Cathleen Biga, MSN, FACC
ACC President

Cathleen Biga, MSN, FACC, is President and CEO of Cardiovascular Management of Illinois, a cardiology physician practice management company. She has worked with more than 100 cardiovascular providers in the Chicago area and partners in their cardiovascular service lines at more than 14 acute care hospitals. She earned her Bachelor of Science degree in nursing from the Mayo/College of St. Teresa and Master of Science in Nursing from Northern Illinois University School of Nursing. Biga has more than 40 years of experience as a registered nurse, service line director, hospital vice president and CEO. She has 30 years of experience in physician practice management.

She has been active nationally in consulting in strategic planning, operational efficiencies, integrated financial and quality initiatives, and growth and development of the cardiovascular service lines. She is focused on facilitating the integration of strategic, financial and quality perspectives between cardiovascular service lines at practices and hospitals. In addition, she consults and lectures on numerous contemporary cardiovascular topics.

Biga is a member of ACC's Board of Trustees, a past member of the American Association of Cardiovascular and Pulmonary Rehabilitation Board and was the Inaugural Chair of MedAxiom's Board of Managers.

Christopher M. Kramer, MD, FACC
Vice President

Christopher M. Kramer, MD, FACC, received his medical degree from the University of California, San Francisco School of Medicine, and completed his residency and chief residency in internal medicine, and fellowship in cardiology at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. His first faculty appointment was at Allegheny General Hospital, then MCP/Hahnemann University School of Medicine, where he directed the cardiology fellowship.

He then moved to the University of Virginia School of Medicine, where in 2019 he was named the George A. Beller/Lantheus Medical Imaging Distinguished Professor of Cardiovascular Medicine, Chief of the Division of Cardiovascular Medicine, and Medical Director of the Heart and Vascular Science Line. Kramer's principal research interest has been the application of cardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR) to the cardiovascular system in studies from mice to large animals to humans.

Prior to serving as ACC Vice President, Kramer served as President of the Society for Cardiovascular Magnetic Resonance (SCMR), ACC Treasurer, Chair of ACC's Imaging Council, and Chair of the Clinical and Integrative Cardiovascular Sciences NIH study section. Kramer is an associate editor at JACC and previously was Executive Editor of JACC: Cardiovascular Imaging. He currently serves on the editorial boards of Circulation, Circulation: Cardiovascular Imaging and Vascular Medicine. Kramer is also a member of the American Society for Clinical Investigation, Association of University Cardiologists and American Association of Physicians. He received the Gold Medal from the Society for Cardiovascular Magnetic Resonance in 2015 and was named a Distinguished Mentor by the ACC in 2021.

B. Hadley Wilson, MD, MACC
Immediate-Past President

B. Hadley Wilson, MD, MACC, is an interventional cardiologist and Executive Vice Chair at Sanger Heart and Vascular Institute in North Carolina, where he previously served as Chief of Cardiology for more than 13 years. He has published more than 75 articles with interests spanning STEMI systems of care, stent technologies and devices for coronary intervention, left main stenting, chronic total occlusions, anticoagulation and antiplatelet therapies, structural and valvular heart disease, appropriate public reporting of PCI outcomes and quality improvement projects for systems of care, and clinician well-being.

Wilson graduated with honors from Davidson College and subsequently Duke University School of Medicine. He then trained in internal medicine at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, where he served as chief resident before completing his cardiology fellowship under Gottlieb Friesinger, MD, FACC. Since 2006, he has been a clinical professor of medicine at the University of North Carolina School of Medicine, as well as the chief liaison for cardiovascular training between UNC's hospital campuses in Charlotte and Chapel Hill. Wilson served as Codirector of the annual Advanced Cardiovascular Interventions course in Hilton Head, SC, from 1992-2007 and as the chief interventional cardiologist for the ACC North Carolina Chapter STEMI/RACE program to develop a statewide system of care from 2005-2015. From 2011-2020, he was the chair of the ACC/AHA National STEMI Accelerator I and II programs.

In the past, Wilson served as senior adviser to the steering committee for the ACC Global Heart Attack Treatment Initiative, Governor for ACC's North Carolina Chapter, as well as Chair of the Board of Governors and Secretary of the Board of Trustees. He also has held positions on the Membership Committee and the NCDR Management Board.

