Tisha Wang named chair of the Department of Medicine
Dr. Tisha Wang will become the seventh chair of the University of Washington Department of Medicine on June 1, 2026.
She is currently professor of clinical medicine in the Division of Pulmonary, Critical Care, and Sleep Medicine and senior executive clinical vice chair in the Department of Medicine at the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA).
Dr. Wang received her medical degree in 2002 with highest honors from the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston and completed her residency and pulmonary/critical care medicine fellowship at UCLA.
Since joining the faculty at UCLA in 2008, she has held numerous leadership positions, including medical director of the Liver Transplant ICU and co-director of the COVID Disaster and Pandemic Response Team. As clinical chief of the Division of Pulmonary, Critical Care, Sleep Medicine, Allergy and Immunology, and vice chair of inpatient services for the UCLA Department of Medicine, she has extensive experience overseeing both inpatient and outpatient operations within UCLA Health.
In her current role as senior executive clinical vice chair, she leads the Department of Medicine’s expansive clinical practice, managing staffing, improving productivity and quality metrics, and driving operational efficiency and strategic growth across the enterprise.
As an intensivist, pulmonologist, and sleep medicine physician, she has developed clinical areas of expertise within rare lung disease, pulmonary complications of liver disease, pulmonary embolism care, and medical and surgical critical care. One of these rare lung diseases, pulmonary alveolar proteinosis (PAP) became the subject of her research.
She is an internationally recognized expert in PAP and has served as principal investigator on numerous NIH- and industry-funded clinical and translational trials. Her research team and collaborators are nearing a breakthrough with what could become the first FDA-approved therapy for PAP. In addition, she has held leadership roles as vice president and clinical director of the PAP Foundation, the leading patient advocacy organization for this condition.
She has an exceptional record of teaching and mentoring students, residents, and fellows, having served as program director of the UCLA Pulmonary and Critical Care Fellowship for >10 years and nationally as chair of the American Thoracic Society (ATS) Education Committee. She currently leads the ATS Steering Committee on Advancement and Learning and is past-president of the California Thoracic Society (CTS).
Her dedication to education has earned numerous honors, including the Serge and Yvette Dadone Clinical Teaching Award (2019), the UCLA Sherman Mellinkoff Faculty Award (2020) for excellence in doctor-patient relationships and medical education (considered the highest honor of the UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine), and recognition as Woman of the Year by the CTS (2022). Most recently, she received the ATS Outstanding Educator Award in 2024.
Dr. Wang is a fierce champion for women in medicine and physician well-being. She spearheaded the establishment of a Department of Medicine Wellness Office at UCLA to combat widespread faculty burnout and promote overall well-being. The Wellness Office implemented several initiatives, including wellness days, in-basket support, compensated lactation blocks, access to professional coaching, and divisional funds for social events. These efforts resulted in a ~20% reduction in burnout rates within the Department of Medicine over a three-year period, while also narrowing the gender gap in burnout.
In 2024, she completed the highly regarded Hedwig van Ameringen Executive Leadership in Academic Medicine® (ELAM) program, where she worked on a project to determine the root causes of burnout in mid-career women faculty on both the clinical and research sides. One of her proudest accomplishments at UCLA was to greatly improve the diversity of the pulmonary/critical care division with respect to underrepresented minorities and gender distribution.
In addition to her role as UW Department of Medicine chair, she will also join the UW Medicine executive leadership team as Associate Vice President of Clinical Transformation. Dr. Wang views this role as a way to positively influence the system in a way that makes it easier for the Department of Medicine to successfully expand its clinical footprint.
“I’m thrilled to join this incredible community as your next chair,” she says. “Even more importantly, I cannot wait to meet everyone and learn about the work that drives and inspires you—whether in clinical care, research, education, or community engagement. My commitment is to listen, learn, and collaborate with you to develop shared goals that will make our department an even better place to work and enable us to deliver exceptional care to the communities we serve across the Pacific Northwest and beyond. I’m excited to get started and look forward to all we will accomplish together!”