The Environment Network is run by a volunteer steering group who support the network by collating content, finding funding, facilitating meetings and advocating around raising awareness of the role the environment plays in transmission of infection at strategic and policy meetings.
The steering group is made up of academic, industry and healthcare professionals, from all levels of seniority, in order to represent the network membership. We are an open and collaborative group who would always welcome new input and membership, so if you want to get involved get in touch.
Dr Elaine Cloutman-Green
Consultant Clinical Scientist, Infection Prevention and Control
Dr Elaine Cloutman-Green is a Consultant Clinical Scientist working within Infection Prevention and Control and as Lead Healthcare Scientist for a world renowned paediatric hospital. She was awarded the British Empire Medal as part of the New Years Honours in 2021 for services to healthcare.
She started her Clinical Scientist training in 2004 in Microbiology and, during her training, she completed an MSc in Clinical Microbiology. In 2007, after completing her training, she specialised in Infection Prevention and Control. As part of this work she has undertaken a PhD whilst on the NIHR CSO Doctoral Fellowship scheme on ‘The role of the environment in transmission of healthcare associated infection’. Her research on prevention of healthcare associated infection also includes the development and implementation of rapid typing schemes in order to identify transmission. In 2016 she was awarded an NIHR ICA Clinical Lectureship in order to continue this work.
In 2015 she successfully attained Fellowship of the Royal College of Pathologists and was appointed the first UK based International Ambassador for the Society of Healthcare Epidemiology of America. In 2016 she became a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and was appointed as a NICE Expert Advisor in Infection Prevention and Control. She became a Consultant Clinical Scientist in 2021.
She is the Chair of the Environmental Network, a project she is especially passionate about as it is related to her PhD. She is an Executive Member of the Society for Applied Microbiology, a member of the ACB Microbiology Professionals Committee, and Country Ambassador for the American Society of Microbiology. She also holds strategic positions as Diagnostic Lead for the NIHR CRN Infection National Specialty Group, as a member of the NHS England AMR Programme Board and membership of the London Clinical Senate Council. Follow @girlymicro on Twitter if you’d like to get in touch.
Dr Lena Ciric
Lecturer at the Healthy Infrastructure Research Group
Lena completed her first degree in Biological Sciences at the University of Oxford in 2000. She then went on to work as a research assistant at the NERC Centre for Ecology and Hydrology (CEH) in Oxford. She completed a CASE PhD Studentship at CEH and Napier University Edinburgh investigating the bacterial community dynamics in diesel degrading consortia in 2006. Lena moved to the UCL Eastman Dental Institute in 2007 and worked on two EU funded postdoctoral projects. The first investigating the antimicrobial activity of functional foods, the latter looking for novel antibiotic resistance genes and mobile genetic elements encoding resistance genes. Lena moved to UCL CEGE in October 2012 to take up her lectureship.
Elise Maynard
Consultant at Elise Maynard and Associates LLP
Elise was the first female chair of the Water Management Society (WMSoc) and also chairs the WMSoc events committee team as she has extensive experience of running successful educational events. She has presented or chaired at numerous international events and has authored many technical papers.
Elise is state registered with the Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC), a Fellow of the Institute of Biomedical Sciences (IBMS), the Institute of Healthcare Engineering and Estate Management (IHEEM) and the Royal Society of Public Health (RSPH), where she is also an active member of the water special interest group. Elise is also a member of the Healthcare Infection Society (HIS) and the Central Sterilising Club (CSC).
She is a Managing Partner of Elise Maynard & Associates LLP which provides independent consultancy to the water and medical devices industries. Her background is in Microbiology, having trained in the Clinical and Health Protection Agency (HPA) laboratories at St Mary’s Hospital, Portsmouth. Elise has a Diploma in Management and an MSc in Health Research and Development from Portsmouth University. Following her MSc graduation she became chair of the Medical Devices Special Interest Group of the Institute of Clinical Research.
Prior to setting up her own company she was Northern European Marketing Manager for Pall Medical and was responsible for marketing of their Water, Critical Care and OEM Filtration portfolios. She worked for over 26 years at Pall, gaining experience in both laboratory and R&D environments prior to working throughout Europe as a Technical Support Manager.