Akshay K. Khandelwal, MD, MBA, FACC
ACC Treasurer
2024-2027

Akshay K. Khandelwal, MD, MBA, FACC, is the System Chair for the Department of Cardiovascular Medicine, Allegheny Health Network. He provides strategic and operational oversight for about 90 cardiologists, 60 advanced practice providers and 23 fellows-in-training in an 11-hospital system, embracing a shared-risk model of care.

He obtained his medical degree from Bangalore University in India, and completed residency, a chief residency, a cardiology fellowship, and an interventional cardiology fellowship at Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit, MI. He completed a master's degree in business administration at the University of Tennessee. Prior to leaving Henry Ford Hospital, he worked as the Associate Medical Director for the Heart and Vascular Service Line; served as a member of the Board of Directors for Mosaic ACO; and chaired the State of Michigan's STEMI Systems of Care Task Force – which resulted in funded legalization to organize STEMI care throughout the state. He is a clinician-educator with an interest in complex percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI), STEMI systems of care and critical care cardiology. He has nearly 50 publications in cardiogenic shock, acute coronary syndromes and PCI.

Khandelwal has served various roles at the ACC, including as Chair of the Board of Governors; Secretary of the Board of Trustees; President and Governor, Michigan Chapter; member, Annual Scientific Session Program Committee; Chair, Digital Transformation Task Force; member, Health Equity Task Force; Chair, Investment Subcommittee; and member, Finance Committee. He currently serves as Chair of the Finance Committee, and Treasurer for the ACC.

Himabindu (Hima) Vidula, MD, MS, FACC
Board of Governors Chair

Himabindu (Hima) Vidula, MD, MS, FACC, is associate professor of medicine and Medical Director of Mechanical Circulatory Support (MCS) at the University of Pennsylvania, as well as Medical Lead for MCS across Penn Medicine. Vidula's research interests are related to telehealth and remote monitoring in left ventricular assist device (LVAD) recipients. Her NIH R01 grants fund multicenter studies of blood pressure management and home-based exercise using wearables in LVAD recipients.

She received her medical degree from Northwestern University in Illinois and completed her residency, cardiovascular disease fellowship and advanced heart failure fellowship at Northwestern University.

Vidula was previously Medical Director of Heart Transplantation, founder and co-director of the Comprehensive Sarcoidosis and Amyloidosis Programs, and Program Director of the Advanced Heart Failure and Transplant Cardiology Fellowship at the University of Rochester in New York.

She has also been the Upstate Governor of ACC's New York State Chapter and a member of the ACC Board of Governors Steering Committee.

David E. Winchester, MD, MS, FACC
Board of Governors Chair-Elect

David E. Winchester, MD, MS, FACC, is a Professor of Medicine and Radiology at the University of Florida College of Medicine. He is a staff cardiologist at the Malcom Randall VA Medical Center and Senior Medical Adviser for the VA Office of Integrated Veterans Care.

After attending medical school at the University of South Florida, he completed his internal medicine residency at the University of Virginia and cardiology fellowship at the University of Florida.

His other interests include quality improvement, health services research, noninvasive cardiac imaging and appropriateness of care.

Lee R. Goldberg, MD, MPH, FACC
Trustee

Lee R. Goldberg, MD, MPH, FACC is currently Professor of Medicine at the Perelman School of Medicine and serves as Chief of the Advanced Heart Failure and Transplant Section in the Division of Cardiovascular Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania. Additionally, he is Vice Chair of Medicine for Informatics is responsible for the implementation and optimization of the electronic medical record, coordinating quality and operational data across the Department of Medicine as well as spearheading clinician wellness initiatives.

Goldberg earned his medical degree cum laude from Boston University School of Medicine. He completed an internal medicine residency at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania followed by fellowships in cardiovascular disease, and advanced heart failure and transplantation at Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School. He received his Master of Public Health Degree concentrating in Clinical Effectiveness from the Harvard University School of Public Health.

Goldberg's research has focused on heart failure disease management, remote monitoring of heart failure patients, the interplay between sleep and cardiovascular disease, telemedicine innovations as well leveraging large data to improve patient outcomes and clinician effectiveness. He was the Principal Investigator of an AHRQ sponsored RO1 grant evaluating the impact of different technology models on heart failure disease management and a Co-PI of an NIH sponsored RO1 grant studying behavioral economics as part of heart failure remote monitoring.

