Welcome back to Voice for Infection Prevention! Today, I’m joined by Maureen Spencer, a longtime leader in Infection Prevention whose career has spanned decades of change across healthcare, from the early days of hospital infection control to corporate leadership, consulting, education, and beyond.

Maureen’s story is especially unique because she entered the field at a remarkably young age, helping build an Infection Prevention program early in her career and going on to lead across academic medical centers, specialty hospitals, and multi-hospital systems. Along the way, she developed a perspective on Infection Prevention that is both deeply practical and deeply human — shaped by years of clinical experience, leadership, teaching, and a strong belief that changing behavior is at the heart of this work.

In this conversation, Maureen shares how the profession has evolved over time, what she believes Infection Prevention has gotten right, where she believes the field may have gone off track, and why training, reporting structure, and professional identity still matter so much today. We also talk about team design, the value of strong clinical understanding, and her belief that effective Infection Prevention programs are built not just on data, but on education, influence, relationship-building, and culture change.

If you’re interested in the history of the profession, leadership in Infection Prevention, and thoughtful perspectives on where the field should go next, this is a conversation you won’t want to miss.

Let’s dive in.

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Voice for Infection Prevention is a production of Clutch Recruitment. Clutch Recruitment, founded by Jacob Hutcherson, is the leading recruiting firm exclusively committed to Infection Prevention & Control recruitment.

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