About the Authors

Jack Lewin, MD
Chief Executive Officer

Dr. Jack Lewin has been Chief Executive Officer of the American College of Cardiology (ACC) since November 2006. The 35,000-member College represents American cardiologists, and a growing number of international members. Based in Washington DC, ACC has a distinguished reputation among professional societies for leadership in the monitoring of quality care and outcomes, and for making such results transparent. Publisher of the esteemed Journal of the American College of Cardiology (JACC), ACC is also the world leader in cardiovascular clinical education and clinical guidelines development, operating the NCDR quality of care data registries in over 2,400 hospitals.

Under Lewin’s leadership, ACC has aspired to contribute greatly to national leadership in advocacy related to expanding access to care for uninsured persons, and in reforming Medicare, Medicaid, and the financing and delivery of quality health care. These efforts are part of ACC’s mission to promote ‘heart health’ and reductions in cardiovascular morbidity and mortality worldwide. ACC has over 300 employees and an annual budget of over $90 million. 

Prior to coming to the ACC, Lewin was CEO of the 35,000 member California Medical Association and its various subsidiary companies. Lewin was also formerly Hawaii’s Director of Health from 1986-1994, overseeing 6500 employees and a $1 Billion budget. In this role, he helped Hawaii achieve near-universal access to health care and revitalize statewide public health systems. In Hawaii, he was also CEO of the statewide 13-facility Community Hospital System.

Before that, as a Commissioned Officer in the USPHS, he was the founder and first Director of the Navajo Nation Department of Health, serving the needs of America’s largest Indian tribe, straddling the three states of Arizona, New Mexico and Utah.

Trained in internal medicine, Lewin has also enjoyed many years of practicing primary care medicine during his career in Arizona, Hawaii, and California. He serves on numerous national boards and advisory bodies, including being founder and President of the Physicians’ Foundations, which are among the top ten health-related philanthropies in the nation, focused on promoting quality, patient safety, and health information technology adoption, and President of the national Patient Safety Institute. He was an advisor on health policy to President Clinton.

Dr. Lewin received his B.A. in Biological Sciences from the University of California, Irvine, and his M.D. from the University of Southern California. His hobbies include composing for piano, skiing, biking, kayaking, and long-distance running, having completed over 25 marathons. He and his wife Sandra have three children.

David Holmes, MD, FACC
ACC President

Dr. Holmes is the Edward W. and Betty Knight Scripps Professor in Cardiovascular Medicine at Mayo Clinic College of Medicine and an interventional cardiologist in the Division of Cardiovascular Diseases and the Department of Internal Medicine at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn. He graduated from Princeton University in 1967 and from Marquette University in 1971. His internship was at the Virginia Mason Hospital in Seattle, and he completed his fellowship at Mayo Clinic in both internal medicine and cardiovascular diseases before beginning active duty naval service at the National Naval Medical Center at Bethesda, Md. Following completion of his tour of duty, he returned to Mayo Clinic as a consultant.

Dr. Holmes’ special areas of interest include acute coronary syndromes, interventional cardiology, restenosis, vascular biology, risk outcomes analysis, telemedicine, and simulator technology. He is involved in the development of new catheter design and new approaches for the treatment of patients with coronary artery and vein graft disease, atrial fibrillation, and valvular heart disease. Finally, he is involved in the development of continued application of percutaneous coronary intervention technology to non-coronary vascular beds and in training physicians in new technology.

Dr. Holmes received the Transcatheter Therapeutics Career Achievement Award in 1995 and is a past president of the Society for Cardiac Angiography and Intervention. He served as the ACC governor for Minnesota from 2002-2003 and was co-chair of the 2003 ACC Annual Scientific Session. He served as head of the ACC Procedures Training Work Group and in that capacity helped to develop the combined training program in renal and iliac stenting in conjunction with the SCAI and the Society for Vascular Surgery. He was one of the initial members of the Interventional Cardiology Test Writing Committee on which he continues to serve for the American Board of Internal Medicine. He currently serves on the editorial boards of JACC, ACCEL, Circulation, and Catheterization and Cardiovascular Interventions. He has published more than 695 peer-reviewed original publications and has been visiting professor at institutions both in the U.S. and abroad.

He and his wife Ginger have four children. He enjoys playing the piano, reading, hunting, fishing, and exercising.

Thad Waites, MD, FACC
Chair, Board of Governors 

Dr. Waites is a staff cardiologist of the Hattiesburg Clinic and of Forrest General Hospital, both in Hattiesburg, Mississippi. He is director of the Forrest General Hospital Catheterization Laboratory. Also, he is on the joint operating committee, which is a committee managing the merged interests of Forrest General Hospital and Hattiesburg Clinic. He has been a clinical professor at Tulane University and has had teaching duties at the University of Mississippi Medical Center. He was on the staff of Ochsner Clinic, where he spent two years in the Internal Medicine Section and seven in the Section of Cardiology. During that time, he directed pacemaker services and was a member of the Staff Advisory Committee of the clinic. He also received the Teacher of the Year award.  His clinical research interest is currently in the field of CT imaging.

Dr. Waites received his college degree from Mississippi College. His medical school degree is from the University of Mississippi Medical Center. Both his internship and his cardiology fellowship were through the Emory University program. In the 1978–1979 academic year he was chief resident for Dr. J. Willis Hurst at Emory hospital. His internal medicine residency was received through the University of Colorado Medical Center-Denver.

In Hattiesburg, he has been president of the medical staff of the hospital for two terms. In 2009, he was honored to the be in the hospital's first Hall of Fame. He was on the board as well as Vice President of the Board of the Hattiesburg Clinic for several years. He held the position of President of the Mississippi Affiliate of the American Heart Association and later served two terms as President of the Southeast Affiliate of the American Heart Association.  He has been a member of the Board of Governors of the ACC since 2007.

Dr. Waites and his wife Gerry enjoy keeping up with three grandchildren, three bichons, two cats, and one African Grey parrot.