The Nominations Committee, chaired by Dr. Raymond Stainback, has nominated the following candidates for Officers and Directors of the American Society of Echocardiography.
Current members of ASE, please vote for the officers and directors using this ballot. You may write in nominees in the blank spaces instead of the person nominated. You may only vote for one person for each position. Your ballot must be received by March 27, 2024. The new officers and directors will be introduced at the Scientific Sessions’ ASE Presidential Address, Awards and State of the ASE Plenary Session on Saturday, June 15, 2024. Please review the slate below and cast your vote. Thank you.
Officer Nominated to Presidential Ladder
(One-Year Term – Expires June 2025)
Vice-President: Cynthia Taub, MD, MBA, FASE, SUNY Upstate Medical University Syracuse, NY
Dr. Taub is the Edward C. Reifenstein Chair of Department of Medicine, Tenured Professor of Medicine at SUNY Upstate. She is a physician leader with over 30 years experience in diverse organization settings including private practice of medicine and large academic medical centers. She has demonstrated excellence in clinical care and operations, quality assessment and performance improvement, patient safety, team leadership, and multidisciplinary program building. Dr. Taub has had extensive research experience in evaluating access to health care and disparity in health care delivery in multi-racial and underserved population in the Bronx, clinical application of advanced cardiac imaging techniques, and heart disease in women. During her tenure at Dartmouth as the Chief of Cardiology, she contributed to cardiovascular medicine’s academic culture with emphasis on investigator-initiated research and quality initiatives, in addition to outstanding clinical care and training in the rural setting. She spearheaded several new interdisciplinary programs such as cardio-obstetrics, cardio-oncology, and cardio-orthopedics, at Dartmouth Health. Before joining Dartmouth, she spent over 13 years at Montefiore Medical Center serving as the section head of non-invasive cardiology and integrating quality practices throughout Montefiore hospitals and outpatient imaging services. She was a cardiac imaging leader for the CTSN trials at Montefiore. Dr. Taub has been a member of ASE for over 20 years, currently serving on the Board of Directors as the treasurer. She received ASE’s Richard Popp Excellence in Teaching Award in 2022. Dr. Taub received her medical degree from Beijing Medical University, master’s degree in Biology from Dartmouth College, and MBA from the Yale School of Management.
Officer Nominated for Treasurer
(Three-Year Term – Expires June 2027)
Akhil Narang, MD, FASE, Northwestern Medicine Chicago, IL
Dr. Narang is a cardiologist at Northwestern Medicine and Assistant Professor of Medicine at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine. He is the Director of the Echocardiography Laboratory at Northwestern University. He completed his medicine, cardiology, echocardiography, and cardiac MRI/CT training at the University of Chicago. Dr. Narang specializes in the management of patients with structural and valvular heart disease and provides imaging expertise for transcatheter/structural heart disease interventions. He also focuses on the incorporation of new technology in cardiovascular imaging such as artificial intelligence/machine learning. He has published extensively in these areas. Dr. Narang has been a Fellow of ASE since 2020 and has served on numerous ASE committees and taskforces. He was a member of the inaugural cohort of the ASE Leadership Academy and was elected to the ASE Board of Directors in 2022. He also currently serves as the Co-Director for ASE AScEXAM Review Course. Dr. Narang is also a Fellow of the American College of Cardiology and Society for Cardiovascular Magnetic Resonance and co-founded the Chicagoland Society of Echocardiography.
Officer Nominated for Secretary
(Two-Year Term – Expires June 2026)
Melissa Wasserman, RDCS, RCCS, FASE, Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia Philadelphia, PA
Ms. Wasserman is expert in the use of echocardiography in congenital heart disease and is passionate about improving the lives of children through cardiovascular ultrasound teaching, research, and clinical care. As the Supervisor of Echo Lab Satellite Operations at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP), she is responsible for operations of 12 echo labs performing over 14,000 echocardiograms annually. Melissa’s interests include echocardiography in adults with congenital heart disease, training adult sonographers in imaging congenital heart disease, and echocardiography in the pediatric cardio-oncology population. As a dedicated educator, Melissa has focused on congenital sonographer training both through her work as a subject matter expert for the Congenital Echocardiography board of Cardiovascular Credentialing International for the last seven years, as co-author of “The Congenital Echocardiographer’s Pocket Reference,” and as chair of the ASE task force to create guidelines for adult sonographers screening for complex congenital heart disease in the newborn. Her expertise goes beyond her 20 years at CHOP, having participated in several volunteer activities such as traveling with the ASE Foundation to screen children in Kenya.
