Nanette Wenger Lectureship

History of the Nanette Wenger Lectureship:

When Nanette K. Wenger, MD, professor of medicine in the division of cardiology at Emory University School of Medicine began her career, heart disease was something doctors thought only affected men. Today, the American Society for Preventive Cardiology honors her significant contributions as a champion for women’s heart health with a lectureship in her name. “Dr. Wenger is an icon in many aspects of cardiology, but perhaps her greatest achievement involves her commitment to exposing the previously unrecognized toll cardiovascular disease takes on women,” says Seth J. Baum, MD, immediate past president of the American Society for Preventive Cardiology. “It is safe to say that without Dr. Wenger’s tireless efforts; women’s cardiovascular care would not have advanced to where it is today. We all owe her a tremendous debt of gratitude. There is no one who could better speak to the cause of women and heart health than Dr. Nanette K. Wenger."

2024 Nanette Wenger, MD Award Recipient

Noel Bairey Merz, MD

Irwin and Sheila Allen Chair in Women’s Heart Research Director
Barbra Streisand Women's Heart Center

Director, Linda Joy Pollin Women's Heart Health Program

Erika J Glazer Women’s Heart Research Initiative Director, Preventive Cardiac Center

Professor of Medicine
Cedars-Sinai Heart Institute

C. Noel Bairey Merz, MD, is Director of the Barbra Streisand Women's Heart Center, the Linda Joy Pollin Women’s Heart Health Program, the Erika J. Glazer Women’s Heart Research Initiative, and the Preventive Cardiac Center at the Smidt Cedars-Sinai Heart Institute. She also is Professor of Medicine at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center.

Dr. Bairey Merz's research interests include women and cardiovascular disease, mental stress and heart disease, the role of exercise and stress management in reversing disease, the role of cholesterol and nutrition management in heart disease, adverse pregnancy outcomes and cardiovascular disease, and precision medicine monitoring to predict unexpected cardiovascular events. She is chair of the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute (NHLBI)-sponsored WISE (Women's Ischemic Syndrome Evaluation) initiative, which is investigating potential methods for more effective diagnosis and evaluation of ischemic heart disease in women. Dr. Bairey Merz has received investigational grants from the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute (NHLBI), NIH-National Center for Alternative and Complementary Medicine (NCCAM), the National Institutes of Aging (NIA), the Flight Attendants Medical Research Institute, the Pfeiffer Foundation, the Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation, the Barbra Streisand Foundation, the Erika J. Glazer Women’s Heart Research Initiative, the Society for Women’s Health Research, the Linda Joy Pollin Women’s Heart Health Program, and the Congressionally Directed Medical Research Program of the Department of Defense.

Dr. Bairey Merz received her bachelor's degree from the University of Chicago and her medical degree from Harvard University. She completed her residency at the University of California, San Francisco, where she served as Chief Medical Resident. Dr. Bairey Merz also completed fellowships in clinical cardiology and nuclear cardiology and served as Chief Cardiology Fellow at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center.

Previous Winners of the Nanette Wenger Lectureship

2023 Janet S. Wright, MD, MACC
2022 Carl J. Pepine, MD, MACC
2021 JoAnn Manson, MD, MPH, DrPH
2020 Leslee J. Shaw, PhD, FACC, MASNC, FAHA, FSCCT
2019 Martha Gulati, MD, MS, FACC, FAHA
2018 Lori Mosca
2016 Roxana Mehran
2015 Mary McGowan