I am a physician-scientist with an active clinical practice in pulmonary and critical care medicine and lead a research lab studying pulmonary circulation with over 20 years of continuous NIH funding. I currently hold the E. Tom and Erica Meyer Endowed Professorship and serve as chair of the Respiratory Institute (RI) at Cleveland Clinic Health System (CCHS). In this role, I lead over 1,000 employees and over 250 faculty, 130 advanced practice providers, and 50 fellows in training in four departments: Pulmonary Medicine, Critical Care Medicine, Infectious Disease, and Allergy/Immunology.
As institute chair, I am responsible for setting the strategic direction of the institute in all areas of clinical care, research, and education. I oversee the day-to-day operations of the institute with the support of my Executive Leadership team and Operations Council. I also chair the Capital Committee at Cleveland Clinic and serve as PI and Director of the Citywide Mentored Career Development (KL2) Program. I served on the Board of Governors, Board of Trustees and Board of Directors of Cleveland Clinic and chaired the Innovation Management and Conflict of Interest Committee and the Committee on Advancement Promotion and Tenure (CAPT) at the medical school.
At the ATS, I am a member of the Pulmonary Circulation Assembly and serve on the Finance (2022-curent) and the Planning and Evaluation (2022-current) Committees. Previously, I served on the Education (2010-15), Ethics and Conflict of Interest (2015-16), Quality Improvement and Implementation (2016-17) Committees, and the Document Development and Implementation Committee (2013-20, chair: 2016-20).
As chair of the ATS Document Development and Implementation Committee (DDIC), the team:
- Had a record number of annual statements and guidelines published.
- Reduced the average time to publish an ATS guideline from six-and-a-half years to consistently under two years.
- Developed a five-year strategy that combined a long-term vision with strong grassroots engagement.
- Proposed a new statement type and revised intersociety endorsement policies.
As chair of the Respiratory Institute, my team:
- Recruited over 100 new faculty and over 54 APPs to support growth initiatives.
- Tripled funding for research and increased philanthropy contributions five-fold.
- Supported and mentored physician-scientists into independent research careers.
- Formalized the leadership structure with an executive team and an operations council.
- Established a consistent cadence of internal and external communication.
- Founded two podcasts in respiratory health and disease: one for providers and one for patients and families.
My vision for the ATS is focused on staying true to our values as we maintain and enhance the society’s position as a leader in pulmonary, critical care, and sleep medicine. We are fortunate to have strong fundamentals to build and expand upon including our academic credibility, our high-impact journals, the International Conference, and the unlimited talent of our members.
The ATS has a unique opportunity to lead and expand our reach and enhance the value we provide to our membership, to our specialties, and to society at large. This can be accomplished by anticipating and responding to the trends in our specialties so we can continue to provide high value to our members by leading scientific discoveries, transforming patient care, advancing professional development, and making an impact on global health. Pandemic or not, these principles will never change but our strategy and tactics to achieve them must evolve. To accomplish all of that, we need to become a sustainable, fiscally responsible organization with a steady stream of reliable revenue.
What qualifies you to be an ATS officer and what personal leadership qualities would you bring to this role?
My career path to date has given me the opportunity to have diverse leadership experiences that collectively prepared me for the ATS officer role. Some of my invaluable leadership experiences include serving on the Board of Governors, Board of Trustees, and Board of Directors of the Cleveland Clinic. The lessons I learned are numerous, but one that stands out came from meeting and actively listening to thousands of faculty members (physicians, surgeons, scientists, and leaders) as I conducted their Annual Professional Reviews (APRs), or as I chaired search, review, promotion, and tenure committees: it is the indispensable role of leadership. I had the pleasure and privilege of reviewing the performance of great leaders. Whenever I met such leaders, I sought to work more closely with them, apply their best practices, and adopt their traits in ways that have refined and informed how I lead today.
As a serving leader with a progressive and collaborative leadership style that adapts to the needs of the team and the organization and a capacity to embrace and lead change, I have demonstrated experience in building new programs, turning around struggling operations, and taking well-functioning teams to new heights. High adaptability and skill to quickly recognize the essence of a team’s function and strengths have enabled me to lead various enterprise-wide teams. Leadership experience in clinical care, research, education, collaboration, and innovation helped me understand and appreciate the inherent value of each of these missions and ignited and continues to fuel my passion to seamlessly integrate them in a synergistic way that amplifies their combined value when support for each is increasingly limited.
These experiences shaped me into the leader that I am today with a passion for helping individuals, teams, and the organization achieve their very best in a healthcare environment of uncertainty and diminishing resources. Formal business training enhanced my understanding of the financial aspects of medicine and opened my eyes to the importance of having measurable goals and objectives to accomplish a mission-based on a shared vision.
The ATS Executive Committee works collaboratively to direct the ATS; can you describe how you have worked collaboratively to accomplish leadership?
I was a member of the ATS Document Development and Implementation Committee (DDIC) (2013-2020) before chairing it (2016-20). During my tenure as chair of DDIC, I worked closely and collaboratively with the executive team, assembly chairs, other committee chairs, and the ATS staff. As a team we were able to:
- Have a record number of annual statements and guidelines published.
- Reduce the average time to publish an ATS guideline from six-and-a-half years to consistently under two years.
- Develop a five-year strategy that combines a long-term vision with strong grassroots engagement.
- Propose a new statement type and propose revised intersociety endorsement policies.
What would you identify as strengths of the ATS?
