William Zoghbi

William A. Zoghbi Md. is the Elkins Family Distinguished Chair in Cardiac Health at The Houston Methodist DeBakey Heart & Vascular Center, Professor of Medicine, and Director of the Cardiovascular Imaging Institute. Dr. Zoghbi was born in Beirut, Lebanon. He started medical school at the American University of Beirut (AUB), completed his studies in the United States, and trained in Cardiology at Baylor College of Medicine where he joined the faculty in 1985. His tenure at Baylor was from 1985 to 2005, where he was the John S. Dunn Professor of Medicine and served as Director of the Echocardiography laboratory at the Methodist Hospital. In 2005, Dr. Zoghbi established a Cardiovascular Imaging Institute at Houston Methodist, a unique entity where all cardiovascular imaging modalities are co-located and integrated for enhanced patient care, education and research. Dr. Zoghbi is a leader in cardiology and cardiac imaging. He has developed new techniques to evaluate heart function and valve disorders without resorting to invasive procedures. A recipient of the Richard Popp Excellence in Teaching Award from the American Society of Echocardiography (ASE), Zoghbi’s commitment to physician training and education is evident at the national level: he chaired the development of national and international guidelines for evaluating heart valves, and co-chaired the American College of Cardiology (ACC) committee that wrote a monograph on how best to train the new generation of cardiologists in cardiovascular imaging. Dr. Zoghbi has been actively involved with the ACC, the American Heart Association and the ASE for close to 30 years. He served as president of the ASE in 2008 and President of the American College of Cardiology in 2012 and has been on its Board of Trustees since 2001. During his presidency, he focused on patient-centered care and spearheaded the launch of CardioSmart.org website for the public and patients. He carried the Olympic Torch in 2012 on behalf of heart health and represented the global cardiovascular community at the United Nations and World Health Organization. He currently serves on the Board of the World Heart Federation and chairs the Global Task Force for Cardiovascular disease. Dr. Zoghbi is involved internationally in many of the ACC chapters he helped build and has maintained strong ties with the Lebanese Cardiology Society and the AUB. He coordinated several joint American-Lebanese educational symposia in Beirut, and has chaired a Task Force for the AUB to have a first rate Heart and Vascular Center in Lebanon.