David S. Wilkes, M.D. is a researcher, mentor, sponsor, educator, administrator, and executive. A member of ATS since 1989, he has served on the Board of Directors, Chair of the Allergy, Immunology Inflammation Assembly, and a member or chair of ATS committees. An elected member of the National Academy of Medicine, from 2015 to 2021 he served as Dean and James Carroll Flippin Professor of Medical Science at the University of Virginia School of Medicine. Currently, he is Dean Emeritus at the UVA School of Medicine.

Since 2013 Dr. Wilkes serves as the National Director of the Harold Amos Medical Faculty Development Program for the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the nation’s eminent program developing the careers of underrepresented in medicine physician scientists, dentist scientists, and nurse scientists. Dr. Wilkes has served on multiple NIH study sections as well as the Board of Scientific Counselors at NHLBI and the National Advisory Council for NIAID. He has received numerous awards for his work in diversity and inclusion.

The Wilkes lab was first to describe autoimmunity in the pathogenesis of lung transplant rejection. Dr. Wilkes has co-authored more than 140 research papers, holds six U.S. patents and is the founder of ImmuneWorks, Inc., a biotech company developing novel treatments for immune-mediated lung disease. He is a scientific advisor and consultant to multiple biotech companies.

Before University of Virginia, Dr. Wilkes was the Executive Associate Dean for Research Affairs at Indiana University School of Medicine and Assistant Vice President for Research at Indiana University. He was also Director of the Indiana University School of Medicine’s Physician Scientist Initiative. He is Professor of Medicine Emeritus at Indiana University and currently serves on the Board of Visitors of the Lewis Katz School of Medicine at Temple University and the Board of Trustees at Villanova University. He is a current member of the Board of Directors for Baxter International.

Dr. Wilkes obtained his undergraduate degree in Biology from Villanova University before receiving his medical degree from the Lewis Katz School of Medicine at Temple University. He completed an internship and residency at Temple University Hospital, and a pulmonary and critical care fellowship at University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center.

A military veteran, Dr. Wilkes served three years as a major in the U.S. Air Force Medical Corps where he earned a commendation medal for service. In addition to traveling with his wife, he is passionate about road cycling and collecting exotic cars.  

Dr. Thanh Neville is an Associate Professor in the Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine at the UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine. She came from humble beginnings: she was a refugee from Vietnam and was raised by parents who barely had an elementary school education. She learned English in the first grade, grew up on food stamps, and went to school on grants, scholarships, and loans. She is now an NIH-funded physician-scientist at UCLA. She has been at UCLA since medical school, and also completed her Internal Medicine Residency, Pulmonary-Critical Care fellowship, and Masters in Health Services there.

Dr. Neville’s research interest is in improving communication and palliative care in the intensive care unit. In 2017, she launched the 3 Wishes Program and currently serves as the Medical Director. In this initiative, healthcare workers are empowered to elicit and implement small, but meaningful wishes for dying patients and their families. Although tasks like decorating a dying patient’s room, coordinating a date night, or creating a personalized keepsake for a grieving family are not typically thought of as “medical” care, these acts of kindness have been shown to leave lasting, powerful impacts on families and healthcare workers. In many ways, the 3 Wishes Program allows HCWs to continue providing compassionate patient and family-centered care when medicine and technology have reached their limits. Last year, Dr. Neville received an NIH R01 award to implement and evaluate the 3 Wishes Project in three Los Angeles DHS hospitals. It is her hope that that this patient-centered and clinician-partnered initiative can also improve the end-of-life experience for patients, families, and clinicians in low-resource hospitals. 

Dr. Selman earned his MD degree at the University of Chile, and trained in Pulmonary Medicine at the National Autonomous University of Mexico. He joined the Instituto Nacional de Enfermedades Respiratorias in Mexico where established the first Research Branch, and since 1983, is the Interstitial Lung Diseases Program Director. 

Dr. Selman has had a longstanding interest in ILDs, mainly in idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis where he has made important contributions both in the clinical area as well as in the pathogenic mechanisms, and has earned international recognition as one of the foremost experts in pulmonary fibrosis. He has served as a member of the Review Committee of Protocols on IPF of the NIH.

He has published around 300 original papers, reviews, and book chapters, and was Associate and Deputy Editor of the Blue Journal. He has achieved several distinctions including the National Prize in Sciences and the Recognition Award for Scientific Achievement of the ATS. In 2015 he was elected to the Association of American Physicians. Most recently the Mexican Secretary of Health honored him by naming the Research Unit of its Institute as Dr. Moises Selman Building of Respiratory Research. 

