UA’s Kraft Receives Distinguished Achievement Award

Pima County Medical Society member Monica Kraft, MD, professor and chair of the University of Arizona Department of Medicine, has received the American Thoracic Society’s Distinguished Achievement Award. The award is given to individuals who have made outstanding contributions to fighting respiratory disease through research, education, patient care or advocacy.

“This is not a recognition received in isolation,” Dr. Kraft said. “I have been blessed with amazing mentors and colleagues who have provided guidance and collaboration throughout my career, as well as incredible support from my family. It is both an honor and a privilege to receive this award.”

Dr. Kraft, who also is the UA College of Medicine – Tucson’s Robert and Irene Flinn Endowed Chair of Medicine and deputy director of the UA Health Sciences Asthma and Airway Disease Research Center, served as ATS president in 2012-13. The award was presented May 20 at the 2018 ATS International Conference in San Diego.

At the conference, Dr. Kraft chaired, moderated and participated in multiple panels, sessions and courses. Among those she chaired were a postgraduate course on “Asthma State of the Art 2018,” “Asthma and Allergic Diseases Cooperative Research Centers: Advances in Asthma”—a session sponsored by the NIH’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases—and an abstract poster discussion session on “Mechanisms and Clinical Features of Severe Asthma.”

The ATS honor is one of several Dr. Kraft has received this past year, including being named the American College of Physicians – Arizona Chapter Researcher of the Year, a fellow in Drexel University’s Executive Leadership in Academic Medicine Program, and a fellow in the European Respiratory Society. She also was asked to testify before the U.S. Senate last summer on how lowering air quality standards might impact respiratory and asthma patients.