2017 Diploma Ceremony Speaker:
John E. McGowan, Jr., MD

Professor, Department of Epidemiology and Global Health, Rollins School of Public Health, and Professor of Medicine (Infectious Disease), Emory University School of Medicine

John E. McGowan, Jr. is Professor, Department of Epidemiology, Rollins School of Public Health of Emory University, and Professor of Medicine (Infectious Diseases) and Pathology and Laboratory Medicine (Medical Microbiology) at Emory University School of Medicine.  He also serves as Co-Director of the MD/MPH Dual Degree Program at Emory and Co-Director of the Master of Science in Clinical Research training program. He began full-time work at Emory in 1973 and served as Hospital Epidemiologist and later as Chair of the Infection Control Committee at Grady Memorial Hospital in Atlanta for 25 years before moving full-time to his current positions. He is board certified in internal medicine, infectious diseases, and medical microbiology. His research is focused on healthcare epidemiology and antimicrobial resistance, and he has authored or co-authored more than 300 papers, book chapters and books. His main research interest is the epidemiology and laboratory recognition of antibacterial drug resistance, especially the relationship of resistance to antimicrobial use in healthcare settings. 

Dr. McGowan was a founding member and first President of the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America (SHEA). He has served on the Governing Boards of the Infectious Diseases Society of America and the American Society for Microbiology. He was a founding Associate Editor of the journal Infection Control and Hospital Epidemiology. He formerly chaired the Microbial Devices Review Panel of the FDA, and served as an Advisor to the Antimicrobial Susceptibility Testing Subcommittee of the Clinical Laboratory Standards Institute. Recent awards include the Emory Williams University Award for Distinguished Teaching, Emory University, 2011, the Charles R. Hatcher, Jr. Award for Career Contributions to Public Health, Emory University, 2015, and selection by the British Society for Antimicrobial Chemotherapy as recipient of the Garrod Medal for 2016 for “significant contributions to antimicrobial chemotherapy.”