The Diversity Forum at the ATS 2025 International Conference will provide attendees the opportunity to celebrate young scholars and hear a keynote address from Terri Laguna, MD, a pediatric pulmonologist and a leading physician in the treatment and study of cystic fibrosis (CF).

The Diversity Forum will take place on Sunday, May 18, from 11:45 a.m. – 1:15 p.m. inside the Moscone Center. Pre-registration and payment of a $40 fee are required to attend.

Dr. Laguna, the division head of pulmonary and sleep medicine and professor in the Department of Pediatrics at the University of Washington School of Medicine, has championed themes of diversity in her career, her involvement and leadership within ATS, and her years of service as a mentor to young professionals.

She said her lecture’s theme of “You Matter” will examine the importance of diversity from a professional and personal perspective, beginning with an understanding of its worth. 

“We all hold different, and often intersectional, identities that impact who we are and how we navigate the world. While these identities are reasons to celebrate because they make us who we are, they also are often targeted by racism, sexism, and homophobia. Particularly in medicine, it is a difficult place to navigate if you are underrepresented, a member of the LGBTQIA+ community, have a disability, etc. It is important to remind people that their identities are what makes them special—they give us strength, power, and passion,” Dr. Laguna said.

The Diversity Forum is organized by the ATS Membership Committee and the ATS Health Equity and Diversity Committee, whose co-chair Stephanie Lovinsky-Desir, MD, MS, noted that the theme of diversity is both timely and timeless.

“We are living in a challenging time in American and global history with respect to ensuring equal opportunity and access to professional spaces and healthcare,” said Dr. Lovinsky-Desir, the Herbert Irving Associate Professor of Pediatrics in Environmental Health Sciences at Columbia University Irving Medical Center. “This is not the first challenging time, and I imagine that it won’t be the last. However, we are fortunate that organizations like the American Thoracic Society exist because of and for each one of its members. The ATS knows that enhancing diversity strengthens our organization.”

Dr. Laguna said the Diversity Forum signifies a broader and sustained commitment to positive changes in community and patient health, often against tremendous institutional barriers.

“Medicine struggles with diversity. The published facts on equity and inclusion amongst women and diverse faculty in academic medicine are plentiful, abysmal, and relatively unchanged over time. Women are paid less, promoted less often and more slowly, have higher burnout rates, receive fewer leadership opportunities, are more often tasked with non-promotable activities, experience sexual harassment, bullying, and bias at greater rates than their colleagues, and are less likely to report such harassment,” Dr. Laguna said. “We must find real solutions. We owe it to the patients we serve and to our colleagues.”

After Dr. Laguna’s lecture, the forum will recognize the winners of the ATS Underrepresented Trainee Development Scholarship (UTDS) and the winner of the ATS Fellowship in Health Equity and Diversity.

The UTDS covers attendance costs at the ATS International conference to scholars from underrepresented communities who are first authors of abstracts or authors of late-breaking abstracts that will be presented at the conference.

The Health Equity and Diversity Fellowship provides up to $40,000 to support the efforts of senior fellows, post-doctoral students, or junior faculty with research, clinical, and policy endeavors to advance health equity for patients with respiratory disease, critical care illness or injury, and sleep-disordered breathing.

Jamil Paden, ATS director of diversity, equity, and community outreach, describes the awards ceremony as a celebration and a reinforcement of ATS’s broader goals.

“With this forum, we are showing our commitment to the current generation of scholars, and that we are there to support all our members and specifically those in our underrepresented communities,” Paden said. “At the end of the day, everyone is affected, and through these programs, we are celebrating the success of all of us.”

The ATS thanks Johnson & Johnson and Genentech, Inc. for their generous support of the Diversity Forum.