Faculty and Advisors

Dr. Boutjdir's major research interests are in the cardiovascular system, sudden cardiac death and antiarrhythmic therapy. He has published more than 170 articles in peer reviewed high impact journals and served as Chair and reviewer in several national review committees such as NIH, AHA, Veterans Affairs and March of Dimes. He is also a reviewer in several important journals such as Circulation, Circulation Research, Journal of American College of Cardiology and the American Journal of Cardiology and serves on several executive boards, thesis committees and editorial boards.

Dr. Boutjdir is responsible for the management of all aspects of the Cardiovascular Summer Institute as he has extensive administrative and scientific leadership experience in successfully directed and managed all aspects of the Summer Institute at Downstate since 2006. He is a Professor of Medicine, Cell Biology/Physiology and Pharmacology with extensive experience in training and mentoring both MDs and PhDs, in the conduct of cardiovascular research. To date, more than 140 clinical and basic science fellows have trained with Dr. Boutjdir and are currently working in prestigious academic departments across the nation.

Dr. Carla Boutin-Foster is an Associate Professor of Medicine who graduated from Downstate Medical College and completed her residency training in Internal Medicine at the New York Presbyterian Hospital. Dr Boutin Foster is currently Associate Dean of Diversity Education and Research. Her research activities focus on identifying the psychological and social determinants of health outcomes in patients with cardiovascular disease and on the social epidemiology of health disparities in cardiovascular disease. She is the Nanette Laitman Clinical Scholar in Public Health and Community Health. Her previous funding includes a grant from the National Heart Lung and Blood Institute (NHLBI) to identify attributes in the doctor-patient relationship that are most associated with health behavior modification in patients with coronary artery disease. She was the recipient of the Harold Amos Medical Faculty Development Award from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to study the role of social support in outcomes of patients with coronary artery disease. She was also awarded a K01 from the NHLBI to evaluate the impact of depressive symptoms, social support, and stress on health behavior modification in Latino patients with coronary artery disease. She is also co-investigator on an NHLBI program project to that test the impact of a culturally-tailored educational program on medication adherence in African-Americans with hypertension. She has published several papers describing her work in peer-reviewed journals. In addition to research, teaching and clinic duties, she is the Associate Director of the Center for Multicultural and Minority Health and plays an active role in recruiting diverse residents. The goal of the Center is to collaborate efforts in medical education, minority faculty development, community outreach, and research that will enhance the quality of health care of the underserved. Dr. Boutin-Foster has also been involved in numerous community-based participatory research initiatives and has collaborated with several community organizations and agencies in developing initiatives that focus on health disparities and improving health care outcomes for the underserved.

Dr. Camacho-Rivera is an Assistant Professor of Community Health Sciences. A social epidemiologist by training, Dr. Camacho-Rivera’s research focuses on elucidating structural and determinants of chronic diseases among communities and exploring patterns and determinants of within-group heterogeneity in chronic disease outcomes among a specific group. Dr. Camacho-Rivera’s translates this research into the design, implementation, and evaluation of multilevel and community-engaged interventions to advance chronic disease prevention and improve self-management among urban communities.

Dr. Demissie currently serves as Dean and Professor of the School of Public Health at SUNY Downstate Health Sciences University. Dr. Demissie began his work in public health in the 1980s and has implemented several public health programs and has authored several peer-reviewed publications in highly impactful journals showcasing his nationally funded and recognized work. He is an internationally recognized investigator in molecular epidemiology, cancer prevention, and control and population sciences with an expansive funding portfolio, including NIH/NCI, American Cancer Society, Susan G. Komen Foundations and others.

