Professor of Medicine
University of Colorado
Dr. Burnham is a Professor of Medicine in the Division of Pulmonary Sciences and Critical Care Medicine, Department of Medicine, at the University of Colorado.
Her research focuses on understanding the relationship between alcohol and substance misuse and the development of pulmonary diseases including pneumonia and the acute respiratory distress syndrome. She has been the Principal Investigator for a clinically oriented research resource, known as the Colorado Pulmonary Alcohol Research Collaborative (CoPARC) supporting translational research in the field. Additionally, she serves as an investigator in multi-center clinical trials and observational investigations in ARDS and sepsis.
Dr. Burnham served as the Medical Director for the University of Colorado Hospital Medical Intensive Care Unit from 2006-2021. She is currently the Program Director for the Colorado Clinical and Translational Science Institute’s K12 Program, and a Co-PI for University of Colorado’s T32 supporting multi-disciplinary research training in respiratory disease.
Dr. Burnham is an active member of the American Thoracic Society’s (ATS) Assembly on Critical Care, where she previously chaired the Women in Critical Care interest group. She is currently a Section Editor for Critical Care for the website Uptodate.
Dr. Burnham received biology and chemistry degrees from Texas Christian University, and her medical degree from the University of Texas-Southwestern Medical School. She completed residency training at the University of Texas-Southwestern Medical School, and her pulmonary/critical care fellowship training at Emory University. She joined the faculty at the University of Colorado in 2006.