Among his key scientific achievements are the proposal that IPF, historically considered as a fibrosis caused by unresolved chronic inflammation, was an epithelial-driven fibrosis. He participated in the first genomic studies performed in IPF and contributed to the pioneering research identifying the transcriptional signatures that distinguish some of the fibrosing lung diseases.

Dr. Selman has also focused on the role of aging in lung behavior studying a large cohort of individuals over 65 years and models of natural and accelerated aging. Based on this research he coined the term "Fibroaging" as a pathologic characteristic associated with aging, that was incorporated in the recently published “Hallmarks of Aging” 

More recently, published a provocative proposal suggesting that Usual interstitial pneumonia should be considered as a stand-alone diagnostic entity.

Dr. Selman has served on multiple international working groups, including the ATS, ERS, and ACCP. He was a founding member of the Latin American Thoracic Association, and in Mexico, was President of the Mexican Society of Pulmonology.

Dr. Selman is passionate about training physician-scientists and has received numerous accolades as an outstanding teacher, mentor, and physician. He established a highly regarded course Interstitial Pulmonary Diseases at the Faculty of Medicine of the UNAM.

Currently is a Distinguished Investigator in its Institute.

Jeffrey L. Curtis, MD, ATSF, FERS is Professor of Internal Medicine in the Pulmonary & Critical Care Medicine Division at Michigan Medicine/University of Michigan Medical School and the VA Ann Arbor Healthcare System, and a faculty member in the Rackham Graduate Program in Immunology.  He trained at Georgetown (MD), Johns Hopkins Bayview (Internal Medicine and Chief Resident), NIH/NIA (Clinical Immunology), and UCSF (Pulmonary & Critical Care Medicine). 

In 1990, he was recruited to Ann Arbor, where he was VA Section Chief (1990-2014) and scientific director of a Research Enhancement Award Program center in tobacco-induced lung diseases (1999-2012).  He continues to work at VA Ann Arbor as Director of the Cooperative Studies Program Network of Designated Enrollment Sites (CSP NODES).  During the recent SARS-CoV2/VOVID-19 pandemic, he led the VA CoronavirUs Research and Efficacy Studies (VA CURES) network, and now serves a member of the Executive Committee of VA SHIELD, the new national biorepository. 

Within ATS, Dr. Curtis has been Chair-Elect/Chair of the AII Scientific Assembly (2010-13); a member of the Scientific Advisory Committee (2007-13); an instructor in MECOR China (2015-19); and, since 2017, Associate Editor of the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine.  Between 1993-2014, he organized and co-chaired 12 symposia and post-graduate courses at ATS International Conferences.

A highlight of Dr. Curtis's professional life has been the opportunity to mentor young scientists, including recipients of seven VA Career Development awards and three K awards, 13 post-doctoral fellows, and via 18 thesis committees, two of which were international. 

Dr. Curtis's investigative career focuses on innate and adaptive immunity in lung host defense and in COPD pathogenesis.  Through continuous funding from VA and NIH since 1988, he has performed basic and translational studies using multiple murine models and human tissue.  Additionally, since the late 1990s, he has held leadership roles in multiple NHLBI-funded COPD clinical trials, including serving on the Executive Committees of the ongoing COPDGene, SPIROMICS, & SOURCE cohorts.

Dr. Curtis has published over 300 peer-reviewed publications.  In 2019, he received a Lifetime Scientific Achievement award from the AII Assembly and the John B. Barnwell Award, the Department of Veterans Affairs highest honor for clinical research.  He is an avid cyclist, rollerblader and downhill skier.  He enjoys travel, wine, cooking and eating many international cuisines, listening to jazz and world music, and reading.

Sonye Danoff received a Bachelors of Science in Chemistry and Philosophay at Emory University and a Masters of Philosphy in Pharmacology at Cambridge University prior to attending Johns Hopkins where she received an MD and PhD. She completed her residency and pulmonary fellowship at Johns Hopkins. She is currently a Professor of Medicine in the Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Director of the Interstitial Lung Disease (ILD) Program as well as Associate Director of the Myositis Center. Dr. Danoff is a specialist in ILD with a particular focus in autoimmune-associated and familial ILDs. Her research focuses on improving diagnosis and treatment for patients with ILD. She has participated in the development of ATS Clinical Practice Guidelines on the Diagnosis of Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis as well as Hypersensitivity Pneumonitis. She was the pulmonary lead of the recent American College of Rheumatology Guidelines on Diagnosis and Management of Systemic Autoimmune Rheumatic Disease-associated ILD.