Officer Nominated for Council Representative
(Two-Year Term – Expires June 2026)
Kelly Thorson, DHSc, MSRS, ACS, RDCS, FASE, Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital Stanford Palo Alto, CA
Dr. Thorson is the manager of echocardiography services at Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital and Stanford Children’s Health. He is also a lecturer at Stanford University Medical School, Department of Pediatrics, Cardiology Division. Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital, Stanford is a center of excellence in congenital heart disease diagnosis and repair and acts as a regional tertiary center and a national/international quaternary referral center for the treatment of congenital heart disease. Dr. Thorson’s recent research activities focus on fetal echocardiography and novel measures in vascular rings as predictors of outcome. Additional research interests include the diagnostic utility of advanced cardiac imaging including, cardiac CT, cardiac MR, and echocardiography in congenital heart disease and myocardial mechanics. Other interests include the practical application of education theory in the mentoring and education of echocardiography learners. Dr. Thorson has volunteered with the ARDMS and ASE for over a decade. Most recently, he served on the ASE Board of Directors as Secretary. He received a bachelor’s degree in Diagnostic Cardiac Ultrasound, and a master’s degree in Radiologic Science from Weber State University. He completed a Doctorate in Health Science from A.T. Still University. He is a Fellow of ASE. He is registered as an Advanced Cardiac Sonographer with Cardiovascular Credentialing International. He is also credentialed as a Registered Diagnostic Cardiac Sonographer in adult, pediatric, and fetal echocardiography with the American Registry for Diagnostic Medical Sonography.
Director Nominated for International Representative Nominated
(Two-Year Term – Expires June 2026)
Tony Forshaw, M Cardiac Ultrasound, B Ex Sci, AMS (Cardiac), FASE, Queensland University of Technology Queensland, Australia
Mr. Forshaw is an echo educator and clinical cardiac sonographer at Hearts 1st, in Brisbane Australia. Tony has a masters degree in Cardiac Ultrasound and continues to have a strong ongoing interest in research. His main areas of interest are contrast echocardiography, remote and indigenous health, quality improvement in echocardiography and the development of machine learning models in echocardiography. Tony passionately enjoys the art of performing echocardiography and is obsessed with improving quality. He has worked as a sonographer for over 20 years, and was course coordinator for the post graduate cardiac ultrasound program at Queensland University of Technology. He is a vocal campaigner for improving standards of sonographer training and an enthusiastic speaker at national and international conferences on a variety of echo topics. Mr. Forshaw served as a president of the Australasian Sonographers Association (ASA). He has been a long-standing member and Fellow of ASE and has contributed to ASE as a volunteer serving on the PR committee and as course director of the Advanced Echo Techniques Virtual course. Tony has co-authored textbook chapters and contributed video resources to exam preparation courses in advanced echocardiography. Mr. Forshaw is the director of Echo Guru, providing online echo education to a global audience. Through his online education platforms, Tony has built a solid reputation in the international echo community and is enthusiastic about working to represent and further strengthen this community within the ASE membership.
Directors Nominated
(Two-Year Term – Expires June 2026)
Kristen Billick, BS, ACS, RCS, RDCS (AE, PE) FASE, Scripps Clinic and La Jolla Hospital La Jolla, CA
Ms. Billick has been a cardiac sonographer for over 20 years. She is currently the Echo Lab Manager for Scripps Clinic and Scripps La Jolla Memorial and Green Hospitals in La Jolla, CA, where she was previously the Echo Lab Educator. Kristen started her career at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago, IL, where she performed adult and pediatric echo. Over the years Kristen has worked in various settings, to include inpatient academic, outpatient clinic, structural heart, pediatric, research, consulting, and animal imaging. She has been a guest lecturer and has co-authored many articles. She is passionate about quality improvement, education, scientific advancements (especially AI and structural heart procedures), process improvement implementation, and mentoring. Ms. Billick loves making a difference in the echo community and in the lives of patients through volunteerism. She is very involved in ASE where she serves as the Chair of the PR Committee, she is the Sonographer Representative on the Governance and Compliance Committee, and she also serves on the ASE Artificial Intelligence Task Force. Kristen is also currently on the writing group for the ASE Diastology Guideline Update and ASE Artifacts Guideline. Ms. Billick earned the FASE designation in 2015. She is a graduate of the inaugural ASE Leadership Academy and has served as a Member at Large on the ASE CV Sonographer Council Steering Committee, the ASE IRT Committee, and the ASE Foundation Annual Appeal Committee. She is also very involved in co-organizing the San Diego Society of Echo and has grown the small society tremendously over the past eight years. Kristen also serves on the CCI Advisory Board and the CCI Advanced Cardiac Sonographer Exam Writing Committee.
