Meet the 2025 Winner: Donald R. Sullivan, MD, MA, MCR
Donald R. Sullivan, MD, MA, MCR is an Associate Professor of Medicine in the Division of Pulmonary, Allergy, and Critical Care Medicine; Division of Psychology; and in the Division of Oncological Sciences, Knight Cancer Institute all at Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU). He is also an Affiliate Scientist at the Portland Veterans Affairs (VA) Healthcare System, Center of Innovation. Dr. Sullivan is the Associate Director of the Oregon Clinical and Translational Research Institute NCATS KL2 Program and Co-Lead of the Cancer Prevention and Control Program at the Knight Cancer Institute. Dr Sullivan is a health services researcher and has authored over 80 peer-reviewed publications and has been awarded more than $8 million in major research grants. His primary research focus is on improving the quality of life and value of care among persons with serious respiratory illness through epidemiology, decision making science, mixed-methods, and palliative care research. Dr. Sullivan was awarded a Cambia Health Foundation Sojourns Scholar Leadership Award and is the co-chair/co-founder of the American Thoracic Society’s Palliative Care Special Interest Group. Dr. Sullivan has received funding from the National Institutes of Health- National Cancer Institute and National Institute on Aging, American Thoracic Society, American Lung Association, American Cancer Society, Borchard Foundation, Cambia Health Foundation, Knight Cancer Institute, Medical Research Foundation, Veterans Affairs Center for Innovation, and UPENN Roybal Center. He enjoys providing career mentorship to medical students, residents, fellows, and post-doctoral candidates and teaches pulmonary physiology at the OHSU School of Medicine and within the Department of Internal Medicine.
Description
The award will be given to a mid-career individual who has made outstanding scientific and scholarly contributions relevant to behavioral and social sciences, clinical epidemiology, statistics, health services research, health economics, comparative clinical efficacy and effectiveness research, patient-centered outcomes research, performance measurement, quality improvement, or implementation science. This award is to recognize individuals who have applied these methodologies to lung diseases, critical illness, or sleep disorders during their career, and who have made significant contributions to the BSHSR Assembly and the ATS as a whole. The award committee encourages nominations from groups who are under-represented in medicine. Awardees will be presented with a framed certificate at the ATS International conference.
Criteria
- Assistant Professor, Associate Professor, or an equivalent rank in a non-academic institution
- 10-20 years from completing all post-doctoral or clinical training, excluding time off for personal circumstances
- Current BSHSR member (primary or secondary membership)
- Has not previously received a Mid Career Achievement award from any ATS assembly
- The submission package must include the candidate’s updated curriculum vitae and a nomination letter from an assembly member addressing the candidate’s achievements within the scored award domains.
Scoring
Applicants are scored on 6 criteria using a 1-5 rating system across the following categories; summed scores provide an overall score:
- Scientific and scholarly contributions/products
- Teaching/mentoring/educational contributions
- Participation in BSHSR Assembly activities (administrative, committees, workshops, etc.)
- Participation in other ATS activities (administrative, committees, workshops, etc.)
- Other considerations from recommendations including relevant extenuating circumstances
- Overall impact/impression of the dossier submitted for award application