Laura Hammitt

MD

Dr. Laura Hammitt is Director of Infectious Disease Programs at the Center and an Associate Professor at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, where she has been on faculty since 2011. Her research focus is the epidemiology and prevention of infection in populations affected by health disparities. Dr. Hammitt works in partnership with Native American communities in the southwest United States to understand and address infectious diseases in a culturally-informed manner. She has 20 years of experience studying viral and bacterial respiratory infections, monitoring infectious diseases through population-based surveillance, and conducting clinical trials of interventions to reduce the burden of disease. Embedded in all of her research is a focus on capacity building.

Dr. Hammitt earned her medical degree at the University of Utah, and completed a residency in pediatrics at Primary Children’s Medical Center in Salt Lake City, Utah, followed by an appointment as chief resident. She subsequently joined the CDC’s Epidemic Intelligence Service (EIS), serving at the Arctic Investigations Program in Anchorage, Alaska, where she worked on infectious diseases of particular significance in the Alaska Native population. Following EIS, Dr. Hammitt completed a fellowship in Pediatric Infectious Diseases at the Children’s Hospital in Denver, Colorado. In 2008, after finishing her fellowship, Dr. Hammitt moved to Kenya where she worked as a clinical epidemiologist. Dr. Hammitt resides in southwest Colorado and, when not at work, she enjoys having outdoor adventures with her family.

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.