Hickey Retirement

Mairead Hickey, PhD, RN, FAAN, FAHA

Mairead Hickey, PhD, RN, FAAN, FAHA, BWH executive vice president and chief operating officer, will retire after more than 30 years of exemplary service at BWH. Hickey has held her current position since September 2010.

Hickey joined BWH as a staff nurse and nursing instructor after completing her bachelors of nursing degree at Boston College in 1972. She left BWH for slightly more than a decade to serve as the associate professor and chair of the graduate program for clinical nurse specialists at Yale University. During this time, she also received her PhD at the University of Connecticut in 1990. After returning to BWH in 1992, she held several leadership positions, including chief nursing officer and senior vice president of Patient Care Services, and vice president of Women’s Health and Specialty Services. She also led performance improvement and quality programs at BWH for several years and additionally held many adjunct faculty appointments at Harvard Medical School, Harvard School of Public Health and Boston College School of Nursing.

Some of Hickey’s many accomplishments at BWH include the creation of the Bretholtz Center for Patients and Families; the transition of the Departments of Neurology, Psychiatry and Newborn Medicine into the BWH Physicians Organization; the expansion of the Ambulatory Care Center at 850 Boylston; and creation of the Haley Nursing Scientist program. Throughout her career, Hickey also published many peer-reviewed papers on topics such as quality and safety in nursing care and the needs of families of critically ill patients. Most recently, she was co-editor of Change Leadership in Nursing, to which more than 80 BWH clinical nurses contributed.

Hickey will stay on until the end of the calendar year to ensure a smooth transition plan. Her successor will likely be announced in the coming months.

MacRae New Chief of the Division of Cardiovascular Medicine

Calum MacRae, MD, PhD

Calum MacRae, MD, PhD, has been named the new chief of the Division of Cardiovascular Medicine in the Department of Medicine. MacRae completed his residency at BWH in 1991, and returned as a member of the BWH Division of Cardiovascular Medicine in 2009. Since 2009, he has been active in the Cardiovascular Clinical Genetics Center and is clinical director of the emerging Genomic Medicine Program at BWH. Outside of the division, MacRae serves as associate medical director for the Watkins Cardiovascular Clinic, co-chair of the Partners eCare Research Advisory Council, and is a member of the Partners Academic Executive Committee. He is also an associate editor for the American Heart Association’s Journal Circulation and senior associate editor of Circulation: Cardiovascular Genetics.

In his new role, he will join the oversight committee of the Heart and Vascular Center, and will be responsible for the direction of all aspects of the Division’s multifaceted mission.

A graduate of the University of Edinburgh School of Medicine, MacRae trained in internal medicine and cardiology in Edinburgh and London before attending Harvard Medical School in 1991, where he joined the laboratory of Drs. Jonathan and Christine Seidman to work on the genetics of cardiomyopathy. An active physician-scientist, MacRae’s work includes the human genetics of cardiac and vascular disease, cardiovascular developmental biology and drug discovery. He is a committed clinician with an interest in the incorporation of genomics into clinical practice, systematic approaches to the discovery of new bedside phenotypes, and the role of disruptive innovation in refashioning the clinical-translational interface.

MacRae has a record of accomplishments as a clinician, scientist, and educator, and his leadership will integrate all of the activities of the Division. He succeeds Peter Libby, MD, who has served as chief of the Division of Cardiovascular Medicine since 1997. MacRae will assume his new role on Oct. 1.