DALLAS, June 27, 2018 – The American Heart Association, the world’s leading voluntary health organization devoted to fighting cardiovascular disease, presented its presented its highest volunteer honor — the Gold Heart Award — to famed heart failure expert, Mariell Jessup, M.D., FAHA, during the Gold Heart Banquet on June 26 in Plano, Texas.
Jessup is the inaugural chief scientific officer of the Fondation Leducq, an international grant-making institution that funds cardiovascular and neurovascular research. She also serves as an adviser to Leducq’s sister organization, Broadview Ventures, a philanthropic fund that seeds early biotech companies. Jessup, an internationally-renowned expert and thought leader in heart failure, was recognized for her outstanding contributions supporting Association initiatives focused on prevention and patient treatment, as well as her work in accelerating scientific discovery that has impacted medical and scientific communities around the world.
A volunteer since 1994, Jessup served as the Association’s volunteer president in 2013-14. During her term, she led the Association in the launch of the Cardiovascular Genome Phenome Study, now known as the American Heart Association Institute for Precision Cardiovascular Medicine, an unprecedented research enterprise with a goal to create a virtual bio-phenorepository consolidating disease state and risk information from global population studies. Under her leadership, the Association launched the Strategically Focused Research Network platform to fund and connect research institutions and projects in support of its 2020 Impact Goal and beyond. Additionally, Jessup chaired the Association’s Science Advisory and Coordinating Committee, the Committee on Scientific Sessions Program, and the panel that oversaw revisions to the American College of Cardiology/AHA Guidelines for the Management of Congestive Heart Failure in 2009.
During her faculty positions at Hahnemann Medical College, Temple University and the University of Pennsylvania, Jessup published numerous articles, editorials and reviews on heart failure and heart transplantation. She was an investigator in many landmark clinical trials and she led a key study on using the gene for SERCA2A to treat ischemic cardiomyopathy, a type of heart disease strongly associated with heart attacks.
“If the founders of the American Heart Association were looking down on Mariell receiving the Gold Heart Award, they would be beaming with pride,” said Elliott Antman, M.D., past president of the American Heart Association and a professor of medicine at Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston.
“Mariell remains among the most highly sought-after teachers of young clinician scientists,” said Clyde Yancy, M.D., past president of the American Heart Association and chief of cardiology at the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago. “The best mentors transform others, and that’s mentoring Jessup-style.”
Additional Resources:
- Photographs and video assets of Dr. Jessup are available on the right column of the release.
- Follow AHA/ASA news on Twitter @HeartNews
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About the American Heart Association
The American Heart Association is devoted to saving people from heart disease and stroke – the two leading causes of death in the world. We team with millions of volunteers to fund innovative research, fight for stronger public health policies and provide lifesaving tools and information to prevent and treat these diseases. The Dallas-based association is the nation’s oldest and largest voluntary organization dedicated to fighting heart disease and stroke. To learn more or to get involved, call 1-800-AHA-USA1, visit heart.org or call any of our offices around the country. Follow us on Facebook and Twitter.
Media Inquiries: 214-706-1173
Cathy Lewis; 214-706-1324 or cathy.lewis@heart.org
For Public Inquiries: 1-800-AHA-USA1 (242-8721)
