Board of Directors

Cynthia L. Sears, MD, FIDSA, President

Cynthia L. Sears, MD, FIDSA, is professor of medicine and molecular microbiology and immunology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and Bloomberg School of Public Health. She is also an attending physician at Johns Hopkins Hospital.

A former IDSA treasurer and a previous member of the Board of Directors, Dr. Sears has served on numerous Society committees, including the Nominating Committee, the Training Director’s Committee, the Publications Committee, the Communications Committee, and the Annual Meeting Program Committee, which she chaired in 2003, among others. A past vice chair of the IDSA Education and Research Foundation, she has participated in IDSA task forces focused on publishing, guideline development, and other key issues. Her research interests include bacterial pathogenesis and the contribution of specific bacteria and the microbiome to colon cancer development.

Dr. Sears graduated from Thomas Jefferson University College of Medicine, followed by an internship, residency, and fellowship in internal medicine at New York Hospital/Cornell Medical Center. She completed a fellowship in infectious diseases at Memorial Hospital/Sloan Kettering Institute and University of Virginia Medical Center.

Thomas File, Jr., MD, FIDSA, President-Elect

Thomas File, Jr., MD, FIDSA, is the Chair of the Infectious Disease Division and Co-Director of the Antimicrobial Stewardship Program at Summa Health, Akron, Ohio and is also the Professor of Medicine, Master Teacher and Chair of the Infectious Disease Section of the Northeast Ohio Medical University.

Dr. File’s research interests include randomized clinical trials for safety and efficacy of new antimicrobials, community-acquired pneumonia and the impact of new diagnostics and antimicrobial stewardship on patient outcomes. He is very involved in antimicrobial stewardship and his institution has been designated as an IDSA Antimicrobial Stewardship Centers of Excellence.

Dr. File is very active in IDSA having served on several committees such as the IDSA/National Foundation for Infectious Diseases (NFID) Joint Research Awards Committee, Clinical Subcommittee of Pulmonary Diseases, and the Practice Guidelines Committee. He was also the Chair of the Practice Guidelines Committee from 2005-2008 and a member of the Board of IDSA from 2008-2011. Dr. File also received the Watanakunakorn Clinician Award from IDSA in 2013.

As an advocate for using IDSA’s Clinical Guidelines for the diagnosis and management of infectious diseases, Dr. File also participates in several panels like the Influenza Guideline panel, the Sinusitis Guideline panel, the Community-Acquired Pneumonia Guideline panel and the Hospital-Associated Guideline panel.

After graduating from the University of Michigan School of Medicine, Dr. File became an intern and Resident in Internal Medicine at Riverside Methodist Hospital in Columbus, Ohio. He continued his studies as a Fellow in Infectious Diseases and earned his MSc in Medical Microbiology at Ohio State University.

Barbara D. Alexander, MD, MHS, FIDSA, Vice President

Dr. Alexander is Professor of Medicine and Pathology at Duke University School of Medicine. She also serves as Director of Transplant Infectious Diseases Service; Section Head of Clinical Mycology Laboratory; and Director of Medical Microbiology & Transplant Infectious Diseases Fellowship Programs at Duke University Medical Center. Dr. Alexander is also principal investigator at the Duke University Transplant Infectious Diseases Interdisciplinary Research Training Program.

A current Associate Deputy Editor of Clinical Infectious Diseases, Dr. Alexander has also served IDSA on numerous committees including the ID Training Program Directors Committee; the Education Committee, which she chaired in 2008; the Annual Meeting Program Committee, which she chaired in 2011; the Transplant ID & Compromised Hosts Working Group; and the ID Recruitment Task Force. She also served on the Board of Directors from 2013-2016.

Her research interests include clinical and translational research related to infectious complications of solid organ and hematopoietic stem cell transplantation, with a particular interest in the prevention and rapid diagnosis of invasive fungal infections. She has served as Chair of the Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute Subcommittee (CLSI) on Antifungal Susceptibility Tests; consultant to the FDA Antimicrobial Drugs Advisory Committee; and as faculty mentor to the NIH T3 Molecular Mycology and Pathogenesis Training Program.

