Robert A. Chahine, M.D.
American Lebanese Foundation President

Dr. Robert Chahine obtained his Medical Doctor degree from the American University of Beirut and had post-doctoral fellowships at the University of Miami, Harvard Medical School, and UCLA. Subsequently he has held academic teaching appointments at the UCLA School of Medicine in Los Angeles, California, and Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas culminating in Adjunct Professorship at Baylor and tenured full Professorship at the University of Miami in Miami,Florida. He has also served as Chief of Cardiology at the VAMC in Houston and the University of MiamiVAMC. Dr. Chahine is a member of many prestigious medical and cardiovascular organizations. He is a Fellow of the American College of Cardiology and the American College of Physicians. He has also qualified for Fellowship at the American Association for the Advancement of Science as well as the Council on Circulation and the Council on Clinical Cardiology of the American Heart Association. He also has held elected and/or appointed leadership posts (chairmanship or presidency) in various professional organizations and recently served as President of the Metro-Miami Chapter of the American Heart Association.

Dr. Chahine has done extensive research on various aspects of cardiovascular disease and has earned millions of dollars in grants and contracts from government and industry in support of his research. He has authored or co-authored more than 200 publications in leading national and international medical journals and books. He had major contributions on the topics of coronary artery spasm, unstable angina, hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, and exercise testing. He also published the first comprehensive book on Coronary Artery Spasm. He has lectured and made presentations in all six continents. Dr. Chahine has served on the editorial board of several important cardiovascular journals as well as editorial consultant and reviewer for most of the leading journals that specialize in internal medicine and/or cardiovascular disease. In 1996, Dr. Chahine took leave from his position at the University of Miami and was appointed as Professor and Dean of the Lebanese University Medical School in Beirut, Lebanon, and held that job for several years. He was also offered a Visiting Professorship at AUB at that time.

Despite a busy medical career, Dr. Chahine has remained very close to the problems of Lebanon, his birth country, and has worked in various capacities to bring attention and seek solutions for those problems. His efforts have always been in support of a united, free, democratic and sovereign Lebanon. His hopes and aspirations for Lebanon would not stop at regaining its role as a lighthouse in the Arab world but he would like to see his old country become an effective catalyst towards a real and just peace in the region.

In order to secure access to U.S. politicians and promote better understanding and support for Lebanon, Dr. Chahine has gotten successfully involved with fund raising in national and local political campaigns and served as Finance Vice Chairman for Florida in the Presidential campaign of Senator Bob Dole. He was also appointed to US Senate Advisory Committees on Health and on Foreign Relations by Senator Connie Mack in the early 90s.He was awarded the RS Medal of Freedom. In addition he has had leadership roles with various Lebanese American Organizations. He was a founding member of the American Task Force for Lebanon and continues to serve on its Board of Directors and Executive Committee. He has also served as President of the South Florida Chapter of the American University of Beirut, Alumni Association of North America, and has been significantly involved with various benevolent and charitable activities in Lebanon and the USA. In recognition of the time and effort he dedicated to community service and leadership in Miami, in 1991 Mayor Stephen P. Clark proclaimed March 27 as Dr. Robert A. Chahine Day in Metropolitan Dade County.