2025 Annual Meeting, Bios

Eric Adams is the Supervisor of Nuclear Medicine and PET at Baptist Health Lexington and has spent his career with a genuine passion for nuclear imaging and patient care. He especially enjoys the evolving field of nuclear cardiology and the opportunities that PET imaging brings to help provide physicians with better information for patient diagnosis and treatment. Eric believes strongly in learning from one another and enjoys working with technologists, physicians, and healthcare teams to share ideas, improve processes, and find better ways to care for patients.

Dr. George Davis (PharmD) is Antithrombotic Stewardship Program Coordinator at UK HealthCare Pharmacy Services and Adjunct Professor with University of Kentucky College of Pharmacy. He completed pharmacy residency and research fellowship training at the University of Kentucky and has been a clinical pharmacist at UK HealthCare for over 25 years with practice, teaching, research, and scholarly activity focused in clinical pharmacokinetics and antithrombosis pharmacotherapeutics. Dr. Davis is co-lead of the multidisciplinary Pulmonary Embolism Response Team (PERT) at UK HealthCare and actively involved in the National PERT Consortium including serving as a member of the PERT Consortium Board of Directors and Education, Protocol Development, and Research committees. Most recently, he served on the steering committee on Pulmonary Embolism Research Collaborative (PERC) to define and develop consensus about the components of clinical care and outcomes.

Robert Evers is the Manager and Technical Director of the Echo Lab at Baptist Health Louisville, with over 30 years of experience in cardiovascular diagnostics. Speaker hypertrophic cardiomyopathy for Bristol Myers Squibb (BMS).

Dr. Michele Friday, MD, FACC, FSCAI is a Cardiologist and Director of the Women's Heart Program at UK King's Daughters. She completed her Cardiology Fellowship at Seton Hall University and her Interventional Cardiology Fellowship at Beth Israel Medical Center in Manhattan. Dr. Friday serves as Chair of Women in Cardiology for the Kentucky Chapter of the American College of Cardiology, Board Member of KY ACC, and Member of the Planning Committee for the KY ACC Scientific Session. Her clinical and academic interests focus on preventive cardiology, population health, and women's cardiac care. She is dedicated to advancing cardiovascular care for women through clinical leadership, education, and advocacy. Dr. Friday is passionate about improving cardiac outcomes through prevention, early detection, and equitable access to care.

Dr. Hesselson has nearly 40 years of experience in the field of cardiac electrophysiology, both as a biomedical engineer and as a board certified physician. He completed his engineering degree at Rutgers University and medical school at UMDNJ-NJ Medical School. Medical residency followed at Boston Beth Israel and fellowships at Duke University. The past 25 years have been spent in Kentucky practicing at Baptist Lexington, UK Medical Center, and now King's Daughters.

Dr. Hisham Hirzallah is an Interventional and Structural Cardiologist at UK King’s Daughters in Ashland, Kentucky. He completed his residency in Internal Medicine and fellowship in General Cardiology at Marshall University in Huntington, West Virginia, from 2016 to 2022, followed by advanced fellowship training in Interventional and Structural Cardiology at Allegheny General Hospital in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, from 2022 to 2023. Since joining UK King’s Daughters in July 2023, Dr. Hirzallah has focused on the treatment of complex coronary artery disease and structural heart disease, including transcatheter valve interventions and other minimally invasive cardiovascular procedures. He is dedicated to delivering high-quality, evidence-based care and remains actively engaged in advancing the field of interventional cardiology through education and collaboration.

Dr. Kalra is the Governor of KY-ACC and Chief of Cardiology at University of Louisville. His clinical and research expertise is in multimodality imaging and Preventive Cardiology/Lipidology. He serves as Chair-elect of the BOG of the ACC and the Editor-in-Chief of JACC: Advances.

Dr. Khandelwal is the System Chair, Cardiovascular Medicine for Allegheny Health Network, a 17-hospital health system in Western Pennsylvania as well as the Treasurer, Board of Trustees, American College of Cardiology. Clinically, Dr. Khandelwal is an interventional cardiologist with a background in complex PCI, STEMI/shock, and cardiac critical care.

