Dr. Neil Schluger (ex-officio) is Dean of the School of Medicine at New York Medical College. He has focused on tuberculosis and global aspects of lung health, with a strong public health orientation. His work in TB has centered on epidemiology, novel diagnostics, and new treatments for latent and active tuberculosis. His work on global lung health focuses on the effect of air quality on health, the need to build a physician workforce in low- and middle-income countries, and raising awareness of the global drivers of lung disease including tobacco and air pollution. He has been a principal investigator in the Tuberculosis Trials Consortium, an international collaboration sponsored by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for 25 years and was the Chairman of the consortium from 2000 to 2016.
Dr. Schluger authored the Acute Respiratory Infections Atlas published by World Lung Foundation (now Vital Strategies). He is also a contributor to The Tobacco Atlas, the definitive work describing the extent and consequences of the global epidemic of tobacco use. Dr. Schluger is a founder and director of the East Africa Training Initiative in Pulmonary Medicine, based at Tikur Anbessa (Black Lion) Specialized Hospital in Addis Ababa and the Addis Ababa University School of Medicine, which has trained 10 Vital Strategies Board Of Trustees 2024 Biographies the first generation of pulmonary physicians in Ethiopia and established an academically oriented pulmonary division at Ethiopia’s leading public hospital.
He also serves as Senior Advisor for Science at Vital Strategies and has been a faculty member for the ATS MECOR (Methods in Epidemiologic, Clinical, and Operations Research) program in India.
Dr. Schluger was elected to the American Society of Clinical Investigation in 2003. He is the author of over 180 articles, chapters and books, and his work has been published in The New England Journal of Medicine, JAMA, The Lancet, Lancet Respiratory Medicine, and the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, among other leading journals. He is an Associate Editor of The American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Medicine and is a past president of the American Lung Association of New York.
Before coming to New York Medical College and Westchester Medical Center, Dr. Schluger was Professor of Medicine, Epidemiology and Environmental Health Sciences at Columbia University and Chief of the Division of Pulmonary, Allergy and Critical Care Medicine at Columbia University Irving Medical Center. At the Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons at Columbia, he was also co-director of the Programs in Education in Global and Population Health.