MUSC Health Infectious Disease Clinic at Rutledge Tower

Jensie Burton is an Assistant Professor in Infectious Diseases at the Medical University of South Carolina. She grew up in Charleston, South Carolina and earned a Bachelor of Arts in English at Kenyon College. She then completed a graduate program in Narrative Medicine at Columbia University in New York, studying the intersection of medicine and the humanities. She attended medical school at the University of Virginia and returned to her hometown for residency and fellowship. Her interests include medical humanities, general infectious diseases, and HIV care.

Allison Ross Eckard, M.D. is jointly appointed as a professor in the Departments of Pediatrics and Medicine in the Divisions of Infectious Diseases, at the Medical University of South Carolina. Dr. Eckard serves as the division chief for pediatric infectious diseases and director of MUSC's Ryan White pediatric HIV clinic and HIV transition clinic. Prior to joining MUSC in 2015, she was on faculty at Emory University in Atlanta, GA in the Department of Pediatrics, Division of Infectious Diseases and currently maintains an adjunct faculty position there. Dr. Eckard received her medical doctorate at the University of Pittsburgh and completed her training in pediatrics and pediatric infectious diseases at Rainbow Babies \& Children's Hospital/Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, OH.Dr. Eckard's major research interests include the metabolic, cardiovascular, and nutritional complications of chronic HIV and antiretroviral therapy in both HIV-infected children and adults. She focuses on elucidating the role of inflammation and immune activation in common comorbidities in HIV, like cardiovascular disease and bone disorders, as well as using targeted interventions to minimize the risk of comorbidity development. She currently is a PI on an NIH R01 grant investigating a novel intervention to improve weight gain and abdominal fat in people with HIV. Dr. Eckard has investigated other novel treatments for comorbidity risk reduction in HIV, including vitamin D supplementation and statin therapy. Dr. Eckard has published nearly 60 peer-reviewed research papers, review articles, and book chapters on this topic and presents frequently at national and international venues.Dr. Eckard serves as the co-chair for the Department of Health and Human Services' (DHHS) panel for the "Guidelines for the Prevention and Treatment of Opportunistic Infections in HIV-Exposed and HIV-Infected Children" and is an appointed scientific member for DHHS's panel for the \&"Guidelines for the Use of Antiretroviral Agents in Adults and Adolescents with HIV.\&" Board certified in pediatrics and pediatric infectious diseases, Dr. Eckard is an active member of numerous professional societies, including maintaining fellowship status in the Infectious Diseases Society of America, HIV Medical Association, the Pediatric Infectious Diseases Society, and the American Academy of Pediatrics. She is a member of the HIV Medical Association's "Ending the HIV Epidemic" working group and the Tri-County Sexual Health Awareness, (STI) Prevention \& Education (SHAPE) Initiative Group.On the clinical side, Dr. Eckard specializes in the medical care and treatment for children, adolescents, and young adults in their 20s and early 30s with a new diagnosis of HIV or for those who acquired HIV at birth. Her clinical passion is in the optimization of comprehensive HIV treatment and antiretroviral therapy across the age spectrum and in addressing the unique needs of adolescents and young adults with HIV. She has earned her certification as an "HIV Specialist" within the American Academy of HIV Medicine and leads the HIV education at MUSC. Dr. Eckard also serves as an inpatient consultant within the division of pediatric infectious diseases to provide comprehensive evaluation and treatment of hospitalized children with infectious diseases. With advanced training in global health/tropical medicine through the American Society of Tropical Medicine diploma course, Dr. Eckard is a medical consultant and volunteer for Lespwa Timoun, an organization in Haiti dedicated to child and maternal health. More recently, Dr. Eckard is working with other leaders at MUSC to maximize hospital operations and treatment guidelines for children with COVID-19 and is teaming up with South Carolina schools to implement risk mitigation strategies for safe in-person learning.

