Frequently Asked Questions

Washington, DC, USA

Anne E O’Donnell biography will be coming soon

Denver, CO, USA

Michael E. Wechsler is Professor of Medicine in the Division of Pulmonary, Critical Care and Sleep Medicine at NJH in Denver, Director of the National Jewish Health (NJH)/Cohen Family Asthma Institute and Associate Vice President for Innovation and Industry Relations at NJH.

In addition to clinical work in pulmonary & critical care medicine, Professor Wechsler’s clinical and translational research focuses on clinical trials in asthma and COPD, novel asthma/COPD therapies, bronchial thermoplasty, and management of eosinophilic granulomatosis with polyangiitis (i.e. Churg-Strauss Syndrome, CSS).

He has led studies focusing on novel biologic agents for airways diseases, including benralizumab, dupilumab, mepolizumab, reslizumab, tezepelumab, itepekimab and depemokimab. He has published more than 385 publications relating to asthma, COPD, EGPA and eosinophilic lung diseases, and has been an investigator in over 60 clinical trials. He was a member of the Steering Committee and site Principal Investigator of the NIH-sponsored Asthma Clinical Research Network (ACRN/AsthmaNet), a multicenter asthma clinical trials consortium, as well as the PI of the Denver site of the Precision Intervention in Severe/Exacerbating Asthma (PRECISE) network.

A member of the American Society of Clinical Investigation and the Association of American Physicians, he has participated in many different task forces related to the study of asthma and eosinophilic lung diseases that were sponsored by the NIH, the FDA, the European Respiratory Society and the International Eosinophil Society. He is currently Associate Editor of the journal Chest and has served as Associate Editor of the journal Allergy and on the editorial board of the European Journal of Clinical Investigation.

Dr. Wechsler received AB and MMSc degrees from Harvard University in Boston and an MD degree from McGill University in Montreal. He completed medical training at Beth Israel Hospital in Boston, and as part of the Harvard Combined Pulmonary and Critical Care Fellowship Training Program.

Cleveland, OH, USA

Dr. Colin T. Gillespie is a formally trained interventional pulmonologist and nationally recognized educator in bronchoscopy and advanced pulmonary procedures. He currently serves as Enterprise Section Head of Bronchoscopy and Interventional Pulmonology at Cleveland Clinic Foundation.

Dr. Gillespie received his M.D. from the Chicago Medical School. He completed his internship, residency in internal medicine, fellowship in pulmonary and critical care medicine, and fellowship in interventional pulmonology at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania.

After completing his training, Dr. Gillespie joined the faculty at the University of Pennsylvania, where he directed the Interventional Pulmonology Fellowship Program. He later moved to Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, where he established and led the interventional pulmonary program and its interventional pulmonary fellowship training program.

Throughout his career, Dr. Gillespie has participated in multiple clinical trials sponsored by both industry and the NIH. His academic and clinical work has included studies of novel therapeutics, bronchoscopic interventions, procedural treatments for COPD, malignant pleural disease, and airway disorders. He has also contributed extensively to procedural education, fellowship training, and national courses in interventional pulmonology. A well-recognized educator, Dr. Gillespie, has received numerous honors for teaching excellence, including multiple Distinguished CHEST Educator awards.

Houston, TX, USA

Nicola (Nick) A. Hanania, MD, MS, is the Brown Foundation Professor of Medicine in the Section of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine and director of the Airways Clinical Research Center at the Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas. He also serves on the Faculty Senate at Baylor College of Medicine. He is the Chief of Section of Pulmonary, Critical Care and Sleep Medicine at Ben Taub Hospital. He completed his medical training at the University of Jordan in Amman, Jordan, followed by a residency in internal medicine and a fellowship in pulmonary medicine at the University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada. He subsequently completed a fellowship in critical care medicine at Baylor College of Medicine, where he later earned a master’s degree in clinical investigation.

Dr. Hanania has received multiple awards, including the ACCP’s Distinguished Scholar in Respiratory Health, Baylor College of Medicine Master Clinician Award, ACCP distinguished CHEST educator (DCE), ACCP Humanitarian Award, Career Investigator Award (K23) from the National Institutes of Health, Fulbright and Jaworski’s Faculty Excellence Award for Teaching and Evaluation, and the Award for Excellence in Teaching from the Department of Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine. He is editor-in-chief of Respiratory Medicine and is associate editor of the journal Lung. He serves on the editorial board of Chest, and COPD (J of COPD Foundation).

