Alison Morris, MD, MS

Highly regarded as a distinguished physician-scientist and mentor, Dr. Morris serves as the medical school’s inaugural senior associate dean for physician-scientist development, as well as the associate director of the Rutgers University Microbiome Program, and as a faculty member of the Rutgers Center for Advanced Biotechnology and Medicine (CABM).

Nationally recognized in her field, Dr. Morris is renowned for her leadership in advancing pulmonary medicine and clinical research.

She most recently served as chief of the Division of Pulmonary, Allergy, Critical Care, and Sleep Medicine (PACCSM) at the University of Pittsburgh. She also served as the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) Chair of Translational Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine and the university’s director of the HIV Lung Research Center and the Center for Medicine and the Microbiome.

She has a wealth of experience in clinical academic medicine, with more than 200 articles in peer-reviewed journals to her credit, along with books, book chapters, and other publications. Dr. Morris' research has consistently been supported by NIH funding, and she has led or participated in several landmark multi-center studies, including the Lung HIV Study, the Lung HIV Microbiome Project, and the Genomic Research in Alpha-1 Antitrypsin and Sarcoidosis (GRADS) study, as well as the pulmonary working group of the Multicenter AIDS Cohort/Women's Interagency HIV Study (MACS/WIHS) Combined Cohort Study. Her groundbreaking work has reshaped our understanding of the lung microbiome, including key discoveries such as the existence of a healthy lung microbiome, the relationship between the oral microbiome and lung disease in HIV, and the critical role of the microbiome in a range of pulmonary conditions.

In addition to her research, Dr. Morris is deeply committed to mentoring the next generation of physician-scientists. She has served on numerous thesis advisory committees and co-directed the residency LEAD program. Her trainees have achieved significant success, earning prestigious grants and awards, including F32s, K23s, NIH Loan Repayment grants, and Parker B. Francis Fellowships. Dr. Morris also directed the PACCSM T32 training program, further supporting the development of young scholars in the field.

An alumna of Harvard College (magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa) and Duke University School of Medicine, where she was a member of Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Medical Society, Dr. Morris completed residency training in internal medicine at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), followed by fellowship training in pulmonary and critical care medicine, and pulmonary research, at UCSF. She earned a master of science degree in clinical research at the University of Pittsburgh and a data analytics certificate from Carnegie Mellon University.

Dr. Morris is an elected member of the American Society of Clinical Investigation and the American Association of Physicians. She also has served on study sections for the National Institutes of Health, the American Lung Association, and the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, and she is deputy editor for JCI Insight. Her numerous awards include an Outstanding Mentor Award from the University of Pittsburgh, a Mid-Career Achievement Award from the American Thoracic Society, Microbiology, Tuberculosis, and Pulmonary Infections Assembly, a Distinguished Alumnus Award from the Institute for Clinical Research Education, and recognition for scientific accomplishments from the American Thoracic Society.

With a strong dedication to advancing scientific discovery and clinical care, Dr. Morris continues to have a profound impact on the field of pulmonary medicine, the mentorship of future leaders, and the broader scientific community.