Courtney Harris is an infectious disease specialist with formal training in transplant infectious disease and infections in immunocompromised patients. She was born in Minnesota, attended the University of Wisconsin-Madison for undergrad, and then medical school at the University of Minnesota. She completed an internal medicine residency and chief residency at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. She then completed her infectious disease fellowship and transplant infectious fellowship at Massachusetts General Hospital and Brigham \& Women's Hospital in Boston, MA. During her infectious disease fellowship, she completed the Program for Clinical Effectiveness at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. She is board certified in internal medicine and infectious disease. During her training, she was involved in organized medicine as a Board of Trustee for the Minnesota Medical Association and the National Council of Resident and Fellow Members of the American College of Physicians. She currently is on the American Society for Transplantation Infectious Disease Community of Practice Executive Committee. Her leadership has led to recognition with several awards from her residency program, the Zumbro Valley Medical Society's Outstanding Young Physician Award, and the Massachusetts Infectious Disease Society's Kass Award for Clinical Excellence. She joined the MUSC faculty as an assistant professor and is currently the Program Director of the Transplant Infectious Disease Fellowship Program, Medical Student Infectious Disease Clerkship Director, and Director of the Infectious Disease Cardiac Transplantation Program. She has presented nationally and published literature on improving gender equity in academic medicine, career development in transplant infectious disease, and fungal infection in immunocompromised patients. She continues to work on clinical research projects on infections in patients with ventricular assist devices and medical education scholarship.

Dr. Meissner joined the MUSC infectious diseases division in 2014. Originally from Chapel Hill, North Carolina, he attended Middlebury College where he majored in biochemistry and then completed his M.D. and Ph.D. degrees at UNC-Chapel Hill (Ph.D. in microbiology and immunology), followed by internal medicine training at the University of Washington in Seattle. He completed his infectious diseases fellowship and post-doctoral work at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases in Bethesda, Maryland, where he focused on the associations of host innate immunity with treatment outcome during interferon-free treatment of hepatitis C virus infection. Dr. Meissner's outpatient clinical focus is providing care for persons living with HIV infection and persons with viral hepatitis infections. Dr. Meissner's laboratory studies the interface between the host immune system and chronic viral infections, with a specific interest in lambda interferons, hepatitis B virus (HBV), the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), and hepatitis C virus (HCV).

Dr. Charles Teixeira is infectious disease specialist who received his training in infectious disease locally at the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston. He attended the Edward Via College of Osteopathic Medicine in Blacksburg Virginia and then received his training in internal medicine at the Medical College of Georgia in Augusta. He is interested in wide range of infections including HIV, hepatitis C, and complicated difficult to treat bacterial infections.

Dr. Tabliago is an Assistant Professor in Infectious Diseases at the Medical University of South Carolina. He trained in Internal Medicine at Geisinger Medical Center in Pennsylvania and completed Infectious Diseases training at MUSC. His clinical interests include general infectious diseases, HIV care, tele-medicine outreach, and antimicrobial stewardship.

Scott Curry, M.D. is an associate professor of medicine at MUSC who joined the division of infectious diseases in 2016. Dr. Curry grew up in Mount Pleasant and received a Bachelor of Science degree at Duke University, returning to MUSC for his medical degree. He completed his three-year internship and residency in internal medicine followed by a four-year clinical and research fellowship in infectious diseases at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, where he stayed on as junior faculty from 2008 to 2016. While in Pittsburgh, Dr. Curry did extensive laboratory and clinical research in Clostridium difficile and established his institution's fecal microbiota transplant (FMT) program for treatment of recurrent C. difficile infections. Dr. Curry is board-certified in internal medicine and infectious diseases and spends 75 percent of his time conducting clinical and laboratory research related to the transmission and prevention of C. difficile infections. The balance of his time is spent on the general infectious diseases inpatient service at MUSC as well as one half-day of clinic weekly. He also serves as assistant hospital epidemiologist at MUSC. His clinic is primarily devoted to the care of patients with recurrent Clostridium difficile infection, and he is starting an FMT program at MUSC that aims to be a regional and national model for safe delivery of this innovative therapy. Dr. Curry's clinical interests include general infectious diseases, infections in immunocompromised hosts, hospital epidemiology, clinical microbiology, C. difficile infections, and fecal microbiota transplantation. Dr. Curry's research is supported by a K23 award from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIH/NIAID) and focuses on the role of asymptomatic carriers in the transmission of C. difficile within hospitals. He also conducts translational research in the optimization and safe conduct of fecal microbiota transplantation for treatment of C. difficile.

Richard Lueking, MD is an Assistant Professor of Medicine in the Division of Infectious Diseases at the Medical University of South Carolina, where he also serves as Co-Medical Director of the System Antimicrobial Stewardship Program. He completed his Internal Medicine residency at MUSC and Infectious Diseases fellowship at UT Southwestern, where he was Chief Fellow. His academic interests include antimicrobial stewardship, HIV care, diagnostic stewardship, and global health. Dr. Lueking is an award-winning educator and mentor, recognized with multiple teaching and faculty honors at MUSC.