Sharon Vanairsdale, DNP, APRN, ACNS-BC, NP-C, CEN, FAEN, FAAN is an Associate Professor, clinical track, and the Program Director for the Serious Communicable Diseases Unit at Emory University Hospital in Atlanta, GA, the Health and Human Services designated Region 4 Ebola and Other Special Pathogen Treatment Center. As the Program Director, she manages unit readiness and hospital preparedness for patients with special pathogens and has been involved with the preparation and response to the COVID-19 pandemic at Emory Healthcare. Dr. Vanairsdale is also the Director of Education and Resources for the National Emerging Special Pathogens Training and Education Center (NETEC), a training program funded by HHS to prepare healthcare workers to safely and effectively manage patients with special pathogens. Since the beginning of the pandemic, Dr. Vanairsdale has helped lead NETEC to develop and deploy education and resources related to COVID-19. She has collaborated with federal partners at CDC and ASPR to disseminate best practices related to patient care, conservation strategies for personal protective equipment, infection prevention and control measures, among others. Dr. Vanairsdale serves as Chair of the Emerging Infectious Diseases Expert Panel for the American Academy of Nursing and is a member of the Emergency Nurses Association Position Statement Committee. She is also a fellow in the Academy of Emergency Nurses and the American Academy of Nursing. In 2016, Dr. Vanairsdale was awarded the American Nurses Credentialing Center Magnet Nurse of the Year for Exemplary Professional Practice and the Georgia Chapter March of Dimes Nurse of the Year for Nursing Administration.

• Lane MA, Brownsword EA, Morgan JS, Babiker A, Vanairsdale SA, Lyon GM, Mehta AK, Ingersoll JM, Lindsley WG, Kraft CS. Bioaerosol sampling of a ventilated patient with COVID-19. American Journal of Infection Control. 2020 Aug 4:S0196-6553(20)30760-4. doi: 10.1016/j.ajic.2020.07.033. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 32763347; PMCID: PMC7402277.\
• Kraft CS, Mehta AK, Varkey JB, Lyon GM, Vanairsdale S, Bell SA, Burd EM, Sexton ME, Cassidy L, Olinger P, Rengarajan K, Raabe VN, Davis E, Henderson S, DesRoches P, Xu Y, Mulligan MJ, Ribner BS. Serosurvey on healthcare workers caring for patients with Ebola virus disease and Lassa virus in the United States. Submitted to ICHE.
• Vasa A, Madad S, Larson L, Kraft CS, Vanairsdale S, Grein JD, Garland J, Butterworth VM, Kratochvil CJ. A Novel Approach to Infectious Disease Preparedness: Incorporating Investigational Therapeutics and Research Objectives into Full-Scale Exercises. Health Security. 2019 Jan/Feb;17(1):54-61. doi: 10.1089/hs.2018.0100. PubMed PMID: 30779611.
• Raabe, V. N., Kann, G., Ribner, B. S., Morales, A., Varkey, J. B., Mehta, A. K., Lyon, G.M., Vanairsdale, S., Emory Serious Communicable Diseases Unit (2017). Favipiravir and Ribavirin Treatment of Epidemiologically Linked Cases of Lassa Fever. Clinical infectious diseases: an official publication of the Infectious Diseases Society of America, 65(5), 855–859. doi:10.1093/cid/cix406
• Kratochvil CJ, Evans L, Ribner BS, Lowe JJ, Harvey MC, Hunt RC, Tumpey AJ, Fagan RP, Schwedhelm MM, Bell S, Maher J, Kraft CS, Cagliuso NV Sr, Vanairsdale S, Vasa A, Smith PW. (2017 May/June). The National Ebola Training and Education Center: Preparing the United States for Ebola and Other Special Pathogens. Health Security. 15(3):253-260. doi: 10.1089/hs.2017.0005. PubMed PMID: 28636442.
• Vanairsdale, S. (2017). How Specialty Certification Influences Professional Practice. Journal of Nursing Administration, 47(3), 129-130.
• Fairley, J., Kozarsky, P., Kraft, C., Guarner, J., Steinberg, J., Anderson, E., Jacob, J., Meloy, P., Gillespie, D., Espinoza, T., Isakov, A., Vanairsdale, S. Baker, B., Wu, H. (2016). Ebola or not? Evaluating the ill traveler from Ebola-affected countries in West Africa, Open Forum Infectious Diseases, 2016, 3, 1.
• Moreno, C., Kraft C, Vanairsdale S, Kandiah P, Klopman M, Ribner B, Tridandapani S. (2015 Jun). Performance of bedside ultrasound in an Ebola isolation unit: the Emory University Hospital experience. American Journal of Roentgenology, 204(6):1157-9. doi: 10.2214/AJR.15.14344. Epub 2015 Mar 2. PMID: 25730332
• Lowe, J., Olinger, P., Gibbs, S., Rengarajan, K, Beam, E., Boulter, K., Schwedhelm, M., Hayes, K., Krotochvil, C., Vanairsdale, S.; Frislie, B; Lewis J., Hewlett, A., Smith, P., Gartland, B., Ribner, B. (2015, April 29). Environmental infection control considerations for Ebola. American Journal of Infection Control, Advance online publication. doi: 10.1016/j.ajic.2015.03.006
• Auffermann, W., Kraft, C., Vanairsdale, S., Lyon, G., & Tridandapani, S. (Jan 2015). Radiographic imaging for patients with contagious infectious disease: How to acquire chest radiographs of patients infected with the Ebola virus. American Journal of Roentgenology, 204 (1), 44-48. doi: 10.2214/AJR.14.14041
• Feistritzer, N., Hill, C., Vanairsdale, S. Gentry, J. (2014). Care of patients with Ebola virus disease. Journal of Continuing Education in Nursing, 45(11): 479-81. doi: 10.3928/00220124-20141027-12.

