In Memoriam: Ralph L. Sacco, MD, MS, FAHA, FAAN
Ralph L. Sacco, MD, MS, FAHA, FAAN, who served as the 35th president of the American Academy of Neurology (AAN) from 2017 to 2019, passed away on January 17, 2023, due to a brain tumor.
An international expert in stroke epidemiology and health disparities, Dr. Sacco published extensively, with more than 1,000 peer-reviewed articles on stroke prevention, treatment, epidemiology, risk factors, vascular cognitive impairment, human genetics, and outcomes. Dr. Sacco was a strong proponent of enlarging the neurology workforce through the academic pipeline and promoted the concept of the “newrologist” to get people excited about careers in neurology.
Dr. Sacco was the founding principal investigator of the Northern Manhattan Study, the Florida Puerto Rico Collaboration to Reduce Stroke Disparities, and the Miami Clinical Translational Science Institute, as well as co-investigator of multiple other NIH-funded studies. Over his career, Dr. Sacco received numerous awards, including the AAN Wartenberg Lecture, the American Heart Association (AHA) Feinberg Award of Excellence in Clinical Stroke, the WSO Global Stroke Leadership Award, the AHA Gold Heart Award, and the NINDS Javits Award in neuroscience.
A graduate of Cornell University and a cum laude graduate of Boston University School of Medicine, Dr. Sacco received a master's degree in epidemiology from Columbia University School of Public Health before completing his neurology residency training and postdoctoral training in stroke and epidemiology at Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center in New York..
At the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine, Dr. Sacco was Chairman of Neurology, Olemberg Family Chair in Neurological Disorders; Miller Professor of Neurology Public Health Sciences, Human Genetics and Neurosurgery; Executive Director of the Evelyn McKnight Brain Institute; and Senior Associate Dean for Clinical and Translational Science. He was Chief of the Neurology Service at Jackson Memorial Hospital.
Dr. Sacco was a Fellow of both the Stroke and Epidemiology Councils of the American Heart Association, a Fellow of the American Neurological Association, and an elected member of the Association of American Physicians and the National Academy of Medicine. From 2010 to 2011, he was the first neurologist to serve as the President of the AHA.