Dr. Alexander graduated from East Carolina University School of Medicine and completed her internship, residency and fellowship in infectious diseases at Duke University Medical Center. She also completed a fellowship at Duke University Medical Center and received a Master’s in Health Science at Duke University.

Larry K. Pickering, MD, FIDSA, FPIDS, Secretary

Larry K. Pickering, MD, FIDSA, FPIDS, is past senior advisor to the director of the National Immunization Program/National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and, currently, adjunct professor of pediatrics at Emory University School of Medicine.

Among his contributions to IDSA, Dr. Pickering previously served on the Board of Directors, the Scientific Program Committee, the Awards Committee, and the IDWeek Program Committee, for which he was the IDSA chair in 2014. He has also led or co-led IDSA panels that developed clinical practice guidelines for immunization programs and the management of infectious diarrhea. A past president of the Pediatric Infectious Diseases Society, Dr. Pickering has served on numerous national committees, task forces, and workgroups on pediatric and infectious diseases topics.

Dr. Pickering graduated from West Virginia University School of Medicine and completed his pediatric internship and residency at St. Louis Children’s Hospital and Washington University School of Medicine, followed by an infectious diseases fellowship at Washington University School of Medicine. His research interests have included enteric diseases, protective factors in human milk, pediatric lung and heart complications of HIV, infections in childcare centers, and clinical and public health aspects of vaccines.

Helen W. Boucher, MD, FIDSA, Treasurer

Helen Boucher is Director of the Infectious Diseases Fellowship Program at Tufts Medical Center and Professor of Medicine at Tufts University School of Medicine.   

Dr. Boucher’s clinical interests include infections in immunocompromised patients and S. aureus infections.  Her research interests focus on S. aureus and the development of new anti-infective agents.  She is the author or coauthor of numerous abstracts, chapters and peer-reviewed articles, which have been published in such journals as The New England Journal of Medicine, Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy, Clinical Infectious Diseases, and The Annals of Internal Medicine; she is Associate Editor of Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy.

She has been included in Best Doctors in America since 2009.   In 2011, Dr. Boucher was elected Fellow and Member of the Board of Directors of the Infectious Diseases Society of America.  In 2012, she was elected to the American Board of Internal Medicine Infectious Disease Exam Writing Committee and in 2014, to the American Board of Internal Medicine Infectious Diseases Subspecialty Board.

Dr. Boucher’s drug development experience includes participating in the global development and registration of voriconazole and daptomycin, including presentation at the FDA Advisory Committee and CHMP meetings.  She advises both small and large companies on antimicrobial drug development, advocates for increased research and development of new antimicrobial drugs, and teaches in the annual Tufts Center for Drug Development course.

In 2015 she was appointed to the Presidential Advisory Council on Combating Antibiotic-resistant Bacteria, and elected Treasurer of the Infectious Diseases Society of America.  She was awarded the IDSA Society Citation Award in October, 2015.  Dr. Boucher serves on the Board of Trustees of the Physicians of Tufts Medical Center and The College of the Holy Cross.

Paul G. Auwaerter, MD, FIDSA, Immediate Past President

Paul G. Auwaerter, MD, FIDSA, is a clinical director in the Division of Infectious Diseases and the Sherrilyn and Ken Fisher Professor of Medicine at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. Among his contributions to IDSA, he has served on the Annual Meeting Program Committee, the Education Committee, and the Board of Directors, and has supported the Society’s efforts to provide accurate information about Lyme disease to clinicians and the public. Managing editor of the Johns Hopkins Antibiotic Guide, Dr. Auwaerter has also served on the Food and Drug Administration’s Anti-Infective Drugs Advisory Committee and the Board of Scientific Counselors of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. His research interests include Lyme disease, tick-borne diseases, and electronic clinical decision support.

Dr. Auwaerter graduated from the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons and completed his internship and residency at Johns Hopkins Hospital and his infectious diseases fellowship at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. He also earned a master of business administration degree from the Johns Hopkins University School of Professional Studies in Business and Education.