DALLAS, June 25 -- J. Walter Sinclair, a Twin Falls, Idaho, attorney, and Lynn A. Smaha, M.D., Ph.D., executive vice president for corporate affairs of Guthrie Clinic, Sayre, Pa., Friday were elected chairman of the board and president, respectively, of the American Heart Association.
Richard P. Southworth, who recently retired as managing director of the Cleveland office of J&H Marsh & McClennan Inc., was re-elected secretary-treasurer.
The new officers, elected during the American Heart Association's annual Delegate Assembly, will serve during the 1999-2000 fiscal year.
William J. Bryant, managing partner in the Birmingham, Ala., law firm of Feld, Hyde, Lyle, Wertheimer, & Bryant, was chosen as chairman-elect. Rose Marie Robertson, M.D., professor of medicine, associate director of cardiology and vice chair for academic affairs in the department of medicine at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, Tenn., was named president-elect.
Sinclair, a partner in the law firm of Benoit, Alexander, Sinclair, Harwood & High, graduated from Stanford University with a bachelor of arts degree in 1975 and from the University of Idaho Law School with a juris doctorate in 1978.
He is past president of the Fifth Judicial Bar Association, and a member of the Idaho State Bar, the American Bar Association, the Idaho and the International Associations of Defense Counsels. He is a fellow in the American College of Trial Lawyers.
Sinclair became involved in the American Heart Association in the mid 1980s as president of the Magic Valley Division in Idaho. He was chairman of the Idaho Affiliate and later was a member of the board of directors of the merged Idaho-Montana Affiliate. He was regional vice president for the Northwest-Rocky Mountain Region. Sinclair serves on the American Heart Association Board of Directors, chairs the Administrative Cabinet and serves on numerous other committees.
Smaha received a bachelor of science degree in 1964 from Iowa State University and a master's degree in 1967 from the University of Iowa. He earned his doctor of philosophy and medical degrees from the University of Iowa in 1970 and '72, respectively.
After graduation, Smaha began his career at the University of Iowa where he conducted basic science research and was a member of the faculty. He also has been a practicing invasive cardiologist for almost two decades. He has been a visiting lecturer at the Sloan School of Health Care Administration at Cornell University.
In 1990 he became president and chief executive officer of the Guthrie Clinic, a multi-specialty group practice of 240 physicians, 65 mid-level providers and more than 1,000 employees. He relinquished that post after being named president-elect of the American Heart Association.
Smaha has served the association at all levels, beginning with the the Pennsylvania Affiliate for which he was president in 1989-90. He has served on the American Heart Association's Board of Directors since 1990.
Southworth was with J&H Marsh & McClennan for more than 25 years and was named chief operating officer of J&H Global Captive Management operations and J&H Intermediaries in 1997.
He received a bachelor's degree in business administration from Husson College, Bangor, Maine, and an M.B.A. from the University of New Hampshire Whittemore School. He has been an American Heart Association volunteer for several years.
The American Heart Association spent about $312 million during fiscal year 1997-98 on research support, public and professional education, and community programs. With more than 4 million volunteers, it is the largest voluntary health organization fighting heart disease, stroke and other cardiovascular diseases, which annually kill more than 959,000 Americans.