Edwards elected secretary of IDSA
Kathryn Edwards, M.D., professor of Pediatrics and director of the Vanderbilt Vaccine Research Program, was recently elected to serve on the executive committee of the Board of Directors for the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA) as the organization's secretary.
Kathryn Edwards, M.D.
As secretary, Edwards will have oversight of the National and Global Public Health Committee, as well as the Immunization Work Group — a body working with Congress to improve access to vaccines for children and adults.
Edwards will serve a term of three years and succeeds William Schaffner, M.D., chair of the Department of Preventive Medicine, who was elected secretary of the IDSA in 2007.
“I am very pleased to be elected to this important post,” Edwards said. “It will be a way that I can contribute to reducing the global burden of infectious diseases and continue to champion for the important role of vaccines in disease prevention. I am also very pleased to succeed Dr. Schaffner in this post. As a national leader in public health and community engagement, his shoes will be difficult ones for me to fill.”
IDSA is the premier infectious diseases professional and scholarly society in the world, and has more than 8,000 members worldwide representing health care professionals who specialize in infectious diseases.