Contact:
Lisa Gibson
Senior Director, Marketing & Communications
American Association for Thoracic Surgery
Mobile: 951-318-3183
lgibson@aats.org
www.aats.org
June 18, 2026
Joseph Woo, MD, Assumes Presidency of the American Association for Thoracic Surgery
Thomas A. D’Amico joins presidential succession as Vice President. New additions to the Board of Directors include Gorav Ailawadi and Faisal G. Bakaeen.
(FAIRFAX, VA) – Joseph Woo, MD, became the 107th President of the American Association for Thoracic Surgery (AATS). He officially succeeded Emile A. Bacha, MD, in a presentation during the AATS 106th Annual Meeting in Chicago.
Dr. Woo is a nationally recognized surgeon, innovator, researcher, and educator in cardiothoracic surgery. He is the Norman E. Shumway Professor and Chair of the Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery at Stanford University School of Medicine and Associate Director of the Stanford Cardiovascular Institute. He also holds a courtesy appointment in the Department of Bioengineering at the Stanford School of Engineering.
Dr. Woo was educated and trained at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the University of Pennsylvania. He has an active clinical practice of more than 300 pump cases each year, focusing on complex mitral and aortic valve repair, thoracic aortic surgery, cardiopulmonary transplantation, and adult congenital heart surgery, and has advanced these fields by developing several innovative operations. He currently serves as principal investigator on two NIH R01 grants and has held continuous NIH funding since 2004. He leads a basic science research lab studying stem cells, angiogenesis, tissue engineering, and valvular biomechanics. He has also served as PI for several clinical device trials, as well as translational scientific clinical trials involving stem cell therapy during coronary artery bypass grafting and LVAD implantation.
Dr. Woo has co-authored over 500 peer-reviewed publications. He has held numerous leadership roles at the AATS, including AATS Foundation Secretary, the AATS 104th Annual Meeting Program Co-Director, Chair of the AATS Scientific Affairs and Government Relations Committee, and Past President of the AATS Cardiac Surgery Biology Club.
Commenting on his presidential priorities, Dr. Woo stated, “The AATS has a proud tradition of advancing the field of cardiothoracic surgery with clinical excellence and bold innovation. My priority will be to champion that vision of the AATS through scholarly discovery, and to ensure they remain at the forefront and inspire the next generation of leaders.”
Joining him in a new position on the Executive Committee is Leonard N. Girardi, MD, who is now President-Elect and is in line to become the Association’s 108th President.
Dr. Girardi is the O. Wayne Isom Professor and Chairman of The Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery at Weill Cornell Medical College. He is also the Cardiothoracic Surgeon-in-Chief at The New York Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center and oversees all cardiothoracic surgical services at the hospital’s main campus as well as the New York Presbyterian regional hospitals in Queens and Brooklyn.
Dr. Girardi completed his undergraduate studies at Harvard University in 1985, obtaining a degree in biochemistry. He then pursued his medical education at Cornell University Medical College, graduating in 1989. He matriculated into a general surgery residency at New York Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center and completed his cardiothoracic surgery residency there in 1996. He then pursued an advanced cardiovascular and aortic surgery fellowship at The Baylor College of Medicine before accepting a faculty position in The Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery at Weill Cornell in 1997. He moved through the promotion process and was ultimately named chairman of the department in February 2015. He is a longstanding member of the Weill Cornell Physician Organization’s executive committee and also serves as chair of that organization’s finance committee.
Throughout his career, Dr. Girardi has been committed to the three pillars of academic surgery including outstanding clinical care, cutting edge research and the education and training of the next generation of cardiothoracic surgeons. He and his team have published extensively across a broad range of adult cardiothoracic surgery topics and have successfully completed numerous prospective, randomized trials in both cardiac surgery and thoracic oncology. Dr. Girardi is an internationally recognized leader in surgery of the aorta and is currently co-director of the AATS Aortic Symposium.
Dr. Girardi served in several leadership positions across the AATS and AATS Foundation including as Treasurer of both organizations from 2023-2025, and as a Director of the Association Board from 2019-2022. Dr. Girardi has chaired numerous AATS Committees and has been instrumental in shaping the Association’s Clinical Practice Standards Documents.
Thomas A. D’Amico, MD, was elected to Vice President, and is in line to become the Association’s 109th President.
Dr. D’Amico is the Gary Hock Endowed Professor, Chief of General Thoracic Surgery, and Director of the Thoracic Oncology Program of the Duke Cancer Institute.
He is a graduate of Harvard University (BA) and the College of Physicians & Surgeons of Columbia University (MD). He received training in General Surgery and Thoracic Surgery at Duke University Medical Center. After completing a Fellowship in Thoracic Surgical Oncology at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, Dr. D’Amico joined the faculty at Duke University Medical Center in 1996. Dr. D’Amico has held many leadership positions for AATS. He is currently Secretary for AATS Foundation, Chair of the AATS Leadership Academy, Program Director for the Asian Thoracic Surgical Oncology Symposium, Co-Chair of the Thoracic Clinical Practice Standards Committee, Chair of the Joint Ethics Forum, Member of the Asian Scholarship Committee and Member of the Finance Committee. He previously served on the AATS Board of Directors, was Program Co-Director of the AATS 105th Annual Meeting, and was Program Director of Focus on Thoracic Surgery China. He is a former Chair of the JATS Fellowship Committee, Ethics and Accreditation Committee, and Membership Committee. He is a past Co-Chair of the Cardiothoracic Residents Committee and a past member of the Publications Committee.