Dr. Hanania’s research interests focus on the pharmacology and management of asthma and COPD. He has published more than 320 peer-reviewed papers, book chapters, editorials, and reviews on these topics. His research has been funded by NIH, ALA and industry and focuses on clinical trials investigating novel treatments. He is principal investigator for the American Lung Association Airways Clinical Research Center and COPD Gene study at Baylor College of Medicine, as well as principal investigator or co-investigator in several clinical trials in asthma and COPD. Dr Hanania has been invited and has lectured widely at local, regional, national, and international meetings.

Rome, Italy

Luca Richeldi is Chair of the Division of Pulmonary Medicine and CEMAR (Respiratory Disease Center) at Fondazione Policlinico Universitario Agostino Gemelli IRCCS in Rome. He is currently Professor of Respiratory Medicine at Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore in Rome (from 1st March 2017).

He is a member and the secretary of the “Infections and Tuberculosis” group of the Cochrane Collaboration. He serves as Associate Editor for the European Respiratory Journal and he is a Member of the Editorial Board of the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine.

He is also a Member of the Clinical Problems Assembly program committee of the American Thoracic Society. He has been part of the panels in charge of the production of the international guidelines on diagnosis and management of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis and on consensus classification of the idiopathic interstitial pneumonia: these documents have been endorsed by the major international respiratory scientific societies, including the American Thoracic Society and the European Respiratory Society.

Luca Richeldi has published more than 456 articles, reviews, editorials, and he has contributed several chapters in scientific books.

New York, NY, USA

Sanjay Sethi, MD, is a SUNY Distinguished Professor of Medicine at the University of Buffalo (UB), SUNY, where he is Senior Associate Dean for Clinical and Translational Research, Chief of the Pulmonary/Critical Care/Sleep Medicine Division, Director of the UB Clinical and Translational Science Institute (CTSI) and Director of the UB Clinical Research Office. Dr Sethi completed his internship and residency in Internal Medicine at Cook County Hospital in Chicago, Illinois, his fellowship in Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine at the University at Buffalo and is board certified in pulmonary disease.

Dr Sethi’s main research interests include chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and respiratory infections, focused on the specific areas of exacerbations, new therapeutics and innate lung defense in COPD. He was recently named one of the top 5 COPD Specialists in the USA by Expertscape. Dr Sethi has co-authored more than 250 research articles, reviews and book chapters in many peer-reviewed medical journals including New England Journal of Medicine, Science Translational Medicine, PNAS, American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, Annals of the American Thoracic Society, Chest, European Respiratory Journal, Journal of COPD, Infection and Immunity, Journal of Clinical Investigation, Journal of Infectious Diseases, Journal of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy and Thorax. His work has been widely cited and he has a current Google scholar h-index of 80. He has been or is a member of the editorial board for several publications including American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, Annals of the American Thoracic Society, PLosOne and Respiratory Research.

Dr Sethi’s current and past research funding includes grants from the NIH, DOD, VA and several pharmaceutical companies. He was a member of the lung cellular, molecular, and immunobiology study section of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the Pulmonary study section of the VA and is an ad hoc reviewer for several North American and International research funding agencies. In his current role as Director of the UB CTSI and Clinical Research Office, he has been leading efforts to develop and implement infrastructure and process improvements to enhance clinical and translational research at UB and affiliated institutions.

Dr. Sethi is currently active in several professional organizations including the American Thoracic Society where he has chaired the Clinical Problems program committee and the Clinical Problems Assembly. He has served as a consultant on the Global Initiative for Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease (GOLD) guidelines for COPD and was a member of the Department of Veterans Affairs and Department of Defense COPD Guideline Development Committee. He was chair and director of the Buffalo Institute of Medical Research. Additionally, he is a distinguished speaker presenting papers both nationally and internationally, many with COPD and Respiratory Infections as the primary focus.

Padua, Italy

Paolo Spagnolo is a full Professor of Respiratory Medicine and Director of the Residency Program in Respiratory Medicine at the University of Padua (Italy).

He received his undergraduate training and his MD, and completed his residency in Respiratory Medicine at the University Hospital of Bari (Italy). In 2002, Dr Spagnolo joined the Interstitial Lung Disease Unit of the Royal Brompton Hospital (London), initially as clinical research fellow under the supervision of Professor Ron du Bois and subsequently as Honorary Consultant. In 2008, he completed his PhD at the Imperial College of London under the supervision of Professor Ron du Bois and Professor Ken Welsh, with a thesis on “Genetic predisposition to clinical phenotypes of sarcoidosis”. Between 2008 and 2013, he was research fellow and subsequently Assistant Professor in Respiratory Medicine at the University Hospital of Modena where he joined the Centre for Rare Lung Diseases lead by Professor Luca Richeldi. Since 2015, Dr Spagnolo is a Professor of Respiratory Medicine at the Department of Cardiac, Thoracic, Vascular Sciences and Public Health of the University Hospital of Padua (Italy).

His main research interests include interstitial lung disease and sarcoidosis with emphasis on genetic predisposition, prediction of disease behaviour and clinical trials of novel therapies. Dr Spagnolo is the author or co-author of more than 200 journal articles, review articles and editorials. He is the chair of the Study Group on Sarcoidosis of the European Respiratory Society and the treasurer of the World Association of Sarcoidosis and Other Granulomatous diseases (WASOG).

Salt Lake City, UT, USA

Barbara E. Jones, MD, MSCI, is an Associate Professor of Medicine, pulmonary and critical care physician, and health services researcher at the University of Utah and the VA Salt Lake City Health Care System.

Her research focuses on improving pneumonia diagnosis and treatment through the application of informatics methods including an population-level analytics using electronic health record data, qualitative inquiry, and clinical decision support.

Dr. Jones leads a portfolio of studies examining antibiotic prescribing variation, diagnostic discordance, and care outcomes for patients with community-acquired and hospital-acquired pneumonia across VA medical centers nationwide. Her current work includes developing dynamic treatment regime methods to optimize antibiotic selection, characterizing facility-level variation in pneumonia care, and applying natural language processing to improve case ascertainment. A national leader in pneumonia clinical practice guidelines, Dr. Jones served as Chair and Lead Author of the 2025 ATS Clinical Practice Guideline Update in Community-Acquired Pneumonia, leading a multidisciplinary expert panel to synthesize emerging evidence including lessons from the pandemic into updated diagnostic and treatment recommendations.

She was also Lead Author of the 2019 ATS/IDSA Summary for Clinicians in Community-Acquired Pneumonia and serves as ATS co-chair of the ongoing ATS/IDSA/ALAT/CTS HAP/VAP Clinical Practice Guideline Update (2025–2026). She is Guest Editor of the 2026 Clinics in Chest Medicine pneumonia issue. Dr. Jones holds a Master of Science in Clinical Investigation from the University of Utah and is board-certified in pulmonary and critical care medicine.

Leicester, UK

Neil Greening is a Professor at the University of Leicester and an Honorary Consultant Respiratory Physician at Glenfield Hospital, Leicester. His research primarily focuses on COPD and exacerbations, particularly focused around severe events and the systemic impact of hospitalization on patients’ physical function and muscle wasting.

He was appointed to his current role at the University of Leicester in November 2017 after being awarded a prestigious fellowship from the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR). He had previous undertaken his clinical and research training initially in Newcastle, UK, before completing his PhD and specialist training in Leicester.

Prof. Greening has led on a number of biologic clinical trials in COPD, including the investigator-led COPD-HELP and COPD-ST2OP trials, as well as the ALIENTO and ARNASA trials. Glenfield Hospital has recruited more than 400 patients to biologic trials in COPD, providing one of the largest single center experiences. Prof. Greening has also developed strategies to characterize severity of exacerbations of COPD- the “BAt score”, a European collaboration. He has published more than 120 papers over the past 15 years

He is the chair of the British Thoracic Society COPD Specialist Advisory Group and chair of the American Thoracic Society Pulmonary Rehabilitation Programme Committee. He also sits on the BTS Biologic Clinical Statement Group, ATS Clinical Problems Program Committee, is also part of two ERS taskforces and the ERS CICERO Clinical Research Collaboration.

