Dr. Neil Schachter earned a bachelor's degree in mathematics from Columbia University and a degree in medicine from New York University. He served in the U.S. Navy as a lieutenant commander and chief of the Pulmonary Division at St. Albans Naval Hospital. He trained in chest medicine at Yale School of Medicine. After completing his training, he was appointed medical director of the Respiratory Care Department at Yale New Haven Hospital, an associate professor at the Yale School of Medicine.
Dr. Schachter is currently the Maurice Hexter Professor of Pulmonary and Community Medicine and Medical Director of Pulmonary Rehabilitation at Mount Sinai Medical Center. He has established and directs the Mount Sinai Pulmonary Rehabilitation program. Author of five books and over 400 articles and abstracts on pulmonary disease, Dr. Schachter is past president of the American Lung Association of the City of New York, the Connecticut Thoracic Society and the National Association of Medical Directors of Respiratory Care. He currently serves on the board of directors and as the chairman of the Scientific Advisory Committee of the American Lung Association of the Northeast. In 2005 he was an honoree of the American Lung Association of the City of New York at their annual Life and Breath Gala. In 2016 he received the Will Ross Medal Award from the Lung Association.
Dr. Schachter is an advocate for environmental lung issues. He worked with the Southern Poverty Law Center for healthier factory standards and increased workers' compensation for men and women in cotton textile mills. He lobbied for tougher anti-smoking laws in New York City on behalf of the Lung Association and the Coalition for Smoking or Health. He is currently completing a study on the health effects of air pollution on children with asthma in the inner city neighborhoods of New York City.