He has served in several roles within the ACC, including past Chair of the Member Section Steering Committee and past Chair of the Heart Failure and Cardiac Transplant Leadership Council. He is a past member of the Health Information Technology Task Force, Digital Steering Committee, Cardiovascular Management Council, HeartPAC Executive Committee and Lifelong Learning Committee. He currently is serving on the Audit and Compliance Committee, Board of Trustees Task Force on Clinician Well-Being and is deputy editor for the ACC Collaborative Maintenance Pathway for Advanced Heart Failure Evaluative Question Writing Committee.

Jeffrey Kuvin, MD, FACC
Trustee

Jeffrey Kuvin, MD, FACC, is the Lorinda and Vincent de Roulet Professor of Medicine and Chair of Cardiology at the Donald and Barbara Zucker School of Medicine at Hofstra/Northwell. He is also Co-executive Director of Northwell's Cardiovascular Institute, Chair of Cardiology at North Shore University Hospital and Long Island Jewish Medical Center, Co-director of the Sandra Atlas Bass Heart Hospital at North Shore University Hospital, and Senior Vice President of Cardiology at Northwell Health.

Kuvin earned his undergraduate degree from the University of Michigan and his medical degree from Emory University School of Medicine. He completed his residency and cardiology fellowship at Tufts Medical Center in Boston, MA. Prior to his present roles at Northwell, Kuvin served as a professor and section chief of cardiovascular medicine at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center and was selected to the Geisel Academy of Master Educators at Dartmouth.

Kuvin spent the bulk of his academic career at Tufts Medical Center where he held many leadership positions, including Associate Chief Medical Officer for Graduate Medical Education and Fellowship Training. He received a Career Award for Teaching Excellence at Tufts University School of Medicine.

Kuvin is well-known for contributions in cardiovascular education and training. At the ACC, he served as chair of the Lifelong Learning Oversight Committee, as well as chair and vice chair of ACC's Annual Scientific Session. In addition, he was the lead developer and inaugural chair of the ACC In-Training Exam and is a past editor of ACC's Adult Clinical Cardiology Self-Assessment Program (ACCSAP). Additionally, he is an associate editor for JACC.

Bonnie Ky, MD, FACC
Trustee

Bonnie Ky, MD, FACC, is the Founder's Professor of Cardio-Oncology and physician-scientist at the University of Pennsylvania. She leads a highly active NIH- and AHA-funded clinical translational research program in cardio-oncology with the fundamental goals of advancing actionable science to improve the cardiovascular care of cancer patients.

She is the Director of the Thalheimer Center for Cardio-Oncology, the Founding Director of the Penn Translational Cardio-Oncology Center of Excellence and Director of the Penn Center for Quantitative Echocardiography. She is an invited member of many cardio-oncology expert consensus groups focused on advancing our understanding of cardiovascular disease in the growing cancer population within the NIH, FDA, American Society of Clinical Oncology, ACC, American Heart Association and European Society of Cardiology.

She is a standing member and Chair of the NIH Clinical Integrative Cardiovascular and Hematological Sciences Study Section and the inaugural Chair of the ECOG-ACRIN Cardiotoxicity subcommittee. She is also the inaugural, founding Editor-in-Chief of JACC: Cardio-Oncology; inducted member of both the American Society of Clinical Investigation and the Association of American Physicians; member of the Sarnoff Research Committee; elected member of the American College of Cardiology Board of Trustees; and recipient of both the International Cardio-Oncology Society Thomas Force Leadership Award and ECOG-ACRIN Young Investigator Award.

Sandra J. Lewis, MD, FACC
Trustee

Sandra J. Lewis, MD, FACC, practices cardiology at Legacy Health in Portland, Oregon, where she previously led a multispecialty cardiology group for 25 years. She is a past governor of the Oregon chapter of the ACC, past chair of the ACC Section Steering Committee, past chair of the ACC HeartPAC, past Chair of the Women in Cardiology Section of ACC, past Chair of the ACC Ethics and Compliance Committee, and member of the Health Affairs Committee. Additionally, recognizing the untapped potential for some mid-career women cardiologists to develop leadership skills, she initiated the SJL Mid-Career Women's Leadership Institute.

