ICTalk Podcast: 2025 APIC President Carol McLay, DrPH, Reflects on Advocacy, Global Collaboration, and the Future of Infection Prevention

As she reflects on her term as the 2025 Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology (APIC) president, Carol McLay, DrPH, MPH, RN, CIC, FAPIC, FSHEA, looks back on what she describes as a year of extraordinary change across public health and health care.

“2025 was a tumultuous year. We saw a lot of changes to public health, a lot of changes to health care overall,” McLay said. “There was a significant transition, I think, between health care and public health. So, we saw a lot of cuts to public health funding, different and very evolving health care delivery models, and certainly more complexity in infection prevention expectations.”

For McLay, those pressures underscored a defining truth about the profession. “Infection prevention has to be adaptable; we have to be collaborative and proactive, not reactive, and continue to be flexible.”

Looking back on her 365 days of leadership, McLay points first to advocacy and visibility when the infection prevention and control (IPC) field needed it most. “I'm really proud of the fact that APIC had so many statements that we came out with,” she said. “APIC did take a stance, and we stood up, and we made statements, and we shared that statement with our members and with the public, and with our health care disciplines, to make it really clear what our stances were on a variety of topics.”

She emphasized that advocacy extended beyond statements. “We used our advocacy efforts to try and support public health infrastructure and infection prevention resources, and protecting the role of science and supporting our infection prevention workforce and ensuring that infection preventionist (IP) voices are heard at the policy tables.”

Collaboration, both domestic and international, also defined her presidency. “I'm also really proud of the fact that we were able to collaborate with IPs and other health care disciplines from around the world,” she said. “I had the opportunity to travel to a number of countries to try and share some of our best practices here in the US, and to learn from our partners overseas and the initiatives that they're taking to strengthen their infection prevention workforces and their populations and try and reduce the risk of health care-associated infections.”

Bringing global insights back home was central to that work. “Bringing that information back to the US and sharing that with APIC members so that we can learn from our partners,” she said. “We had a lot of relationship building last year, which was absolutely fabulous and really important.”

She also noted stronger partnerships closer to home. “I think we're doing a better job now of collaborating with partners and not being as siloed,” she said. “We've become much more deeply engaged with each other.”

One example is the advisory Group created with the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America (SHEA). “A great example of that was our new creation of the HIPAG, which is the Health Care Infection Prevention Advisory Group,” she said. “Now that the Healthcare Infection Control Practices Advisory Committee (HICPAC)has been disbanded, really try to bring together a really collaborative and science-driven approach to maintaining that continuity and infection prevention leadership and guidance.”

Although the group is still forming, McLay described it as an exciting step forward. “We're still in the infancy of trying to figure out what that looks like. We did open up a call for volunteers recently, so we are trying to pull together that permanent committee.”

Her international travels reinforced a powerful theme. “One of the things that really strikes me as I travel to different areas of the world is just that shared passion for infection prevention is everywhere,” she said. “Infection preventionists love their profession. And there is just a thirst for knowledge, a thirst for growing and expanding and learning from each other.”

That shared purpose transcends geography. “Infection prevention doesn't respect borders. We all share the same challenges, right, and many of the same barriers,” she said. “We grow together, and we're stronger together, and by sharing best practices and opportunities, we can all get better, and it all benefits our patients and improves patient safety, which of course is our goal. And we can't do it alone. We have to do it together as a team build on each other's strengths.”

As she looks ahead, workforce development remains front and center despite the disruptions in 2025. “There are so many opportunities right now,” she said. “Continuing to work with workforce development.”

She highlighted upcoming initiatives. “We will be coming out with a new [a-IPC] book this year,” she said, noting the importance of encouraging members to pursue certification and expand the profession. “Expanding the workforce, of course, is going to be new. We've got the new Academic Leadership Program, and there's a great deal of interest internationally in that program.”

Building intentional pathways into the profession is critical. “As you know, a lot of IPs fall into the field accidentally. We'd like that to be a little bit more deliberate, right?” she said. “Having undergraduate programs, certificate programs in colleges also, for example, other ways of building our own pipeline for infection preventionists.”

The passion she sees in the field gives her confidence. “Most IPs, once they're in the field, they never leave it. They love it that much. There's that much passion for it.”

Her closing message is clear and direct. “I think it's really important that IPs have a voice and are able to advocate for our profession and for science and evidence-based guidance,” she said. “Advocacy is really focused on protecting the role of science and supporting our infection prevention community and our workforce and just ensuring that our voices are heard at the table.”

And her call to action for IPs everywhere is simple. “Having a voice, speak up, be confident, get involved. Use APIC Advocacy [Toolkit] resources and be heard.”