Karen Collishaw, MPP

ATS has a new executive director. Karen Collishaw, MPP, a highly experienced medical association leader, joined the ATS at the end of April after a national search. She succeeds Stephen C. Crane, PhD, MPH, who has served as ATS executive director since 2007 and is retiring.

“We believe that Karen is the ideal person to continue to advance the mission and vision of the ATS,” says ATS President Marc Moss, MD. “We’re glad she joined the ATS family, and we are looking forward to working with her.”

Ms. Collishaw said that she is excited that one of her first responsibilities as the Society’s new executive director is to attend the ATS International Conference. “I know how central this conference is to the respiratory community and how clinicians and researchers from all over the world look forward to sharing information and discussing ways to advance pulmonary, critical care, and sleep medicine,” she says. “The conference is really at the heart of the ATS’s efforts to help the world breathe.”

Before joining the ATS, Ms. Collishaw assisted the American Society for Microbiology strategically plan its policy and advocacy activities. Prior to this interim position, she was the president and CEO of the Community Health Accreditation Partner.

Before leading CHAP, Ms. Collishaw served in executive leadership positions with two professional medical societies—the American Academy of Dermatology and the American College of Cardiology. At AAD, she established the first strategic plan for quality and patient safety.

At ACC, Ms. Collishaw was responsible for significant growth in the college’s policy and advocacy efforts. She also managed the ACC’s annual meeting. During her tenure at ACC, the organization was recognized as one of nine highly performing associations in the book Seven Measures of Success, What Remarkable Associations Do That Others Don’t.

Ms. Collishaw earned her Master of Public Policy degree from Georgetown University and a Bachelor of Arts in Government from Cornell University. She is a certified association executive and past president of the American Association of Medical Society Executives.

Both Ms. Collishaw and Dr. Crane are at ATS 2018.