Biography

Barbara A. Brown-Elliott has worked with Dr. Richard Wallace in the mycobacteriology research laboratory at UTHSCT since 1988. She is a registered medical technologist with a specialty in microbiology [MT(ASCP)SM]. Before coming to UTHSCT, she worked for 11 years as the microbiology supervisor in a clinical microbiology laboratory, as a consultant for a clinical microbiology reference laboratory, and as an instructor in medical technology. She is an associate member of the American Society of Clinical Pathologists (ASCP), served as a regional advisor for the ASCP, and is a member of the American Society for Microbiology (ASM) since 1978.

Barbara currently serves as Professor of Microbiology and Associate Director of the College of American Pathologists (CAP) accredited UTHSCT Mycobacteria/Nocardia Laboratory. She is also a study coordinator for mycobacterial clinical investigational drug trials at UTHSCT. These trials have included clarithromycin (biaxin), azithromycin (zithromax), rifabutin (mycobutin), rifampin, and ethambutol. She currently serves as a Principal Investigator and Co-Investigator of several mycobacterial research grant funded studies including a new clinical trial of omadacycline. Additionally, she is a member/advisor for the Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute (CLSI) Subcommittee on Antimycobacterial Susceptibility Testing, the current International Working Committee on Mycobacterial Antimicrobial Susceptibility Testing and a member of the Subcommittee on Laboratory Diagnosis of Mycobacterial Infections: She is also a member of the Editorial Board of Clinical Microbiology Reviews and the Journal of Clinical Microbiology and is a frequent reviewer for these and other scientific journals.

She is the author of more than 200 scientific articles and chapters and has presented more than 100 research abstracts/posters at international meetings. She has been an invited speaker at national and international meetings and was a previous delegate to the International Conference on Macrolides, Azalides, Streptogramins, and Ketolides in Spain and the Western Pacific Congress of Chemotherapy and Infectious Disease in Hong Kong , China. She was also appointed to the Centers for Disease Control Laboratory Proficiency Testing Committee and recently their Epidemiology Surveillance program for nontuberculous mycobacteria. She was appointed to the American Thoracic Society (ATS) Committee on the revision of the guidelines for the diagnosis of nontuberculous mycobacteria and is a frequent speaker on the ASM, ASCP, and the National Teleconference Network. She is a 2009 recipient of the Gardner Middlebrook Award for significant contributions in the field of mycobacteriology and received the American Society for Microbiology Scherago-Rubin Award for excellence in Microbiology in 2013. She was also an ASM Distinguished Lecturer from 2019-2020. In 2022, she has contributed to publications by the CLSI, the Manual of Clinical Microbiology (4 chapters), the ASM Clinical Procedures Handbook, and Principles and Practice of Infectious Diseases (Nontuberculous Mycobacteria and Antimycobacterial Agents, 2 chapters) along with several journal publications and abstracts.

Education & Training

The University of Texas at Tyler
MS, Interdisciplinary Studies,1981

Houston Baptist University
Bachelors in Medical Technology, 1976

Research Interests

Nontuberculous mycobacteria (NTM)
Nocardia
Other aerobic actinomycetes
Antimicrobial susceptibility testing
Antibiotic resistance mechanisms
Clinical mycobacteriology including clinical trials