Board of Directors

Thomas File, Jr., MD, FIDSA, President

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, President-Elect

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.

Daniel P McQuillen, MD, FIDSA, Vice President 

Dr. McQuillen is Senior Physician in the Division of Infectious Diseases at Beth Israel Lahey Health, Lahey Hospital & Medical Center, and Assistant Professor of Medicine, Tufts University School of Medicine. Dr. McQuillen has been an active member of IDSA for over two decades, serving a term on the Board of Directors and as a member and chair of the Society’s Clinical Affairs Committee and its Valuation Workgroup as well as the IDWeek Program Committee, focusing much of his time promoting the value of the ID specialist.

He is the co-author of three research papers supporting the value of ID. He is committed to addressing what he believes is one of the greatest challenges facing the specialty today: fair reimbursement for infectious diseases services. 

Angela M Caliendo, MD PHD, FIDSA, Secretary

Dr. Caliendo is Professor and Executive Vice Chair in the Department of Medicine at Alpert Medical School of Brown University. Dr. Caliendo has been deeply involved with IDSA for many years. During her recent term as a board member, she was most proud of the Society’s focus on diversity, inclusion and equity and believes the commitment to these principles has led to a conscious effort to attract members with more diverse backgrounds, perspectives, and interests onto committees and into leadership positions.

Dr. Caliendo has a great deal of experience advocating for ID on Capitol Hill with IDSA as a board member and as chair of IDSA’s Diagnostics Committee and has played a pivotal role in transitioning IDSA into the leading voice for policies pertaining to antimicrobial resistance and regulation of diagnostic tests. 

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.

Cynthia L. Sears, MD, FIDSA, Immediate Past 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.