She is a graduate of Stanford University School of Medicine, where she completed internship, residency and cardiology training. She was a recipient in the inaugural year of the ACC Merck Research Fellowship.

Lewis was an investigator in landmark clinical trials, including SAVE, PROVE-IT, TNT, Jupiter, and the CARE trial, where she authored or co-authored multiple subgroup analyses. She authored the third ACC Professional Life Survey, co-authored papers on Sex Differences in Ischemic Heart Disease, The Pregnant Cardiologist, Building Heart Centers for Women, and Career Preferences and Perceptions of Cardiology Among US Internal Medicine Trainees. She was named by Good Housekeeping as one of the 44 top cardiac centers/doctors for women and has been recognized over many years on Castle and Connolly's "America's Top Doctors" list.

Thomas M. Maddox, MD, MSc, FACC
Trustee

Thomas M. Maddox, MD, MSc, FACC, is Vice President, Digital Products and Innovation, at BJCHealthCare at the Washington University School of Medicine. He is also Professor of Medicine (Cardiology) at Washington University School of Medicine. Maddox earned his undergraduate degree from Rice University, his master's in epidemiology from Harvard University, and his medical degree from Emory University School of Medicine. He completed his residency at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center and cardiology fellowship at Mount Sinai Medical Center in NYC.

Prior to his present roles, Maddox was the national director for the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) CART program, a quality and safety program for VA cardiac catheterization laboratories. He was also on faculty at University of Colorado Medicine.

Maddox is well known for his contributions to digital transformation, health care delivery innovation, learning health care systems, and health services research in cardiac quality and safety. He is a member of the National Academy of Medicine's Digital Health Action Collaborative and the Healthcare Innovators Professional Society. He has published over 250 peer-reviewed publications and received multiple grants supporting his work.

Roxana Mehran, MD, FACC
Trustee

Roxana Mehran, MD, FACC, is an endowed professor of cardiovascular clinical research and outcomes and a professor of medicine (cardiology) and population health science and policy at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. Mehran completed fellowships in cardiovascular disease and interventional cardiology at Mount Sinai Medical Center, where she was also named Director of the Women Heart and Vascular Center at Mount Sinai Fuster Heart Hospital, spearheading a program that represents a collaboration across multiple disciplines and was designed to meet the unique needs of women's cardiovascular health.

Mehran has served as principal investigator for numerous global studies, developed risk scores for bleeding and acute kidney injury, participated in development of clinical guidelines, and authored more than 2000 peer-reviewed articles. She is also leading the Lancet Commission on Women's Cardiovascular Diseases. With over 2300 published manuscripts, Mehran was named by Clarivate Analytics as one of the most influential scientific minds in their Highly Cited Researchers list for the past eight years. She is a founder and Chief Scientific Officer of the Cardiovascular Research Foundation and the founder of Women as One, an independent nonprofit organization dedicated to advancing opportunities for women in medicine.

At the ACC, Mehran has served as Chair of the Interventional Section Leadership Council and has been an author to several revascularization and DAPT guidelines. She has also been active in the Society for Cardiovascular Angiography and Interventions, where she served as Program Chair of the 2016 Scientific Sessions and co-founded the Women in Innovations Committee.

Mehran has received several awards, including the 2017 ACC Bernadine Healy Leadership in CV Disease Award and the 2018 Nanette Wenger Award For Excellence in Medical Leadership from WomenHeart: the National Coalition for Women with Heart Disease. In 2019, she received the Ellis Island Medal of Honor. The same year, at the European Society of Cardiology Congress, she was given the ESC Silver Medal and delivered the ESC Andreas Gruentzig Lecture. In 2022 she was awarded the Terry Ann Krulwich Physician-Scientist Alumni Award, Pulse-Setter Champion Award and Women in Cardiology Mentoring Award from AHA. In 2023, she received the Bahr Award of Excellence from the ACC.

Andreas Merkl, MBA
Trustee

Andreas Merkl, MBA, is the CEO and co-founder of Centigrade, a data company focused on global carbon and nature credit markets. He is also a research fellow at Oxford University. Most of his life's work has centered on complex systems problems on the human/ecology interface. Climate, oceans, circular economy/plastic, food systems and natural resource management. Merkl holds a Master's in Business Administration from Harvard University, a Master's Degree in City and Regional Planning from University of California Berkeley, and a Bachelor's Degree from University of California Santa Cruz in Natural History and Environmental Studies.

