Jim Craig, a longtime support and vascular advocate, will deliver the annual keynote address at the 2025 Vascular Annual Meeting (VAM) in New Orleans (June 4–7). Craig is known as the goaltender for the 1980 U.S. Olympic hockey team and has been praised for his pivotal role in the “Miracle on Ice” victory.
“I’m delighted and honored to have an icon like Jimmy Craig as our speaker,” said Jason T. Lee, MD, chief of vascular surgery at Stanford University and chair of the SVS Program Committee. “We can learn much from him about adversity, leadership, vulnerability and creating a positive culture. In today’s operating rooms, our vascular teams can draw valuable lessons from successful leaders in other industries.”
This year’s keynote is titled “Inside the winning operating room: Building trust, leading under pressure, and achieving excellence as a team.” The presentation will utilize a TED Talk interview format, which Lee hopes will help provide valuable insights and inspiration to attendees.
After years in the vascular space for personal reasons and collaboration with numerous vascular surgeons, Craig considers being selected as this year’s keynote “the highest honor” and an opportunity to be part of a larger team. To Craig, success in the operating room relies on the entire team’s efforts, rather than on any single person’s rank.
“It’s not just the vascular surgeon; it’s a whole team of people who must be prepared, organized and able to work together. They must also hold each other accountable and have the courage to speak up,” said Craig.
Craig’s commitment to the vascular community is rooted in family. Eight years after the 1980 Olympics, his father, Don, passed away from an undetected ruptured abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA). After experiencing this tragedy, Craig dedicated his life to advocating for awareness and screenings for AAA. By educating himself about the disease, Craig encouraged his brother to get screened, leading to successful early detection of the condition in his sibling. Ultimately, Craig’s efforts played a crucial role in saving his brother’s life.
Since 2007, he has been a leading spokesman for the Saving Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm Very Effectively campaign, or the Ultimate SAAAVE.
Craig stresses the importance of conferences like VAM in creating proper programming to educate medical professionals and keep them informed, ultimately saving lives.
