UT Southwestern preventive cardiologist to receive the 2025 Chairman’s Award

Embargoed until 7 a.m. CT/8 a.m. ET, Wednesday, Oct. 8, 2025

DALLAS, Oct. 8, 2025 - Amit Khera, M.D., FAHA, director of preventive cardiology and clinical chief of cardiology at the University of Texas (UT) Southwestern Medical Center, will receive the 2025 Chairman's Award at the American Heart Association's Scientific Sessions. The meeting, to be held Nov. 7-10, 2025, in New Orleans, is a premier global exchange of the latest scientific advancements, research and evidence-based clinical practice updates in cardiovascular science. Dr. Khera will receive the award during the Presidential Session on Sunday, Nov. 9, 2025.

In addition to his roles as director of preventive cardiology and clinical chief of cardiology, Dr. Khera is also a professor of medicine and co-director of the Familial Hypercholesterolemia Clinic at UT Southwestern Medical Center, as well as a professor of epidemiology at the Peter O'Donnell Jr. School of Public Health at UT Southwestern. In addition, he holds the Dallas Heart Ball Chair in Hypertension and Heart Disease.

"It's an honor to recognize Dr. Amit Khera with the 2025 Chairman's Award for his distinguished accomplishments and service to the American Heart Association," said Lee A. Shapiro, J.D., the 2025-2026 volunteer chairperson of the National Board of Directors for the American Heart Association. "Amit is an exceptional volunteer leader who has made significant contributions to strengthen the Association at the national and local levels. Most notably, his tireless efforts reinforced and strengthened our annual Scientific Sessions when he served as chair in 2023 and in the Association's Centennial year 2024, and as vice chair in 2021 and 2022. As chair of the Scientific Sessions Program Committee, he facilitated greater collaboration among the Association's councils and committees to provide multidisciplinary educational content that would appeal to a broad range of health care professionals and scientists. Thank you for your remarkable leadership that has enhanced the Association and Scientific Sessions."

Dr. Khera's professional career has transformed the field of preventive cardiology, and he has earned acclaim for several groundbreaking clinical studies. He has made significant contributions to the area of cardiovascular risk assessment with several impactful observations from the Dallas Heart Study on applications of coronary artery calcium scanning. He was funded by NASA to develop the Astro-CHARM calculator which is currently used to screen astronauts for heart disease risks. Dr. Khera is committed to improving the care for those with familial hypercholesterolemia (FH) and is leading an innovative study evaluating using the blood donation system to screen blood donors for FH.

Dr. Khera attributes his clinical and research interests to his residency in Boston, when he cared for a 45-year-old man hospitalized for his seventh heart procedure. Caring for this patient through cycles of invasive interventions is what sparked Dr. Khera's passion for the prevention of coronary artery disease, with a focus on risk assessment and risk factor modification in people with premature and family histories of cardiovascular disease. He has authored more than 250 peer-reviewed publications, including serving on the writing committee for the "2019 ACC/AHA Guideline on the Primary Prevention of Cardiovascular Disease."

As a past volunteer president of the Association's Dallas and Southwest Region Board of Directors, Dr. Khera drove local engagement and strategic impact across the cardiovascular community. Dr. Khera has been an integral member of the Association's Cardiovascular Kidney-Metabolic (CKM) Health Scientific Advisory Group since 2022, an initiative to harmonize gaps in clinical care and establish a new roadmap for patients with CKM syndrome through prevention and management of existing disease. He is an associate editor for the Association's flagship, peer-reviewed scientific journal Circulation.

"I am deeply humbled to receive this recognition from an organization that I hold in such high regard for making such a profound impact on cardiovascular disease for over 100 years," said Dr. Khera. "Preventive cardiology has always been central to my work, and I'm proud to work in collaboration with the Association to improve cardiovascular health and advance scientific discovery."

Dr. Khera earned an undergraduate degree in American history from the University of Pennsylvania and a medical degree from Baylor College of Medicine, where he served as class president and was inducted into the Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Medical Society. He completed an internal medicine residency at Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School in Boston, followed by a fellowship in cardiology at UT Southwestern Medical Center. He furthered his scientific training with a master's in epidemiology from the Harvard School of Public Health.

Dr. Khera founded the UT Southwestern Preventive Cardiology program in 2004. For 15 years, Dr. Khera led and shaped the Cardiology Fellowship Program at UT Southwestern, serving as both associate and program director, for which he won numerous teaching awards. He was named a Master of the American Society for Preventive Cardiology in 2023, and he is a member of the Association of University Cardiologists. Dr. Khera is an NIH-funded investigator and an associate editor for the American Journal of Preventive Cardiology, which he helped to found in 2020. Dr. Khera is past president of the American Society for Preventive Cardiology and is an active member of other professional organizations, including the Texas Medical Association and the American College of Cardiology.

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