The Division of Infectious Diseases established the annual Staff Service Awards in 2024 to recognize outstanding contributions of staff members who serve across clinical services, research and core operations. The annual awards are presented at the March Infectious Diseases Town Hall Meeting. Individuals are nominated by faculty members, managers or peers for consistently demonstrating excellence in their roles in one of three areas: Quality, Safety, and Service Excellence; Performance Excellence; or Leadership Excellence.

Quality, Safety, and Service Excellence Award nominees develop new initiatives for improving patient care research and health outcomes. They work on quality-of-health improvements for the populations they serve and consistently exceed service standards.

This year’s honoree, Danielle McKoy, senior medical office coordinator for the Non-tuberculous Mycobacteria and Bronchiectasis Clinic, was nominated by the physician team of Dan Belz, Elisa Ignatius, Yukiko Kunitomo and Christopher Lippincott.
In their nomination, McKoy’s team noted that she coordinates myriad details to ensure smooth operations and positive patient experiences.

“Our clinic requires extensive preparation for initial patient consultations, and we provide complex care coordination for those being treated for non-tuberculous mycobacteria disease. Danielle is well versed in the nuts and bolts of providing care for this patient population — whether it’s how to best facilitate sputum cultures or how to obtain nebulizers at lowest cost to the patient — she ensures that logistical hurdles are addressed prior to the patient appointment so that we can focus our time and energy on medical care.”

“Danielle is the first point of contact for our patients who require complex coordination of care. She often speaks with patients numerous times to obtain outside records and CT scan and culture results before they are ever seen in our clinic. At their first visit, every patient is so excited to finally meet Danielle in person.”

“Danielle exudes calm competence as well as empathy, and our patients routinely comment on her responsiveness and knowledge. She is the glue that keeps this program together, and she makes Hopkins a better place to work and practice!”


Performance Excellence Award nominees consistently display excellence in work performance. They accept responsibilities and perform above and beyond what is expected. They have extensive knowledge of their work and apply it to create efficiencies in processes and workflow. Two individuals were honored this year for performance excellence.

Anastasia Artayat Shepherd, senior grants and contracts analyst, was nominated for this award by her manager, Julius Esguerra, and Ethel Weld.

“Anastasia is organized, prepared and knowledgeable and brings her sunny attitude and her best self into every encounter. If she doesn’t know something, she immediately makes a plan to find out the answer and reports back. She is a true expert with financial management and on top of every nuance, across a variety of disparate types of complex projects. She is the sole reason I was able to submit a recent R01 (my first) by the actual deadline despite having missed several earlier deadlines. Even though the way that we achieved this together was not particularly aligned with her organized, conscientious, deliberate style of achieving things, she was still there for me every step of the way and in it WITH me as a steady, supportive, compassionate force.”

“From the first day she started here at Hopkins, Anastasia has charged headfirst into her portfolio and into many rabbit holes in getting up to speed with Hopkins systems and the grants she manages. With her expertise, thorough analyses and positive attitude, she was able to quickly turn around a clinical trial program, further strengthen support for a complex and important service center, and become an integral part of the sponsored team.”

Chandra Mani Panthi, senior research specialist in the Lamicchane lab, was nominated by Ruth Howe. She and Gyanu Lamicchane spoke about Chandra’s merit for the award at the recent Infectious Diseases Town Hall meeting.

“While Chandra is nominally the mouse technician for the Lamichhane lab, he would never be content to just show up 8 a.m.–4 p.m. five days a week and go through the motions. He is constantly asking how he can help others, coming in early, staying late, popping by on weekends, training people throughout the department, and picking up new techniques well beyond his job description. It doesn’t matter to him whether someone needs a hand labeling 250 isolate tubes, prepping three months’ worth of antibiotics for twice daily injections in an experiment, figuring out a more efficient workflow for lung retrieval in our pulmonary models, counting bacterial colonies, doing an extra set of repeats on MIC assays, or organizing the lab’s NTM libraries for distribution to other working groups. Chandra does it all efficiently, gladly and with self-deprecation, working to the task and not the time.”

“Chandra came to the United States from Nepal with the DV visa program, which is a diversity visa that brings 55,000 people each year to the U.S. to contribute to the economic workforce. He’d been here working in a gas station in Towson and somehow heard of me, and he called me during the COVID pandemic and said, ‘This is not what I do, this is not why I came here. When I die, I want to be known as a lab technician.’ That’s what he had done in Nepal. And he said, ‘You don't need to hire me. Just let me see what you do, and I will volunteer.’ I found a way to hire him part-time and then quickly promoted him. His work ethic is that he will do everything, under any condition, to contribute, and the quality of his work is very, very high.”


Leadership Excellence nominees demonstrate exceptional performance by managing and improving the work environment of the division and the university through developing and implementing processes that foster productivity or created revenue for the infectious diseases division. They work on enhancing division culture and provide guidance and mentorship.

This year’s honoree, Melissa Selby, senior grants and contracts manager, was nominated by Cindy Sears on behalf of the faculty Melissa supports, and Sherah Okiya, a grants and contracts analyst on Melissa’s team.

“Melissa’s knowledge of grants and financial, institutional and departmental/divisional procedures is unparalleled. She ferrets out answer with speed, is a team player, is unflappable and gets every application, form and communication done on time. She patiently and persistently works to assist each faculty member she supports to understand their finances, unfailingly, each month. She prepares us for impending pitfalls and suggests prudent next steps. For more than one of us, she has helped to navigate crises with grace, kindness, optimism and unwavering dedication and support, leading to outstanding, financially positive solutions to issues. She often works overtime to keep faculty on track, which is well above what is required. She has demonstrated an exceptional depth of understanding of Hopkins’ financial systems and their nuances; has (repeatedly) explained calmly and even with humor the ‘whys’ and ‘hows’ of steps needed to bring in and manage subcontracts, among other types of funding.

“In the midst of chaos, she remains funny, easy to work shoulder-to-shoulder with, and is someone you really look forward to meeting with. She takes on deeper analyses of our finances, willingly bringing important information to our attention and allowing sound planning and projections. She handles extensive responsibilities and workload with aplomb. Melissa currently supports three faculty, supervises five staff and is covering for a staff member out on leave, which involves assisting three additional faculty. Melissa’s dedication, knowledge, institutional and financial skills, patience, impeccable communication skills and delightful personality are an irreplaceable asset to our division and to each of us. She is amazing, and we cannot think of anyone who is more deserving of this award.”

“Melissa has displayed unmatched patience, dedication and commitment to my professional growth. Her expertise, coupled with a supportive approach, has created an environment where learning flourishes. Her tireless dedication to project success and commitment to excellence makes her an ideal recipient of this leadership award.”


Congratulations to all honorees and nominees for demonstrating the dedication, commitment and excellence that embodies the spirit of the Division of Infectious Diseases and the culture of the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine.