Experts from the American Thoracic Society will discuss issues with systemic racism in academia as a follow-up to their session on this topic at the virtual 2021 ATS Annual Conference. Topics include the history of racism in academia, the reality of underrepresentation of racial and ethnic minorities, implicit bias and microaggressions, the cognitive impact of racism on its victims, and a roadmap for how to increase equality and representation.


Panelists:
Erica Farrand, MD
Erica Farrand, MD, is an assistant professor in the Division of Pulmonary, Critical Care, Sleep, Allergy and Sleep Medicine. She is attending physician in the Interstitial Lung Disease Program and on the Pulmonary Consult Service and co-director of the UCSF ILD Program.

Dr. Farrand's scholarship focuses on defining, assessing and improving the health care quality, safety and outcomes for individuals with interstitial lung disease. She collaborates closely with colleagues in ILD, health services research, implementation science and informatics to support a multidisciplinary research program. She earned her medical degree at Columbia University’s Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons, where she also completed a residency in internal medicine. She completed a fellowship in pulmonology and critical care medicine at UCSF.

Meshell Johnson, MD
Meshell Johnson, MD, is a professor of medicine at UCSF, and her clinical home is the San Francisco VA, where she attends mostly in the ICU, teaching and leading multidisciplinary teams in the care of our critically ill veterans. Dr. Johnson has a lab that studies the alveolar epithelium in lung injury, focusing on alveolar type I cells. She is also the Associate Chair for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion for the Department of Medicine, a member of the Latinx Center of Excellence, and a Faculty Equity Advisor for the School of Medicine, positions which reflect her passion for and commitment to social justice and inclusive excellence at UCSF and beyond.

David S. Wilkes, MD
A board-certified specialist in pulmonary disease and critical care medicine, and former Executive Associate Dean for Research Affairs at the Indiana University School of Medicine, Dr. David Wilkes began his five-year appointment as Dean of UVA’s School of Medicine in September of 2015.

Stephanie Lovinsky-Desir, MD, MS
Dr. Stephanie Lovinsky-Desir is Assistant Professor of Pediatrics and Environmental Health Sciences and Director of the Pediatric Pulmonary Division at Columbia University Irving Medical Center. She completed her general pediatrics training at the Children’s Hospital of Montefiore in the Social Pediatrics program and her pediatric pulmonary fellowship at New York Presbyterian – Columbia University. Her research is focused on understanding how environmental factors impact children with asthma, particularly in urban and minority communities. Dr. Lovinsky-Desir’s multidisciplinary approach to studying urban environmental asthma has led to fruitful collaborations throughout several schools at Columbia including the School of Medicine, the School of Public Health, the School of Nursing, and the Lamont Doherty Earth Observatory. Her current work is funded by the National Institutes of Health (NHLBI and NIEHS), the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation through the Amos Medical Faculty Development Award, and the Driscoll Children’s Scholar Fund. She is an elected member of the Society for Pediatric Research and in 2019 was recognized by the journal Pediatric Research for the Early Career Investigator Spotlight. She is also the recipient of the 2019 American Society for Clinical Investigation Young Physician-Scientist Award and the 2021 Robert B. Mellins, MD Outstanding Achievement Award from the Pediatric Assembly of the American Thoracic Society. Dr. Lovinsky-Desir is also very active in the American Thoracic Society as a member of several committees within the Pediatric Assembly including the Programming Committee, Advocacy Committee, Diversity and Inclusion Working Group and Nominating Committee as well as the ATS Health Equity and Diversity Committee.