We generally do well at the national level. The strengths of the ATS are many and include:
- Academic credibility
- Brand and reputation
- Diverse and talented membership
- International Conference
- Journals
What are the biggest challenges you see for the ATS?
We can do better at the local (state) and international levels. Some challenges faced by ATS:
- Financial dependence on the International Conference
- Declining membership (especially international)
- Demonstrating value to members
- Limited education offerings
- Limited partnerships with local and international societies / groups
What should ATS do to address the needs of its heterogenous members?
We need to stay focused on our values as we maintain and enhance the Society’s position as a leader in academic pulmonary, critical care, and sleep medicine. This can be accomplished by anticipating and responding to the trends in our specialties so we can continue to provide high value to our members. Pandemic or not, these principles will never change but our strategy and tactics must evolve.
How can the ATS promote engagement and opportunities on an international scale?
This has become more challenging over time with travel bans, visa limitations, the pandemic, etc. We must find new and innovative ways to engage our international members beyond attending the International Conference. We need to do more to meet our constituents where they are. Some ideas include virtual offerings, partnership with other international and regional societies, holding or cosponsoring meetings at international sites, etc.
What could the ATS do to become nimbler?
An important part of being nimble is to be laser focused on our mission and strategy. We need to decide what we want to do and focus on as an organization. It is equally important, however, that we decide what not to do. Once we agree on these priories, we need to hold ourselves accountable for these decisions. This is something I have been doing successfully in my role as the chair of capital at Cleveland Clinic. Every capital expense is prioritized based on alignment with strategy. This rigorous and transparent process helped us tremendously as an organization through good times and hard times. Having a clear strategy and using it transparently as a guide can go a long way towards allowing us to be nimble in the face of constant change and uncertainty in the healthcare landscape.
Another approach I found useful is to prototype new initiatives before fully committing to them. This can allow us to pilot ideas and see what works and what does not based on predetermined and measurable success metrics. This also requires us to have the discipline to move on quickly from initiatives that do not achieve their goals while investing in initiatives that work well. This would help support a nimbler approach and better-informed decision making.
Can you give an example of a leadership accomplishment of which you are particularly proud?
I have demonstrated experience in building new programs, turning around struggling operations, and taking well-functioning teams to new heights. Of all my leadership achievements and accomplishments, I am particularly proud of my ability to make an impact on promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion. “What Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Mean to me…” is the title of a regular segment I have in my weekly townhall with all the caregivers at the Respiratory Institute. It starts with a slide summarizing my own views on DEI before a member of the institute discusses what DEI means to them. The segment is followed by another on empowering everyone. To me, leadership is about empowering others to lead.
Before I became chair of the Respiratory Institute:
- As director of the Pulmonary Vascular Program, 25 percent of my recruits were URiMs and 50 percent women.
- As chair of Innovation Management and Conflict of Interest (IM&COI) Committee, I appointed the first woman vice chair and potential successor in the role and the first African American member.
- As director of the IM&COI program, I recruited 80 percent women and 50 percent URiMs.
- As director of the KL2 program, I increased URiM from five to 15 percent and maintained women recruitment at more than 50 percent.
As chair of the Respiratory Institute:
- I promoted women in leadership and within the first year, increased women in leadership roles from under 25 percent to over 30 percent reflecting the composition of the institute and its specialties.
- I focused on the recruitment of URiMs and increased the proportion from five percent to 12 percent matching the national representation in the relevant specialties.
- I started building the pipeline with special fellowship recruitment sessions for women (Women Connect) and URiMs (Minority Connect).
Looking at the ATS strategic priorities (Leading Scientific Discoveries; Advancing Professional Development; Impacting Global Health; Transforming Patient Care; and Evolving the Organization), what areas do you see as your strengths and weaknesses?
Strengths:
Leading Scientific Discoveries: As an NIH-funded investigator, I am fully aware of the opportunities and challenges of leading scientific discoveries and the needs of our member constituents in this area.
Advancing Professional Development: As chair of the Respiratory Institute, one of my key responsibilities is the recruitment, retention, and career promotion of faculty. I recruited over 100 faculty over the past five years and supported them into thriving careers in clinical care, research, and education.
Transforming Patient Care: Having been at the Cleveland Clinic for almost thirty years, I have witnessed and been part of some of the most profound transformations in patient care. The clinic was one of the earliest academic medical centers to evolve into a health system to take care of the right patient, at the right place, at the right time, and by the right provider.
Evolving the Organization: I have been fortunate to witness firsthand and participate in the transformative change at the Cleveland Clinic when we restructured the traditional academic departments into patient-centered institutes. This has been a notable example of how evolving an organization when done correctly, can have a transformative positive impact.
Weaknesses:
Impacting Global Health: While the Cleveland Clinic is a global healthcare organization, my involvement in global health has been limited. Thus, while I can certainly enhance my skills in all five domains, “impacting global health” is the area that I need the most support in to develop my skills and enhance my ability to contribute to the ATS mission in more meaningful and impactful ways.
How do you envision making time for this new leadership role?
I believe time is our most valuable resource: time is family, time is work, and time is money. A key skill for successful leaders is their ability to manage time instead of letting time manage them. Knowing one’s own strengths and limitations, regularly evaluating bandwidth, having clear priorities, building a capable team, knowing when to delegate and when to transition responsibilities are some of the ways to manage time. If I am asked to take on this leadership position, I am committed to making this a priority and to devoting the necessary time and energy to be a valuable contributor to the ATS leadership team, the membership, and the organization.
