrobial use. Her professional interests include multi-drug resistant organisms and vaccinations.

Gemma Downham is currently the Patient Safety Officer and Corporate Director of Infection Prevention for the AtlantiCare Health system.  She holds a Master’s degree in Public Health in Epidemiology and Biostatistics from Drexel University, is board certified in Infection Control, and is a Fellow of the Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Hospital Epidemiology.  In her role, Ms. Downham is responsible for planning and implementing the Infection Prevention Program across the health system and has helped lead the pandemic planning and response activities.  Ms. Downham actively participates and conducts research in infection prevention epidemiology, works as an advisor to CDC’s Making Dialysis Safer Coalition, and is a board member of the Southern NJ Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Hospital Epidemiology and on the Board of Directors for APIC Consulting Services.  She also consults as an Infection Prevention Epidemiologist for clients such as dialysis facilities, skilled nursing facilities, and state health departments.

Ms. Fusco is the owner of Advanced Infection Control Concepts, L.L.C.  Her services include on-site and remote infection prevention and control consultation and education for ambulatory care facilities, mainly in the Southern and Central New Jersey area.  Professional experience includes all aspects of infection prevention program management and compliance assessment, policy review and development, education of staff, participation in committee meetings, assistance and support for the on-site infection prevention and control professional.

Ms. Fusco has provided many educational sessions including the New Jersey Association of Ambulatory Surgery Centers Conference, the Electrologists Association of New Jersey, the New Jersey Primary Care Association Annual Conference. the United Surgical Partners Regional Infection Prevention and Control Meeting and the New Jersey Department of Health. 

Ms. Fusco maintains certification through the Certification Board for Sterile Processing and Distribution  and through The Certification Board for Infection Control (CBIC)

Ms. Gillen is currently an Infection Prevention Professional at Thomas Jefferson University performing daily surveillance of hospital acquired infections to include CLABSI, SSI, VAE and VAP in accordance to NHSN definitions using EPIC interface and instituting the appropriate isolation precautions. She also monitors and reports SARS-COVID-19 infections in Inpatients and Outpatients; Resource for SARS-COVID-19 to hospital staff on testing, PPE and isolation. Maintaining updated information on SARS-COVID-19. Daily rounding of hospital to ensure compliance of infection prevention practices and serving as resource to staff.  Reporting infections that meet NHSN specifications. Reporting infections that meet with PA Act 52; Reporting specific diseases to Pennsylvania Department of Health; Participating in Environment of Care rounds monthly. Participating and presenting reports in monthly Infection Control Committee meetings.

Member of Rapid Response Team of Thomas Jefferson University in accordance to PA grant to assist LTC and PC facilities to assist in COVID outbreaks within the facilities.

Co-Chairperson of CVC Working Group.Member of Emergency Management Committee (FEMA Certified).

Ms. Gillen is an Adjunct Professor at Rowan University.

Ms. Gillen has a MASTER OF SCIENCE DEGREE: Microbiology from Thomas Jefferson University, Philadelphia, PA and a BACHELOR OF SCIENCE: MEDICAL TECHNOLOGY from Indiana University of Pennsylvania, Indiana, Pa.  She is certified Medical Technology, Registered ASCP and certified through Certification in Infection Control

Rebecca Greeley is the Program Manager for the Infection Control, Healthcare, & Environmental Epidemiology Program within the Communicable Disease Service at the New Jersey Department of Health. Rebecca is an infectious disease epidemiologist who currently oversees the Infection Control Assessment and Response (ICAR) Unit, the Healthcare-Associated Infections/Antimicrobial Resistance (HAI/AR) Unit, the HAI/AR Education & Project Firstline Unit, and the Water Systems and Environmental Infection Control (WSEIC) Unit. The ICHEE Program includes infection preventionists, epidemiologists, health data specialists, registered environmental health specialists, and health educators. And is responsible for providing infection prevention and control-focused assessments and consultation to healthcare facilities, responding to HAI/AR outbreaks and breaches in infection control investigations, promotes Antimicrobial Stewardship concepts, is responsible for outreach and proactive training of frontline healthcare providers and is responsible for preventing, detecting, and responding to premise plumbing pathogens including Legionella.

Rebecca has been with the NJDOH for over 16 years, including a 2-year CDC/CSTE Applied Epidemiology fellowship at NJDOH. She has worked on a variety of outbreaks and investigations including legionellosis in long-term care facilities, acute care hospitals and hotels. Rebecca maintains ongoing partnership with public health partners throughout the state including local health departments, regional contacts and acute care hospitals well as various subject matter experts at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Rebecca has a BS in microbiology from Michigan State University and a Master’s in Public Health in epidemiology from the University of Michigan, School of Public Health.

Nancy started in Infection Prevention in January 1995 as a coordinator in a department with one other full time coordinator. She currently is the director of Infection Prevention for a 370 bed acute care teaching hospital.

Joining national APIC and the NJ APIC chapters has been invaluable and very rewarding. Nancy has served as President of Southern New Jersey and Northern New Jersey chapters of APIC; Education Program Coordinator for Southern New Jersey APIC; Chair of Southern New Jersey APIC Governmental Affairs Committee; Chair of the Nominating Committee, Member Board of Directors; Bylaws, Education and Surveillance Committees.

