CF researcher wins award from American Pediatric Society for work
APS names pediatrician as 2025 John Howland Award recipient
Bonnie Ramsey, MD, a pediatrician and researcher who dedicated her career to advancing care for cystic fibrosis (CF), has been selected as the recipient of the 2025 American Pediatric Society (APS) John Howland Award.
The APS has been giving this award since the early 1950s to recognize healthcare workers who have made substantial contributions to improving the health of children, and to advancing the profession of pediatrics.
“The APS is thrilled to name Dr. Ramsey as the 2025 John Howland Award recipient,” Clifford W. Bogue, MD, the American Pediatric Society president, said in a press release from the University of Washington School of Medicine, where Ramsey’s career was based.
The UW Medicine release noted that Ramsey’s research “largely focused on the development of new therapeutics that have transformed the care of patients with CF.”
Further, her work was pivotal in “establishing outcome measures and developing study designs that are now the standards used in the field,” according to the university.
American Pediatric Society cites doctor’s ‘extraordinary’ impact on CF care
CF is a genetic disorder characterized by abnormally thick and sticky mucus, which builds up in the lungs and other organs to drive disease symptoms.
For most of human history, people with CF generally didn’t survive beyond childhood. Even as recently as the 1990s, individuals born with the disease weren’t expected to live beyond their early 30s. However, the last few decades have seen treatments for cystic fibrosis progress by leaps and bounds, and most CF patients born today are expected to live into their 60s or beyond.
Ramsey, now a professor emerita of pediatrics at the UW School of Medicine, spent much of her career working to help advance CF treatment. She is the former director of the Center for Clinical and Translational Research at Seattle Children’s Research Institute, and she currently serves as a senior adviser for the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation‘s Therapeutics Development Network, a group that aims to accelerate the development of new therapies for CF.
In addition to working to create novel treatments for the genetic disease, Ramsey helped design studies for CF. She created new ways to do research — and to help determine the best outcome measures that could be used to determine whether or not experimental treatments for CF are working as intended. Her work helped advance the field of CF care to where it is today.
Dr. Ramsey’s impact on the field of pediatric pulmonology in general, and on the care of patients with CF in particular, is extraordinary. … Dr. Ramsey is a leader, researcher, clinician, advocate and mentor whose life has made an indelible mark on the field of pediatrics.
Beyond her work with patients and in CF research, Ramsey spent much of her career serving as a mentor to help up and coming clinicians and investigators.
“Dr. Ramsey’s impact on the field of pediatric pulmonology in general, and on the care of patients with CF in particular, is extraordinary,” Bogue said. “Dr. Ramsey is a leader, researcher, clinician, advocate and mentor whose life has made an indelible mark on the field of pediatrics.”
Ramsey will officially receive the PSA award at the Pediatric Academic Societies 2025 Meeting, taking place next April in Honolulu.
She is also a past recipient of the Warren Alpert Foundation Prize for her work in developing disease-modifying treatments for CF.
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