Dr. Marilyn Fraser-White is the Deputy Executive Director at the Arthur Ashe Institute for Urban Health. Dr. Fraser is also a member of the faculty of the SUNY Downstate Health Sciences University, and the faculty of the Institute’s Health Science Academy, serving as a mentor and instructor for talented minority students interested in the health professions. Dr. Fraser serves as the Director of the Community Engagement core of the Brooklyn Health Disparities Center, a partnership with Arthur Ashe Institute, the State University of New York Downstate Medical Center and the Office of the Brooklyn Borough President. As a senior member of the Institute’s staff, Dr. Fraser leads by example. She has recruited a talented bench for the Institute’s research, training and outreach endeavors, and participates actively in advising the CEO on how to strengthen the administrative infrastructure of the organization. Dr. Fraser’s expertise in community based participatory approaches to partnership development in research and collaboration has served the Institute well. She is a sought after expert and provides counsel to numerous academic institutions, research organizations and community partners on the topic. A skilled researcher, Dr. Fraser has assumed primary responsibility for the Institute’s research portfolio development. In this role she has secured millions of dollars to support the evaluation of the Institute’s best practice urban health approaches. Among Dr. Fraser’s stellar achievements is a recent and one of the most prestigious international awards. She is the recipient of the 2013 Fulbright Research Specialist Award, and chose to leverage her opportunity to practice abroad on behalf of the Institute. In this capacity, she expertly managed the Institute’s replication of its award winning social determinants of health externship program in Trinidad and Tobago at University of the West Indies.

Dr. Hussain received Ph.D. degrees from the Oklahoma State University and University of Copenhagen, Denmark. After postdoctoral trainings at the Boston University School of Medicine and Gladstone Foundation Laboratories, University of California, San Francisco, he joined Medical College of Pennsylvania as an Assistant Professor, became Associate Professor, moved to SUNY Downstate Health Sciences University and became a Tenured Professor in 2002. In 2014, he was appointed as a Distinguished Professor of SUNY. American Heart Association elected him as a Fellow in 2001. He is the founder and President of "Chylo, Inc." and a co-founder and the Editor-in-Chief of the journal "Nutrition & Metabolism (Lond)."

Mahmood received National Merit Scholarship (India) and a DANIDA Fellowship (Denmark) for his studies. He received several awards from the American heart Association such as Irvine H. Page Award, the National Center; Leonard Horowitz Award, the Southeastern Pennsylvania Affiliate; and ATVB Special Recognition Award. At SUNY, he received Promising Inventor Award and Chancellor's Recognition Award and has been an Honoree for several times of the Million Dollar Club. He was bestowed with an Outstanding Achievement Award in Crete, Greece.

Dr. Hussain had made several seminal observations. He demonstrated that bone marrow plays a significant role in chylomicron catabolism. His associates have described two independent pathways for lipid absorption by the intestine; characterized protein-protein interactions between apolipoprotein B and microsomal triglyceride transfer protein (MTP) and established their importance in lipoprotein assembly; defined the role of MTP in the circadian regulation of plasma triglyceride and showed that CLOCK regulates MTP involving SHP; described the role of IRE1β in lipid absorption, atherosclerosis, and enterocyte differentiation. Another area of his research is the identification of microRNAs that affect lipid metabolism. His group showed that miR-30c lowers plasma lipids and atherosclerosis.

Michael A. Joseph, PhD, MPH, is an Associate Professor in the Department of Preventive Medicine and Community Health at Downstate. He completed his MPH in Chronic Disease Epidemiology at Yale University and his Ph.D. in Epidemiologic Science at the University of Michigan School of Public Health. Dr. Joseph's research interests are in social epidemiology, particularly issues of behavioral and cultural determinants of cancer screening practices among communities of color, and he is currently extending his research endeavors internationally through collaborations with the University of Zimbabwe School of Medicine in Harare, Zimbabwe. Dr. Joseph teaches Epidemiology and Biostatistics in the School of public health Program and previously served as Course Director for Fundamentals of Epidemiology and Biostatistics in the Sophie Davis School of Biomedical Education at the City College of NY. He will participate in the Institute through didactic and hands-on laboratory application of epidemiologic, statistical analytic tools such as SPSS and Principles of Biostatistics.

Dr. Marcus Lambert is an Associate Professor in the Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics and Associate Vice President for Research Strategy & Operations at SUNY Downstate Health Sciences University. In this role, Dr. Lambert spearheads initiatives to expand Downstate’s extramurally funded research portfolio, particularly focusing on public health research and training. He co-leads multiple research training programs at Downstate, including TRANSPORT, a $20 million endowment grant.

