Center Member News 2021
Stephanie Lovinsky-Desir, MD, MS has been named the new Director of the Division of Pulmonary Medicine in the Department of Pediatrics.
Dr. Lovinsky-Desir is a nationally recognized leader in pulmonary medicine, with significant contributions to the research of urban pollutants and asthma among children and adolescents. She has been a Columbia faculty member since 2013 and was a fellow in pulmonary medicine at Columbia. Dr. Lovinsky-Desir is a graduate of LaSalle University, New York Medical College and the Social Pediatrics Residency Program at Montefiore. Among many other awards, she has received the young physician-scientist award of the American Society for Clinical Investigation and the Early Career Investigator Award of the Society for Pediatric Research (of which she is an elected member). Dr. Lovinsky-Desir became an Associate P30 Center member in 2018 and recently joined the Center’s Executive Committee in November 2020, replacing Dr. Neil Schluger as the clinical expert on the Committee.
We spoke with Dr. Lovinsky-Desir about her upcoming role, current research, and lessons learned over the past year.
Why pediatric pulmonary medicine? Dr. Lovinsky-Desir shared, “I realized early on in my career that there are lots of environmental and social determinants that significantly influence child health, particularly asthma, that are completely out of the control of the child. So, I felt that it was my duty and obligation, not just as a clinician, but as somebody who is interested in having a broader reach, to figure out how we can address some of these environmental factors.”
In 2018, Dr. Lovinsky-Desir received an NHLBI K01 career development award to study childhood physical activity and polluted environments in NYC, an award that will likely lead to future NIH funding. Delving deeper into her research question, she explained, “When you’re exercising, you breathe deeper, you breathe faster, and you potentially inhale more pollutant particles. So, we’re trying to understand—are children who are more physically active and live in polluted environments having higher internal exposures to pollution? And what does that mean in terms of risk for respiratory outcomes like lung function and airway inflammation?” Relatedly, Dr. Lovinsky-Desir has specifically looked at air pollution in school environments and is currently working to establish relationships with New York City schools.
As the new Division Director, Dr. Lovinsky-Desir is excited to continue investigating these important questions while also supporting the growth of asthma research as a whole. Specifically, she hopes to synthesize her clinical and research interests in building a more cohesive asthma center that ties together the current interdisciplinary work already being done at Columbia.
In speaking about her own path to leadership, Dr. Lovinsky-Desir highlighted the invaluable role mentorship has played, as well as peer relationships. As such, she looks forward to supporting members of her department in “developing and advancing their careers in ways that are meaningful for them” in her new role.
And in addition, Dr. Lovinsky-Desir is also the mother to three children, whom she homeschooled during parts of the pandemic. What are her biggest takeaways from the past year? “This year has taught me so much about myself. I think the biggest thing I learned through this last year is how to roll with the punches and not take myself too seriously, but to think more big picture, more holistically. There are serious things happening in the world and the things that I do on a day-to-day basis have a lot of meaning. Between COVID, increased awareness about police brutality and racism, and Black Lives Matter…so much is happening on a day-to-day basis, so much has happened in the last year that rocked our world. So, I think I very much learned to roll with the punches and not get too stressed out over little things because they're very much is a big picture that we all fall into.”
We congratulate Dr. Lovinsky-Desir on her new position and look forward to her leadership in both the Division as well as the P30 Center.