M. Cass Wheeler has been chief executive officer of the American Heart Association since October 1997. He began his career with the association in 1973, at the Texas Affiliate in Austin.
Under Wheeler's leadership, the American Heart Association merged its 56 state and metropolitan affiliates into 10 regional affiliates and adopted a single corporate structure. It also approved a far-reaching health-impact goal calling for the reduction of coronary heart disease, stroke and risk by 25 percent by 2010.
During Wheeler's tenure, the association has also
Created the American Stroke Association as a division of the American Heart Association.
Increased emphasis on measurable outcomes in preventing and treating heart disease and stroke. This includes identifying and serving six critical market segments with specific customer-centric activities.
Launched Go Red For Women, an award-winning national campaign to raise women's awareness of heart disease, their No. 1 killer.
Joined with the William J. Clinton Foundation to create the Alliance for a Healthier Generation, a cause initiative to fight the alarming epidemic of childhood obesity.
Introduced Get With The Guidelines evidence-based processes in hospitals to improve care and outcomes for heart and stroke patients. When fully implemented, these guidelines could eliminate an estimated 80,000 heart attack-related deaths every year. In December 2004 the program was the first hospital-based program to receive the "Innovation in Prevention" award from U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
Collaborated with the Joint Commission of Healthcare Organizations to develop a Primary Stroke Center Certification program, and with the National Committee for Quality Assurance to develop a quality recognition program for doctors and hospitals.
Experienced its greatest period of financial growth.
Wheeler received a bachelor's degree in business from the University of Texas at Austin and soon joined the American Cancer Society, serving as a field representative, a metropolitan fund-raising director and a metropolitan executive director. He later was a stockbroker in Dallas with two New York Stock Exchange firms.
After joining the American Heart Association's Texas Affiliate in Austin in 1973, Wheeler became vice president for field operations and later executive vice president. He joined the association's National Center in Dallas in 1982 as chief operating officer. He became senior vice president for field operations in 1996 and CEO in 1997.
Wheeler has been a guest lecturer at Harvard University's Graduate Schools of Business and Public Health, at the University of Texas at Dallas School of Management, and at the University of Texas at Austin Lyndon B. Johnson School of Public Affairs. He has also been a guest speaker at the University of Texas at Austin Graduate School of Business in its Distinguished Lecture Series.
Wheeler is a past chair of the Board of Directors for the National Health Council. He is on the boards of Partnership for Prevention, National Center for Tobacco-Free Kids, Research!America, Campaign for Medical Research, and Independent Sector. He is Chair of the Key Philanthropic Organizations Committee of the American Society of Association Executives. He also is co-convener of the Independent Sector Panel on the Non Profit Sector, a national panel formed at the request of the Senate Finance Committee to recommend actions that will strengthen good governance, ethical conduct and effective practice by public charities and private foundations. He is on the Advisory Council of the Paul G. Rogers Society for Global Health Research, the Citizens Advisory Council for the Campaign for Medical Research and Advisory Council of the Campaign for Public Health. He has served on the President's Commission on Improving Economic Opportunity in Communities Dependent on Tobacco Production While Protecting Public Health.
In September 2005, the National Human Services Assembly presented Wheeler with the Essence of Leadership Award for Excellence in National Executive Leadership. In 2006 and 2007 he was honored as one of the leaders selected for inclusion in NonProfit Times' Power and Influence Top 50. In July 2007, he was named to World Pharmaceutical Frontiers' first Pharma 40 - a list of the most influential people in the industry, as judged by industry experts. Wheeler was 18th of 40.
Wheeler contributed the book chapter "Building an Organization That Can Make a Real Difference" for Inside the Minds: Leadership Strategies for Charitable Organizations and Foundations, published by Aspatore Books in 2005. Aspatore asked Wheeler to contribute a chapter to a new Inside the Minds book on managing the executive team that was published Fall 2006.