Professor of Medicine, Neurology, Public Health, Molecular & Cell Biology,Director, Non-Invasive Cardiology and Director of Cardiology fellowship program at Downstate. Dr. Lazar received his medical degree from the SUNY at Syracuse and completed his postgraduate training at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center in Pennsylvania. He received his MPH from Columbia University School of Public Health. Dr. Lazar is currently Director of Non-Invasive Cardiology and Director of the Cardiovascular Fellowship Training Program at Downstate. He is also Clinical Assistant Dean in the College of Medicine. Dr. Lazar's research interests include: brain-heart interactions, arterial stiffness, the epidemiology of coronary heart disease in women, in high risk populations, and health disparities. He is a member of the editorial board of some 8 journals, serves as a reviewer for many more peer-reviewed journals. He is widely published with more than 100 peer reviewed manuscripts and has embarked upon several international collaborations. He is a Fellow of the American College of Physicians, American College of Cardiology and the American College of Chest Physicians. He has previously served as Chair of the Cardiovascular Network and New York State representative of the Governor's Council of the American College of Chest Physicians, and on the American Society of Echocardiography Research Committee. He has received multiple accolades for academia including the SUNY Chancellor's Award for Excellence in Scholarship and Creative Activities. Over the past decade, Dr Lazar has been awarded four different Empire Clinical Research Investigator Training Grants. He will be responsible for the lectures on Pathophysiology of Hypertension and Basic Cardiac Pathophysiology, a tour of the non-invasive cardiac laboratory, will serve on the mock study section and as a mentor.

Dr. Samy I. McFarlane is a Professor of Medicine and Endocrinology. He is the President of the American College of Physicians for the Brooklyn District and is the author/ co-author of over 300 publications with several being among the most cited and most accessed articles in their respected journals. His research in the areas of diabetes, hypertension and bone metabolism has been supported by major national and international institutions including the National Institute of Health, the American Diabetes Association, and the National Kidney Foundation among others. He is a 2 term member of the National Institute of Health committee (NIDDK) and served as a member and a chair for major special review NIH committees (SRO). He also served as a journal Editor for multiple journals and numerous times as a journal reviewer and manuscript consultant.

His major areas of interest are in Diabetes and Cardiovascular disease prevention especially among minority population. He is also a known leader in the medical community for promoting minority trainees; many of whom hold leadership positions and were able to advance in academic careers. He is also the vice- president and co-founder of the Caribbean Diabetes Initiative, Inc., a non-for profit organization that provides diabetes care to the indigent populations in various Caribbean island and educate the local health care providers about the care for the diabetic patients in forms of workshops and medical seminars targeting the providers in their native land. He is an invited speaker at national scientific meetings and major universities. His efforts have been recognized through many awards he received over the years including recognitions from the United States armed forces, the USA House of Representatives, the Gold P Foundation for Humanism in Medicine among others.

As an Educator, Dr. McFarlane has edited and co-authored the popular review book First Aid for Medicine Clerkship by McGraw-Hill and co. that is now in its third edition. He also won several awards as an educator including the outstanding educator, the AOA, pioneer in public Health and was selected among America's top Physicians and best doctors awards several times.

Dr. Moro Salifu is a tenured Professor of Medicine and Chairman of the Department of Medicine at State University of New York, Downstate Medical Center, Brooklyn. He is also the Edwin C. and Anne K. Weiskopf Endowed Chair in Nephrology and Transplantation. He has served as fellowship program director since 2003, division chief of nephrology, and director of the kidney transplant program at SUNY Downstate since 2008. He has trained and mentored many residents and fellows, across different institutions in New York and in several States.

Board-certified in internal medicine and nephrology, Dr. Salifu is known for his outstanding research, and clinical and administrative skills. He is highly respected within the Downstate community as well as in the national nephrology community. He is a productive investigator whose research interests include vascular biology, chronic kidney disease progression, and kidney transplant outcomes. He is the recipient of numerous grants including being the principal investigator of a multi-million dollar award from the National Institutes of Health to advance the work of the Brooklyn Health Disparities Center.

Dr. Salifu is the recipient of numerous awards, including best educator of the year, Best Doctor US News and World Report, Castle Connelly Top Doctor, Worldwide Registry of Executives and Professionals, Kings Of Kings County, just to name a few. He has published extensively in peer-reviewed journals nationally and internationally. A fellow of the American College of Physicians, he is also a member and journal reviewer for nephrology and transplant societies and has served on many local and national professional committees. He is the past president of the New York Society of Nephrology for the 2013-14 academic year.

