Christian John Lillis
Peggy’s elder son. Christian has 25 years of experience in fundraising, advocacy, and nonprofit management, including at NYU Langone Medical Center and the National LGBTQ Task Force.
As head of PLF, Christian has led eight national convenings of C. diff Advocates, built a 50-person volunteer Advocates Council, coordinated the first-ever C. diff Lobby Day on Capitol Hill, and produced the first-ever public service announcement on C. diff infections. In 2013, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recognized PLF’s work with its Excellence in Partnership award for domestic advocates and organizations.
Christian has presented to state hospital associations, quality improvement organizations, healthcare systems, and industry leaders, including Mount Sinai Health, National Quality Forum, and the Presidential Advisory Council on Combating Antibiotic Resistant Bacteria. He has also testified at Congressional briefings. Christian’s writing has appeared in the Baltimore Sun, Cleveland Plain Dealer, and the CDC’s Safer Healthcare Blog. He has also co-authored articles for journals, including Advances in Therapy and American Journal of Gastroenterology. PLF’s work has been featured in Consumer Reports, USA Today, and Reuters. Peggy’s story was also featured Dr. Martin Blaser’s 2014 book, Missing Microbes: How the Overuse of Antibiotics Is Fueling Our Modern Plagues.
Christian holds a B.A. in Political Theory from Brooklyn College-City University of New York. A native Brooklynite, he lives in its Kensington neighborhood with his husband, Chris, and their beagle, Maggie Anne.
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More by this Author
Q & A – Angus the Super Sniffer, C. diff Detecting Dog!
Q & A – Angus the Super Sniffer Angus uses his Super Sniffer to hunt for the superbug, C. diff. What is a day like in the life of Angus? Angus gets up at 4am to start getting ready for work. He enjoys a wrestle and a game of tag in the backyard with our […]
PLF Advocate Christina Fuhrman for Antibiotic Awareness Week
Do You Have An Antibiotic Habit? I hung my head, resting my hands on my very pregnant belly, trying to calm the early contractions as our 22 month-old daughter lay in the hospital bed, terribly sick and afraid. Her little brown curls framed her sunken and pale face, acting as a grim reminder of home […]
November is C. diff Awareness Month!
November is C. diff Awareness Month. Peggy Lillis Foundation is looking forward to working with you to raise awareness of this growing public health threat. The C. diff Foundation established November as our shared awareness month a couple of years ago. PLF is excited to be joining them, the Mayo Clinic and several leading companies in spending […]
Q&A with 2018 Fight C. DIFF Gala Advocate Award Recipient Lisa McGiffert
You recently retired after 15 years as head of Consumers Union’s Safe Patient Project. What led you to focus your career in patient safety? I took a long road to patient safety but it was actually a fairly natural development. My work with the Safe Patient Project allowed me to use all of the skills […]
New Clinical Trial Option PRISM3
C. diff in the News: New Clinical Trial Option If you have had C. difficile (C.diff), you know this infection is isolating, debilitating, and sometimes life threatening. Also, C. diff can respond to treatment, but then return without warning. Recurrent C. diff is common, and currently, there is no effective, non-invasive method to prevent it. One increasingly […]
Q&A with Fight C. diff Gala Honoree Dr. Dale Gerding
Q&A with Fight C. diff Gala Honoree Dr. Dale Gerding Q: What led you to focus your research on C. diff infections? A: I was the hospital epidemiologist in 1980 when the stool toxin test for C. diff first became available. When our lab started using the test we had so many positives that we […]
WE WON! Medicare will continue reporting C. diff and other infections
We won! Following strong pushback from Peggy Lillis Foundation, The Leapfrog Group, and many other individuals and organizations, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) announced yesterday (August 2, 2018) that it will continue the public reporting of Clostridium difficile and other healthcare-associated infections (HAIs). In May, CMS proposed a rule that would have significantly reduced the […]
Living the Story You Want to Tell
“Living the Story You Want to Tell” by Kristal I recently shared a photo of myself on social media, leading many people to comment on how I different I look. They didn’t know how poorly my health has been but could see that I have lost a lot of weight. While most people are excited […]
5th Annual Judy Dexter Memorial Picnic Raises $10,000 to fight C. diff
On Saturday, June 2, the family of Judy Dexter held their fifth annual Toss to Stop C. diff Loss Memorial Picnic and Cornhole Tournament. Despite a late afternoon thunderstorm, the Dexters and their guests raised more than $10,000. As always, the Dexters held a fantastic event that made all their guests feel right at home. The […]
Catching Up with C. diff Survivor Lawrence
By Angela Kelly In honor of Men’s Health Month, I checked in with long-time Peggy Lillis Foundation friend, Lawrence. Lawrence is a C. diff survivor who lives in Austin, Texas. Lawrence is a boot-camp-crushing, bull-riding, oil-rig working man. He is also a man who is standing up to C. diff by talking about an often […]
Antimicrobials Working Group Wants C. diff Stories
Our friends at the Antimicrobials Working Group (AWG), an industry led non-profit focused on increasing innovations in infectious disease treatments, are launching an “AMR Stories” initiative. The initiative will tell the story of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) from the perspective of patients, caregivers, providers and researchers. This is a great opportunity for you to share how […]
R.I.P. Rep. Louise Slaughter
The movement for public health and preventing deadly healthcare infections has lost a champion in Rep. Louise Slaughter. The only microbiologist in Congress, she led the fight to end the epidemic of Clostridium difficile infections, or C. diff., which kills more than 29,000 Americans each year and sickens more than 500,000. Her dedication to science […]
Hip Pocket Rocks the Cutting Room to Fight C. diff
Fresh off Peggy Lillis Foundation’s most successful FIGHT C. DIFF Gala, our Board member Jeff Pollack organized an amazing concert, Music Matters, featuring Hip Pocket at The Cutting Room in New York City. Celebrating the band’s 19.5-year anniversary, Music Matters raised more than $18,000 to support PLF’s mission of combating C. diff infections. In addition […]
Will you help me Make C. diff Count?