Gorav Ailawadi, MD, was named Director of the Board. Dr. Ailawadi joined the University of Michigan as the Chair of Cardiac Surgery in September of 2020. Previously, he served as the Chief of Cardiac Surgery, Co-Director of the Cardiac Valve Center, and Director of the Medical Device Innovation Center at the University of Virginia.
Dr. Ailawadi has internationally recognized expertise in mitral and aortic valve disease with vast experience in minimally invasive cardiac surgery, and percutaneous/transcatheter valve therapies having performed over 800 minimally invasive procedures and roughly 4,000 heart operations. He has been invited to national and international conferences to share his expertise with novel minimally invasive approaches, valve disease, reoperative and AF surgery. Dr. Ailawadi currently sits on the AATS Foundation Board of Directors. He is also a member of the AATS-CTSN Committee, the Expert Consensus Document on Atrial Functional Mitral Regurgitation and the Cardiac Clinical Practice Standards Committee. He was formerly Co-Chair of the Publications Committee and a member of the Research Scholarship Committee. Additionally, Dr. Ailawadi served as the Structural Heart Track Co-Chair for the AATS 105th and 106th Annual Meetings.
Faisal G. Bakaeen, MD, was named Director of the Board. Dr. Bakaeen is Professor of Surgery at the Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine and the Sheikh Hamdan bin Rashid Al Maktoum Distinguished Chair in the Department of Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery. He serves as the Surgical Director of the Coronary Center at the Heart Vascular and Thoracic Institute at Cleveland Clinic. Previously, Dr. Bakaeen was the Chief of Cardiothoracic Surgery at the Michael E. DeBakey VA Medical Center, Baylor College of Medicine, and the Chair of the VA Surgical Quality Data Use Group and a member of the Surgical Advisory Board that oversaw the clinical operations at all 44 VA cardiac surgery centers. He is past president of the Association of VA Surgeons.
His areas of expertise include multi-arterial and minimally invasive coronary artery bypass grafting in addition to complex valve and aortic surgery. He is the recipient of the Distinguished Service Award and the Fulbright Jaworski Faculty Excellence in Teaching Award from Baylor College of Medicine. He has more than 400 publications and is an active member of multiple editorial boards. Dr. Bakaeen currently serves on the JTCVS Editorial Board. He was most recently Program Co-Director for the AATS 106th Annual Meeting. He has previously served as Program Editor for JTCVS and represented AATS on multiple clinical practice document writing groups including serving as AATS Co-Chair for the Joint International Guidelines Writing Group and serving as Co-Chair of the Adult Cardiac Clinical Practice Standards Committee and the AATS Expert Consensus Document on Coronary Artery Bypass Grafts in Patients with Heart Failure. Dr. Bakaeen has also served as a member of the Cardiac Education Committee.
“I look forward to working with this distinguished group of leaders as we continue to advance the Association's mission,” said AATS Chief Executive Officer, David R. Bobbitt, MSc, MBA. “Their collective expertise, commitment to excellence, and dedication to improving patient care will help shape the future of cardiothoracic surgery and strengthen our global community.”
Full 2026-2027 Leadership:
- President: Joseph Woo, Stanford University
- President-Elect: Leonard N. Girardi, Weill Cornell Medical Center
- Vice President: Thomas A. D’Amico, Duke Medical Center
- Secretary: Maral Ouzounian, Toronto General Hospital
- Treasurer: Anelechi C. Anyanwu, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai
Directors of the Board:
- Gorav Ailawadi, University of Michigan Frankel Cardiovascular Center
- Emile A. Bacha, Columbia University Medical Center
- Faisal G. Bakaeen, Cleveland Clinic
- Craig J. Baker, University of Southern California
- Clifford W. Barlow, University Hospital Southampton
- Bryan M. Burt, University of California Los Angeles
- Ismail El-Hamamsy, Mount Sinai Hospital
- Sitaram Emani, Boston Children’s Hospital
- Marc Gillinov, Cleveland Clinic
- Daniela Molena, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center
- Song Wan, Tongji Hospital, Tongji Medical College
- Kazuhiro Yasufuku, University Health Network
Ex-Officio Roles
- AATS Foundation President: David H. Adams, Mount Sinai Hospital
- Director of Industry Relations: Yolonda L. Colson, Massachusetts General Hospital
ABOUT THE AMERICAN ASSOCIATION FOR THORACIC SURGERY (AATS)
The American Association for Thoracic Surgery (AATS) is an international organization that encourages, promotes, and stimulates the scientific investigation of cardiothoracic surgery. Founded in 1917 by a respected group of the earliest pioneers in the field, its original mission was to “foster the evolution of an interest in surgery of the Thorax.” Today, the AATS is the premiere association for cardiothoracic surgeons in the world and works to continually enhance the ability of cardiothoracic surgeons to provide the highest quality of patient care. Its more than 1,500 members have a proven record of distinction within the specialty and have made significant contributions to the care and treatment of cardiothoracic disease. Visit www.aats.org to learn more.