San Antonio, TX, USA

Dr. Marcos I. Restrepo, MD, MSc, PhD, FCCP, is a Professor at the Department of Medicine, Division of Pulmonary/Critical Care Medicine, at the University of Texas Health San Antonio (UTHSA). He is an investigator and staff physician at the South Texas Veterans Health Care System, Audie L Murphy Division. He is Medical Director of the Medical Intensive Care Unit at the South Texas Veterans Health Care System, Audie L Murphy Division and the Associate Program Director of the Pulmonary/Critical Care Medicine fellowship program at UTHSA.

Dr. Restrepo completed training and board certifications in internal medicine, infectious disease, pulmonary disease, and critical care medicine. He obtained a Master in Science in Clinical Investigation from UTHSA and a PhD in Medicine from the Universidad de Valencia, Spain.

He has published more than 260 peer review manuscripts and presented at national and international scientific meetings. He is a member of both pneumonia (community acquired and hospital acquired) guidelines sponsored by the American Thoracic Society of America (ATS)/ and Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA). He serves as associate editor for European Respiratory Journal (ERJ) and Respirology.

Cleveland, OH, USA

Dr. Raed A. Dweik, MD, MBA, is a distinguished physician, scientist, and healthcare leader. He currently serves as the Chief of Cleveland Clinic’s Integrated Hospital Care Institute (IHI), overseeing more than 4,000 caregivers and over 1,200 physicians and scientists across multiple locations, including Ohio, Florida, London, and Abu Dhabi.

In his role, Dr. Dweik is responsible for setting the strategic direction and managing the day-to-day operations of the Institute, which encompasses departments such as Emergency Services, Hospital Medicine, Pulmonary-Critical Care, Infectious Disease, and Anesthesiology.

Dr. Dweik’s clinical interests include pulmonary hypertension, asthma, chronic beryllium disease, and critical care medicine. He is board-certified in internal medicine, pulmonary disease, and critical care medicine. He regularly attends in the medical intensive care unit (MICU) and has been listed in “The Best Doctors in America” since 2005.

Academically, Dr. Dweik is a Professor of Medicine at the Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine and holds a joint appointment in the Lerner Research Institute. He established a Research Center of Excellence in Pulmonary Vascular Disease and maintains a research laboratory funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH). He has published over 300 peer-reviewed manuscripts and book chapters and serves on several journal editorial boards.

Dr. Dweik earned his medical degree from the University of Jordan Faculty of Medicine. He completed his internal medicine residency at Wright State University in Dayton, Ohio, followed by a fellowship in pulmonary and critical care medicine at Cleveland Clinic. He also obtained an MBA from Case Western Reserve University in 2017.

In addition to his roles at Cleveland Clinic, Dr. Dweik has been elected as the Secretary of the American Thoracic Society (ATS) for the 2023–2024 term and is slated to serve as ATS President in 2025.

Rochester, NY, USA

Dr. Rivera is a Professor of Medicine and Oncology and the C. Jane Davis & C. Robert Davis Distinguished Professor in Pulmonary Medicine at the University of Rochester Medical Center. She serves as Chief of the Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine and as an Associate Director of the Wilmot Cancer Institute in Rochester, New York. She is also an Adjunct Professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Her clinical expertise focuses on screening and early detection, diagnosis, staging, and management of treatment-related complications in lung cancer. Dr. Rivera co-developed the North Carolina Lung Screening Registry (NCLSR), and through research funded by the NIH National Cancer Institute, she is examining the delivery, quality, and outcomes of lung cancer screening, the extent to which disparities in lung cancer screening outcomes exist, and how patient comorbidities and functional status impact screening outcomes. Through research funded by the Stand Up to Cancer Foundation, she is also evaluating how genetic testing may improve lung cancer risk assessment.

Dr. Rivera has received numerous honors throughout her career, including the 2017 CHEST Presidential Honor Lecture, the 2019 ATS Thoracic Oncology Assembly Lifetime Achievement Award, and the 2026 ATS Elizabeth Rich Award. She has held prominent leadership roles in professional societies, including the American Thoracic Society, the American College of Chest Physicians, and the American Cancer Society National Lung Cancer Roundtable. Most notably, Dr. Rivera served as President of the American Thoracic Society from 2023 to 2024.

Committed to advancing the field, Dr. Rivera is deeply engaged in research, education, and mentorship and is dedicated to training the next generation of leaders in pulmonary and critical care medicine.