Dr. Danoff is proud to have trained and mentored pulmonary fellows who have become ILD specialists across the US. In addition to her role in the ILD program at Johns Hopkins, she is the Director for Faculty Development in the Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine Division. She was recognized for her commitment to career development as the recipient of the Department of Medicine Women’s Task Force on Academic Careers in Medicine Sponsorship Award.

Dr. Danoff is also Senior Medical Advisor to the Pulmonary Fibrosis Foundation for the Care Center Network where she oversees a group of 88 ILD specialty sites across the US with support from the talented PFF staff.

She is an American Thoracic Society Fellow and a past Chair of the ATS Clinical Problems Assembly. She is a current member of the Documents Development and Implementation Committee.

Dr. Danoff is married to Dr. Lawrence Brody, Director of the Division of Genomics and Society at  the National Human Genome Research Institute (NHGRI). She is parent to three terrific children, Shoshana, graduating on Friday from UC Davis Veterinary School; Rebecca, beginning medical school in the Fall; and Elias, a senior in biologic systems engineering at Virginia Tech.

Dr. Georgios Kitsios holds the position of Assistant Professor of Medicine within the Division of Pulmonary, Allergy, and Critical Care Medicine at the University of Pittsburgh.

Originally from Greece, Dr. Kitsios started his medical journey at Aristotle University where he received his Medical Degree, and then ventured to the US, pursuing graduate studies at Tufts University and completing his internal medicine training at Lahey Clinic in Boston. He then made his way to Pittsburgh, where he completed his fellowship in Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, and transitioned into a Faculty role at the University of Pittsburgh, where he continues to contribute.

Dr. Kitsios’s academic pursuits epitomize the privilege of working as a physician-scientist: a practicing physician and bedside teacher in the ICU, and a dedicated researcher in the lab conducting translational research in critical illness. His research focuses on developing sensitive and accurate molecular diagnostics for pneumonia, understanding the role of respiratory and gut microbiota in the evolution and outcome of critical illness, and deriving host-response phenotypes of critical illness syndromes, for better therapeutic targeting.

Ultimately, Dr. Kitsios sees himself as a perpetual student of medicine, driven by relentless curiosity to uncover new scientific insights, and a passion with profound sense of mission to improve patient care.

Dr. Raj Kumar, MBBS, MD is a leading pulmonologist from India engaged inresearch, teaching and patient care. He is currently serving as the Director of Vallabhbhai Patel Chest Institute (VPCI), a national level postgraduate medical college devoted to chest diseases and allied sciences. As a compassionate chest physician, Dr. Raj Kumar cared for environment and communities we live in and worked on prevention of chest diseases through patient care services, tobacco quit line services, research on effects of pollution, allergens, cooking and lifestyle habits on respiratory health in various communities, outreaching communities through health camps etc.  He holds over 30 years of experience in patient care spanning outpatient, inpatient and critical care management of respiratory diseases employing latest techniques in bronchoscopy, allergy testing, sleep studies, spirometry, radio-diagnosis etc. He is the co-coordinator of a tobacco cessation clinic and spearheaded establishment of National Tobacco Quitline Services which is a toll-free non-judgmental telephone‑based counseling service offering support to quitters from all over India. His personal efforts also led to establishment of National Centre of Respiratory Allergy and Applied Immunology at VPCI.

His research interests focused on public health oriented topics such as allergic bronchopulmonary aspergillosis, food allergy, respiratory allergy, immunotherapy, indoor and outdoor air pollution, smoking cessation etc.  A few notable contributions included identification of various proteins amongst different Culvaularia species and finding significant cross reactivity amongst protein of C. lunata, A. alternata and E. nigrum; reporting of 16% ABPA and classification for the first time in India as Mild, Moderate and severe ABPA forms which fetched him prestigious David A and Julie A Stevenson Scholar award in Greece; isolation; differentiation between food allergy and food intolerance, and reporting perceived food allergy as being 60% while actual food allergy being about 4% in India; studying and analyzing impact of active and passive tobacco smoking, various cooking fuels viz cow dung, wood, LPG gas on respiratory health and early diagnosis in north India’s villages; being instrumental in development of guidelines on allergen immunotherapy, COPD, bronchial asthma, spirometry, diagnosis of respiratory allergy, tobacco dependence treatment guidelines etc.  

