Jennifer C Romano has been named president of the Society of Thoracic Surgeons (STS), the first woman to hold the office in the organisation’s 60-year history.
Romano is a congenital heart surgeon at Congenital Heart Center/CS Mott Children’s Hospital and the Herbert Sloan Collegiate Professor of Cardiac Surgery at the University of Michigan Medical School (Ann Arbor, USA). She was elected during the society’s business meeting taking place at the 2024 annual meeting (27–29 January, San Antonio, USA).
In a press releasre, Romano was quoted as saying that she sees her new role as a catalyst for increased modernisation and diversity across the organisation and the cardiothoracic surgery field.
“I’m honoured and excited to be selected by the board as the new president of the Society of Thoracic Surgeons,” said Dr. Romano. “I’m ready to lead our members into this next chapter and increase our impact on the specialty and patient care.”
“STS is the voice of our profession and our patients,” added Romano. “So how can we become better advocates for each other and the patients we serve? We must be more dynamic and flexible and find ways to improve work-life balance. Because when people are happy in all areas of life—career, family, and personal hobbies—they are better surgeons and better leaders.”
After graduating from Harvard Medical School, Dr. Romano looked for residency programs that were inclusive of women and The University of Michigan was one of them.
“When I started interviewing with surgery programs, many had never trained a woman in surgery. But Michigan had a strong tradition of female surgical trainees,” Romano said.
Also elected during the annual meeting was Joseph Sabik III (University Hospitals Cleveland Medical Center, Cleveland, USA) as first vice president, and Vinay Badhwar (West Virginia University, Morgantown, USA) as second vice president.