It’s a problem of invisibility. And we can solve it. You may be surprised to learn the words “Clostridium difficile” do not appear on my mother Peggy’s death certificate. They are all over her medical records and her autopsy. But, in cutting through the government red tape of getting Mom’s autopsy, we learned how often C. […]
A Special Request from Our President
Most of the time you hear from my brother Christian. As the executive director of Peggy Lillis Foundation, he gives 110% to our mission of combating Clostridium difficile infections (CDI) through education and advocacy. Together, we work to turn the pain of losing our mother into a powerful movement. And we’re succeeding. This year I’m giving […]
Join Peggy for Sepsis Awareness Month
“Disseminated intravascular coagulopathy and sepsis following total colectomy” is listed as the “immediate cause of death” on my mother, Peggy’s, death certificate. It is the technical phraseology for saying she died from sepsis due to an overwhelming Clostridium difficile infection (CDI). Essentially, the C. diff infection sent her immune system into overdrive and her blood […]
Momentum in Ohio!
The Peggy Lillis Foundation (PLF) and our amazing group of advocates and friends continues to build momentum for policy change in the Buckeye State. On Wednesday, June 14, our Executive Director Christian John Lillis, was featured in a panel discussion on multi-drug resistant organisms, antimicrobial stewardship and Clostridium difficile at the Ohio Hospital Association’s Quality […]
Dexters Bring Memorial Picnic Home and Raise $12,000+!
On Saturday, June 3rd, the family of Judy Dexter held its fourth annual Toss to Stop C. diff Loss Memorial Picnic and Cornhole Tournament. With nearly 100 guests and many more donors, this year’s event was the most financially successful to date raising more than $12,000! The first three years, the family held the picnic […]
2017 C. diff Advocates Summit & National Strategy Meeting Recap
On Thursday, April 27, 2017, 60 people attended the Peggy Lillis Foundation’s (PLF) second Advocates Summit & National Strategy Meeting in New York City. Experts in the fields of medicine, public health, activism, microbiology and more came together to offer ten fascinating presentations and panel discussions to help 20 volunteer C. diff Advocates enhance their […]
PLF at SXSW and Progress in the Buckeye State!
Last week, the Peggy Lillis Foundation traveled to Texas and Ohio to fight C. diff through education and advocacy. I left New York on Sunday, March 12 to travel to Austin to speak on a panel at South By Southwest (SXSW). The panel, Consumer Reports Wants Patients to Track Superbugs, also featured CR’s Safe Patient […]
C. diff And Its Impact On Our Aging Population
Guest post by John Rehm, Nursing@Georgetown Online Community Manager In 2011, infection with Clostridium difficile (C. diff) was the 17th leading cause of death for people 65 and older. This statistic from the Peggy Lillis Foundation (PLF) underscores the significant and deadly impact that C. diff infections (CDI) have on our aging population. With an […]
A Q&A with Sen. Ruth Hassell-Thompson, 2016 Advocates Award Honoree
The Peggy Lillis Foundation is delighted to be honoring former New York State Ruth Hassell-Thompson with its 2016 Advocate Award. We recently spoke to Sen. Hassell-Thompon about what got her involved in public service and her own personal struggle with C. diff. Q: You were a pediatric nurse and substance abuse counselor for many years. […]
Cleveland Plain Dealer: Nursing homes should be required to report C. diff infections just like hospitals do
On September 16, 2016, the Cleveland Plain Dealer published this op-ed by PLF Executive Director Christian John Lillis and Board member Dr. Julie Reagan One myth of the globalized market is that place doesn’t matter. Distance learning and the gig economy depend more on Internet connections than work sites or the human touch. Such notions […]
CDC and OSAP Tackle Antibiotic Prescribing by Dentists
In the United States, the right to prescribe medicines is restricted to a small percentage of the population. Approximately, 1.2 million Americans are licensed to do so. The vast majority of these (908,508) are medical doctors in primary or specialty care. The second largest group (210,030) is dentists. As the dangers of using painkillers and […]
What I Learned at the PACCARB Meeting
On June 20, I went to Washington, DC to attend the Public Meeting of the President’s Advisory Council on Combating Antibiotic Resistant Bacteria (PACCARB). PACCARB was established by the Obama Administration to provide expertise and advice on the implementation of the National Action Plan for Combating Antibiotic Resistance. Importantly, though PACCARB is largely managed by […]
3rd Annual Dexter Picnic Raises $11,203 to fight C. diff!
On Saturday, June 4, the family of Judy Dexter hosted their third annual Toss to Stop C. diff Loss Picnic and Cornhole Tournament. With more than 100 attendees and many other donors, the event raised more than $11,203 to support the Peggy Lillis Foundation‘s mission. The annual Dexter picnic also keeps alive the memory and […]
Peggy Lillis Foundation is Saving Lives like Mine
When I got a C. diff infection in 2012, I was pregnant with my third child. Nothing in my experience—growing up on a farm with 3 brothers, being a single-mother to 3 kids, fighting hunger in rural Pennsylvania at the human services center where I work—prepared me to wrestle with the disease. It had me […]
Fighting C. diff Is a Team Effort
by Christian John Lillis and Helen Biegel, R.N. This post expands on a letter to the editor we published in the March 18th print edition of the New York Post, in response to Betsy McCaughey’s editorial “The deadly plague American hospitals refuse to face”. See the letter here. The late writer Paul Monette wrote that […]