Hon. William H. Frist
Senate Majority Leader, U.S. Congress

In 1994, Bill S. Frist was elected to the United States Senate as the only challenger to defeat a full-term incumbent Senator in the 1994 elections. He became the first practicing physician to join the Senate since 1928. On November 7, 2000, Senator Frist was returned to office with overwhelming support, receiving the largest number of votes of any statewide candidate in Tennessee history. Following his successful re-election, Senator Frist joined the Republican leadership of the 107th Congress as chairman of the National Republican Senatorial Committee. A fourth-generation Tennessee, Bill Frist was born February 22, 1952, and raised in Nashville. He and his wife Karen have three sons, Harrison, Jonathan, and Bryan. They are Presbyterians.

Graduating from Princeton University in 1974, Mr. Frist specialized in health care policy at the Woodrow Wilson School of public and international affairs. He received his medical degree with honors from Harvard Medical School in 1978, after which he spent seven years in surgical training at Massachusetts General Hospital and Stanford University Medical Center. He is board-certified in both general and heart surgery.

In 1986, Bill Frist joined the teaching faculty at Vanderbilt University Medical Center in Nashville. He founded and served as director of the multi-disciplinary Vanderbilt Transplant Center, which under his leadership became an internationally renowned center of multi-organ transplantation. In addition, as director of the Heart and Lung Transplantation Program, Dr. Frist performed hundreds of heart and lung transplant procedures. He has written over 100 articles, chapters, and reports on medical research, and authored the book Transplant, which examines the social and ethical issues of transplantation and organ donation.

With the same dedication he showed his patients, Senator Frist serves the people of Tennessee. To hear their views, he visits all ninety-five counties on a regular basis. In the Senate, Senator Frist has made education, healthcare, and science his top priorities.