CHICAGO, Ill., July 10, 2019 – After serving the previous year as president of the Society for Vascular Surgery, Dr. Michel S. Makaroun has moved into his new role as chair of the SVS Foundation.
As chair of the charitable arm of the SVS, Dr. Makaroun will oversee the foundation’s competitive, peer-reviewed, grant-making initiatives, which are made possible by contributions from members, medical societies and corporations.
He took an early step towards this effort while serving as president, when he proposed and helped to launch the 2019 Vascular Spectacular gala at the SVS annual meeting, an event that sold out quickly and proved to be an excellent fundraiser for the Foundation.
Dr. Makaroun is a professor and chair of vascular surgery and of clinical and translational science at the University of Pittsburgh and co-director of UPMC Heart and Vascular Institute.
A native of Lebanon, Dr. Makaroun earned his medical degree and spent his first three years of residency at the American University of Beirut before joining the training program at the University Health Center of Pittsburgh in 1980. He joined the faculty of the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine in 1986.
Dr. Makaroun has been active in the SVS in a variety of roles since 1997 and most recently has served on the executive, international relations, membership and document oversight committees. He is a distinguished fellow of the SVS and served as secretary from 2013-2016.