Merkl learned politics working for Diane Feinstein in San Francisco, CA. He spent the better part of a decade with McKinsey & Co, mostly in banking and natural resources. From 2000 through 2013, he grew CEA, a San Francisco-based consulting and investment platform, into an incubator of environmental foundations, an international treaty-based organization (Global Green Growth Institute), venture capital funds (e.g. SeaChange Fund), industry associations (e.g. Chemical Recycling Partnership), a fiscal sponsorship organization (e.g. The Canopy Institute, now Multiplier) and non-profits (e.g. Community Conservation Investment Forum), holding senior management or governance roles in all of these institutions. From 2013 through 2018, Andreas was the CEO of the Ocean Conservancy.

Most recently, Merkl was the lead author on the High-Level Panel on Sustainable Ocean Economies Report, worked with a major global investor on reshaping global plastics recycling markets, and served as a principal in the Finance for Biodiversity initiative. He also has a long-term collaboration with Oxford University on quantitative assessments of the dynamics between complex ecological systems, their users and the polices that govern them. He chairs Sustain our Urban Landscape (SOUL), a non-profit focused on the reforestation of New Orleans, LA.

Pamela Bowe Morris, MD, FACC
Trustee

Pamela Bowe Morris, MD, FACC, is Professor of Medicine in Cardiology, the Paul V. Kramer Chair of Cardiovascular Disease Prevention, and Director of the Seinsheimer Cardiovascular Health Program at The Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC) in Charleston, SC. She completed her internal medicine and cardiovascular training at Duke Medical Center, where she also served as Medical Director of the Duke Center for Living/DUPAC. She was faculty at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN, in the Cardiovascular Health Program for six years before joining MUSC in 2005.

Morris has a career-long focus in all aspects of cardiovascular disease prevention. She is well-recognized as an important contributor to clinical guidance in the field of preventive cardiology and has participated as co-author of multiple ACC Expert Consensus Decision Pathways. She served as Vice Chair of ACC.19 and ACC.20, and was Chair of ACC.21 and ACC.22. She has received several awards, including the Inaugural ACC Excellence in Leadership Award for her role in developing the Heart House Roundtable consensus methodology in 2017 and the Clinician Educator Award from the National Lipid Association in 2020. In 2023, Morris received the ACC Distinguished Service Award. In addition to serving on the ACC International Program Planning committees, she has been instrumental in developing ACC cascading train-the-trainer programs in preventive cardiology, reaching thousands of clinicians in many different countries.

Prior to her role as a trustee of ACC, Morris served in leadership positions in the National Lipid Association, the American Society of Preventive Cardiology, the American Board of Clinical Lipidology and the Certification Board of the Society of Cardiac Computed Tomography. Her commitment in service to the ACC has included additional important roles, such as Inaugural Chair of the Prevention of Cardiovascular Disease Leadership Council, co-founder and Chair of ACC's Heart House Roundtable methodology, co-author of methodology for ACC Expert Consensus Decision Pathways, and an associate editor of JACC.

Hani Najm, MD, MSc, FACC
Trustee

Hani Najm, MD, MSc, FACC, is an expert in congenital heart surgery and has performed more than 10,000 surgical cases on newborns, children and adults with complex heart disease. He attended medical school at King Saud University in Saudi Arabia and completed training at the Toronto Hospital and the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto, Canada.

Najm spent 17 years developing the premier pediatric and adult heart program at King Abdulaziz Medical Center in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, before joining the Cleveland Clinic in 2016 as the chair of pediatric and adult congenital heart surgery. He attended medical school at King Saud University in Saudi Arabia and completed training at the Toronto Hospital and the Hospital for Sick Children in Toronto, Canada. Najm is world-renowned for innovative surgical techniques that have improved the outcomes of patients with congenital heart disease. Additionally, he has patented a valve prothesis that grows with newborns and infants.

Najm is a past president of the Saudi Heart Association and served as the editor-in-chief of the Journal of Saudi Heart Association, a member of the Saudi Medical Journal editorial board and an associate professor at King Abdulaziz University for Health Sciences. He holds numerous memberships in national and international professional organizations.