Committees

Committee

Health Equity and Diversity Committee

Chair Juan P. Wisnivesky, MD, DrPH, ATSF New York, NY
Vice Chair Stephanie Lovinsky-Desir, MD, MS, ATSF New York, NY
Committee Member Aaron D. Baugh, MD San Francisco, CA
Committee Member Alejandro A. Diaz, MD Boston, MA
Committee Member Ann M. Rusk, MD Phoenix, AZ
Committee Member Ariangela J. Kozik, PhD Ann Arbor, MI
Committee Member Ayodeji O. Adegunsoye, MD, MS, PhD Chicago, IL
Committee Member Christopher F. Chesley, MD, MSCE Philadelphia, PA
Committee Member Craig S. Conoscenti, MD, FCCP, ATSF Seattle, WA
Committee Member Huimin Wu, MD, MPH Oklahoma City, OK
Committee Member Ignacio E. Tapia, MD, MS Miami, FL
Committee Member Jamuna K. Krishnan, MD, MS New York, NY
Committee Member Juliana C. Ferreira, MD, PhD, ATSF Sao Paulo, SP, Brazil
Committee Member Kimberly J. Arcoleo, PhD, MPH VICTOR, NY
Committee Member Lynn B. Gerald, PhD, MSPH Chicago, IL
Committee Member Soumya J. Niranjan, PhD, MS, BPharm Birmingham, AL
Staff Kimberly Lawrence New York, NY

The Health Equity and Diversity Committee serves as a resource to the ATS Executive Committee and Board of Directors on issues related to health equity and diversity within our membership and leadership. This committee is charged with promoting diversity and inclusion within the organization and with creating a plan for addressing health equity and diversity issues through cross committee collaboration and the ATS at-large.

Benchmarks, 2023-2024:
• Foster diversity of the workforce through encouraging non-majority groups to enter the fields of pulmonary, critical care and sleep medicine;
• Monitor health equity and diversity initiatives throughout the ATS organization, serve as a resource for committees collaborating on projects related to health equity, promote diversity within ATS membership related task forces, committees, special projects and overall leadership; and periodically report progress of ATS health equity and diversity initiatives to the Executive Committee and Board of Directors;
• Lead and encourage projects, symposia and publications related to lung health in vulnerable populations;
• Implement, evaluate and improve the fellowship program to develop ATS leaders in health equity and in advocacy;
• Raise awareness about health equity and diversity issues through ATS publications, the ATS annual meeting, and other approaches;
• Continue to review and provide input on the current proportion of ethnic/racial minorities in ATS leadership positions and key positions within assemblies.
• Work on enhancing and sustaining ATS mentoring programming for early career professionals targeted at those who are under-represented in medicine and science;
• Support the implementation of priority strategies from the Health Equity and Diversity Committee Road Map of initiatives and purpose metrics for evaluation and benchmarks of success for these activities.
• Developing a health equity roadmap highlighting Health Equity and Diversity Committee content at annual ATS Meeting
• Nominate a diverse slate of candidates for ATS Respiratory Health Awards.
• This committee is responsible for reviewing content it has previously posted to the ATS website to determine if it should be updated and moved to the new site or archived/deleted. Using parameters established by the ATS Digital Content Committee as a guideline, committee members will make necessary modifications to ensure the content is accurate and conforms with established ATS standards. Reviews are to be completed by December 1, 2023.