Project PROTect Team

Led by pediatric infection prevention and antimicrobial stewardship leaders, our interdisciplinary team includes clinicians, researchers, quality and safety experts, and family advocates. Together we design programs that empower families and strengthen infection prevention across the Children’s Center.

With Drs. Aaron Milstone and Erica Prochaska, Project PROTect comprises two teams: the Pediatric Infection Prevention Team and the Pediatric Antimicrobial Stewardship Team.

Project PROTect includes core faculty members and clinical researchers from:

Johns Hopkins Children’s Center Division of Pediatric Infectious Diseases
Division of Quality and Safety
Department of Hospital Epidemiology and Infection Control
Johns Hopkins Armstrong Institute for Patient Safety and Quality

Team Leaders

Aaron Milstone MD, MHS

Dr. Aaron Milstone is a professor of pediatric infectious disease and epidemiology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. He is an associate hospital epidemiologist at The Johns Hopkins Hospital and the Pediatric Director of Infection Prevention for the Johns Hopkins Health System.

Dr. Milstone’s research focuses on advancing the science to prevent antibiotic resistance and healthcare associated infections. He has led numerous clinical trials including the Pediatric SCRUB Trial and TREAT PARENTS Trial testing strategies to prevent organism transmission and healthcare-associated infections. He is PI of the BrighT STAR Collaborative, guiding hospitals nationwide to reduce over-testing as a strategy to reduce antibiotic use and resistance.

Erica Prochaska MD, MHS

Dr. Erica Prochaska is an assistant professor of pediatric infectious disease at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. She is an associate hospital epidemiologist at The Johns Hopkins Hospital and the medical director of Antimicrobial Stewardship in the Johns Hopkins Children's Center.

Dr. Prochaska’s research focuses on the epidemiology, diagnosis and prevention of bloodstream infections among children, with a focus on low-cost interventions to reduce preventable infections, such as family education and improving blood culture quality.

Danielle Koontz, MAA, MAS, LSSGB

Danielle Koontz is a Project Administrator at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, where she manages research programs focused on pediatric infection prevention, diagnostic stewardship, and implementation science.

She serves as the key operational leader for several principal investigators and has managed the operationalizing and scaling of multiple clinical initiatives, including the expansion of Project PROTect throughout the Johns Hopkins Children's Center and BrighT STAR, a multi-site international research collaborative advancing diagnostic and antibiotic stewardship.