Dr. Raj Kumar authored, edited 22 books, 48 abstract books, newsletters. He published 545 publications including research papers and supervised 49 thesis of DM, MD and PhD scholars. He has been principal investigator of many government funded research projects. He organized 173 Conferences, workshops, public awareness programs. Recipient of over 30 national and international awards.

Sundeep Salvi is the Director of Pulmocare Research and Education (PURE) Foundation and a Distinguished Professor of Research at the Symbiosis International University in the city of Pune in India. After completing his MD in Respiratory Medicine from India, he obtained a PhD in Clinical Medicine from the University of Southampton in UK, where he investigated the cellular and molecular changes occurring in the human lung after short-term exposure to diesel exhaust. He returned to India in 2002 and set up the Chest Research Foundation where he contributed to pioneering research in the field of asthma, COPD and air pollution. His seminal contribution has been in the field of Non-smoking COPD, where he showed that indoor and outdoor air pollution are major contributors to COPD in the low-and-middle income countries, and that non-smoking COPD is a different phenotype than smoking COPD. He serves as the Chair of the Chronic Respiratory Diseases Section of the Global Burden of Disease for India and highlighted the huge and growing burden of asthma and COPD not only in India, but across the low-and-middle income countries. He serves as a Member of the Board of Directors of GOLD (Global Initiative for Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease) and a Member of the Scientific Committee of GINA (Global Initiative for Asthma). He is a very passionate teacher and takes a keen interest in creating awareness in the lay community and educating doctors from across the world on the importance of lung health. He has trained more than 25,000 doctors on diagnosis, management and prevention of asthma, COPD, spirometry and more recently is spreading awareness about Oscillometry as the future respiratory diagnostic tool. He is currently the President of the Indian Chest Society and has received several national and international awards. He is currently ranked in the top 0.1% of respiratory scientists globally and number one in India according to the latest Stanford University rankings.

Dr. Randell a Professor of Cell Biology and Physiology at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill (UNC), with a joint appointment in Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine. He obtained a Ph.D. in Environmental Health Sciences from Johns Hopkins University and did a Postdoctoral Fellowship at Duke University studying lung developmental biology. He was a Senior Staff Fellow at NIEHS where he developed further expertise in airway epithelial cell biology and lung stem cells. He has over 220 total peer-reviewed publications, reviews, book chapters and a book editorship.  He is on the Editorial Board of two leading lung journals and is an active peer reviewer for journals, NIH and numerous national and international granting organizations. He serves on American Thoracic Society Committees and has organized and spoken at many national and international meetings. Dr. Randell directs the UNC Marsico Lung Institute/Cystic Fibrosis Center Tissue Procurement and Cell Culture Core, a nationally and internationally recognized resource, whose services are sought for collaboration, contract research, and training by academics, non-profit organizations, biotech and the pharmaceutical industry. His research focuses on lung epithelial stem cells, lung innate immunity, cystic fibrosis and models for lung disease research. Recent work is focused on surmounting the challenges of developing novel therapies for cystic fibrosis and other lung diseases.

Dr. Larissa A. Shimoda is Professor and Director of Research in the Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine in Baltimore, Maryland. Dr. Shimoda completed undergraduate and graduate training at Marquette University in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, obtaining a PhD in Biomedical Engineering in 1995. Dr. Shimoda then moved to Johns Hopkins School of Medicine for fellowship training and joined the faculty there in 1998. Dr. Shimoda is a pulmonary vascular physiologist, with research interests including the cellular mechanisms contributing to the pathogenesis of pulmonary hypertension and endothelial cell barrier function. Dr. Shimoda is particularly interested in non-canonical roles of channels and transporters in controlling pulmonary vascular cell function and the role of hypoxia-inducible factors in lung physiology and pathobiology. Dr. Shimoda’s work has been continuously supported by funding from the National Institutes of Health for over two decades and has been recognized with the Henry Pickering Bowditch Award Lectureship and Julius H. Comroe Jr Distinguished Lectureship of the American Physiological Society (APS) and the Robert F. Grover Prize from the American Thoracic Society (ATS). Dr. Shimoda has served as Chair of the Respiration Section and as a Councilor at the APS, Chair of the Planning and Nominating Committees of the Pulmonary Circulation Assembly at ATS, and as a regular member of several National Institutes of Health (NIH) study sections. Dr. Shimoda is committed to mentoring the next generation of pulmonary physiologists and increasing diversity in biomedical sciences, serving as a Principal Investigator/Program Director of a NIH T32 training grant for pre- and postdoctoral training in lung disease and of a NIH R25 training grant to provide summer research opportunities to diverse undergraduate students. Dr. Shimoda has substantial editorial experience, having served as an Associate Editor for Physiological Reports, Reviewing Editor for the Journal of Physiology and Associate Editor, Deputy Editor and currently Editor-in-Chief for the American Journal of Physiology-Lung Cellular and Molecular Physiology. In her free time, Dr. Shimoda likes to work in the yard and garden, cheer her favorite football team (the Raiders), spend time with family and take her dogs for hikes. 

