Lilly is a paediatrician / fellow paediatric infectious diseases and immunology and a clinician scientist and epidemiologist. Over the past years, she initiated multiple translational studies deciphering the host mucosal immunological factors defining susceptibility to respiratory infections in The Netherlands, sub-Saharan Africa and South America. As a Board / Scientific Committee member of the European and World Societies for Paediatric Infectious Diseases (ESPID and WSPID), she has been involved in the organization of conferences, guideline development and (online) educational activities. Further, she founded ‘Young WSPID’ in November 2019 (https://wspid.org/ywspid/), a group of under-40s that aims to create a global network for exchange of knowledge in paediatric infectious diseases with a particular aspiration to support mentorship for young professionals.