Bill Frist

Bill Frist is a BPC senior fellow and co-chair of its Health Project and Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) Task Force, and is a member of BPC’s Future of Health Care Initiative. In addition to being a nationally recognized heart and lung transplant surgeon, he was Senate majority leader from 2003 to 2007.

Frist represented Tennessee in the Senate for 12 years, where he served on both the Health and Finance Committees and wrote healthcare legislation. Today, Frist is focused on domestic health reform, the basic science of heart transplantation, global health policy, economic development in low-income countries, health care disparities, medical mission work in Sudan, the health of the mountain gorilla, and HIV/AIDS. In 2010, Frist served on the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Commission to Build a Healthier America, which directly linked better health to education.

Frist was the 2007-2008 Frederick H. Schultz Professor of International Economic Policy at Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, and the 2010 University Distinguished Professor of Business and Medicine at Vanderbilt University.

Frist holds degrees from Princeton University and Harvard Medical School. He has performed over 150 heart and lung transplants, and has authored more than 100 peer-reviewed medical articles, more than 400 newspaper articles, and seven books. He is board certified in both general and heart surgery.