Professor of Medicine
McGill University
Montreal, Quebec, Canada

Michael Libman is Professor in the Division of Infectious Diseases and the Department of Microbiology at McGill University. He is the Director of the J. D. MacLean Centre for Tropical Diseases at the university, which includes the Canadian National Reference Centre for Parasitology, and past Chief of both the Divisions of Infectious Diseases and Medical Microbiology at the McGill University Health Centre. He is Consultant Microbiologist for Nunavik, in Canada’s eastern arctic.

He has been a GeoSentinel Site Director since 2006, member of the Data Collection Working Group and chair of the External Collaborations committee prior to assuming his current role in 2019. He also is part of the executive of CanTravNet. His research work focuses on the epidemiology of imported infections, diagnostic test development and validation, as well as capacity building in medical microbiology and clinical parasitology in remote and resource-limited settings.

Dr. Libman is active in training as well as guideline and policy development in tropical medicine and parasitology. He is chair of the Committee to Advise on Tropical Medicine and Travel for the Public Health Agency of Canada, and oversees many educational activities and training programs for institutions such as the Institut Nationale de Santé Publique du Québec, the American Society for Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, the Christian Medical College in Vellore, India, and Addis Ababa University. He has been a Program Director for the Royal College of Physicians of Canada training programs in both Infectious Diseases and Medical Microbiology and Head of the Section of Infectious Diseases for the Association of Medical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases of Canada.

Professor of Global Health and Medicine
Boston University School of Public Health and School of Medicine
Boston, MA, USA

David Hamer obtained a BA from Amherst College (majors in biology and French) and a MD degree from the University of Vermont College of Medicine. After an internal medicine residency at the Washington Hospital Center, he completed specialty training in infectious diseases in the Department of Geographic Medicine and Infectious Diseases at Tufts Medical Center. He is a Professor of Global Health and Medicine at the Boston University Schools of Public Health and Medicine and an Adjunct Professor of Nutrition, Tufts University Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy. He is currently serving as the Director of COVID-19 Surveillance and Response for Boston University, helping the university leadership to keep the campus healthy through control of SARS-CoV-2 transmission.

Dr. Hamer spent nearly four years serving as the Director of Research and Evaluation at the Zambia Center for Applied Health Research and Development in Lusaka, Zambia conducting community- and hospital-based research on maternal, newborn, and child health. Since June 2014, he has been the Principal Investigator of the ISTM GeoSentinel project. Dr. Hamer is a member of the Section of Infectious Diseases at Boston Medical Center. He is a board-certified specialist in infectious diseases, with a particular interest in tropical and emerging infectious diseases. He has 25 years of field research experience in malaria, pneumonia, micronutrients, malnutrition, diarrheal disease, newborn and maternal health. He is currently participating in studies on maternal, newborn, and child health in Bangladesh, South Africa and Zambia in addition to leading GeoSentinel. Dr. Hamer has published over 300 peer-reviewed publications, reviews, chapters, and editorials as well as 4 books.

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Ralph Huits is a Dutch specialist infectious disease physician at the Department of Infectious Tropical Diseases and Microbiology, IRCCS Ospedale Sacro Cuore Don Calabria in Negrar, Verona, Italy. He is also affiliated with the NatuRA Research group at the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences of the University of Antwerp, Belgium. Dr. Huits has extensive experience working overseas (Zimbabwe, Caribbean). He coordinated antimicrobial stewardship programs, HIV and hepatitis care, and the hospital response to dengue virus epidemics in Aruba, and he participated in several emergency relief missions (Haiti 2010). From 2014 to 2022, Dr. Huits worked as a consultant at the Institute of Tropical Medicine (ITM), where he was a GeoSentinel Site director, and at the University Hospital Antwerp.

Dr. Huits obtained a PhD in Biomedical Sciences from KU Leuven. He has co-authored over 50 peer-reviewed publications. His research focuses on the epidemiology, clinical presentation, diagnosis, and management of emerging infectious diseases in travellers and endemic populations, and he has a special interest in arboviruses and other vector-borne infections. He is an Editorial Board member of JTM, and he has been a regular reviewer for the major journals of infectious diseases.

