Harnessing Each Members’ Passion to Achieve AHA-Sized Goals

Hello! I am Dr. Bradley Marino. I serve as the Department Chair of Heart, Vascular & Thoracic and the Executive Co-Director of the Pediatric and Adult Congenital Heart Center at Cleveland Clinic Children’s and Cleveland Clinic. I am honored to receive the torch as Chair of the American Heart Association (AHA) Council Operations Committee (COC). This important committee oversees the work of the AHA’s 16 scientific councils and supports key AHA initiatives. The COC also exists to meet the needs of the AHA membership through education, engagement, council support, innovation, and collaboration.

I would be remiss if I didn’t acknowledge the incredible work of my predecessor, Dr. Cheryl Anderson. Her leadership helped us emerge from the pandemic stronger than ever. Her passion for the work of the AHA is obvious to all that work with her. She brought unique initiatives like Each One, Reach One, to the councils. I plan to carry on that mantle of dedication to the organization’s mission with a few initiatives of my own:

• Membership: We will work collaboratively to build a robust membership to lead AHA into its second century with the goal of doubling membership by 2028.
• Engagement: I aim to sustain and expand the engagement of new and current members through the development of various volunteering opportunities.
• Increased Attendance: I will partner with all councils to increase member attendance at conferences and plan to create a channel to hear directly from members about what programming they would like to see at our specialty conferences.

I believe we can harness each member’s passion to accomplish these organization-building goals. As you know, membership engagement is what drives the AHA, and the fact that we are celebrating the AHA’s centennial year proves what we can achieve together.

Aiding us to grow and meet the needs of our membership requires a new structure for COC. Now, with each council and 6 of COC’s key initiatives (diversity, early career, fellows-in-training, mid-career, past chairs, and women in science & medicine) represented at COC we are poised for the next century.

This structure will:

• Support council Chairs-elect as they build their plan to lead and manage their council
• Council Chairs-elect to learn best practices from other council leaders that will increase engagement and membership satisfaction in their council
• Build better connection and collaboration among council chairs-elect, between councils, and between COC and each council
• Create a direct connection between COC’s initiatives and COC and councils

In closing, it is a privilege to serve as your COC Chair. I eagerly await all that is to come in the next two years. I know we will see many successes across all councils.