Beginning today, Malissa J. Wood, MD, FACC, will serve as chair of the American College of Cardiology Board of Governors (BOG) and secretary of the Board of Trustees. Her term will run for one year from 2022-2023.
Wood will lead governors from chapters representing all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, Canada, Mexico and representatives from the U.S. health services. The BOG is the grassroots governing body of the ACC, a nonprofit cardiovascular medical society representing over 54,000 cardiologist and cardiovascular care team members around the world.
“As chair of the ACC Board of Governors I will have the opportunity to listen and learn from the governors and members they represent. I hope that by facilitating open and honest discussion we can identify the leading challenges facing our members and work together to create solutions to these challenges,” Wood said. “By utilizing the resources created by the ACC, our governors, councils and chapter executives can continue to expand the diversity, inclusion, health equity and clinician well-being initiatives through chapter activities and in so doing, continue to demonstrate the value of the ACC to our members.”
In addition to her new role as ACC BOG chair, Wood has been an active member of the ACC for her entire career. She has served on the leadership council of the ACC Women in Cardiology Committee, the ACC Cardiovascular Disease in Women Committee and was the first female governor of the Massachusetts Chapter of the ACC. Wood said she is a dedicated advocate for her patients and colleagues and has been involved in successful advocacy efforts at the state and national levels. She also serves on the Executive Committee of the ACC HeartPAC.
“From my first interaction with the ACC as a fellow-in-training to my current role as BOG chair and Trustee, I have learned that the ACC can mean many different things to many different people. Even with this diversity of experience, there is one common element amongst all I have met—the unified commitment to the mission of the ACC,” Wood said. “This commitment to transforming cardiovascular care and improving heart health was never more evident than over the past two years—the dedication, ingenuity, commitment and solidarity of our members enforced my belief that anything is possible when you are working as part of a dedicated team.”
Wood joined the staff of Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) in 2000 where she holds the Cathy E. Minehan Chair of Cardiovascular Disease in Women. In 2007, she helped design and implement the Corrigan Women’s Heart Health Program at MGH to improve the clinical care of women and the understanding of cardiovascular disease in women, which she currently co-directs along with the MGH Multidisciplinary SCAD Program. She is also an associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School.
She has lead publications which have addressed the impact of social determinants of health on cardiovascular care, identified existing disparities in care and worked to advance diversity in the field of cardiovascular medicine. She was co-editor of the textbook Sex Differences in Cardiovascular Disease which was published in 2021.
Wood completed her undergraduate and medical degrees in the combined BA/MD program from the University of Missouri-Kansas City followed by an internal medicine residency and cardiovascular medicine fellowship at the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center/Harvard Medical School in Boston, Massachusetts, where she served as chief medical resident.
Other new ACC officers for 2022-2023 are President Edward T.A. Fry, MD, FACC; Vice President B. Hadley Wilson, MD, FACC; Board of Trustees members Pamela Bowe Morris, MD, FACC and Ed W. Childs, MD, FACS; and Membership Committee Chair Joseph Edward Marine, MD, MBA, FACC, and Board of Governors Chair-Elect Nicole Lohr, MD, PhD, FACC.
The American College of Cardiology envisions a world where innovation and knowledge optimize cardiovascular care and outcomes. As the professional home for the entire cardiovascular care team, the mission of the College and its 54,000 members is to transform cardiovascular care and to improve heart health. The ACC bestows credentials upon cardiovascular professionals who meet stringent qualifications and leads in the formation of health policy, standards and guidelines. The College also provides professional medical education, disseminates cardiovascular research through its world-renowned JACC Journals, operates national registries to measure and improve care, and offers cardiovascular accreditation to hospitals and institutions. For more, visit acc.org.
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