Dr. Carol Feghali-Bostwick is a Distinguished Professor in the Department of Medicine at the Medical University of South Carolina and the Kitty Trask Holt and SmartState Endowed Chair for Scleroderma Research. Dr. Feghali-Bostwick’s research has focused on mechanisms mediating the development and resolution of fibrosis in disorders such as Systemic Sclerosis (SSc) and Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis (IPF). Her research has resulted in the identification of novel pro- fibrotic and anti-fibrotic factors. Her research team led the initial gene expression profiling of SSc lung tissues, identified novel autoantibodies associated with SSc-associated interstitial lung disease, and contributed to a better understanding of fibroblast biology in fibrosis. She conducted the only study of twins with SSc, and findings of low concordance in both monozygotic and dizygotic twins led to the observation that the disease is likely multifactorial with environmental factors playing an important role in the development of the SSc phenotype. Dr. Feghali-Bostwick has authored and co-authored over 170 original manuscripts and several patents. In addition to research, Dr. Feghali-Bostwick is actively engaged in mentoring junior investigators. She established a national Early Career Investigator mentoring program as well as an entrepreneurship training and coaching program. Dr. Feghali-Bostwick’s service includes the ATS RCMB advocacy, planning, and program committees. She also serves as the Vice-Chair of the Board of Directors of the National Scleroderma Foundation.  Dr. Feghali-Bostwick has received numerous awards for her research, service, and commitment to mentoring. Her recent honors and awards include the Association for Clinical and Translational Science Award for Contributing to the Diversity and Inclusiveness of the Translational Workforce and the ATS RCMB Andy Tager Award for Excellence in Mentoring. She was also elected to the National Academy of Inventors in 2023.

Patricia J. Sime MD, FRCP, FACP, ATSF, is Professor and the William Branch Porter Chair of Medicine at Virginia Commonwealth University. Dr. Sime was born in Scotland and obtained her medical degree from the University of Edinburgh where she then trained in general and pulmonary medicine becoming a fellow of the Royal College of Physicians. Dr. Sime’s desire to understand lung diseases led her to McMaster University Canada. There she trained in the biology of inflammation and fibrosis beginning her investigative career focused on understanding the mechanisms of fibrosis and inflammation. Her first faculty appointment was at the University of Rochester in 1999 where she became an independent PI and then chief of Pulmonary and Critical Care in 2010, subsequently becoming Vice Chair for Research in the Department of Medicine. In 2019 she was recruited to Virginia Commonwealth University as Chair of Medicine.

Driven by their desire to improve the outcomes for patients with lung disease, Dr. Sime’s research team has focused on two major areas. The first is the pathogenesis of pulmonary fibrosis with a goal of identifying novel targets for therapy in diseases such as Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, and silica- and radiation-induced lung disease. Beginning with her discovery of transforming growth factor beta as a critical driver of lung scarring, she has continued to pursue key pathogenetic mechanisms of fibrosis from dysregulated matrix regulation to recent studies focused on the role of abnormal metabolism. Her team’s overarching goal is to identify new targets for therapy, using translational approaches from in vitro fibroblast biology to clinical trials.  In a separate area of scholarship, Dr. Sime has led novel studies in the resolution of inflammation and remodeling in COPD. Her team identified dysregulated inflammation resolution pathways in patients with COPD, and they are studying therapeutic interventions based on lipid mediators (called resolvins) in both smoke- and infection-induced inflammation. Dr. Sime’s approach to discovery is highly collaborative and she has been an active mentor for a broad range of clinical, basic, and translational researchers.

Dr. Tisha Wang received her MD from the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston, graduating with highest honors. She completed her internal medicine residency and pulmonary/critical care fellowship at UCLA before joining the faculty at UCLA in 2008. Dr. Wang is currently a Professor of Clinical Medicine in the David Geffen School of Medicine (DGSOM) at UCLA, where she serves as the Senior Executive Clinical Vice Chair for the Department of Medicine (DOM). She is board-certified in pulmonary, critical care, and sleep medicine. In addition to providing clinical care in the ICU and clinic, Dr. Wang was the UCLA pulmonary/critical care fellowship program director for 10 years until 2021 and also served as Clinical Chief of the UCLA Division of Pulmonary, Critical Care, Sleep Medicine, Allergy and Immunology until 2023. She was the co-director of the pandemic response team at UCLA and subsequently catalyzed the formation of the UCLA DOM Wellness Committee in 2021 to focus on physician well-being after noticing the effects of the pandemic on an already burned-out workforce.

