Dr. R. Wayne Alexander, a native of Memphis, graduated from the University of Mississippi in 1962 with a degree in chemistry and received his M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from Emory University in 1967 and 1968. During those years, he also attended the Saturday Morning Clinical Cardiology Conference given by Emory faculty at Grady Memorial Hospital. He graduated from Duke University School of Medicine in 1969 and remained there for his internship. He completed his residency at the University of Washington in Seattle and his cardiology fellowship at Duke University.

Dr. Alexander served his country from 1971 to 1974 in the United States Public Health Service. He became Staff Associate (Senior Surgeon) at the Heart and Lung Institute where he was assigned to the Experimental Therapeutics Branch of the Institute. Dr. Alexander joined the Harvard faculty at the Peter Bent Brigham Hospital in 1976 and became Associate Professor of Medicine in 1982. He returned to Emory University in Atlanta in 1988 as the R. Bruce Logue Professor of Medicine and Director of the Division of Cardiology. In 1999 he was tapped to chair the Department of Medicine of Emory University School of Medicine and Emory University Hospital where he remained until 2013.