Paul League has been employed with the University of Kentucky for 19 years. Most of that time was spent in the adult echo lab however, I worked for approximately 2 years in the pediatric echo lab. I currently serve as the lead Sonographer in the adult echo lab and have experience with various aspects of echocardiography including adult congenital, stress echo, Cath lab procedures, and complex ventricular assist devices.

Dr. Michelle McKee, PharmD, is a Field Medical Director in the Cardiometabolic Division of Medical Affairs at Ionis. She has over 20 years of experience in the pharmaceutical industry. In her current role, she serves as a scientific resource for clinicians, researchers, and internal cross-functional teams in addition to supporting clinical trials, investigator-initiated research, and evidence-generation activities. She is passionate about translating complex science into meaningful education that supports informed treatment decisions.

Dr. Laxmi Mehta is Chief Well-Being Leader and Faculty Director of the Gabbe Well-Being Office at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center. She holds the Sarah Ross Soter Endowed Chair in Women’s Cardiovascular Health and serves as Director of Preventive Cardiology and Women’s Cardiovascular Health. Her clinical and academic work focuses on cardiovascular disease prevention, women’s cardiovascular health, clinician well-being and burnout. Dr. Mehta serves as Chair of the ACC’s Membership Committee and the Clinician Well-Being Work Group and will join the ACC Board of Trustees in spring 2027. She previously served as President and Secretary/Treasurer of the Ohio Chapter of the ACC.

Tamar Polonsky is an Associate Professor of Medicine in the Section of Cardiology at the University of Chicago Medicine. She is the Director of Cardiovascular Prevention and has an active clinical practice seeing patients in the inpatient and outpatient settings. She has experience analyzing data from NHLBI-sponsored population-based cohort studies, including MESA, CARDIA and REGARDS. She contributed to some of the early studies showing the significant improvement in cardiovascular risk assessment when coronary artery calcium scores were added to risk prediction models. Since 2011, she has served on the Executive Committee of the Walking and Leg Circulation Study, a multi-disciplinary team led by Dr. Mary McDermott, at Northwestern University, studying novel therapies to improve walking performance in peripheral artery disease (PAD).

Dr. Mark Slaughter is Professor of Surgery (with tenure) and Chair of the Department of Cardiovascular and Thoracic Surgery at the University of Louisville and has an adjunct appointment in the Department of Bioengineering. In addition, he serves as the Surgical Director of the Heart Transplant and Mechanical Assist Device Program at the University of Louisville and Jewish Hospital. Dr. Slaughter currently serves as a consultant to the FDA Medical Device Review Panel, and is National Science Foundation SBIR/STTR grant reviewer. Dr. Slaughter has served as the President of the American Society Artificial Internal Organs and President of the International Society of Rotary Blood Pumps. Dr. Slaughter was the Editor in Chief for ten years for the ASAIO Journal. He currently serves as an Oral Board Examiner for the ABTS (American Board Thoracic Surgery) and serves as the ABTS representative for the ACGME Thoracic RRC Committee.

I am a Nuclear Cardiology Technologist with 20 years of experience in the field of Nuclear Medicine, including 15 years specializing in cardiology. Throughout my career, I have developed extensive expertise in performing and supporting diagnostic nuclear cardiac imaging procedures while maintaining a strong commitment to patient care and safety. My experience has allowed me to work with diverse patients and healthcare teams, continually expanding my knowledge and technical skills. I take pride in providing compassionate, professional care while helping patients feel comfortable and informed throughout their imaging experience. With two decades in the field, I bring a wealth of knowledge, dedication, and passion to the practice of nuclear cardiology.

Dr. Dong Bo Yu is a non-invasive cardiologist in Louisville and a multimodality imager, serving as the Medical Director of Cardiovascular Imaging for the Baptist Health system. Dr. Yu received BA from Harvard College, MD-PhD at UT Southwestern in Dallas, Texas, and residency and fellowship training at University of Chicago Hospitals. In addition to overseeing the growth of imaging services at the 8 Baptist Health markets in Kentucky and southern Indiana, Dr. Yu has served as the annual meeting co-chair of Kentucky ACC since 2024 and actively participated in multiple initiatives involving education, research, community outreach, and advocacy.