Lynn M Schnapp, MD, ATSF, is the George R. and Elaine Love professor and Chair of the Department of Medicine at the University of Wisconsin -Madison School of Medicine and Public Health. Previously, she was the Division Chief of Pulmonary, Critical Care, Allergy and Sleep Medicine at the Medical University of South Carolina, and held faculty positions at University of Washington, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, and University of California, San Francisco. Dr. Schnapp is an established NIH-funded investigator in cell and molecular biology with clinical and research expertise in ARDS.
Dr. Schnapp is recognized for her long-standing commitment to mentorship, career development and increasing the representation of women and underrepresented minorities in medicine. She has received numerous awards in these areas, including the ATS Elizabeth Rich Award, NIH Mid-Career Mentoring Award, MUSC Advancement of Women Faculty Award and University of Washington Medicine Award for Excellence in Mentoring Women and Minorities. Dr Schnapp is a graduate fellow of the Hedwig van Ameringen Executive Leadership in Academic Medicine Program for Women. Her national leadership experience includes numerous leadership positions in the American Thoracic Society, including past President, and currently serves as a member of NHLBI Advisory Council.
Anne-Karina T. Perl, MSci, PhD, ATSF is a developmental biologist and a recognized leader in pulmonary science with over 20 years of experience at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center. She has earned national and international recognition for her contributions to pulmonary biology, education, and advocacy. Dr. Perl frequently speaks at high-profile meetings, including ATS, FASEB, Keystone, and Gordon conferences, where she was elected chair in 2016 and 2021.
Dr. Perl earned her M.Sc. and Ph.D. at the Research Institute of Molecular Pathology, studying proto-oncogene inactivation and tumor metastasis. She completed postdoctoral training at Cincinnati Children’s with Dr. Jeffrey Whitsett, investigating FGF signaling in lung morphogenesis and cell fate mapping.
Her early major scientific contributions include developing doxycycline-regulated, lung epithelial-specific promoters, pioneering lineage tracing in the lung epithelium, and creating a conditional diphtheria toxin model to study lung epithelial progenitor cells. In the last decade, her work has significantly advanced fibroblast biology in lung development, injury, and repair. Dr. Perl has developed novel conditional mouse models targeting alveolar fibroblasts to investigate their roles in alveolarization, regeneration, and fibrosis. Her research integrates molecular data with lung morphology, histology, and biology to define fibroblast function in development, homeostasis, regeneration, and fibrosis.
With a strong belief in researchers' responsibility to their community, she has spearheaded efforts to address the increasing complexity of lung fibroblast biology. She initiated and currently leads an international task force focused on standardizing nomenclature and identifying markers for distinct fibroblast subsets. Dr. Perl’s research excellence is reflected in highly cited publications in prestigious journals such as Nature, Nature Medicine, JBC, PNAS, Developmental Biology, Thorax, JCI, and AJRCCM.
In addition to her scientific contributions, Dr. Perl is deeply committed to mentorship and leadership. She has served on numerous ATS committees and grant review panels and received the Carol Basbaum Award from the ATS Respiratory Cell and Molecular Biology Assembly in 2010. In 2024, she was named an ATS Fellow. Dr. Perl currently serves as an associate editor for the American Journal of Respiratory Cell and Molecular Biology.