Fellowship in SIDP

Please consider nominating a colleague for this distinction, which is awarded at the SIDP Business Meeting and Lecture Series in the fall. Further information regarding the nomination and application process can be found here.

Kerry LaPlante, PharmD, FCCP, FIDSA, FIDP

Dr. LaPlante is a department chairperson and professor at the University of Rhode Island College of Pharmacy. She is also an adjunct professor of medicine at Brown University, an infectious diseases pharmacy specialist, and director of the Rhode Island Infectious Diseases research program at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Providence, RI. LaPlante is known internationally for her expertise in antibiotic therapy and has extensively researched how optimizing antimicrobial use prevents antimicrobial resistance and improves patient outcomes.

An advocate for antimicrobial resistance funding and improved policy, Dr. LaPlante has dedicated her career to furthering antibiotic research across the full spectrum of healthcare science, from antibiotic development to clinical applications. She is a past president of the Society of Infectious Diseases Pharmacists (SIDP), an elected Fellow of the Infectious Diseases Society of America, and the American College of Clinical Pharmacy.

Dr. LaPlante has given over 100 invited lectures and published over 100 peer-reviewed articles throughout her career, including authorship on the American College of Gastroenterology (ACG) C. difficile treatment guidelines. She has also published a book titled “Antimicrobial Stewardship Principles and Practices” which is available on Amazon. She has a passion for cooking (never baking), cheering on the Buffalo Bills, and entertaining friends at her home in Rhode Island with her husband Seth, their two children and their dog Biscuit. 

Peggy McKinnon, PharmD, FCCP, FIDP 

Peggy McKinnon is the Associate Vice President of Infectious Diseases and Vaccines for the US Medical Affairs with Merck Research Laboratories. In her early career as a clinical practitioner, she led the development of antimicrobial stewardship as we know it today, before it was formally recognized. She contributed early to the literature on patient outcomes with pharmacy-led stewardship. Some of the efforts that she pioneered and published on are so routinely used now they may seem rudimentary. But without her leadership and publication of these efforts including high-dose extended interval aminoglycosides, vancomycin nomograms, where would we be? She established one of the first ID Residencies and the Anti-Infective Research Laboratory at Wayne State fellowship program, which has gone on to train and mentor so many prolific researchers and SIDP leaders. After 15 years of clinical practice, she transitioned into pharmaceutical industry where she leads an integrated field medical team of over 60 MSL’s supporting scientific exchange and research activities. She was an early member and contributor to SIDP. In fact, she chaired the Recognition Awards Committee and established the rubrics that we still use today. She also developed the Gita Patel Best Practice Recognition. She initiated and chaired the fundraising committee and has served on the board of directors.