The Richard Popp Excellence in Teaching Award was named in honor of Richard Popp, MD, FASE, and recognizes a physician who epitomizes the ideal qualities of a mentor and role model. This award recognizes an outstanding teacher nominated by their students and peers. ASE created the award to focus our attention on the important role teaching and mentorship play in influencing and improving the echocardiographers of the future.
Congratulations 2026 Awardee, Smadar Kort, MD, FASE
Dr. Smadar Kort is a tenured Professor of Medicine at the Renaissance School of Medicine at Stony Brook University. She received her medical degree from the Sackler School of Medicine in Tel Aviv, Israel. She completed her internship and residency in Internal Medicine and her fellowship in Cardiovascular Medicine at Cornell University Medical College, followed by advanced fellowship training in echocardiography at New York University Medical Center.
Dr. Kort holds multiple senior leadership roles at Stony Brook Medicine, where she serves as System Director of Cardiovascular Imaging, Director of the Structural Heart Imaging Program, and Co-Director of the Valve Center. Her clinical and academic focus is cardiovascular imaging, with particular emphasis on echocardiography, structural and valvular heart disease, interventional echocardiography, and quality improvement. She directed the second-year medical student Cardiovascular System Course at the Renaissance School of Medicine for more than a decade and continues to devote substantial effort to teaching cardiology fellows, residents, medical students, and sonographers.
Within ASE, Dr. Kort has had extensive and sustained leadership and service, including service on the ASE Board of Directors and selection as Board Leader for Public Education. She served as Chair of the Membership Steering Committee, Co-Chair of the Continuing Medical Education Committee, and as a member of multiple ASE committees and task forces spanning education, guidelines and standards, advocacy, finance, interventional echocardiography, and point-of-care ultrasound. She was a member of the Inaugural Steering Committee of the ASE Critical Care Echocardiography Council and represented ASE on the CMS Medicare Evidence Development and Coverage Advisory Committee.
Dr. Kort has also held numerous leadership roles within the American College of Cardiology. She served on the ACC Board of Governors and its Steering Committee and held leadership roles within the Women in Cardiology, Academic, and Cardiovascular Team Sections. Additional roles include Chair of the ACC Annual Scientific Sessions Exhibits Subcommittee, service on the ACCPAC Advisory Council, and current service as Co-Chair of the Cross-Section Advocacy Workgroup and member of the ACC Governance Committee.
Dr. Kort has authored over 70 manuscripts, more than 20 book chapters, and over 50 abstracts, and has contributed to the development of 12 national multi society professional guidelines, consensus statements, and appropriate use criteria documents. She has served as an official peer reviewer for national guidelines and currently represents ASE on the Peer Review Committee for the 2026 ACC/AHA Valvular Heart Disease Guidelines and on the American College of Radiology Appropriate Use Criteria writing group.
Her editorial leadership includes service as Editor-in-Chief of EchoSAP, Editorial Team Leader for the Non-Invasive Imaging Clinical Topic Collection on ACC.org, and editorial board membership for the Journal of the American Society of Echocardiography, Echocardiography, and Heart International. She has also served as Guest Associate Editor for the Journal of the American College of Cardiology and continues to serve on the editorial board of ACC.org.
Dr. Kort is deeply committed to education and mentorship and has supervised and mentored cardiology fellows, residents, medical students, sonographers, and junior faculty at the institutional, regional, and national levels. She is a frequent invited speaker at local, national, and international meetings, having delivered nearly 350 invited presentations, chaired or co-chaired numerous educational courses and served on planning committees for national scientific sessions of both ASE and ACC.
She has demonstrated a longstanding commitment to sonographer education, serving as a Subject Matter Expert for the Adult Echocardiography Exam Development Task Force of the American Registry for Diagnostic Medical Sonography, as a member of the Board of Directors of the Joint Review Committee on Education in Diagnostic Medical Sonography, and participating in the creation of the National Educational Curriculum for Sonographers. She served as an inaugural board member of the Committee on Accreditation for Education in Advanced Cardiovascular Sonography and is currently serving a three-year term as Chair of this board.
Throughout her career, Dr. Kort has received numerous professional awards and recognitions. Most recently, she was awarded the Faculty Excellence in Resident/Fellow Mentoring Award from the Renaissance School of Medicine at Stony Brook University and the Outstanding Service Award from the Department of Medicine at Stony Brook Medicine.
2026 Awardee: Smadar Kort, MD, FASE