Mitsuru Toda, MS, PhD; Samantha Williams, MPH; Dallas Smith, PharmD, MAS

Mitsuru Toda, MS, PhD, is an epidemiologist and the lead of Outbreaks & Endemics Unit at CDC’s Mycotic Diseases Branch at the National Center for Emerging and Zoonotic Infectious Diseases (NCEZID). Dr Toda received her PhD from Nagasaki University Graduate School of Biomedical Sciences, and her master’s degree in science from Harvard University T.H. Chan School of Public Health. Dr Toda joined CDC as an epidemic intelligence service (EIS) officer in 2017.

Samantha Williams, MPH, is an epidemiologist with the Mycotic Diseases Branch in the National Center for Zoonotic and Emerging Infectious Diseases at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Dallas Smith, PharmD, MAS, is an epidemic intelligence service officer with the Mycotic Diseases Branch at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. He received his doctor of pharmacy degree from the University of Findlay in 2017. He then joined the United States Peace Corps, serving in Cambodia from 2017–2019 as a community health educator and Malawi from 2019–2020 as a clinical pharmacy and pharmacognosy lecturer. His main research interests are endemic mycoses and fungal neglected tropical diseases.

Dr. Jorge Mera

Faculty

Dr. Jorge Mera is the director of the Infectious Disease Department at the Cherokee Nation Health Services, the largest tribally operated health care system in the United States. In 2014, in response the HCV national epidemic he launched the first ProjectECHO hub in the state of Oklahoma. This hub was focused on Hepatitis C treatment and elimination and has provided treatment recommendations to over 1400 American Indian/Alaska Native patients with HCV. In addition, Dr. Mera has been instrumental in the implementation of other ECHO hubs across Indian Country. These hubs have focused on COVID-19, HIV, HIV PrEP, infectious diseases, substance use disorders and eliminating the HIV/HCV/SUD/Syphilis syndemic. Dr. Mera completed his fellowship in Infectious Diseases and Clinical Microbiology at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas and is Board Certified by the American Board of Internal Medicine in Infectious Diseases. He is an Associate Professor in the Infectious Diseases Division at the University of New Mexico, Health Science Center, Strategic Advisor for Project ECHO in Latin America, as well as the ECHO Medical Director for the Northwest Portland Area Indian Health Board. Dr. Mera is a Fellow of the American College of Physicians.

Dr. Jon Iralu

Faculty

Dr. Iralu, MD, MACP, FISDA, is the Indian Health Service Chief Clinical Consultant for Infectious Diseases. He has a special interest in HIV, tuberculosis, and sexually transmitted disease care in rural communities. His research has focused on undifferentiated febrile illness in the American Southwest and on rural HIV care delivery. He has worked at Gallup Indian Medical Center since 1994 and is an instructor at Harvard Medical School and Senior Physician at Brigham and Women’s Hospital Division of Global Health Equity in Boston, Massachusetts.