Meet the Hub

Dr. Szkwarko is the MA Tuberculosis Infection Co-director and Co-facilitator of Project ECHO.  Her research interests are in TB prevention globally. In the US, she is interested in improving TB infection testing and treatment in primary care in the United States and has served as the co-Course Director for the Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Regional Latent TB Infection ECHO courses since 2019. 

Dr. Thal is the MA Tuberculosis Infection Co-director and Co-facilitator of Project ECHO. A family nurse practitioner and HIV specialist at Family Health Center of Worcester (MA), and an Instructor at UMass Chan's Tan Chingfen Graduate School of Nursing. She is a 2019 graduate of the University of Massachusetts Community-Based HIV and Viral Hepatitis Fellowship, with additional concentration in latent tuberculosis infection. She has served as co-Course Director for the Massachusetts and Regional TBI ECHO courses since 2020.

Dr. Bernardo is Professor of Medicine at Chobanian and Avedisian School of Medicine. He attends on the pulmonary consult service and critical care unit at Boston Medical Center. He is active in local and national TB programmatic activities, including: National Tuberculosis Controllers’ Association where he has served as Executive Committee President from 2002 to the present. Dr. Bernardo is also an active member of the Advisory Committee on the Elimination of Tuberculosis (ACET; NTCA) and the Association of Public Health Laboratories Task Force on the Future of TB Laboratory Services. Dr. Bernardo is a co-investigator at the Northeast Tuberculosis Regional Training and Medical Consultation Center (CDC), and a TB Control Officer, Massachusetts Department of Public Health, Div of TB Prevention and Control. He is a Principal Investigator at the Boston University site, TB Trials Consortium and co-Principal Investigator, Massachusetts DPH site, TB Epidemiologic Studies Consortium.

Jennifer Cochran (post-retiree) served as Director of the Division of Global Populations and Infectious Disease Prevention in the Bureau of Infectious Disease and Laboratory Sciences. She directed the Refugee and Immigrant Health Program for over 20 years prior to leading the integration of tuberculosis and refugee immigrant health activities. Over the course of her career, she has sought to strengthen partnerships with primary care for latent TB infection and newcomer health.