Clemente Britto-Leon, MD, has been selected as the new director of the Pulmonary and Critical Care (PCCM) Fellowship in Yale School of Medicine’s Section of Pulmonary, Critical Care, and Sleep Medicine (Yale PCCSM). He will assume the role on July 1, 2025.
Britto-Leon will lead what is widely known as one of the country’s top pulmonary fellowship training programs at a time of growth and innovation, both in the section and the fellowship program.
“I am a graduate of this fellowship, so it is very personal to me to help it be the best it can be,” said Britto-Leon, Yale PCCSM associate professor of medicine. “It is a point of pride for me to help our fellowship evolve.”
Britto-Leon received his medical degree from the Luis Razetti School of Medicine at the Universidad Central de Venezuela. He completed his internal medicine residency training at Albert Einstein Medical Center, in Philadelphia. After finishing his Yale PCCM fellowship, he pursued a fellowship in adult cystic fibrosis, sponsored by the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, through which he studied the role of airway antimicrobial proteins in the pathogenesis of inflammatory airway diseases. Britto-Leon became a Yale faculty member in 2013. Now an associate professor of medicine in Yale PCCSM and the associate director of the Yale Adult Cystic Fibrosis Program, Britto-Leon investigates the sex-specific transcriptional programming of airway immune cells in airway diseases such as asthma and cystic fibrosis.
Britto-Leon’s experience will serve him well in this new role, according to his Yale colleagues.
Shyoko Honiden, MD, Yale PCCSM associate professor of medicine and director of the Medical Intensive Care Unit, who served as the PCCM Fellowship director from 2018-2021 and is currently interim director, said that Britto-Leon considers the next evolution of the PCCM Fellowship with a unique perspective. “Having been a clinical and research PCCM fellow at Yale, he understands the strengths and opportunities of our program through his lived experience,” she said. “He has also been a junior and mid-career faculty member in our section, which affords him additional insights around faculty-fellow interactions and mentorship.”
Above all, Britto-Leon brings a strong sense of community, the magic ingredient to having a successful fellowship program, Honiden said. “He brings warmth, humor, passion, and enthusiasm to the fellowship and will no doubt enrich and strengthen the bonds in our community of learners,” she said.
Britto-Leon has been working closely with Honiden and associate program director Brian Clark, MD, to ensure a smooth transition in July. This overlap has allowed him to start enhancing recruitment and onboarding processes, create novel procedural training opportunities, further develop a state-of-the-art curriculum, and solicit feedback on the program from current fellows. He has also begun implementing a new leadership structure with three associate fellowship directors: Shannon Kay, MD, who will oversee inpatient affairs; Jean Paul Higuero-Sevilla, MD, who will lead MICU and procedural training; and Ashley Losier, MD, who will direct outpatient affairs. In addition, Britto-Leon plans to optimize communication among fellows, faculty, and program leadership through online fellowship tools and newsletters.
Naftali Kaminski, MD, Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals, Inc. Professor of Medicine and section chief of Yale PCCSM, says that Britto-Leon’s role as the new director reflects the program's success. “A most rewarding aspect of being a chief is seeing talented fellows develop into successful clinicians, researchers, educators, and eventually leaders,” he said. “With Dr. Britto the joy is double, as he embodies the success of this process and will be a key leader in ensuring its continued success.”
From former PCCM fellow to soon-to-be director, Britto-Leon said he feels humbled to step in the shoes of previous directors Honiden and Margaret Pisani, MD, and is excited to bring his vision to the role. “I want the fellowship to be a home to faculty and fellows,” he said. “And in return for their amazing contributions to the program, I want them to have the most rewarding and motivating experience of their professional lives.”