COPD Foundation Medical and Scientific Advisory Committee (MASAC)

MASAC membership is comprised of the Chairs of the COPD Foundation’s various Working Groups and Advisory Committees, and representatives of the research, clinical and bioethics communities. The committee is intended to represent the variety of expertise associated with COPD Foundation research or clinical care, and should always include representatives of the lung community, clinical science, genetics, and the social sciences (bioethics, economics, and/or law).

The COPD Foundation charges the MASAC with the following responsibilities:

  • Advisement: Provide scientific advice, guidance and support to the COPD Foundation’s Board of Directors and appointed working groups and committees. Provide advice on clinical treatment, safety and disease management issues affecting individuals with COPD.
  • Service on Advisory Committees and Working Groups: Participate in working groups as well as provide guidance for working group activities.
  • Research Programs: Provide input for the development of a research agenda and expansion of programs such as the COPD Patient-Powered Research Network, other COPD Foundation programs, and provide guidance for their operations and use.
  • Outreach and Education: Provide input and guidance for the development of programs, educational materials, website development and other outreach activities of the Foundation.
  • Research Initiatives: Set the direction and facilitate clinical research on COPD. Assist with the development and revisions to the Foundation’s Research Agenda, which prioritizes research initiatives and establishes both long and short-term objectives for the Foundation’s research portfolio. Work closely with industry and government to develop and evaluate new therapeutic interventions.
  • Cultivation: Encourage and support their involvement with the Foundation’s programs.
  • Scientific Meetings, Conferences and Workshops: Provide input during the planning phase and participate in international scientific conferences and workshops that are organized by the Foundation. Identify relevant themes related to COPD for meetings. Provide input during the planning phase and participate in satellite sessions at national and international meetings
  • Communications and Publications: Contribute to COPD Foundation publications that disseminate information on COPD to physicians, health care providers, patients and their families, government and industry. Provide input and/or contribute to regular updates written specifically for the COPD community. Provide guidance with writing group efforts and provide scientific and bioethical review of educational materials that are developed by the COPD Foundation.

Medical and Scientific Advisory Committee Members

  • Mark Dransfield, MD CHAIR
    Professor of Pulmonary, Allergy, & Critical Care Medicine
    University of Alabama, Birmingham
  • Jill Ohar, MD VICE CHAIR
    Professor, Pulmonary, Critical Care, Allergy, and Immunologic Medicine
    Wake Forest Baptist Health
    Winston-Salem, NC
  • Alvar Agusti, MD, PhD, FRCPE
    Senior Consultant, Respiratory Institute, Hospital Clinic
    University of Barcelona
    Barcelona, Spain
  • Timothy R. Aksamit, MD
    Associate Professor of Medicine
    Mayo Clinic
    Rochester, MN
  • Antonio Anzueto, MD
    Professor of Medicine
    Department of Medicine / Pulmonary Disease Division
    The University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio
  • David H. Au, MD, MS
    Professor, Division of Pulmonary, Critical Care and Sleep Medicine
    Director, Center of Innovation for Veteran-Centered and Value-Driven Care
    University of Washington
    Seattle, WA
  • R. Graham Barr, MD, DrPH
    Hamilton Southworth Professor Epidemiology and Medicine
    Columbia University
    New York, NY
  • Surya Bhatt, MD
    Associate Professor
    University of Alabama, Birmingham
  • Richard Casaburi, MD, PhD
    Associate Chief of Research, Professor, Division of Respiratory and Critical Care Physiology & Medicine
    Los Angeles Biomedical Research Institute at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center
    Torrance, CA
  • Bartolome Celli, MD
    Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School
    Brigham and Women's Hospital
    Boston, MA
  • James Chalmers, MD
    Professor of Medicine Molecular and Clinical Medicine, School of Medicine
    University of Dundee
    United Kingdom
  • James Crapo, MD
    Professor
    Department of Medicine
    Division of Pulmonary, Critical Care & Sleep Medicine
    Denver, CO
  • Gerard Criner, MD
    Chair and Professor, Thoracic Medicine and Surgery
    Temple University
    Philadelphia, PA
  • James Donohue, MD
    Professor of Medicine, Division of Pulmonary Diseases and Critical Care Medicine
    University of North Carolina School of Medicine
  • Brad Drummond, MD
    Associate Professor
    University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
  • Marilyn Foreman, MD, MS
    Professor and Associate Chair for Research Morehouse School of Medicine
  • Karin Hoth, PhD, ABPP
    Associate Professor of Psychiatry
    University of Iowa Carver College of Medicine
    Iowa City, IA
  • Min Joo, MD
    Associate Professor of Medicine
    University of Illinois at Chicago
    Chicago, IL
  • Ravi Kalhan, MD
    Professor of Medicine (Pulmonary and Critical Care) and Preventive Medicine (Epidemiology)
    Northwestern University
    Chicago, IL
  • Jerry Krishnan, MD, PhD
    Professor of Medicine and Public Health Associate & Vice Chancellor for Population Health Sciences
    University of Illinois at Chicago
    Chicago, IL
  • Peter K. Lindenauer, MD
    Director, Institute for Healthcare Delivery and Population Science, University of Massachusetts Medical School-Baystate
    Assistant Dean of Population Health, University of Massachusetts Medical School-Baystate
    Professor of Medicine, University of Massachusetts Medical School-Baystate
    Professor of Population and Quantitative Health Sciences, University of Massachusetts Medical School
    University of Massachusetts
    Baystate Health
  • Barry Make, MD
    Professor
    Department of Medicine
    Division of Pulmonary, Critical Care & Sleep Medicine
    National Jewish Health
    Denver, CO
  • David Mannino, MD
    Professor of Medicine
    University of Kentucky
    Lexington, KY
  • Fernando Martinez, MD
    Bruce Webster Professor of Internal Medicine, Professor of Medicine, Professor of Genetic Medicine
    Cornell University
    New York, NY
  • Mark Metersky, M.D., F.C.C.P.
    Professor of Medicine
    Associate Chief of Service, Department of Medicine
    Director, Center for Bronchiectasis Care
    UConn Health
    Farmington, CT
  • Richard Mularski, MD, MSHS, MCR
    Professor of Health Systems Science, KP Bernard J. Tyson School of Medicine
    Clinical Professor of Medicine, OHSU
    The Center for Health Research
    Kaiser Permanente Northwest, Portland, OR
  • Nirupama Putcha, M.D., M.H.S.
    Associate Professor of Medicine
    Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine
    Baltimore, MD
  • Stephen Rennard, MD
    Professor, Internal Medicine Division of Pulmonary, Critical Care, Sleep & Allergy
    University of Nebraska Medical Center
    Omaha, NE
  • Jean Rommes, PhD
    Patient Representative
    West Des Moines, IA
  • Robert A. Sandhaus, MD, PhD
    Professor of Medicine
    Director, Alpha-1 Program
    National Jewish Health
    Denver, CO
  • Frank Sciurba, MD
    Visiting Professor of Medicine and Education
    Director, Emphysema/COPD Research Center
    Director, Pulmonary Function Exercise Physiology Laboratory
    University of Pittsburgh
    Pittsburgh, PA
  • Paul Simonelli, MD, PhD
    Chair of the Department of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine for the Geisinger Medicine Institute
    Geisinger Medical Center
    Danville, PA
  • Lewis J. Smith, MD
    Professor Emeritus of Medicine (Pulmonary and Critical Care)
    Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine
  • Robert A. Stockley, MD, DSc
    Professor of Medicine
    University of Birmingham
    United Kingdom
  • Byron Thomashow, MD
    Professor of Medicine Columbia University Medical Center
    Columbia University Medical Center
    New York, NY

