An expert on health care and leadership known for redefining benchmarks and promoting health equity will share his vision for the future of medicine as the featured speaker at the Opening Ceremony of the ATS 2023 International Conference. Stephen K. Klasko, MD, MBA, will deliver his keynote address Saturday, May 20, in Hall E (Level 2) of the Walter E. Washington Convention Center. The ceremony will take place 4:30–5:30 p.m. ET.

Dr. Klasko’s career has included significant posts in academia and notable authorship. He has served as the dean of two medical colleges, Drexel University and University of South Florida; president of Thomas Jefferson University; and CEO of two academic health systems, USF Health and Jefferson Health.

At the USF Medical College, he created the SELECT program that transformed selection and education of medical students, choosing students based on self-awareness, empathy, cultural competence, and communication skills with a revised curriculum concentrated on the future physician. 

At Thomas Jefferson University, he led a system that in eight years went from a two-hospital, one-campus university with $1 billion in revenue to an 18-hospital, two-campus university with almost 10,000 students and a Medicaid and Medicare Advantage health insurance plan. He led the integration of Jefferson’s extensive academic pulmonary program through a significant donation to create the Korman Respiratory Institute and led the integration of that institute into a partnership with National Jewish. 

“You have to think what’s possible a decade forward and then work backwards, bringing that future into the present,” Dr. Klasko told The European Business Review for a May 2022 article highlighting his leadership success.

Dr. Klasko was named a distinguished fellow of the World Economic Forum in 2020, the No. 2 most influential person in health care in 2018 by Modern Healthcare, the No. 21 most creative person in business by Fast Company in 2019, and a Becker’s top 100 health care leader for the past five years in a row.

From 1999 to 2023, he wrote six books advocating for transformations in patient-centered health care and innovative medical education, including UnHealthcare: A Manifesto for Health Assurance.

Dr. Klasko has written more than 100 articles for business journals, blogs, and podcasts on the need for “health care at any address” and started the Philadelphia Collaborative for Health Equity, which has been replicated in several other cities.

Also during the Opening Ceremony:

• ATS President Greg Downey, MD, ATSF, will provide an update of the Society’s major accomplishments for the past year and priorities for the coming one;
• The latest class of ATS Fellows and Research Program awardees will be recognized; and
• The Public Service Award, World Lung Health Award, Jo Rae Wright Award for Outstanding Science and the J. Randall Curtis Humanism Award will be presented.

Many thanks to Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals, Inc. for support of the Opening Ceremony.

New ATS Fellows

Mohammed Alzoubaidi, MD, ATSF, Sioux Falls, S.D.
Engi Attia, PhD, ATSF, Seattle
Ridhwan Baba, PhD, ATSF, New York
Narendra Bhatta, MD, ATSF, Dharan, Nepal
Christine Bojanowski, MD, ATSF, New Orleans
Sonali Bose, MD, ATSF, New York
Nathan Brummel, MD, ATSF, Columbus, Ohio
Wei Chen, PhD, ATSF, Pittsburgh
Daniel Croft, PhD, ATSF, Rochester, N.Y.
Phyllis Dennery, MD, ATSF, Providence, R.I.
Rebecca Disler, MD, ATSF, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
Kathleen Doo, MD, ATSF, Oakland, Calif.
Matthew Drake, PhD, ATSF, Portland, Ore.
Steven Dudek, MD, ATSF, Chicago
Pedro Genta, MD, ATSF, Sao Paulo, Brazil
Fernando Holguin, MD, ATSF, Aurora, Colo.
Jennifer Honda, PhD, ATSF, Denver
C. Terri Hough, MD, ATSF, Portland, Ore.
Narayan Iyer, MD, ATSF, Los Angeles
Manu Jain, MD, ATSF, Chicago
Ariel Jaitovich, MD, ATSF, Albany, N.Y.
Sumita Khatri, MD, ATSF, Cleveland
Jay Kolls, MD, ATSF, New Orleans
Bryan Kraft, MD, ATSF, St. Louis
Daniel Lachant, PhD, ATSF, Rochester, N.Y.
Terri Laguna, MD, ATSF, Chicago
Joyce Lee, MD, ATSF, Aurora, Colo.
Ni-Cheng Liang, MD, ATSF, Encinitas, Calif.
Margaret Maclean, PhD, ATSF, Glasgow, United Kingdom
Susanna McColley, MD, ATSF, Chicago
Benjamin Medoff, MD, ATSF, Boston
Anne Melzer, MD, ATSF, Minneapolis
Nuala Meyer, PhD, ATSF, Philadelphia
Seyed Javad Moghaddam, MD, ATSF, Houston
Edward Moloney, PhD, ATSF, Dublin, Ireland
Ken Ohta, MD, ATSF, Kiyose, Tokyo, Japan
William Oldham, PhD, ATSF, Boston
Eyal Oren, MD, ATSF, San Diego
Divya Patel, DO, MBA, ATSF, Gainesville, Fla.
Sachin Pendharkar, MD, ATSF, Calgary, Alberta, Canada
Dominique Pepper, MD, ATSF, Olympia, Wash.
Mario Perez, MD, ATSF, Farmington, Conn.
Anna Podolanczuk, MD, ATSF, New York
Deepak Pradhan, PhD, ATSF, New York
Alexa Pragman, MD, ATSF, Minneapolis
Sanda Predescu, PhD, ATSF, Chicago
Ganesh Raghu, MD, ATSF, Seattle
Rod Rahimi, MD, ATSF, Boston
Elizabeth Redente, PhD, ATSF, Denver
Paul Robinson, PhD, ATSF, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
Jesse Roman Rodriguez, MD, ATSF, Philadelphia
Franziska Rosser, PhD, ATSF, Pittsburgh
A. Parker Ruhl, PhD, ATSF, Bethesda, Md.
Jussi Saukkonen, MD, ATSF, West Roxbury, Mass.
Richard Schwartzstein, MD, ATSF, Boston
Narong Simakajornboon, PhD, ATSF, Cincinnati
Sanjeev Sinha, PhD, ATSF, New Delhi, Delhi, India
Brian Southern, PhD, ATSF, Cleveland
Isaac Kirubakaran Sundar, PhD, ATSF, Kansas City, Kan.
Jane Taylor, MD, ATSF, Pittsburgh
Emily Vail, MD, ATSF, Philadelphia
Giovanni Viegi, PhD, ATSF, Pisa, Italy
Ross Vlahos, PhD, ATSF, Bundoora, Australia
Tania Von Visger, PhD, ATSF, Buffalo, N.Y.
Nargues Weir, MD, ATSF, Silver Spring, Md.
Elizabeth Wilcox, PhD, ATSF, Toronto, Ontario, Canada
Jason Woods, MD, ATSF, Cincinnati
Ivana Yang, MD, ATSF, Aurora, Colo.