Director, Rheumatic Lung Disease Program
Cleveland Clinic
Shaker Heights, Ohio, United States
Kristin Highland completed her undergraduate work and medical school at Indiana University. She then moved to Charleston, South Carolina, where she completed her residency in internal medicine, fellowships in pulmonary/critical care and rheumatology, and a Master of Science in Clinical Research at the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC). Her clinical and research interests have focused on the pulmonary manifestations of rheumatic lung disease with an emphasis on ILD and pulmonary hypertension, particularly in the setting of scleroderma.
After training, Dr Highland joined the faculty of MUSC where she was director of a busy rheumatic lung disease clinic and pulmonary hypertension program. In 2013, she moved to Cleveland, Ohio, and joined the faculty of the Cleveland Clinic where she is the Vice Chair for Research of the Integrated Hospital Care Institute. She continues to focus on rheumatic lung disease as an active member of the Interstitial Lung Disease and Pulmonary Hypertension programs. She served as one of the global coordinating investigators for the SENSCIS trial, a randomized, placebo-controlled clinical trial of nintedanib in patients with systemic sclerosis-associated interstitial lung disease and is the lead investigator of EFZOCONNECT, which is investigating efzofitimod for SSc-ILD. .
Monday, October 27, 2025
8:30 AM – 9:00 AM Central Time
Disclosure(s): Atyr Pharmaceuticals: Consultant (Ongoing), Grant/Research Support (Ongoing); Boehringer-Ingelheim: Consultant (Ongoing), Grant/Research Support (Ongoing), Speaker/Honoraria (includes speakers bureau, symposia, and expert witness) (Ongoing); Forsee Pharmaceuticals: Consultant (Terminated, January 2, 2025); Gossamer Bio: Consultant (Ongoing), Grant/Research Support (Ongoing); Johnson & Johnson: Consultant (Ongoing), Grant/Research Support (Ongoing), Speaker/Honoraria (includes speakers bureau, symposia, and expert witness) (Ongoing); Merck/MSD: Consultant (Ongoing), Grant/Research Support (Ongoing), Speaker/Honoraria (includes speakers bureau, symposia, and expert witness) (Ongoing); Mitusbishi: Consultant (Terminated, February 3, 2025); United Therapeutics: Consultant (Ongoing), Grant/Research Support (Ongoing), Speaker/Honoraria (includes speakers bureau, symposia, and expert witness) (Ongoing)
