Barbara M. Soule, RN, MPA, CIC

Practice Leader, Infection Prevention and Control Services

Barbara Soule has worked in health care for more than 40 years. She currently serves as Practice Leader, Infection Prevention and Control Services, for Joint Commission Resources (JCR) and Joint Commission International (JCI). In this capacity she provides oversight and coordination for all infection prevention and control services, education and products across multiple health care settings. She practices both in the US and internationally.

Ms. Soule has broad experience practicing and teaching about infection prevention and control and health care epidemiology in the US and throughout the world consulting with health systems, individual organizations and Ministries of Health. She has published extensively in the area of infection prevention. Ms. Soule served as the editor-in-chief of the first curriculum for infection prevention and control in the US and is currently an associate editor of the American Journal of Infection Control, and coeditor of the Global Perspectives Section. She also served as editor of 감염 예방과 관리의 가장 좋은 사례: 국제적 관점, 개정 2판 co-published in 2012 by JCI and the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America (SHEA). Ms. Soule is also a contributor to the Joint Commission monograph"Preventing Central Line-Associated Bloodstream Infections: A Global Challenge, A Global Perspective" released May 2012.

Ms. Soule has worked in acute care organizations in a variety of capacities. She served as Director of Infection Control and Epidemiology for 25 years at Providence St. Peter Hospital in Olympia, Washington, and Director of Safety, and Director of Quality Management Services. In these roles she managed programs in quality and performance improvement, hospital epidemiology and infection control, risk management, clinical research, education, and care management services.

She is a Past President of The Association for Professionals in Infection Control and Epidemiology (APIC) in 2003, and has served on the APIC Scientific Research Committee. In The Society for Healthcare Epidemiology of America (SHEA), she chairs the External Affairs Committee and serves on the Education Committee. She serves on the Water Quality and Health Committee of the American Chemistry Council. In 2006, Ms. Soule was appointed to the CDC's Healthcare Infection Control Practices Advisory Committee (HICPAC), a committee that advises Health and Human Services on infection prevention and control issues.

Ms. Soule has received several prestigious awards including APIC’s Carol DeMille Award (1989), the highest honor of the organization, the President’s Distinguished Service Award (2009) from APIC, and the Advanced Infection Preventionist Award from SHEA (2009).

In addition to being a registered nurse, she has a degree in psychology and sociology from Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri and a master's degree in public administration with a concentration in health policy from The Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington. She has been certified in Infection Control for over 20 years.