Plenary Session

Dr. Colson is the past President of the American Association for Thoracic Surgery, having served in many roles since becoming a member in 2003, including as Co-chair of the 2015 Annual Meeting and Chair of the Advisory Council for the AATS Foundation.   She is the Chief for the Division of Thoracic Surgery at Massachusetts General Hospital and Hermes C. Grillo Professor of Surgery at Harvard Medical School. In addition to her cardiothoracic surgical training at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, her academic training includes a B.S. in Biomedical Engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, an M.D. from Mayo Medical School, and a Ph.D. and general surgery residency at University of Pittsburgh.  Career awards include: the inaugural Michael A. Bell Family Chair in Healthcare Innovation, the George H.A. Clowes, Jr. Research Career Development Award from the American College of Surgeons, the Edward M. Kennedy Award for Health Care Innovation, and serving as the Exam Chair of the American Board of Thoracic Surgery from 2017-2021.  She is the current PI/co-PI on five NIH R01/U01 Grants and has recently been elected to the National Academy of Medicine.

She is co-inventor on three awarded patents and has received over twenty grants including the AATS Alton Ochsner Research Scholarship and eight "R" or "U" grants from the National Institutes of Health and National Cancer Institute. Dr. Colson's research focuses on the development of unique mechanisms of polymer and nanoparticle drug delivery aimed at preventing cancer recurrence, and the investigation of novel methods to identify hidden tumor that has spread to nearby lymph nodes. She has over 150 peer reviewed publications highlighting her previous work in transplantation and her most recent investigations in sentinel lymph nodes in lung cancer and polymer-mediated drug delivery. She has formally mentored well over 30 students, residents and junior faculty since becoming an attending thoracic surgeon. 

Rosemary Kelly, MD currently serves as the Secretary of the AATS.  She is the C. Walton and Richard C. Lillehei Professor and Executive Vice-Chair of Cardiovascular and Thoracic Surgery at the University of Minnesota.  She completed medical school at the University of Chicago, Pritzker School of Medicine and General surgery training at Los Angeles County/University of Southern California Medical Center. She completed Thoracic surgery residency at the University of Minnesota and joined the faculty of the Cardiothoracic Surgery Division.  She is Program Director of the Thoracic Surgery Residency and Vice-Chair of Clinical Faculty Development for the Department of Surgery at the University of Minnesota. In addition, she is Chief of the Heart and Vascular Service Line for M Health Fairview.

Dr. Kelly is actively involved in basic and translational research. Her basic science work uses in vitro and in vivo models of chronically ischemic myocardium to study molecular and physiologic recovery following revascularization as well as in response to cell based reparative therapies. Clinically, she has been involved in numerous trials in coronary revascularization and lung transplantation. She participated in the CARP, RAVE, REGROUP, and VALOR trials, serving on the Executive Committees for RAVE and REGROUP. She also participated in ex vivo lung organ preservation INSPIRE and EXPAND trials. For the AATS, Dr. Kelly has served on the Membership Committee for 6 years and as Chair for two years. She is a current member of the AATS Foundation Board, the Leadership Academy Board, Publications Committee and Cardiothoracic Residents Committee. In these roles, she strives to improve educational experiences and professional opportunities for the next generations of cardiothoracic surgeons.