When it comes to lung disease awareness and education in Indiana, Patricia Silveyra, Ph.D. is leading the way.
Chair of the Department of Environmental and Occupational Health (EOH), Silveyra was invited to serve on the Leadership Board of the American Lung Association (ALA) in Indiana, an organization she has been actively involved in on the national level for 15 years. Silveyra was nominated by local registered respiratory therapist Michael Meska, and her term started August 1 of this year.
"When I first moved to Indiana, I connected with Michael due to his work in respiratory health, and then he joined the ALA board," says Silveyra. "This is formally my second year being involved with the Indiana chapter of this organization."
For Silveyra, ALA has been a part of her life as far back as she can remember. As a child growing up in Argentina, Silveyra recalls seeing the organization’s iconic double cross symbol with her mother at the clinic where she received her tuberculosis (TB) vaccine. While the ALA does not formally operate outside of the United States, it does advocate and support global TB control efforts through research, awareness, and prevention.
"It is an organization that I trust—I really respect all the work and advocacy it does," says Silveyra, who became actively involved in ALA about 10 years ago during her time as a professor at Penn State College of Medicine in Hershey, PA.
As a board member, Silveyra’s main responsibilities are to coordinate events that raise awareness about lung disease and connect leadership with experts in the field. For instance, Silveyra is in charge of assisting with promotion of the “Fight for Air Climb” to be held in Indianapolis on March 7, 2026, where participants climb the 1,054 steps of the Salesforce Tower from the ground to the top floor.
"After 10 or 20 flights, you start to feel a shortness of breath and maybe a pain in your back, which is very similar to what people with chronic lung disease experience every day," says Silveyra, who participated in the event last year. "It really makes you thankful for your healthy lungs. I hope that SPH-B can have a strong presence there."
Education and outreach are paramount, according to Silveyra, as lung cancer is the third most common cancer in the United States—and the most lethal worldwide.
"There is no early or fast treatment like for breast or prostate cancer and it can be very hard to catch it in time for effective treatment, so the mortality rate is very high," says Silveyra. "To qualify for screening, a person currently has to be more than 50 years old and have a history of smoking or lung disease, but there is a lot of advocacy to expand that requirement because we are seeing more and more lung cancer in women who are younger and non-smokers, meaning that something else in the environment is promoting this disease."
For instance, Silveyra says certain counties in the state have very high rates of radon; a radioactive, colorless, odorless and tasteless gas in households and workplaces that, if undetected and exposed to for long periods of time, can greatly increase the risk of lung cancer.
"Many workplaces nationwide don’t have healthy environments, such as old paint and asbestos, an 4 out of 10 in the U.S. people live in counties with unhealthy air above the recommended levels, which increases lung and cardiovascular disease between five to 15 percent," says Silveyra. "You put all that together and you have many people in an environment that is making them more likely to develop cancer aside from their lifestyle choices."
Silveyra also serves as Cancer Impact Advisory Council Faculty Liaison of the at the IU Bren Simon Comprehensive Cancer Center Office of Community Outreach and Engagement, leading a booth at this year’s Fiesta Del Otoño in Bloomington promoting cancer prevention strategies in both English and Spanish. The education outreach that ALA advocates for, according to Silveyra, is crucial for people to know they are at risk and lobby leadership to create safer spaces for them to live and work.
"If we don’t speak up, no one will listen," says Silveyra. "It carries a different weight when you are affiliated with something that is much bigger than your job."
For more inspiring stories about SPH-B students, faculty, and staff making a difference, visit go.iu.edu/48bx.