Council on Epidemiology and Prevention Message from the Chair

Mercedes Carnethon, PhD, FAHA

Welcome to the American Heart Association (AHA) Council on Epidemiology and Prevention (EPI)! 

While I know many of you through my over two decades of engagement with the AHA and with the council, I am eagerly anticipating meeting many of you for the first time! I am excited to introduce myself as the Council Chair—as it has been a professional goal of mine since I first fell in love with the mission of the AHA when I was a graduate student. My peers and I said that one day, we hoped to be the ones who would set the vision and direction of the council. We committed ourselves at that time to extending generosity and support to trainees and early career faculty if we had the opportunity to lead. We additionally expressed enthusiasm to collaborate both within and across councils of the AHA to advance the scientific and public health mission of the organization. I am excited that the time is now!

In the upcoming year and throughout my term, I remain committed to the guiding values of the AHA, that are articulated at the outset of every committee meeting and include the following:

• Bringing Science to Life
• Improving and Extending People’s Lives
• Building Powerful Partnerships
• Speaking with a Trustworthy Voice
• Inspiring Passionate Commitment
• Making an Extraordinary Impact
• Meeting People Where They Are
• Ensuring Equitable Health for All

As a professor and the incoming Chair of Preventive Medicine at the Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, a great deal has changed since I joined this council in 1997 as a predoctoral fellow. What hasn’t changed is my commitment to those lofty goals now that my dream of serving as the Council Chair has been realized. Please join me by engaging actively in the Council by volunteering to join committees, attending scientific meetings with the goals of revealing new science and networking with colleagues around the world, identifying public health challenges that can be addressed with our collective expertise in the design and analysis of population studies and by building bridges with other professional organizations committed to health.

Thank you for this opportunity to serve in my dream role and I look forward to working together with each of you to advance the mission of the Council and the AHA.

Mercedes Carnethon, PhD, FAHA
Chair, Council on Epidemiology and Prevention