R. Wayne Alexander, MD, PhD      Chairman, Department of Medicine,      Emory University School of Medicine

William W. Busse, MD      Professor of Medicine      Director, Allergy and Clinical Immunology Dept.      University of Wisconsin Medical School

Victor J. Dzau, MD      Chancellor for Health Affairs      Duke University Medical Center

Erwin W. Gelfand, MD      Chairman, Department of Pediatrics      National Jewish Medical and Research Center

David G. Harrison, MD      Professor of Medicine & Director of Cardiology      Emory University School of Medicine

Gary L. Johnson, PhD      Professor and Chairman      Department of Pharmacology      University of North Carolina School of Medicine

Peter Libby, MD      Mallinckrodt Professor of Medicine      Harvard Medical School      Chief, Cardiovascular Division      Department of Medicine      Brigham and Women's Hospital

David M. Stern, MD      Dean, School of Medicine      Chief Clinical Officer      Professor of Medicine and Physiology      Medical College of Georgia

R. Wayne Alexander, MD, PhD (Chairman) - Dr. Alexander is R. Bruce Logue Professor of Medicine, and Chairman, Department of Medicine, for Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, Georgia. Dr. Alexander received his PhD in physiology from Emory University and his MD from Duke University School of Medicine. He completed his residency in internal medicine at the University of Washington, Seattle, and did his fellowship in cardiology at Duke University. Prior to his appointment at Emory, Dr. Alexander was Associate Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Alexander has published extensively in the cardiovascular literature. In addition, he is coeditor of Hurst's The Heart, 8th edition and Companion Handbook of The Heart, 8th edition. He is on the editorial boards of many journals including the Journal of Clinical Investigation, Circulation Research, and Circulation. Active in many professional societies, Dr. Alexander is a member of the American Heart Association, the American College of Cardiology, the American Federation for Medical Research, and Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology. His research interests include the biologic basis of the pathogenesis of the coronary ischemic syndromes, the molecular mechanisms of hormonal control of vascular reactivity and the cell biology of vascular smooth muscle and endothelium. William W. Busse, MD - Dr. Busse is a Professor of Medicine and Head of the Allergy and Clinical Immunology Department at the University of Wisconsin Medical School in Madison, Wisconsin. Recently, Dr. Busse was named Director of the National Institutes of Health sponsored General Clinical Research Center of the University of Wisconsin Medical School. His research interests center on the cellular and molecular mechanisms of asthma and the mechanisms of virus-induced asthma. Dr. Busse is a past President of the conjoint American Board of Allergy and Immunology. He is also past President of the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology. He serves on the editorial board of the Journal of Clinical and Experimental Allergy. He is a member of the Advisory Council of the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute. Dr. Busse is the author of more than 150 scientific articles and more than 100 chapters, books and invited papers. He is one of the authors of Allergy: Principles and Practices, and, with Dr. Stephen Holgate, Asthma and Rhinitis. He has been a fellow of the AAAAI since 1973. Dr. Busse received his undergraduate and medical degrees at the University of Wisconsin Medical School. Victor J. Dzau, MD - Victor J. Dzau, M.D., was appointed Chancellor for Health Affairs at Duke University and President and CEO of the Duke University Health System effective July 1, 2004. Dr. Dzau most recently served as the Hersey Professor of the Theory and Practice of Physic (Medicine) at Harvard Medical School, Chairman of the Department of Medicine at Brigham and Women's Hospital and Physician-in-Chief and Director of Research at Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston. Dr. Dzau's academic interests are in cardiovascular translational research and mission-based education. His laboratory has studied the molecular and genetic mechanisms of cardiovascular disease and applied genomic and gene transfer technologies to develop novel therapeutic approaches. A genetically modified coronary bypass graft developed by Dr. Dzau is being evaluated in a clinical trial. Dr. Dzau sits on numerous committees and advisory boards, including the Executive Committee of The Academy at Harvard Medical School (of which he is a founding member) and the boards of Brigham and Women's Hospital and the Harvard Clinical Research Institute. He has been elected to the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Science (USA) and the European Academy of Science and Arts. Previous Chairman of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Cardiovascular Disease Advisory Committee, he served on the Advisory Committee to the Director of the NIH. In 1999, he became Editor-in-Chief for the American Physiological Society's new journal, Physiological Genomics. A founding member of the Society of Vascular Medicine and Biology, Dr. Dzau was Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Vascular Medicine and Biology. After receiving his MD from McGill University in Montreal, Dr. Dzau underwent postgraduate training at Harvard Medical School. Erwin W. Gelfand, MD - Erwin W. Gelfand, MD is Chairman of the Department of Pediatrics at the National Jewish Medical and Research Center in Denver. He is Professor of Pediatrics and Immunology at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center, also in Denver. Dr. Gelfand is a member of the American Academy of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology, the American Association of Immunologists, the Clinical Immunology Society, the Society of Pediatric Research, and the Society for Clinical Investigation. He is the recipient of the Mead Johnson Award for research in pediatrics and the McLaughlin Foundation Edward Gallie Visiting Professorship of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada for 1986-1987. He is an Associate Editor of the American Journal of Respiratory Cell and Molecular Biology, the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, and International Archives of Allergy and Immunology. His research interests include signal transduction in lymphocytes and mast cells, a murine model of asthma and immunodeficiency diseases. Dr. Gelfand received his medial degree from McGill University in Montreal, Quebec. He completed his internship training at Montreal General Hospital, and his senior residency training and fellowship in Pediatrics at Children's Hospital Medical Center in Boston, Massachusetts. Moreover, he completed his research