Meet the WNY ASM Officers
Immediate Past President
Mark Hicar, M.D., Ph.D.
Attending Physician, Division of Infectious Disease, Oishei Children’s Hospital
Associate Professor, Department of Pediatrics
Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences, Buffalo, NY
Mark Daniel Hicar is an Associate Professor of Pediatrics and is chief of the Division of Pediatric Infectious Diseases at the University at Buffalo. His research pursuits in Pediatrics began during undergraduate studies at the University of Chicago, and continued through his medical and doctoral degrees at The Ohio State University. Current studies focusing on using the immune response to infections to inform on improvement in vaccination strategies have led to numerous scientific technical publications and novel HIV vaccine constructs. He is focusing on novel antibody discovery in proposed post-infectious conditions (Kawasaki disease, Alzheimer’s disease, Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome in Children) to discover etiologies that contribute to these conditions. His work has been supported by the Wildermuth Pediatric Research fund, Dr. Louis Skarlow Memorial Trust,, the Infectious Diseases Society of America, the Pediatric Infectious Diseases Society, the Wyeth Young Investigator Award in Vaccine Development and by the National Institutes of Health.
President
Patricia I. Diaz, DDS, MS, PhD
Professor, University at Buffalo School of Dental Medicine
Department of Oral Biology
Dr. Diaz is Empire Innovation Professor of Oral Biology and the Sunstar Robert J. Genco Endowed Chair at the School of Dental Medicine and also serves as Director of the Microbiome Center at the University at Buffalo. Dr. Diaz’s research, supported by grants from NIH and industry, focuses on the intricacies of oral microbiome communities and their interactions with the host in health and disease.
President Elect
Chelsie Armbruster, Ph.D.
Associate Professor, University at Buffalo School of Medicine
and Biomedical Sciences
Department of Microbiology and Immunology
Dr. Armbruster obtained her PhD from the lab of Dr. W. Edward Swords at Wake Forest University in 2011, where she studied the contribution of AI-2 quorum sensing to polymicrobial biofilm formation, antibiotic resistance, and persistence of chronic otitis media. She then pursued postdoctoral research in the lab of Dr. Harry Mobley at the University of Michigan, where she received an NIH F32 and a K99/R00 for her research on Proteus mirabilis and polymicrobial catheter-associated urinary tract infections. She moved to Buffalo in 2017 to begin her independent lab, which focuses on combining basic science techniques with patient-oriented research to investigate the consequences of polymicrobial urine colonization, particularly in catheterized nursing home residents. The overall goal of research in the Armbruster lab is to determine the ability of common colonizers to modulate risk of symptomatic infection and adverse outcomes in patients, and to utilize an experimental model of infection to uncover host and microbial mechanisms that contribute to disease severity and have the potential to be targeted for treatment or prevention.
Councilor and ASM COMS Representative
Elaine Haase, Ph.D. , MT(ASCP)
Research Professor
School of Dental Medicine
Department of Oral Biology
Dr. Haase earned both her BS and MS degrees in Medical Technology at the University at Buffalo. She worked for many years as a medical technologist at Mt. St. Mary’s Hospital in Lewiston, NY. She then pursued her interest in microbiology by earning a PhD in Microbiology and Immunology at the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences at UB, working in the laboratory of Timothy Murphy, MD on epitope mapping of the P2 protein of non-typeable Haemophilus influenzae. She did her postdoctoral studies in the department of Oral Biology in the School of Dental Medicine at UB where she worked in the laboratory of Frank Scannapieco, DMD, PhD on research ranging from the identification and transcription of the fimbrial operon of Aggregatibacter actinomycetemcomitans to biofilms to comparative genomics of the amylase-binding proteins of Streptococcus gordonii. She rose through the ranks in the department to Research Professor. Currently, she is involved in the discovery and role of bacteriophages in the oral microbiome in the laboratory of Kathryn Kauffman, PhD.
Alternate Councilor
Ryan Hunter, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
Department of Microbiology and Immunology
Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences
Ryan Hunter is a microbial ecologist and uses a combination of microscopy, analytical biochemistry, and integrative multi-omic approaches to study the dynamics of microbial communities in chronic airway disease. The overarching goal of his lab is to define the in vivo growth environment of airway microbiota and how environmental-microbe interactions relate to disease states. We have a particular research interest in bioavailable carbon sources and themetabolic strategies pathogens use to obtain them. Dr. Hunter received his PhD from the University of Guelph (Canada) and pursued his postdoctoral studies at MIT and Caltech.
Secretary / Treasurer
Lynn Connors, B.S. MT(ASCP)
Department of Biotechnical and Clinical Lab Sciences
Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences
Lynn Connors is a microbiologist and SUNYAB Clinical Assistant Professor in the Department of Biotechnical and Clinical Lab Sciences. She earned a BS in Medical Technology at the University at Buffalo and started her career in the microbiology department at the Erie County Medical Center. During her tenure at ECMC she rose to the position of Chief Microbiology Technician and served as lab supervisor. As part of her job responsibilities at ECMC she taught the clinical aspects of microbiology to a variety of students and fledgling medical professionals including clinical laboratory scientists, pharmacists, clinical pathologists and infectious disease specialists. In 2014 she join the UB BCLS department as an instructor for microbiology, mycology, lab education and lab management. She also has a long association with WNY ASM, having served as secretary/treasurer for the past 13 years.
Webmaster
Jean B. Myers, B.A. I (ASCP), CLT
Clinical Instructor
Department of Biotechnical and Clinical Lab Sciences
Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences
Jean Myers is a clinical virologist and immunologist and the retired Supervisor of the Erie County Medical Center (ECMC) Diagnostic Immunology and Virology Laboratory. She presently is a Clinical Instructor in UB’s Department of Biotechnical and Clinical Lab Sciences. She earned her bachelor’s degree at the University at Buffalo and worked at ECMC over 30 years, introducing the laboratory to molecular diagnostics in the late 1980’s. She has over 30 publications and presentations focusing on laboratory detection of infectious diseases. She has been an active member in with WNY ASM since the 1970’s, having served as a past president and secretary/treasurer. She welcomes her role as WNY ASM’s first Webmaster.
