Patricia Finn
Department and Chair
Department of Medicine
Dr. Patricia Finn, Earl M. Bane Professor, professor of medicine and microbiology/immunology, head of the Department of Medicine, and associate dean for strategic initiatives at the University of Illinois College of Medicine, has been elected president-elect of the Association of Professors of Medicine (APM).
Founded in 1954, the APM is the organization of departments of internal medicine represented by chairs and appointed leaders at medical schools and affiliated teaching hospitals in the United States and Canada. The association represents department chairs of internal medicine at medical schools, vice chairs, chairs at affiliated teaching hospitals, and other departmental leaders who are full professors of medicine. Dr. Finn’s three-year role will begin July 2019 when she will be named president-elect of the association. Following a year as president from July 2020-21, Dr. Finn then will serve one year as past president.
Dr. Finn is a physician scientist focusing on immune mediated pulmonary diseases, including asthma, sarcoidosis, and transplantation, lung injury. She graduated medical school and residency at Albert Einstein College of Medicine and completed a postdoctoral fellowship in immunology at the Harvard School of Public Health. Dr. Finn was a physician and investigator at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School and Kenneth M. Moser professor of medicine and the director of the Division of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine at University of California, San Diego before moving to Chicago in 2012. She has a strong history of NIH and extramural funding. Dr. Finn publishes articles and chapters and has a prolific history as a lecturer at national and international academic meetings.
In 2013-2014, Dr. Finn served as president of the American Thoracic Society, the largest international society for the advancement of pulmonary, critical care, and sleep medicine. Dr. Finn has also served on the editorial boards of several journals, including the American Journal of Respiratory Cell and Molecular Biology, Journal of Immunology, and the Annals of the American Thoracic Society; and has received multiple awards and honors including a Career Investigator Award from the American Lung Association, Lynne M. Reid Scholar in Medicine from Harvard Medical School, and Elizabeth A. Rich Award from the American Thoracic Society. In 2007, she was inducted into the Association of American Physicians, an attestation of her academic achievements and contributions to advancing medical knowledge.
As chair of the Department of Medicine at the University of Illinois College of Medicine, her mission and the mission of the department is to provide excellent care for all, enhance scholarly activities, and train the next generation. Dr. Finn is an enthusiastic member of the APM, having served on the nominating committee (2015-2016) and as a member of the program planning committee (2015-2018). In 2018, she was elected to the APM council, the governing body of the association.
