Speaker Recognition Awards

The SHEA Spring Speaker Recognition Program is a peer-driven distinction program that pays tribute to excellent and engaging speakers and top sessions identified during the conference. Recipients will receive recognition from SHEA’s President. Every attendee will be able to provide their vote on the best of the best! The Speaker Recognition Award categories are as follows:

  • Best Session Award

    The Best Session Award recognizes an outstanding session, within the full conference program, that most consistently represents the topic and objectives of the named session. Each of the speakers during this session has contributed significantly to the overall educational value and presented it in an effective manner. Individual presentations within the session may have some differences in style but should be supportive and complementary of the others.

    Criteria: Overall impression of the session should be noteworthy for consistent excellence amongst all the individual presentations as well as collaborative and supportive in content.

    Current Winner:

    2025: Opening Plenary: First Do No Harm? Environmental Impact & Sustainability in Infection Prevention and Antimicrobial Stewardship

    • Mahmood Bhutta, FRCS, DPhil
      Shira Abeles, MD
      Pretti Jaggi, MD

    Past Winners:

    2024: Peter Hotez, MD, MHP
    2023: Jasmine Marcelin, MD; Lauren Sauer, MSc
    2022: Ibukun Kalu, MD; Jasmine Marcelin, MD; Loretta Christensen, MD

  • Notable New Speaker Award

    The Notable New Speaker Award recognizes a new speaker to SHEA Spring Conference that presents an outstanding and noteworthy session including speakers within the full conference and plenary programming. A “new” speaker is determined as someone who hasn’t presented in a previous SHEA Spring Conference, limited to the three years prior.

    Criteria: The notable new speaker’s presentation should represent the topic and objectives and be presented in an effective manner. This award should highlight someone whom you would enjoy hearing again in the future.

    Current Winner:

    2025: Plenary: Human Migration Patterns in The Americas and Their Impact On The Risk For Infectious Disease Transmission

    • Carlos Franco-Paredes, MD, MPH, DTMH

    Past Winners:

    2024: Tania Bubb, PhD, RN, CIC
    2023: Scott Curry, MD, MS
    2022: Sonali Advani, MBBS, MPH

  • Training Course Speaker Award

    This award recognizes the speaker in each Training Course who best exemplifies the most effective speaker providing expertise, inspiration, and creativity in the delivery of their presentation.

    CriteriaThe Training Course Speaker Award should promote active learning and successfully encourage participants to think critically and independently. The speaker should be interactive and effective in covering the topic and objectives. This award should highlight someone whom you would enjoy hearing again in the future.

    Current  Winners:

    SHEA Healthcare Epidemiology Training Course

    2025: Occupational Infection Prevention

    • Thomas Talbot, MD, MPH

     

    Antibiotic Stewardship Training Course

    2025: Making the Data Talk

    • Payal Patel, MD, MPH

    Past  Winners:

    SHEA Healthcare Epidemiology Training Course

    2024: Arjun Srinivasan, MD
    2023: Tom Sandora, MD, MPH
    2022: Sarah Haessler, MD, MS

    Antibiotic Stewardship Training Course

    2024: James Lewis, PharmD
    2023: Priya Nori, MD
    2022: Emily Spivak, MD

  • Forward-Thinking Award (Previously Spring Theme Speaker Award)

    The Forward-Thinking Speaker Award recognizes the speaker who best inspires the SHEA community to think innovatively and strategically about the future of healthcare epidemiology, infection prevention, and antimicrobial stewardship. This speaker has demonstrated forward-thinking by presenting ideas or strategies that are not only novel today but are likely to shape the future of our practices in the next 5-10 years.

    Criteria: The ideal candidate for this award is a speaker whose presentation focuses on groundbreaking concepts or methodologies that have the potential to become essential practices in the near future. This may include innovative technologies, strategies for infection prevention, or new approaches to antimicrobial stewardship that are not yet widely adopted but show significant promise for the future.

    Current Winner:

    2025: Closing Plenary: Antimicrobial Resistance: Past, Present and Future

    • Michael Woodworth, MD, MSc

    Past Winners:

    2024: Gonzalo Bearman, MD, MPH
    2023: Hilary Babcock, MD, MPH
    2022: Brad Spellberg, MD

Make sure you complete your SHEA Spring evaluation after the conference to provide your input on these awards!