Attendees at this year’s Plenary Session will hear from keynote speaker Rana Awdish, MD, author of the bestselling medical memoir In Shock: My Journey from Death to Recovery and the Redemptive Power of Hope. Her presentation, “After Shock, The Redemptive Power of Hope,” will draw on the evocative power of art as well as her own experience to illustrate how we can reclaim the power that resides in our attention, relationships, and willingness to stay present with suffering long enough for it to transform into something truly healing.
A member of the ATS for two decades, Dr. Awdish is the medical director of care experience at Henry Ford Health in Detroit, Michigan, and a pulmonary critical care physician. She was named Schwartz Center for Compassionate Healthcare National Compassionate Caregiver of the Year, a U.S. News & World Report Healthcare Hero, and Physician of the Year by Press Ganey in South Bend, Indiana.
She was finishing a fellowship in critical care when she was rushed to her own training hospital as she experienced a life-threatening miscarriage. She subsequently spent months fighting for her life, enduring consecutive major surgeries and experiencing multiple overlapping organ failures. Her memoir recounts her experience and the surprising lack of compassion from the physicians who treated her.
The Plenary Session will also include the ratification of the 2026-27 slate of leaders, and remarks from outgoing president Raed A. Dweik, MD, MBA, ATSF, and incoming president Michelle Ng Gong, MD, MS, ATSF.
This year, the Plenary Session will recognize the following Respiratory Health Award recipients:
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Jo Rae Wright Award for Outstanding Science: Elizabeth M. Viglianti, MD, MPH, MSc
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Outstanding Educator Award: Jakob I. McSparron, MD
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Outstanding Clinician Award: Joshua O. Benditt, MD
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Research Innovation and Translation Achievement Award: Kambez H. Benam, DPhil
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Distinguished Achievement Awards: Lynn B. Gerald, PhD, MSPH & Andrew J. Halayko, PhD
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Philip Hopewell Prize for Leaders in Global Respiratory Health: Joy Nkiru Eze, FWACP, MPH, MSc, MPhil
ATS thanks GSK for their generous support of the ATS 2026 Plenary Session.
