Emily Hughes received her Bachelor of Science in Biology from Georgia Gwinnett College in 2019, and is now pursuing a Doctorate in Microbiology. In 2020, she moved to the University of Alabama at Birmingham to begin her graduate studies. Her research topics include antimicrobial resistance and Staphylococcus aureus biofilms.

Megan Kiedrowski earned a BS in Medical Microbiology and Immunology (2007) from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a PhD in Microbiology (2012) from the University of Iowa. She is now an Assistant Professor of Pulmonary, Allergy, and Critical Care in the Department of Medicine at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, where she is also an associate scientist at the Gregory Fleming James Cystic Fibrosis Research Center. Her research is focused on microbiology and host-microbe interactions in the respiratory tract.