• 2011: First Place, Partnership for Health and Accountability Quality and Patient Safety Award for Hospitals with Greater than 300 Beds
• 2013: Third Place, Partnership for Health and Accountability Quality and Patient Safety Award for Hospitals with Greater than 300 Beds
• 2014: Team Daisy Award, "Team Ebola"
• 2015: National Patient Safety Foundation and Daisy Foundation Team Award, "Team Ebola"
• 2015: Finalist, March of Dimes Nurse of the Year-Advanced Practice Nurse, Georgia Chapter
• 2016: Magnet Nurse of the Year for Exemplary Professional Practice
• 2016: March of Dimes Nurse of the Year-Nursing Administration, Georgia Chapter
• 2017: Inducted into the Academy of Emergency Nurses
• 2017: Inducted into the American Academy of Nursing
• 2018: Endowed Doctoral Scholarship, Emergency Nurses Association Foundation
• 2018: Awarded the Doctor of Nursing Practice Silver Bowl for demonstrating exceptional clinical and scholastic abilities while also serving as inspiration for other students
• 2020: American Organization for Nursing Leadership 2020 Young Professional Voices honoree

Media

• Emergency Nurses Association. (2020). Information About the 2019 Novel Coronavirus. Available from https://www.ena.org/practice-resources/covid-19‍
• American Nurses Association. (2020). Johnson and Johnson: See Me Now, What Ebola Taught us About Collaboration and Communication, January 27. Available from https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/what-ebola-taught-us-about-collaboration-communication/id1488523483?i=1000463838672‍
• Goldman, D. (August 2020). Back to the front lines. Emory Nursing Magazine. http://emorynursingmagazine.emory.edu/issues/2020/summer/features/nurses-challenging-times/index.html?utm_source=eBlast&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=EmoryNursingMagazine&utm_content=ClassOfTheirOwn-BUTTON#front-lines
• Campana, D. (September 2018). When disaster strikes, ED planning is put to the test. ENA Connection. (Article contributor)
• Ferenc, Jeffrey. (August 2018). ED nurses can help overcome anti-vaccine mindset. ENA Connection. (Article contributor)
• Coursera Courses (2015). Ebola Virus Disease: An Evolving Epidemic Available from https://www.coursera.org/course/ebola‍
• Emory University (2011). “Making Atlanta Best Place in America to Have a Heart Attack.” Available from http://news.emory.edu/stories/2012/05/video_best_place_to_have_heart_attack/