DALLAS — May 4, 2009 — Dr. Scott Grundy, director of the Center for Human Nutrition and chairman of clinical nutrition at UT Southwestern Medical Center, and Dr. Ronald Victor, chief of hypertension at UT Southwestern, have received two of the top awards presented by the American Heart Association.

Dr. Grundy was honored with the Gold Heart Award, an annual award and the highest honor the association gives to volunteers who have provided continued distinguished service.

Dr. Victor received the association’s Louis B. Russell Jr. Memorial Award for outstanding service to minority and underserved populations. In 2003, Dr. Victor initiated a program at two Dallas-area barbershops to improve the awareness, treatment and control of high blood pressure among African-American men by having the barbers measure their customers’ blood pressures when they came in for a haircut. 

	Dr. Scott Grundy, director of the Center for Human Nutrition and chairman of clinical nutrition.

Dr. Victor, director of the Houston J. and Florence A. Doswell Center for the Development of New Approaches for the Treatment of Hypertension, holds the Norman and Audrey Kaplan Chair in Hypertension and the Dallas Heart Ball Chair in Hypertension and Heart Disease at UT Southwestern.

An American Heart Association volunteer since 1973, Dr. Grundy has played a pivotal role in the development of the AHA’s recommended treatment guidelines for reducing risk factors associated with cardiovascular disease. He has served on more than 20 of the organization’s national committees and task forces, often as chair, and served as the association’s first representative to the U.S. National Cholesterol Education Program (NCEP) when it was established in 1985.

In 1993 and 2001, Dr. Grundy headed the NCEP Adult Treatment Panels II and III, made up of the nation’s top cholesterol experts. The group was charged with setting national guidelines for controlling cholesterol to prevent coronary heart disease. 

“The NCEP has set the standard for treatment of high blood cholesterol in the United States, and I was privileged to be the chair of the treatment panel of the NCEP between 1991 and 2005,” Dr. Grundy said. “The guidelines set by the NCEP not only have been accepted as the standard in this country, but they also have been influential worldwide”

More recently, Dr. Grundy chaired the AHA’s Council on Arteriosclerosis, which he helped expand to include thrombosis and vascular biology, and helped form the Council on Nutrition, Physical Activity and Metabolism.

“I’ve worked with the American Heart Association for more than 30 years and have been involved in many of their prevention programs to reduce heart disease in the U.S.,” Dr. Grundy said. “I feel great pride in what has been achieved. This award represents recognition not only of my work, but also of the accomplishments of the American Heart Association in preventing heart disease in America.”

Dr. Grundy received the American Heart Association’s Award of Merit in 1983 and its Distinguished Achievement Award in 1997, and he was one of six physicians selected by the organization as a Distinguished Scientist in 2005.

He has published more than 300 original papers and numerous solicited articles and book chapters. He also has served on the editorial boards of the American Heart Association journals Circulation and Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis, and Vascular Biology.

Dr. Grundy received his undergraduate degree from Texas Technological College, now Texas Tech University; earned a combined medical and master’s degree from Baylor College of Medicine in 1960; and was awarded an honorary degree in medicine from the University of Helsinki, Finland. He is a member of the Institute of Medicine, the American Society for Clinical Investigation, the Association of American Physicians, the American Society for Clinical Nutrition and the American Institute of Nutrition.

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Media Contact: Kristen Holland Shear
214-648-3404
kristen.hollandshear@utsouthwestern.edu

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