Dr. Russell Buhr grew up in the rural Willamette Valley of Oregon. He graduated with honors from Azusa Pacific University as a first-generation university student. He earned his MD at University of Southern California. He completed internal medicine residency and was Chief Resident at Georgetown, then pulmonary and critical care medicine fellowship at UCLA, where he concomitantly earned a PhD in Health Policy and Management. His research focuses on improving care delivery and health care policy for patients with airway disease in multiple contexts including among Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries and within the Veterans Health Administration. He is an Assistant Professor of Medicine & Health Policy and Management at UCLA, and a Fellow of the American Thoracic Society, and the American College of Physicians.