Michelle Ng Gong, M.D., M.S., has been appointed chair of the Montefiore Einstein Department of Medicine. Dr. Gong, who was selected after a national search, has served as interim chair since May 2025.

Michelle N. Gong, MD, MS

Clinical Profile Faculty Profile

“It’s a privilege to lead this department and its outstanding community of clinicians, researchers, educators, trainees, and staff,” said Dr. Gong. “I look forward to advancing our exceptional clinical care, research discoveries, and tremendous training programs to improve health in our community.”

Dr. Gong joined Einstein in 2009 as the director of research in the department’s critical care division. In 2019, after a national search, she was appointed chief of the division of critical care medicine. A year later, she also assumed leadership of the department’s division of pulmonary medicine. During her tenure, Dr. Gong built a robust clinical research operation, securing $30 million from federal agencies and foundations, and increasing the number of peer-reviewed publications by faculty fourfold.

As an NIH-funded principal investigator, Dr. Gong is an internationally recognized investigator in acute respiratory failure, sepsis, and the prevention of acute critical illness. She has led multiple high-impact, federally funded research trials, resulting in several publications in high-impact journals, including The New England Journal of Medicine and JAMA. She has been recognized for her leadership with the Director’s Award from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute.

Dr. Gong also strengthened her divisions’ clinical services, including expanding the neuroscience ICU to support Montefiore Einstein’s accreditation as a comprehensive stroke center and launching successful quality improvement initiatives. She grew the interventional pulmonary program by introducing innovations such as the Robotic Bronchoscopy Program and collaborated with colleagues to dramatically increase lung cancer screening and diagnosis. The Museum of the City of New York presented her with the Gotham Icon Award for her role in leading the critical care response at Montefiore Einstein during the COVID-19 pandemic.

In addition to her roles at Montefiore Einstein, Dr. Gong has held senior positions in national and international networks. Most recently, she was elected president of the American Thoracic Society, the world’s leading medical society for the advancement of respiratory health, representing over 30,000 members across 133 countries.

Dr. Gong holds a B.S.E. in bioengineering from the University of Pennsylvania and a medical degree from Yale University School of Medicine. Following her residency in internal medicine at Beth Israel Hospital in Boston, she completed a clinical and research fellowship in Harvard’s combined program in pulmonary and critical care medicine. While an instructor at Harvard Medical School, she earned her M.S. degree in epidemiology from the Harvard School of Public Health. She joined the faculty at Mount Sinai School of Medicine in 2004 before joining Montefiore Einstein in 2009.