Amanda Irish, MD, MPH, MS, DTMH, has a passion for emerging infectious diseases. A passion that stemmed from somewhat untraditional beginnings: as a young adult Irish read “The Hot Zone” by Richard Preston, a nonfiction book about the origins of deadly viruses like Ebola and Marburg. Irish found herself transfixed by the biosafety lab doctors as they fought to contain dangerous infections “I imagined myself treating fatally infected villagers in a hospital tent one day while analyzing new virus strains the next” Irish shared.