Professor Emerita, with Distinction
Department of Medicine, Division of Infectious Diseases
Emory University

Expert Consultant CDC/Division of Global Migration and Quarantine/Travelers’ Health/Emerita
Atlanta, GA

Phyllis Kozarsky is Professor Emerita in the Division of Infectious Diseases at Emory University. She founded Emory’s TravelWell center for pre-and post-travel health care in 1988 and began working as a consultant to the US CDC’s Division of Global Migration and Quarantine shortly thereafter, becoming chief of Travelers’ Health. There she assisted in the expansion and transformation the CDC text, Health Information for International Travel, also known as the “Yellow Book,” and became chief medical editor for many editions, bringing outside authors and editors to the text. Dr. Kozarsky was a co-founder of GeoSentinel, along with being one of the first site directors in the Network.

Dr. Kozarsky has also been a consultant to many organizations, including the Coca-Cola Company, Delta Airlines, CNN, and Habitat for Humanity International. During the recent pandemic, she became instrumental in helping organizations such as Major League Soccer and Norwegian Cruise Lines continue their activities. She is a consultant to Hollywood and Health, an organization bringing real-life medical issues to the forefront for television and movies. She is the author of many peer-reviewed articles, book chapters, and is an editor of the textbook, Travel Medicine. She is a co-founder of the International Society of Travel Medicine (ISTM), was chair of the professional education committee, the exam committee, and was secretary/treasurer of the Society. She remains an active member of the ISTM along with membership in the American Society for Tropical Medicine and Hygiene (ASTMH). She holds a Certificate in Tropical Medicine and Travelers’ Health from the ASTMH, a Certificate in Travelers’ Health from the ISTM, and is a Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons (Glasg). She has received a number of awards from the US Department of Health and Human Services and from the US CDC for activities related to her work during outbreaks, including those due to anthrax, SARS, and H1N1, and others.

Atlanta, GA

Charlie is a programmer and systems analyst who has been working at the CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) for over 25 years with most of his time spent in DGMQ (Division of Global Migration and Quarantine). He has been the sole developer for GeoSentinel since 2006 and was a member of the Data Collection Working Group for many years. He is responsible for all changes to the system and database as well as implementing any form changes. Other CDC projects that he’s worked on over the years includes EDN (Electronic Disease Notification, QARS (Quarantine Activity Reporting System), BRFSS (Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System), and many others. He has a Master of Science in Operations Research from Georgia Institute of Technology as well as bachelor of Science in Mathematics and Business Administration from Milligan College.

Dr. O’Laughlin is currently a medical officer in the Travelers’ Health Branch in the Division of Global
Migration and Health at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In this role, he serves as
the project officer for GeoSentinel; coauthors chapters in CDC’s Yellow Book: Health Information for
International Travel; manages CDC’s yellow fever vaccination obligations under the International Health
Regulation, and writes travel guidance for CDC’s destination pages and travel health notices.

He began his career at CDC in 2019 when he entered the Epidemic Intelligence Service in the Waterborne Disease
Prevention Branch. He trained in internal medicine and primary care at Yale New Haven Hospital in New Haven, Connecticut, and was selected to serve as the global health chief resident for the Yale-Mulago Hospital (Kampala, Uganda) partnership. Dr. O’Laughlin earned his medical degree from Albert Einstein College of Medicine in Bronx, New York. Before medical school he served as a Peace Corps volunteer in West Africa for nearly three years. He has particular interest in travel and tropical medicine, infectious disease epidemiology, pre-travel vaccination guidelines, and outbreak response.

Hannah is a full-time GeoSentinel Data and Network Coordinator. She helps with data management and quality control. Hannah also performs quarterly data analyses, trains new data personnel at GeoSentinel sites, and answers accessibility issues. Hannah completed a bachelor’s degree in Biology from the University of Georgia in 2010 and a Master’s in Public Health from Georgia State University in 2012. She has a strong background in data management and clinical research. Hannah has most recently worked as a Senior Research Admin Coordinator at Emory School of Medicine.