In addition, she was the Co-Coordinator, Infection Control Course for NJDHSS Healthcare Inspectors; Faculty NJDHSS Ambulatory Care Licensure education course; member of the New Jersey Steering Committee on Healthcare Associated Infections Advocacy and Educational Outreach Project; Public Health Research Institute Hospital Infections Advisory Board; NJDHSS Influenza Pandemic Advisory Council; MEDPREP – State of New Jersey Bioterrorism Preparedness task force; and has been on the faculty of the NICE course for many years. Nancy has presented on numerous topics throughout the state and at professional conferences.

Nancy has earned a Masters degree in Nursing and has been board certified in Infection Control and Epidemiology through CBIC since 1997. She has been a member of the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America (SHEA) since 2006. She is the Principal owner of Coastal Infection Prevention Consulting, LLC.

Mr. Mehr is the Healthcare-associated Infections (HAI) Coordinator, Trenton, NJ New Jersey Department of Health (NJDOH), Communicable Disease Service  His role is the primary contact for infection control and HAIs for NJDOH, Conducted HAI epidemiologic outbreak investigations in hospitals, dialysis facilities, oncology facilities, and long term care facilities, Investigated infection control breach events such as injection safety issues, inappropriate sterilization/disinfection processes, poor environmental cleaning, and cases of drug diversion, Served as lead for the Infection Control Assessment and Response program at NJDOH by obtaining funding, supervising staff, and reporting grant deliverables to CDC, Led infection control assessments at Ebola designated facilities as well as acute care, ambulatory surgery, hemodialysis, and long-term care facilities, Partnered with the New Jersey Hospital Association as well as Healthcare Quality Strategies, Inc. for NJDOH HAI prevention collaboratives

Mr. Mehr created an advisory committee involving internal and external stakeholders for NJDOH HAI and infection control activities; wrote HAI prevention and response pieces of the CDC Epidemiology and Laboratory Capacity Cooperative Agreement (ELC) grant CDC/CSTE HAI Applied Epidemiology Fellow, Trenton.

He is certified in Infection Prevention and Control (CIC) by the Certification Board of Infection Control and Epidemiology, Inc.

He attended Bucknell University, Lewisburg, PA with Bachelor of Arts in Psychology and History, and Drexel University, Philadelphia, PA   Master of Public Health.

Jennifer Pruden RN ,BSN, CIC is a Manager for Infection Prevention with 15 years of Critical Care nursing and 15 years of Infection Prevention. Jen regularly attends NNJ APIC chapter Meetings and the annual APIC Convention. She has served as NNJ APIC Chapter Education Co-chair for the last two terms, has had 3 Poster Abstracts accepted and a speaker presentation at National Convention. Her favorite aspect of her role is the continuous learning, teaching, and the opportunity to influence safe, quality patient care.
Out of work, when she isn’t listening to audible books, and podcasts you can find her in the wood, running on the trails.

Dr. Sneddon served for seven years as the Public Health Epidemiologist for the Burlington County Health Department before joining Virtua Memorial Hospital as an infection prevention manager in 2011. In 2014, she accepted the newly created position of Director of Infection Prevention for Virtua Health where she oversaw the infection prevention program for the Virtua system. In 2018, she moved into the role of Director of Epidemiology with a focus on data analysis and infection prevention-related policy development for the system. She received her BSN, MSN, and MPH from Johns Hopkins University and her DNP from UMDNJ. In addition, Dr. Horner is board certified as a clinical specialist in community health nursing, certified in infection control (CIC) and is licensed in New Jersey as an advanced practice nurse.

EDUCATION:
Kansas State University
New York Institute of Technology

LICENSES:
NJ Registered Architect
Construction Official
Subcode Official / Building
Building Official – HHS

Mr. Uhaze is a licensed architect and licensed code official in the State of New Jersey, and worked for several architectural firms in both New York and New Jersey specializing in the design of hospitals and other health care facilities before his employment with the State of New Jersey.

During his 33 years of New Jersey State Government service, he was the Supervisor of Health Facilities Construction Services at both NJDOH and NJDCA, overseeing plan review for the design and construction of all State licensed health care facilities. In 2000, he was appointed Chief of the Bureau of Construction Project Review, at the Department of Community Affairs, overseeing the construction of not only all health care facilities but also all, casinos, State colleges and all other state owned properties including the Meadowlands Sports Complex, the NJ Turnpike and Parkway, the State Aquarium and the Atlantic City Convention Center. That office reviewed over 1.2 billion dollars of new capital projects annually.

He has been a member of several national and state committees, including the National Certification Program for Construction Code Inspectors Test Development Committee (20 years) and served as Chairman of the 2022 Facilities Guidelines Institute Health Guidelines Revision Committee of which he has been a member for the past 26 years. He has also served on the State of NJ Building Codes Advisory Board and Fire Codes Advisory Board.

He is a frequent guest speaker for numerous healthcare related groups in the State of New Jersey and nationally.

Since his retirement from New Jersey State service in October of 2015, he has been providing consulting services to healthcare facilities and facility designers.

Ms. Young-Ruckriegel is the Infection Prevention Manager overseeing a 759 bed Level 1 Trauma Medical Center and 83 outpatient sites.  She received her BSN, MSN and Master of Science Public Administration from Kean University.