In 1935, about 40 people attended an inaugural educational event that would eventually become the CHEST Annual Meeting. Today, generations of clinicians, patients, and community members worldwide have felt ripple effects that can be traced back to that small group of attendees.
As CHEST celebrates its 90th anniversary this year, the organization is investing in 90 early career clinicians who can shape the future of pulmonary, critical care, and sleep medicine. This initiative, called the 90 for 90 Campaign, includes travel grants for the 90 clinicians to attend CHEST 2025 in Chicago. Each grant includes free meeting registration and a $1,000 stipend to cover travel costs.
Just as importantly, the grant program connects the clinicians with the larger CHEST professional network. Each recipient is paired with a mentor, ensuring that they have the knowledge they need to advance patient care where they live and work. This exponentially expands the impact of CHEST’s world-class clinical education, noted Robert De Marco, MD, FCCP, Chair of the CHEST Board of Advisors.
“It’s about how you will take something you learned and bring it back to your community,” he said. “Will you be able to help do better lung cancer screening? Will you be able to set up things to allow people to get care that they might not have received?”
Real-world impact
Sudha Misra, MD, had heard others question the feasibility of pursuing research while at a community-based fellowship program. “There’s this belief that fellows or trainees who are in community-based settings don’t do much research or don’t have enough resources to pursue academic research,” she said. “And that was a question that plagued me.”
When Dr. Misra received a travel grant to attend CHEST 2024, she took the opportunity to ask “every single person I came across”—including CHEST Presidents, past and present—for input on the topic. Inspired by their responses, less than a year later Dr. Misra helped conduct the first research symposium in her program at Reading Hospital, Tower Health, in Pennsylvania.
“The reason I think it happened, entirely, is because all these people gave me hope. They gave me the belief,” Dr. Misra said. “Where we are, we have enough. We have smart people; we have brilliant people. We can come together and organize research in our way, at our level.”
Our donors make it possible
Thank you to the many CHEST members who have supported the important work of our grantees by making a gift to support CHEST’s philanthropy efforts. Your gifts empower the next generation of chest medicine specialists.
Visit chestnet.org/donate to make a gift to CHEST philanthropy today and inspire the future of medicine.
Filling many needs
The current CHEST Travel Grant program has been building momentum for several years. Donors funded 35 travel grants in 2023 and 55 in 2024. CHEST had already hoped to expand the program for 2025 before a new wave of funding uncertainty reinforced the importance of the grants.
Even in the best of times, early career clinicians are in a uniquely vulnerable position. Their learning curve is steeper, and their networks are thinner. With further opportunities reliant on both knowledge and connections, that can be a difficult cycle to navigate. CHEST Travel Grants help early career clinicians move beyond those hurdles and focus on what really matters, said Anthony J. Esposito, MD, who received a travel grant to attend CHEST 2024 as a junior faculty member.
“When you have early career professionals come to a conference like this and get exposed to new technologies and new ways of approaching clinical problems, it doesn’t just help us—it helps our patients,” Dr. Esposito said.
“Unfortunately, a lot of people don’t make it out on the other side where they [thought] they would,” he said. “Any help, even if it may seem insignificant, is not actually insignificant for someone in my position.”
Investing in the future
Dr. Esposito, Assistant Professor at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine, added that the mentorship component of the travel grant was especially meaningful for furthering his career. His mentor guided him through the ins and outs of being a leader, collaborated on a session proposal, and recommended Dr. Esposito for induction as a Fellow of the American College of Chest Physicians at this year’s meeting.
Although CHEST 2025 is underway, the 90 for 90 Campaign will remain open until the end of the year in an effort to maximize support for CHEST’s commitment to education, mentorship, and equity in access. Members of CHEST’s Board of Advisors and Board of Regents have each individually supported a full travel grant. Other members of the CHEST community can contribute gifts of any size through the CHEST website at chestnet.org/donate. As with all CHEST philanthropy gifts, every dollar is passed along fully to the grant recipient, so member generosity directly affects their life and the lives of others.
“We are more than just the number of people who receive grants,” Dr. Misra said. “The subjective impact and the ripple effect from one grant can be a magnificent thing.”
CHEST 2025 Travel Grant Recipients
Congratulations to the 90 recipients of this year’s travel grants!
Nawal Aamir, MD
Andrew Abrahamian, MD
Brian Adams
Aamer Ahmad, MBBS
Neil Alden Tan, MD
Moe Ameri, MD, MSc
Elaine Araujo de Souza
Erik Avis, DO
Laith Ayasa, MD
Jyoti Bajpai, MBBS
Santosh Basyal, MBBS
Killen Briones-Zamora, MD
Ennajee Brisbane, MD
Anouar Bouabdellah, MD
Emory Buck, MD
Luca Calero, PA-C
Rendy Javier Chaparro Reyes, MD
Ana Chavez Velasquez, MD, MS
Kevin Chiu, MD
Anika Chowdhury, MD
Chebly Dagher, MD
Joshua Raphael G.
De Guzman, MD
Michelle Delgadillo, AGACNP-BC
Valeria Demeneghi Aleman, MD
Shubh Desai
Adolfo Diaz-Barba, MD
George Doumat, MD
Ahmed Dudic
Rida Ejaz, MBBS
Abuoma Ekpendu, DO
Minaam Farooq, MBBS
Falah Fayaz
Enrique Gerardo Villarreal Noyola, MD
Michelle Guadalupe Ortiz
Astha Guliani, MD
Aaron Haag, DO
Mohammad Hashim Salameh, MD
Tasmea Haque, MD
Samira Hayee, MBBS
Alan Hu, MD
Nanditha Karra, MBBS
Mounicka Karthikeyan, MBBS
Clara Keum, MD
Antoine Kharsa, MD
Manav Limbachiya
Belissa A. Lopez-Pena, MD
Diksha Mahadeva Gowda, MBBS
Zin Mar Htun, MBBS, MS
Juan Martinez Ortega, MD
Bibi Maryam, MD
Kevin Meek, DO
Hicham Mekkaoui
Chase Mitchell
Ghanshyam Mudigonda, MBBS
Chidimma Nwafor
Donna Oh
Kimberley Okoyeze, MD
Sarang Patil, MD
Shirley Perez Anel, MD
Shreya Podder, MD
Ana Polanco Montero
Carra M. Powell, MD
Christopher John Q. Quadra, MD
Sreya Rahman
Armando Reyes Yparraguirre, MD
Melina Sanchez, BA
Parthkumar Satashia, MBBS
Naina Sawal, MD
Chail Shah, MD
Vivek Singh, MD, RRT-ACCS, RRT-NPS
Saiyara Sheikh Shama, MD
Prinay Sohal, MBBS
Rupali Sood, MD, MPH
Zhayna Spooner, MD
PL Sriram
Vilte Stefanija Duksaite, MD
Shilpa Sridhar, MD
Ann Susan Paul, MBBS
Robert Tuosto, DO
Noor ul ain Alvi, MD
Katrina Villegas, MD
Manuel Villegas Roberson, MD
Francisco Vizcaino, MD
Tyler West, RRT, RRT-ACCS
Rebecca Wolff, DO
Abhishek Yadav, MBBS
Beverly Christine B. Yu, MD
Craig Yugawa, MD
Bugra Zengin, MD Mina Zhang, MD