Jennifer Liu, MD, FASE, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center New York, NY
Dr. Liu is the Chief of Cardiology at the Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center and a Professor of Clinical Medicine at the Weill Cornell Medical College. She graduated from Columbia College and completed her MD degree at the University of Rochester School of Medicine, followed by an Internal Medicine residency at Montefiore Hospital/Albert Einstein Medical College and a Fellowship in Cardiovascular Disease at New York-Presbyterian/Weill Cornell Medical Center. Dr. Liu is a recognized leader in the field of Cardio-Oncology with expertise in echocardiographic imaging. Her clinical and research endeavors encompass the investigation of the role of advanced imaging in the diagnosis and management of cancer therapy-related cardiac dysfunction. She has led several expert consensus documents for setting practice standards on the use of echo for cardiotoxicity monitoring. Dr. Liu has been invited to speak on this topic nationally and internationally. She has served on the ACC Cardio-Oncology Leadership Council and the editorial board of JACC Cardio-Oncology. Additionally, she is a member of the Research and Scientific Advisory Committee for the International Cardio-Oncology Society. Dr. Liu is a Fellow of ASE. She served as an ASE representative to the ACC Cardio-Oncology: Risk Assessment and Management Strategies Roundtable in Washington, DC. She was part of the writing group for the ASE consensus document on the “Echocardiographic Evaluation of Adult Patients During and After Cancer Treatment.” Dr. Liu has contributed to the Education committee, Industry Roundtable committee, Scientific Meeting Planning Committee, and is currently a member of the ASE Foundation Annual Appeal Committee. She is also a key member of the leadership team on the Cardio-Oncology Specialty Interest Group.
Kameswari Maganti, MD, FACC, FASE, Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School New Brunswick, NJ
Dr. Maganti is Professor of Medicine, Section Chief of the Division of Non-Invasive Cardiology and the Director of Echocardiography laboratory at Rutgers University. She is well versed in all modalities of echocardiography. She received her medical degree from Guntur Medical College, Guntur, India. She completed her residency in Internal Medicine from Louis A Weiss memorial hospital in Chicago, Cardiology Fellowship at University of Nebraska Medical Center, Omaha, NE, and advanced imaging fellowship at Northwestern University, Chicago, IL. She is board certified in cardiovascular disease, diplomate in adult echocardiography and nuclear cardiology. Dr. Maganti’s interests include valvular heart disease, applications of advanced echo imaging in various disease states, implementation of newer technologies such as AI and advancing quality metrics. She has been an ASE member since 2003, a Fellow of ASE since 2006, and has served on multiple committees, task forces and guideline working groups. She volunteered for a Global Health Outreach with the ASE Foundation for the first time last year in Vietnam, and thoroughly enjoyed the experience, and plans to do more in the future. She is currently the Chair of Membership Committee and an ASE delegate at AMA House of Delegates.
********************************************************************************************************************************************************June 2024 – June 2025 Board of Directors EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE
President (term expires June 2025)
Theodore Abraham, MD, FASE
University of California, San Francisco
San Francisco, CA
President-Elect (term expires June 2025)
David Wiener, MD, FASE
Thomas Jefferson University Hospital
Philadelphia, PA
Vice President (term expires June 2025)
Nomination Above
Treasurer (term expires June 2027)
Nomination Above
Secretary (term expires June 2026)
Nomination Above
Council Representative (term expires June 2026)
Nomination Above
Immediate Past President (term expires June 2025)
Benjamin Eidem, MD, FASE
Mayo Clinic
Rochester, MN
Chief Executive Officer Robin Wiegerink, MNPL
American Society of Echocardiography
Durham, NC
DIRECTORS (terms expire June 2025)
Pediatric & Congenital Heart Disease Council Chair
Craig Fleishman, MD, FASE
Arnold Palmer Hospital for Children
Orlando, FL
Perioperative Echocardiography Council Chair
Sheela Pai Cole, MD, FASE
Stanford University Medical Center
Redwood City, CA
Member at Large
Enrique Garcia-Sayan, MD, FASE
Baylor College of Medicine
Houston, TX
Member at Large
Allison Hays, MD, FASE
Johns Hopkins University
Baltimore, MD
Member at Large
Lanqi Hua, ACS, APCA, RDCS(AE, PE, FE), MS, FASE
Massachusetts General Hospital
Boston, MA
Member at Large
Seda Tierney, MD, FASE
Stanford University Medical Center
Palo Alto, CA
Leadership Academy Representative
Lucy Safi, DO, FASE
Mount Sinai
West New York, NJ
Past President Member
Susan Wiegers, MD, FASE
Lewis Katz School of Medicine at Temple University
Philadelphia, PA
DIRECTORS (terms expire June 2026)
Cardiovascular Sonography Council Chair
Allyson Boyle, MHA, ACS, RDCS, FASE
Sanger Heart and Vascular Institute – Atrium Health
Charlotte, NC
Circulation & Vascular Ultrasound Council Chair
Matthew Vorsanger, MD, FACC, RPVI, FASE
NYU Grossman School of Medicine
New York, NY
Interventional Echocardiography Council Chair
Nishath Quader, MD, FASE
Washington University in St. Louis
St. Louis, MO
Member at Large
Nomination Above
Member at Large
Nomination Above
Member at Large
Nomination Above
International Representative
Nomination Above