We are happy to announce Dr. Arifa Alizad is our first annual recipient of the AATS/Scanlan Family Valerie Rusch Mentored Career Development Award. She will be spending time with Dr. Thoralf Sundt at Massachusetts General Hospital. She was a third-year cardiac surgery resident at French Medical Institute for Mothers and Children in Kabul, Afghanistan. She started working in cardiac surgery in 2015 and evacuated to the United States in August of 2021. After re-settling in the United States, she completed a Cardiovascular Observership at HCA Health Care in Houston.