HIS Council are members of the Society (with the exception of the lay trustee), who are either appointed by Council or elected by the membership for a defined term. 

Officers 

All Officers are Trustees

• President - Dr Elisabeth Ridgway (2026)
• Chair - Dr Chris Settle (2024)
• Secretary - Dr Manjula Meda (2024)

• Treasurer - Dr David Harvey (2024)

Editor-in-Chief

The EiC is a Trustee

• Journal of Hospital Infection - Dr Nikunji Mahida (2025)

Committee Chairs

Committee Chairs are not Trustees of the Society unless stated

• Professional Development Committee - Dr James Price (2024) 
• Guidelines Committee - Professor Peter Wilson (2024)

• Trainee Committee - Dr Oliver Bannister (2025) 
• Research Committee - Dr Emma Boldock (2024) 

Ordinary Council Members  

All Ordinary Members are Trustees

• Dr Sarah Walpole (2025)
• Professor John Coia (2025)
• Ron Finlay - Lay member (2024)
• Dr Luke Moore (2023)
• Dr Shanom Ali (2024)
• Dr Gayti Morris (2023)
• Dr Joanna Walker (2023)

• Leila Hail (2025)

Co-opted members

Co-opted members are not Trustees

• There are no co-opted members at present

Council roles in detail

Equality, inclusion and diversity

(Brackets denote role end year. Individuals demit at the AGM unless otherwise stated above)

Our committees are formed of volunteers who are healthcare professionals.  They are formed largely of consultant microbiologists and virologists, trainees enrolled on a specialty training programme, infection control nurses, staff from UKHSA and healthcare scientists. Full details of the terms of reference and membership of all HIS Committees can be found here.

• Professional Development Committee
• Research Committee
• Guidelines Committee
• Trainee Committee
• Executive Editorial Board
• ED&I focus group
• New consultants' working group
• Finance Committee
• Higher Awards Committee

The Society is involved in a number of working parties that produce evidence-based and expert guidance in all areas of infection prevention and control. Many of these are led by the Society. HIS members also provide expert representation on Working Parties of other organisations.

Current working parties:

• Prevention and control of infection in burns units (joint with British Burn Association)
• The use of faecal microbiota transplant as treatment for recurrent or refractory Clostridium difficile infection and other potential indications (joint with British Society of Gastroenterology)
• Microbiological commissioning and monitoring of operating theatre suites
• Infection prevention and control of Group A Streptococcal infection in acute healthcare and maternity settings in the UK
• Water management for healthcare microbiologists 
• Use of respiratory and facial protection equipment  [paused]
• Prevention and control of Aspergillus [paused]

If you are interested in becoming involved in a HIS working party or would like to suggest a new guideline or guidance topic, please contact us via email the first instance.

We are currently recruiting for new members to join the Guidelines Committee, please apply with your expression of interest following this link - Work or volunteer for us

Editorial Board

Editorial Board

The Executive Editorial Board oversees all aspects of journal publishing within HIS, in collaboration with our Publisher, Elsevier. 

Members

• Dr Nikunj Mahida (Editor in Chief, Journal of Hospital Infection)
• Dr Gemma Winzor (Editor in Chief, Infection Prevention in Practice)
• Dr Jim Gray (Editor, Journal of Hospital Infection)
• Dr Martyn Wilkinson (Editor, Journal of Hospital Infection)
• Dr Pauline Jumaa (Editor, Infection Prevention in Practice)
• Dr Christopher Settle (Society Chair)
• Dr David Harvey (Society Treasurer)

Sarah Adibi joined the Healthcare Infection Society in September 2023.

John Misselbrook joined the Healthcare Infection Society in March 2017, previously having held the position of Deputy CEO and Director of Finance for the Biochemical Society. John is a Chartered Certified Accountant and brings extensive experience across a breadth of commercial and third sector organisations.

Christine Fears joined HIS in November 2019. She has worked in publishing for 12 years, previously at the BSI as the Journals Manager. Prior to this, Christine worked for many years at PLOS on flagship journals PLOS Medicine and PLOS Genetics, and ran her own freelance editorial business.

Helen Davies joined the Healthcare Infection Society in September 2017, with specific responsibility for developing membership engagement, events and training activities for the Society. Helen has over 20 years’ experience managing membership, training and events for professional societies and prior to joining HIS, was Head of Academic Programmes at the UK national institute for data science, The Alan Turing Institute, where she had oversight of the Institute’s training and events.

Angharad Green joined the Healthcare Infection Society in November 2022. She previously worked at the University of Liverpool as a post-doctoral researcher in molecular microbiology and bacterial genomics and was an R&D microbiologist at Unilever. Throughout her academic career, Angharad has championed microbiology research through volunteering roles within the Microbiology Society, including being elected as a member of the Early Career Microbiologist Executive Committee and the Policy Committee.

Aggie Bak joined the Society in September 2018 as Researcher in Evidence Synthesis. She has previously worked as a Research Assistant in the Richard Wells Research Centre, University of West London, where majority of her work involved conducting guidelines and systematic reviews in the topics of Healthcare Associated Infections. Aggie holds a BSc in Human Nutrition and MSc in Cancer Biology, and recently achieved a PhD.

Moira Mugglestone joined the Healthcare Infection Society in April 2020. She was previously a guideline developer for the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE). With a background in statistics and epidemiology, Moira has also held positions in medical and biological research institutes and academia.

Rosalind Pawley joined the Healthcare Infection Society in June 2023. Rosalind comes to HIS with 8 years of experience organising events for professional medical organisations, most recently for the Royal College of Anaesthetists (2018 – 2023) where she led on event projects including scientific conferences, skills workshops, and virtual webinars. Prior to this she worked for the Royal College of Physicians (2015 – 2018) as an education programmes coordinator.

Ruth Ward joined the Healthcare Infection Society in March 2023 with the remit of supporting the Society in the development and delivery of its eLearning portfolio.

Ruth has worked within higher education for the majority of her professional life and has vast experience in the design and development of eLearning courses and the systems used to support and enhance learning experiences.

Our constitution is the rule book we are governed by.  Changes to the constitution can only be made with the approval of HIS members, and the Charity Commission must be informed of any changes made.  When HIS was formed in 1980, its purposes and the rules for how it should operate are were set down in a governing document. Over time, as HIS has evolved, a number of changes have been made.  Most recently (2021) changes were approved in order to ensure the recruitment of new Trustees involves an open call to members, and final selection by HIS Council based on skills gaps identified.