SCAI Announces 2022-2024 Class of Emerging Leader Mentorship Program Fellows

May 6, 2022—The Society for Cardiovascular Angiography & Interventions (SCAI) announced the selection of 12 new early career interventional cardiologists to participate in the 2022-2024 Emerging Leader Mentorship (ELM) program, which is offered in partnership with the American College of Cardiology and the Cardiovascular Research Foundation.

SCAI trustee Srihari S. Naidu, MD, Founder of the ELM program, commented in the press release, “We are very excited for this new class of rising interventional cardiologists to experience the lifelong benefits of the ELM program and what it will mean to their careers and to SCAI. I’d like to thank Dr. Dmitriy Feldman and Dr. Matthew Daniels for their service to the 2019-2022 class and welcome Dr. Molly Szerlip and Dr. Andrew Klein as the Chairs for the incoming cohort.”

The 2022-2024 ELM program will commence on Saturday, May 21, at the SCAI 2022 Scientific Sessions, which will be held May 19-22 in Atlanta, Georgia.

According to SCAI, the ELM fellows will receive 2 years of intensive training and individualized mentoring to improve their skills and facilitate their transition into the next generation of great thinkers, ambassadors, and national leaders in medicine.

The 12 inducted members were selected by the ELM Selection Committee based on their leadership potential and motivation to excel both regionally and nationally in the areas of clinical care, scholarship, education, and/or advocacy. They were chosen from a diverse group of adult and pediatric interventional cardiologists from across the United States and the wider international cardiology community.

The 2022-2024 ELM class includes:

• Andrew Goldsweig, MD; The University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha, Nebraska
• Abdulla Damluji, MD; Inova Fairfax Hospital/IHVI in Alexandria, Virginia
• Nathaniel Smilowitz, MD; NYU Langone Medical Center in New York, New York
• Bimmer Claessen, MD; Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota
• Mir Basir, MD; Henry Ford Health System in Detroit, Michigan
• Amit Vora, MD; UPMC Pinnacle in Lancaster, Pennsylvania
• Yader Sandoval, MD; Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota
• S. Elissa Altin, MD; Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut
• Jay Widmer, MD; Baylor Scott & White Medical Center—Temple in Temple, Texas
• Luiz Ybarra, MD; Western University in London, Canada
• Holly Bauser-Heaton, MD; Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta in Atlanta, Georgia
• Georges Ephrem, MD; Indiana University School of Medicine in Indianapolis, Indiana

Through ELM training, early career physicians receive mentorship in every aspect of their profession and opportunities to expand their leadership skills, enhance presentation skills, foster relationships, keep up to date on emerging trends, and develop their professional niche. Mentors are selected to match participants’ interests and aspirations and will assist them with the overriding goal of ongoing, perpetual contributions to the field even long after the program is completed, noted the SCAI press release.