    Byron Thomashow, MD

    Byron Thomashow, MD, is a Professor of Medicine at Columbia University Medical Center and an Attending Physician at the New York-Presbyterian Hospital. He helped found the COPD Foundation in 2004 and served as Chairman of the Board of Directors for ten years. In July 2018, he took on the role of Chief Medical Officer of the Foundation. He is the medical co-director of the Jo-Ann Le Buhn Center for Chest Disease on the Columbia campus and is medical director of the New York-Presbyterian Lung Volume Reduction program. He chaired the Respiratory Disease Council of the New York-Presbyterian Healthcare Network for many years and co-chaired the New York-Presbyterian smoking cessation initiative leading to the campus going smoke free. He has served as co-chair for the NY State COPD Coalition, co-chaired the New York State COPD Summit in 2010, co-chaired COPD7USA in 2011, COPD8USA in 2013, COPD 9USA in 2015, COPD10USA in 2017, and co-chaired the COPD Foundation COPD Readmission Summits in October 2013 and March 2015.

    The Byron M. Thomashow Professorship of Medicine Columbia University was established in 2006. Byron was awarded the 2013 American Thoracic Society Public Advisory Roundtable Excellence Award. In 2016, he received the Columbia University Leonard Tow Humanism in Medicine Award sponsored by the Arnold P. Gold Foundation. In 2017 he received the Albert Nelson Marquis Lifetime Achievement Award. In 2018 he received the JW Walsh Visionary Award from the COPD Foundation. He was a member of the steering committee and the co-primary investigator at the Columbia site for the National Emphysema Treatment Trial and has been and remains actively involved in multiple national clinical research projects.

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  • Gerard Turino, MD
    John H. Keating Professor Emeritus Columbia University
    St. Luke’s-Roosevelt Hospital
    New York, NY
  • George Washko, MD
    Associate Professor of Medicine Harvard Medical School
    Brigham and Women's Hospital/Harvard Medical School
    Boston, MA
  • Robert (Bob) Wise, MD
    Professor of Medicine
    Johns Hopkins University
    Baltimore, MD
  • Barbara Yawn, MD
    University of Minnesota
    Rochester, MN