fellowship in immunology at Harvard Medical School in Boston. David G. Harrison, MD - Dr. Harrison attended medical school at the University of Oklahoma and received postgraduate training in Internal Medicine and Cardiology at Duke University. Dr. Harrison was also a research fellow in the Cardiovascular Division at the University of Iowa. He joined the faculty at the University of Iowa in 1982 where he remained until 1990. In 1990, Dr. Harrison moved to Emory University. Dr. Harrison's research has involved understanding endothelial regulation of vasomotor tone and endothelial cell biology. One of the major mechanisms by which the vascular endothelium modulates vascular tone is the elaboration of nitric oxide. This is accomplished by an enzyme present in the endothelium known as nitric oxide synthase (NO synthase). Dr. Harrison and his co-workers have cloned and characterized the endothelialcell NO synthase and the NO synthase gene. A major focus of the research ongoing in his laboratory is understanding function and structure of the NO sysynthaseactors which influence regulation of endothelial cell NO synthase expression. Another aspect of his research is understanding interactions between the superoxide anion and nitric oxide in the vessel wall, and how this may be altered by disease processes. His research has elucidated the role of excess vascular superoxide production as a result of hypercholesterolemia, and has shown how this may alter endothelium-dependent vasodilatation. More recently, Dr. Harrison's group has shown that increased vascular superoxide production likely plays an important role in nitrate tolerance, and has identified an oxidase involved in this condition. Dr. Harrison is the recipient of several active grants sponsored by the National Institutes of Health and is a member of the Executive Committee of the American Heart Association Council of Circulation and the chairman of the NIH study section on Experimental Cardiovascular Studies. He serves on the editorial boards of Circulation, Circulation Research, Journal of Cardiovascular Pharmacology, and Endothelium. Dr. Harrison has made substantial contributions to the medical literature, including over 80 peer-reviewed manuscripts, several book chapters, and numerous invited reviews. Gary L. Johnson, PhD - Professor and Chair, Department of Pharmacology, University of North Carolina School of Medicine. Dr. Johnson's research focuses on the mapping of cellular pathways that control cytokine production, proliferation and apoptosis. He has published more than 200 papers that define the molecular components of the signal transduction network in cells. His laboratory is renowned for the isolation and characterization of the MEK kinases (MEKKs) that control signal pathways critical to the regulation of inflammation, cardiac hypertrophy, emphysema and other major diseases and disorders. Targeted disruption of the MEKK genes in mice is providing animal models that are invaluable for validation of MEKKs as drug targets. Dr. Johnson's goal is to translate his basic discoveries and gene knockout studies to drug development for the treatment of human diseases. Dr. Johnson was an Established Investigator of the American Heart Association and has served on numerous editorial boards and advisory committees for the National Institutes of Health (NIH), American Heart Association and American Cancer Society. As Associate Director of the Cancer Center, Dr. Johnson oversees research in cancer genetics, developmental therapeutics and the molecular and cellular biology of malignancies. As a member of the Lung Cancer NCI SPORE program, he is involved in translating the discovery and validation of molecular targets for the development of new cancer therapies. Peter Libby, MD - Peter Libby, MD - Dr. Peter Libby is Mallinckrodt Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School and Chief of the Cardiovascular Division of the Department of Medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital, in Boston, Massachusetts. Dr Libby received his BA from the University of California at Berkeley and his M.D. from the University of California, San Diego, School of Medicine. He also holds an honorary MA from Harvard University. He completed his internship and residency at Peter Bent Brigham Hospital, 1 of 3 hospitals later combined, creating Brigham and Women’s Hospital. Dr. Libby was a clinical fellow in medicine and a research fellow in physiology and medicine, all at Harvard Medical School. He was also a clinical/research fellow in medicine at Peter Bent Brigham Hospital. Dr. Libby is internationally recognized as a leader in the investigation of molecular mechanisms involved in atherosclerosis. In recent years one aspect of his work has focused on how inflammatory mechanisms are involved in blood vessel changes that lead to clinical events such as myocardial infarctions (heart attacks). Awards conferred upon Dr. Libby include Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, Established Investigator of the American Heart Association, and a MERIT Award from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute. He has published many articles, chapters, and books and he holds positions on numerous scientific and editorial advisory boards. Dr. Libby has been selected to deliver many named lectureships worldwide. David M. Stern, MD - Dr. David Stern, a physician scientist with an extensive background in basic and translational research, is Dean of the School of Medicine at the Medical College of Georgia (MCG). Dr. Stern came to MCG in April, 2002, after nearly 20 years on the faculty of the College of Physicians & Surgeons of Columbia University. He was the Director of the Center for Vascular and Lung Pathobiology at Columbia, and was named the Gerald & Janet Carrus Professor of Surgical Science and Physiology in 1998. His work involved analysis of the properties of blood vessels in diabetes, ischemia and Alzheimer's disease. He was principal investigator of two-NIH funded program project grants, a Center Grant from the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, and a MERIT award (from NHLBI). Dr. Stern has published over 270 papers and holds nine patents. Dr. Stern's background includes undergraduate school at Yale College (1973) and Harvard Medical School (1978), where his fellow classmate, Kathleen, became his wife and life-long partner. They have two sons, Eric David and Alan Robert. Dr. Stern is a member of the American Society of Clinical Investigation and the American Association of Physicians. Since becoming dean at MCG, Dr. Stern has led a major new thrust in the diversity initiative in the School of Medicine. He has indicated in many forums that a key mission of the School is to serve the healthcare needs of rural Georgia. This is best done when the diversity of healthcare providers at all levels matches that of the community served.