Helen Dunn
Consultant Nurse, Infection Prevention and Control
Helen Dunn has worked in Infection Prevention for a number of years both in the UK and overseas. She completed an MSc in Infection Management at Imperial College London and has been an Great Ormond Street Hospital since 2014. Particular areas of interest include vascular access and paediatric infection prevention and control.
Dr Melisa Canales
Laboratory Manager
Melisa Canales works at Civil Environmental and Geomatic Engineering ( CEGE) at UCL Melisa completed her undergraduate degree in Clinical and Chemical Microbiology at The National Autonomous University of Honduras and her PhD from University of Zaragoza, Spain.
Her career has largely been in the arena of Clinical Microbiology, firstly at the National Reference Laboratory, Ministry of Health in Honduras, and later within quality control in biotechnology and radiopharmaceutical companies in the UK. Currently, She is the Departmental Biological safety officer and manages the Healthy Infrastructure Research Group (HIRG ) laboratory at CEGE/UCL. Melisa’s research interests in study infectious disease transmission within indoor environments; water treatment technologies and the impact of antimicrobial resistance in the environment.
Dr Claire Walker
Senior Lecturer
Dr Claire Walker is a registered clinical scientist in immunology and senior lecturer in biomedical sciences. Claire has worked at several major teaching hospitals in the UK including Great Ormond Street Hospital where she completed her PhD in immunology and genetics in collaboration with University College London Great Ormond Street Institute of Child Health. Claire’s interest in environmental IPC stems from her Master’s degree in environmental microbiology which she was awarded from the University of Sheffield, and her long standing collaboration with Dr Cloutman-Green B.E.M.
Claire is currently a senior lecturer in immunology at University of Lincoln which has recently listed as Times modern university of the year. As a pathologist, she believes collaboration between all subjects and IPC is essential for the safe and effective running of the laboratory, and indeed the hospital. Building from this, an awareness of IPC is built into all aspects her IBMS accredited biomedical science course at the University of Lincoln.
In her spare time, Claire is a budding amateur mycologist, chicken fancier and occasional blog writer.
Anthony De Souza
Practice Educator, Healthcare Science
Anthony has been working in Microbiology for over 13 years and has a passion for the field. After completing a BSc in Biomedical Science and an MSc in Biomedicine, he subsequently started his on-the-job training in a large district hospital. From working in a busy lab within the NHS: he spent some time working in reference labs in Public Health England and has even found himself in Sierra Leone, working alongside others during the Ebola Outbreak. Anthony transitioned into the world of education, working as both a Senior Clinical Lecturer at London South Bank University and at Great Ormond Street Hospital as a Practice Educator for HCS within the GOSH Learning Academy, supporting the education of the workforce at GOSH. Anthony also supports a range of public engagement and outreach activities such as the “Reach Out for Healthcare Science” work experience program and the Queens award winning Science4U Schools Science programme. Anthony has been recognised for his achievements by the Pathology Power list, featuring ‘In the Spotlight’ and at the Advancing Healthcare Awards.
Sam Watkins
Doctoral Research Student
Sam is a Doctoral Research Student whose research focusses on the development for environmental surface monitoring protocols to inform clinical risk assessments and infection control procedures. His project aims to develop an evidence base for the presence of nosocomial pathogens in the hospital environment, as well as model the transmission of pathogens in clinical spaces. He obtained an MBiol degree from Aston University in 2020, with projects focusing on C. difficile spore germination.
Sandra Moss
Events Co-ordinator
For the last 7 years I have worked with Healthcare Scientists to deliver events such as the annual Healthcare Science Education Conference and organising and facilitating Environment Network annual conference and events.
I began my career in Marketing and PR, working for organisations such the Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery. Following on from this my experience has included working in Local and Central Government. During this time I project managed networking events for local authority Youth and Community leaders. I also worked for the Department of Work and Pensions and it was my job to organise jobs fairs and project manage account holders for recruitments such as Cadburys, the local NHS and the Census.
Environmental Infection Prevention and Control Network 