Alexis Elward, MD, MPH

Alexis Elward, MD, MPH, is Professor of Pediatric Infectious Diseases at Washington University School of Medicine. She is a Gateway Coach and has served in this role since 2021, coaching groups from the entering class of 2020, 2022 and now 2024. She is the course master for the Pediatric Infectious Diseases Phase 3 Elective. She is a member of the Phase 3 Operations Committee for the Gateway Curriculum and a member of the WUSM Admission Committee. She is currently serving as a member of the American Academy of Pediatrics Practice Advisory group, a task force convened to develop the content for the national board certification examination in Pediatric Infectious Diseases.  She is also currently an officer of the SLCH Medical Executive Committee, serving as Secretary/Treasurer. She has previously served as Vice Chair for Quality and Safety for the Department of Pediatrics from 2016-2019, Chief Medical Officer for SLCH from 2019-2020 and Associate Chief Medical Officer for SLCH from 2014-2018. She served as the Medical Director of Infection Control at St. Louis Children’s Hospital from 2006-2014.

Dr. Elward received her MD from the University of Maryland School of Medicine in 1994 and her Master’s in Public Health from St. Louis University in 2006. Dr. Elward has served as an appointed member of the Hospital Infection Control Practice Advisory Committee of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (HICPAC) and as the liaison between HICPAC and the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP). Dr. Elward has also served as the Pediatric Infectious Diseases Society Liaison to the Society of Healthcare Epidemiology of America (SHEA) and is an active member of SHEA’s Pediatric Leadership Council.  Dr. Elward has served on the expert panel of the Child Health Corporation of America’s whole system measures for central-line associated bloodstream infection initiative and on the Missouri State Altered Standards of Care planning group.

Her areas of research interest have included central-line associated bloodstream infection prevention, ventilator-associated pneumonia and hand hygiene; she has been the recipient of NIH and CDC awards to study these. She has served as the site investigator for several multicenter pediatric infection prevention initiatives, including an R01 to study the epidemiology of resistant Enterobacteriaceae, an R01 funded study on MRSA colonization in the NICU and an industry funded grant to study to efficacy of daily bathing with chlorhexidine in the prevention of central-line associated bloodstream infections.