Graduate school dean to chair AHA council

Dr. Joey Granger, dean of the School of Graduate Studies in the Health Sciences, has been elected chairman of the American Heart Association’s Council on Hypertension.

The council’s stated mission is to foster excellence in high blood pressure research and education and achieve the association’s objectives in the field of hypertension. According to the AHACH, members support the association’s mission of building healthier lives free of cardiovascular diseases and stroke.

“I am truly honored to have been elected by the AHA membership,” Granger said. “The Council on Hypertension is responsible for organizing the leading international scientific meeting on hypertension and is also associated with the leading hypertension journal in the world.

“I look forward to working with my colleagues over the next six years in maintaining the highest caliber meeting and journal for scientists and clinicians working in the field of hypertension.”

Granger has served as the graduate school dean since 2007. His areas of expertise include renal and cardiovascular physiology.

He is the Billy S. Guyton Distinguished Professor of Physiology and Medicine and director of the Cardiovascular-Renal Research Center. Granger earned his doctorate in the UMMC physiology department during the late Dr. Arthur C. Guyton’s tenure as chair. Dr. John Hall, the Arthur C. Guyton Professor and Chair of Physiology and Biophysics, has served as Granger’s mentor.