In her academic career, Dr. Wang has had the privilege of educating and mentoring hundreds of residents, fellows, staff, and junior/mid-level faculty. She has been nominated for multiple teaching awards both locally and nationally and was awarded the UCLA Serge & Yvette Dadone Clinical Teaching Award in 2019. In 2020, she was honored as the recipient of the UCLA Sherman Melinkoff Award, which recognizes the “finest in doctor-patient relationships and medical education” and is considered the highest honor of the UCLA DGSOM. Recently Dr. Wang was chosen as the 2022 California Thoracic Society “Woman of the Year” and in April of this year, she graduated from the prestigious Hedwig van Ameringen Executive Leadership in Academic Medicine® (ELAM) program.

In addition to her clinical work and leadership responsibilities, Dr. Wang conducts research on rare lung disease with a focus on pulmonary alveolar proteinosis (PAP). She is the Clinical Director and Vice President of the patient-based PAP Foundation. Dr. Wang has served as Chair of the Education Committee for the American Thoracic Society since 2020 with a seat on the ATS Board of Directors and is the current President of the California Thoracic Society. In addition to championing the well-being of physicians, her greatest joys in medicine have been focused on advocacy for women in medicine, medical educators, and patients with rare lung disease.

Martha A.Q. Curley, PhD, RN, FAAN, is a groundbreaking and internationally recognized nurse scientist who has made extraordinary contributions to advance the discipline of pediatric critical care. Currently, Dr. Curley is a Professor of Nursing at the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing and serves as the Ruth M. Colket Endowed Chair in Pediatric Nursing Science, Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. Her substantial body of innovative nurse-led and interdisciplinary research has transformed the care of critically ill children with acute respiratory failure, improved support for families of critically ill children, and elevated the scope of pediatric nursing on a global scale. Dr. Curley has served as principal investigator on numerous multisite clinical trials funded by multiple branches of the National Institutes of Health. Her landmark clinical trials and publications have advanced respiratory care for critically children, established first-ever pediatric-validated instruments to assess patient status and health risks, provided evidence to support nurse-led critical care interventions, and undergirded standards of care implemented across pediatric hospitals world-wide. Dr. Curley is best known in nursing for her extensive work in articulating nurse competencies centered on holistic patient and family needs and demonstrating the significant role bedside nurses play in achieving optimal patient outcomes. She is the author of many seminal publications including the book Synergy: The Unique Relationship Between Nurses and Patients. Dr. Curley is a staunch supporter of early-career scientists, and her mentorship transcends disciplinary and geographic boundaries.  She is a member of the National Academy of Medicine and is recognized as a Living Legend in Nursing by the American Academy of Nursing. Dr. Curley earned a diploma in nursing from Springfield Hospital Medical Center (MA), a BS from the University of Massachusetts, an MSN from Yale University, and a PhD from Boston College.

Dr. Moira L. Aitken was born near the fishing village of Buckie, on the East coast of Scotland. She received her medical degree from Edinburgh University and her initial post-graduate training at the Royal Infirmary and Western General Hospital in Edinburgh. She came to the University of Washington in 1982 for fellowship training in Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine. She developed a research focus in airway physiology and joined the UW faculty as the second female member of what was then known as the Division of Respiratory Diseases. Dr. Aitken co-founded the Adult Cystic Fibrosis Program at the UW in 1989 and served as Program Director for more than 30 years. She dedicated her career to improving the lives of people with CF through direct patient care, research, teaching, advocacy, and mentorship. When Dr. Aitken began this work, most patients with CF did not survive beyond early adulthood. Her caring nature and kind presence were comforting to patients and their families in these times and her empathetic manner was admired by trainees and colleagues. Dr. Aitken fostered a multi-disciplinary approach to patient care and nurtured a productive environment for research and education. As a clinical investigator, she played an important role in the testing and implementation of new therapies for CF. Over the course of her career, Dr. Aitken has had the great satisfaction of witnessing the profound impact of medical advances on the lives of her patients. Along the way, she inspired and mentored a generation of physicians and researchers who carry on her legacy.