Joseph A. Hill, M.D., Ph.D., receives American Heart Association’s Gold Heart Award
Award honors UTSW cardiologist’s decades-long volunteer roles at the AHA and tenure as editor-in-chief of Circulation, the organization’s flagship journal
DALLAS – June 25, 2026 – Joseph A. Hill, M.D., Ph.D., Professor of Internal Medicine in the Division of Cardiology, Professor of Molecular Biology, and Director of the Harry S. Moss Heart Center at UT Southwestern Medical Center, has received the Gold Heart Award, the American Heart Association’s (AHA) highest volunteer honor.
“I have always believed that when someone reaches a certain point in their career, it’s important to give back,” Dr. Hill said. “It’s been incredibly gratifying to have been able to serve the cardiovascular medicine and research community in multiple volunteer roles.”
The Gold Heart Award recognizes Dr. Hill’s volunteer leadership roles within the AHA, particularly as editor-in-chief of Circulation, its flagship journal – a position he will leave June 30 after a decade of service. The award was announced June 23 at the AHA’s National Volunteer Awards ceremony in Irving, Texas.
When Dr. Hill began his leadership of Circulation in 2016, its impact factor – a measure of a journal’s prestige and influence based on the number of citations its articles receive – was 19. It has more than doubled since then and currently stands at 41, making it the most influential journal in cardiovascular health.
The editorial board’s careful decisions on which articles to publish – about six of the 100 submissions it receives each week – have played an enormous part in boosting Circulation’s impact factor. Over the last decade, Dr. Hill has devoted about 80 hours monthly to Circulation, including a weekly two-hour meeting with more than 40 associate editors in 17 countries and 10 time zones to discuss which papers will make the cut.
The team also introduced three annual special issues during Dr. Hill’s tenure, including a “Go Red for Women” issue on female cardiovascular health, plus others based on cardiovascular surgery and disparities in cardiovascular medicine. These choices have shaped the field of cardiology globally.
“What Joe did leading Circulation is nothing short of remarkable. He built a global team of editors that was essential to achieve his collaborative ‘one world’ vision of cardiovascular science, yet the core of the team was based at UT Southwestern,” said James de Lemos, M.D., Professor of Internal Medicine and of Epidemiology in the Peter O’Donnell Jr. School of Public Health and Chief of the Division of Cardiology. “The weekly meetings – the best journal club any of us has been involved with – will remain a career highlight for all of us. We’re all so proud and grateful to have been invited to be part of this journey.”
The Gold Heart Award also recognizes Dr. Hill’s numerous volunteer roles outside the AHA, including stints as President of the Association of University Cardiologists and Chair of the Academic Council of the American College of Cardiology. Dr. Hill is also a dedicated mentor both in the clinic and the lab and a three-time recipient of UT Southwestern’s Outstanding Teacher Award.
After earning medical and doctoral degrees at Duke University, Dr. Hill completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the Institut Pasteur in Paris, followed by internal medicine residency training and a clinical cardiology fellowship at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston. He joined the UT Southwestern faculty in 2002 to become Chief of the Division of Cardiology, a position he held for 21 years before stepping down in 2023.
Dr. Hill’s many honors include the 2025 Gill Heart and Vascular Institute Award for Outstanding Contributions to Cardiovascular Research, the 2023 Medal of Merit from the International Academy of Cardiovascular Sciences, the 2019 Louis and Artur Lucian Award from McGill University, and the 2018 Research Achievement Award from the International Society for Heart Research.
Dr. Hill holds the Frank M. Ryburn, Jr. Chair in Heart Research and the James T. Willerson, M.D. Distinguished Chair in Cardiovascular Diseases. Dr. de Lemos holds the Sweetheart Ball - Kern Wildenthal, M.D., Ph.D. Distinguished Chair in Cardiology.
About UT Southwestern Medical Center
UT Southwestern, one of the nation’s premier academic medical centers, integrates pioneering biomedical research with exceptional clinical care and education. The institution’s faculty members have received six Nobel Prizes and include 27 members of the National Academy of Sciences, 25 members of the National Academy of Medicine, and 13 Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigators. The full-time faculty of nearly 3,400 is responsible for groundbreaking medical advances and is committed to translating science-driven research quickly to new clinical treatments. UT Southwestern physicians in more than 80 specialties care for more than 143,000 hospitalized patients, attend to more than 470,000 emergency room cases, and oversee nearly 5.3 million outpatient visits a year.