It is my pleasure to announce that Barbara W. Trautner, MD, PhD will be joining WashU Medicine as the new Co-Chief of the Infectious Diseases (ID) Division in the Department of Medicine, effective July 1, 2025. Dr. Trautner is currently a Professor of Medicine and Surgery at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas, and a physician at the Houston Michael E. DeBakey Veterans Affairs Medical Center.
At the VA, she serves as an investigator in the Houston VA Center for Innovations in Quality, Effectiveness, and Safety (IQuESt), the Deputy Associate Chief of Staff for Clinical Research, and the Director of the Houston VA NODES Cooperative Studies Program.
Dr. Trautner completed her undergraduate training at Princeton University in Princeton, New Jersey, where she received a A.B. in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, graduating summa cum laude. She earned her medical degree from the University of Virginia in Charlottesville, Virginia, followed by a residency in Internal Medicine and a fellowship in Infectious Diseases at Baylor College of Medicine. She also holds a PhD in Biomedical Sciences with a focus on Clinical Investigation from Baylor College of Medicine. She is a distinguished physician-scientist and clinical investigator who has received several honors and awards throughout her career. She is an elected member of the American Society for Clinical Investigation, and her accolades include the Barbara and Corbin J. Robertson Jr. Presidential Award for Excellence in Education, the Norton Rose Fulbright Faculty Excellence Award for Enduring Educational Materials, the Baylor College of Medicine Women of Excellence Award, and the Ben and Margaret Love Foundation Bobby Alford Award for Academic Clinical Professionalism at Baylor.
Dr. Trautner is currently independently funded through research grants from the VA Health Systems Research Program, the Craig H. Neilsen Foundation, the NIH, and AHRQ. Her research focuses on diagnostic and antibiotic stewardship, particularly for urinary tract infections (UTIs). She has led trials to disseminate successful antibiotic stewardship interventions, improve the diagnosis and treatment of UTIs in men, develop bacteriophage therapy for UTIs in individuals with spinal cord injuries, and to reduce overdiagnosis of catheter-associated UTI. She serves as a reviewer for the NIH and for VA Health Systems Research Merit Awards. She is also an author for UpToDate on catheter-associated UTIs and prostatitis. Additionally, she serves as the co-chair of the Infectious Diseases Society of America’s Guidelines Committee for UTIs and is recognized nationally and internationally as an expert in the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of UTIs, as well as in antimicrobial stewardship and the prevention of antimicrobial resistance. She is an extremely active clinical and translational investigator, a passionate educator, and a caring and dedicated clinician. She has been a mentor to many medical students, residents, and fellows. She fostered an outstanding culture and climate at Baylor and the VA to support clinical and translational research and faculty development.
In her new role, Dr. Trautner will work closely with Dr. Jennifer Philips, MD, PhD, the Theodore and Bertha Bryan Professor of Medicine and Co-Chief of the basic science research side of the ID Division. Dr. Philips has led this side of the division since 2019, and she is a distinguished physician scientist who studies the molecular biology and pathogenesis of Mycobacterium tuberculosis.
We owe a great deal of thanks to Dr. Bill Powderly, the current Co-Chief of the Infectious Diseases Division and the J. William Campbell Professor of Medicine, Larry Shapiro J Shapiro Director of the Institute of Public Health, Director of the Institute of Clinical and Translational Sciences and Associate Dean for Clinical and Translational Science. Dr. Powderly is a distinguished investigator who has led the clinical and translational side of the ID Division since 2013.
Dr. Powderly is known for his tremendous contributions to research leading HIV clinical trials and studies to prevent and treat opportunistic infections in HIV patients. He is an outstanding clinician, a passionate educator, a dedicated mentor, and a remarkable leader in clinical and translational research. During his tenure as Co-Chief of the ID division, the clinical and translational arm of the Division has grown tremendously. He expanded clinical trials, clinical programs, and educational initiatives, recruited outstanding faculty, and expanded the outpatient practice on campus, in North County and West County. He also recruited and developed leaders to foster the success of programs focused on HIV, the prevention and treatment of sexually transmitted infections, healthcare epidemiology, antimicrobial resistance, and the diagnosis and management of fungal infections. He was an extraordinary leader during the COVID-19 pandemic, in the ID division, the Department of Medicine, the School of Medicine and the University. He is a former President of the Infectious Diseases Society of America, and former Dean of the School of Medicine at University College Dublin in his native Ireland. Fortunately for us, he will remain at Washington University to continue leading the Clinical and Translational Science Award and to play other important roles.
Please join me in thanking Dr. Bill Powderly for his many years of leadership in the division, and welcoming Dr. Barbara Trautner to her new role as Co-Chief of the Infectious Diseases Division in the Department of Medicine.