Frank Cetta, MD
Board President
2013–present

“Volunteering with Heart to Heart has been a win-win-win experience for me. I get to help diagnose critically ill children in underserved areas, so they can receive the care they need. I get to help teach and train new teams of pediatric cardiac specialists—and admire their determination. Together, we are helping develop self-sustaining cardiac programs so families in areas of need will have access to world-class life-saving treatment for the first time—and for generations to come.”

Dr. Frank Cetta has been a Heart to Heart medical volunteer for 20 years and counting. His versatility as a pediatric cardiologist and an adult congenital specialist is matched by his talent for teamwork and his passion for teaching. Dr. Cetta has assumed a pivotal role in helping Heart to Heart guide multiple cardiac programs to reach self-sustainability. He has examined thousands of young patients at our partner sites in Russia and Latin America and mentored hundreds of cardiac specialists to improve their diagnostic skills. On top of these tremendous contributions, Dr. Cetta has been a strategic recruiter for Heart to Heart, enlisting several well-suited colleagues who have become some of our most dedicated medical volunteers.

Dr. Cetta has been part of our Costa Rica team since the beginning of our campaign there, volunteering on eight cardiac training missions to date. He has also organized scholar-exchange observerships for several Costa Rican colleagues at his home institution of many years, the Mayo Clinic. Most notably, he arranged for Costa Rican cardiologist Carlos Mas to accompany a teenage patient to Mayo for a catheter-based intervention which was not yet available in Costa Rica. This observership provided the insights Dr. Mas needed to return home and successfully perform the procedure in Costa Rica, a momentous advancement for both the cardiac community and patients there.

As a key leader of our Into the Heartland Campaign (2002–2019), Dr. Cetta led all seven of Heart to Heart’s annual surgical-educational missions to Tomsk, Siberia (2006–2012). Under his guidance, our colleagues in Tomsk not only dramatically increased their program capacity, but also established their center as a teaching site for specialists from all over Russia and beyond. Dr. Cetta went on to assume the role of lead pediatric cardiologist for our then-new collaboration in Kaliningrad, in Russia’s Northwestern Federal District. Previously, Dr. Cetta had been instrumental in launching Heart to Heart’s first adult congenital program, located in St. Petersburg.

Dr. Cetta is an invaluable member of our medical leadership and our board of directors—and an esteemed repository of institutional knowledge. His humility and generosity are matched by his grace under pressure. We are profoundly grateful for his decades of contributions.