“Stories are important,” said Kimberly Manning, MD, FACP, FAAP. “They give hope and aspiration a place to live.”

With thousands of ATS members in attendance, Dr. Manning brought her own stories of gratitude, resilience, and dedicated professionalism as the keynote speaker for Saturday’s Opening Ceremony of the ATS 2025 International Conference in San Francisco.

Her message resonated with the evening’s celebratory tone, bookended by recognizing international chapters and celebrating ATS award winners.

However, Dr. Manning, a professor of medicine and vice chair of RYSE (DEI) initiatives at the Emory Department of Medicine, also acknowledged the serious challenges affecting the medical community. It was an assessment echoed by ATS President Irina Petrache, MD, ATSF, who addressed the gathering by reaffirming the Society’s values and outlining coordinated responses to defend scientific integrity.

Finding the Stories Around You

Dr. Manning, a graduate of Tuskegee University and Meharry School of Medicine, emphasized that doctors and researchers in medicine should strive to continue learning throughout their careers.

Some of her most memorable lessons came from her patients.

One of these was an elderly man who had earned the distinction among the hospital staff as one of the most “cantankerous” patients. In many ways, he was the perfect foil to Dr. Manning, who had once been assessed by one of her students as “annoyingly optimistic.”

The two didn’t hit it off initially. When Dr. Manning stopped by to check on him, he would tell her to “beat it.”

Dr. Manning eventually asked the patient, ‘If he could eat anything he wanted, what would he eat?’ He quickly replied: “Popeye’s chicken.”

This request was granted via Dr. Manning’s husband, who delivered “all the Popeye’s”— a large bag of white-meat and dark-meat combos, sandwiches, rice, and more.

This act of kindness elicited an emotional breakthrough for Dr Manning and her patient.

“At that moment, I realized there were no flowers in his room, no cards in his room. He had no guests, no one seeing him,” Dr. Manning recalled. “When I came back the next day, I learned a whole lot more about him.”

She learned that the man had been a chef and owned a restaurant. Food was his passion, so he found the hospital food “highly offensive.”

He began talking and sharing recipes, including the best way to prepare collard greens.

Before he died, he passed on his own stories, a budding friendship, and lessons that stuck with Dr. Manning.

“I realized that even when we feel like we can’t do anything, sometimes the thing someone needs is something we can do,” she said.

Dr. Manning shared other stories where compassion and care for her patients led to progress.

An elderly woman diagnosed Dr. Manning with being “stoppable,” which led Dr. Manning to set up a table at the hospital entrance during the pandemic, which served as a “no judgment zone,” where patients could discuss uncertainties about the COVID-19 vaccination.

Another elderly patient who struggled to breathe taught Dr. Manning to accept that, “sometimes, you want to breathe regular, but you can’t.” As he worried about his own future, he also shared his gratitude and the insight that “one person, doing one thing, in one moment, for one person other than themselves, goes further than you think.”

That’s a saying Dr. Manning often returns to, noting that in the medical community, “there are things we can do, even in uncertain times.”

Dr. Petrache’s ATS Address

Acting in uncertain times was a key theme from Dr. Petrache. She reiterated the Society’s values and priorities.

“First, we stand for science,” Dr. Petrache said. “We stand for building the next generation of clinicians and PhD scientists. We stand for vaccines and for preventing infections. We stand for inclusion, belonging, and global health. We stand for clean air and climate action. We stand to support each of our community’s 17,000 members throughout the globe, who help the world breathe.”

Dr. Petrache called on members to take time during the International Conference to visit the ATS Advocacy Station at the ATS Networking Super Center to attend program sessions on advocacy, and to sign up for the “voter voice” tool on the Society’s advocacy website.

Dr. Petrache noted that ATS also continues to support research. In 2025, the Society is funding 16 research projects with a total of $1.3 million, approximately a 36 percent increase from 2024.

The Opening Ceremony also recognized outstanding contributions from ATS members through its annual Respiratory Health Awards, including a Lifetime Achievement Award, for only the second time in the history of the International Conference.

The ATS thanks Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals, Inc. for their generous support of the ATS 2025 Opening Ceremony.