APIC Announces Elaine Larson Lectureship Award Recipient

The Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology (APIC) today announced Mary Andrus, BA, RN, CIC, of Gainesville, Ga. as the 2010 recipient of the Elaine Larson Lectureship Award. Awarded annually by APIC’s Board of Directors, the award honors the individual best able to present a dynamic lecture on the state of the science of infection control and/or epidemiology in the area for which he or she has been a major contributor over a lifetime of pursuit.

Elaine Larson Lectureship Award candidates must be recognized experts who have created, delivered or promoted an infection control and epidemiology service that has influenced public perception, attitudes and awareness. Candidates must also show evidence of outstanding and significant contribution and demonstrate excellence toward the science of infection control and epidemiology research, education, administration or clinical practice.

“APIC is happy to award Mary with this special honor to recognize not only her breadth of knowledge and experience working to prevent healthcare-associated infections, but also for her tireless work in surveillance and monitoring of infection prevention practices through years of dynamic teaching and research,” said Cathryn Murphy, RN, PhD, CIC, APIC’s 2010 president. “Today we salute Mary for helping to make healthcare safer through her leadership in infectious disease prevention in the U.S. and abroad.”

Currently, Andrus is an infection prevention consultant and a member of APIC’s Nominating and Awards Committee. She is the author of a chapter on surveillance in Bennett and Brachman’s Hospital Infections text and is the co-author of several journal articles, including the most recent Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Surveillance Definitions published in the June 2008 issue of AJIC.

Her work with the CDC has taken her to many U.S. states as well as France, Japan, England and Saudi Arabia, speaking about surveillance issues and the National Healthcare Safety Network (NHSN). She has most recently presented a series of NHSN workshops that focus on definitions and protocols used for healthcare-associated infection (HAI) surveillance nationally.

Andrus has been a member of APIC since 1993 and has been a member of the Georgia Infection Prevention Network (GIPN) since moving to Georgia in 1998. She is a past president of the Greater Atlanta Chapter of APIC and served two terms on the Board of Directors for APIC.

Andrus worked as a nurse epidemiologist in the Surveillance Branch in the Division of Healthcare Quality Promotion (DHQP) at the CDC from 2002 to 2008. At the CDC, she served as subject matter expert and provided support and training for the NHSN.

Prior to her work with the CDC, Andrus was the director of infection control at Northeast Georgia Health System. She began her infection prevention career in Michigan at a small acute care hospital and also worked for several years as the infection control coordinator in a freestanding inpatient rehabilitation hospital in Grand Rapids.