The below announcement was sent to the Department of Internal Medicine earlier today by Chair & DEO Upinder Singh, MD.
It is my great pleasure to announce that Judy Streit, MD, has accepted the role of Director for the Division of Infectious Diseases. Dr. Streit has served as interim director since 2021 but has held multiple leadership roles within the division for even longer. Her institutional knowledge of every component of the division’s activities, from its clinical and research excellence to its robust fellowship program, makes her invaluable and a natural choice for permanent division director. I have relied on her experience and wisdom since I became chair of this department. I could not imagine anyone else in the role.
Dr. Streit’s history with Iowa began at the start of her career, completing her medical degree here as well as her residency and fellowship in this department. After a year as a Chief Resident and a couple years on faculty here, her path took her through Indiana and into New York briefly before Iowa called her back home. Not long after that return, she became medical director of UI Health Care’s travel clinic, a critical unit requiring constant surveillance of the changing global infection landscape. Since 2014, Dr. Streit has been the program director of the Infectious Disease fellowship, mentoring fellows during their specialty training. Her leadership roles also extend to the Iowa City VA Health System where she held the position of Hospital Epidemiologist for twelve years and served as Chair of the infection control committee through the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic. She has been nominated for the UIP’s Clinician of the Year award and is a Fellow in the Infectious Diseases Society of America.
In each of these roles, Dr. Streit has shown a facility for leadership, tempering decisiveness with the input of all stakeholders. The division’s research has grown through a variety of clinical trials as well as providing a home for a large complement of health services researchers, a field in which Iowa is an internationally recognized center of excellence. She has overseen the expansion of clinical services to the downtown campus and now the North Liberty facility, in addition to embracing new models of health care delivery through telemedicine and our satellite clinics.
Dr. Streit said that she is “honored” to become the permanent division director. “This division, its members, and our success has always been important to me. I look forward to strengthening the relationships our division has throughout UI Health Care as we advance each of our equally important missions.”
There are few among us who understands the current footprint of infectious diseases with greater institutional memory than Dr. Streit, and I am thrilled that she has accepted our offer to remain in the role for years to come. Please join me in congratulating Dr. Streit.