Azure B. Thompson is an Assistant Professor of Community Health Sciences at SUNY Downstate School of Public Health. Her research centers on the social determinants of substance use and mental health. She has used quantitative, qualitative, and mixed methods to examine multilevel determinants of differences in age patterns of substance use and related mental health conditions. Her research was one of the first to document the shift in cigarette smoking onset in the US from the adolescent to young adult years.

Dr. Chahine is a Professor in the Department of Medicine at Laval University in Quebec city, Canada. His expertise is in channel structure-function studies and mutagenesis studies at both molecular and biophysical levels. Specifically, his expertise is in ion channelopathies, using techniques such as side directed mutagenesis and confocal microscopy. He has published many paper related to long QT syndrome, Brugada syndrome and cardiac arrhythmias in general. Honors include appointment as Senior Investigator at the Joseph C. Edwards Foundation, Montréal, Canada; Invited Professor at the Institut de Physiologie et Biologie, Cellulaires, Université de Poitiers, Poitiers, France; Invited Scientist at the National Institute for Physiological Sciences Okazaki, Japan; a Junior-2 fellowship at the Fond de la recherché en santé du Québec (FRSQ), Canada; and a Research Scholar at the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada (HSFC) Canada. He is an Associate Editor for Frontiers in Pharmacology of Ion Channels and Channelopathies and sits on the editorial board of the Canadian Journal of Cardiology, World Journal of Cardiology, and the KBM Journal of Cardiovascular Research. He is a member of several study section committees. Dr. Chahine is a present member of the Biophysical Society, the Society of Neurosciences, and the American Heart Association. He currently receives research support from the Canadian Institute of Health Research and the National Institutes of Health, and has completed research projects for the Canada Foundation for Innovation and a NIH consortium grant.

Dr Chung is a clinical and molecular geneticist who directs the clinical genetics program at Columbia University and performs human genetic research. She is the Herbert Irving associate professor of pediatrics and medicine. She received her B.A. in biochemistry and economics from Cornell University, her M.D. from Cornell University Medical College, and her Ph.D. from The Rockefeller University in genetics. Dr. Chung directs NIH funded research programs in human genetics of obesity, breast cancer, and birth defects including congenital diaphragmatic hernia and congenital heart disease. She was the recipient of the American Academy of Pediatrics Young Investigator Award, the Medical Achievement Award from Bonei Olam, and a career development award from Doris Duke. Dr. Chung is renowned for her teaching and mentoring. She is a member of the Glenda Garvey Teaching Academy and has won many awards for teaching including the Charles W. Bohmfalk Award for Distinguished Contributions to Teaching, American Medical Women's Association Mentor Award, and Columbia University Presidential Award for Outstanding Teaching. Dr. Chung enjoys the challenges of genetics as a rapidly changing field of medicine and strives to facilitate the integration of genetic medicine into all areas of health care in a medically, scientifically, and ethnically sound, accessible, and cost effective manner.

Dr. Claudio is a tenured professor of environmental medicine and public health at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York City. She is also Chief of the Division of International Health. Dr. Claudio has a doctorate degree in neuroscience from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine. Her area of research focuses on how environmental factors affect health in vulnerable populations such as children and those who are disadvantaged. She is best known for studies on health in children and for her work in global health.

Keith C Ferdinand, MD, is Professor of Clinical Medicine at the Tulane University School of Medicine and the Tulane Heart and Vascular Institute in New Orleans, Louisiana. He was previously Professor of Clinical Pharmacology at Xavier University, New Orleans and Clinical Professor of Medicine at Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia. Dr. Ferdinand received his medical degree from the Howard University College of Medicine in Washington, DC. He is board-certified in internal medicine and cardiovascular disease, certified in the subspecialty of nuclear cardiology, and a specialist in clinical hypertension certified by the American Society of Hypertension.

Dr. Ferdinand is Immediate Past Chair of the National Forum for Heart Disease and Stroke Prevention and has served as Chief Science Officer and past chair of the Association of Black Cardiologists. He has also served as a board member of the American Society of Hypertension,the Southwest Lipid Association, and the International Society of Hypertension in Blacks.

As an investigator, Dr. Ferdinand has conducted numerous trials in the fields of cardiology, cardiovascular disease,lipids and cardiometabolic risk, especially in racial and ethnic minorities. Dr Ferdinand's participation in research has been published in peer-reviewed journals including the New England Journal of Medicine,Journal of the American College of Cardiology, the Journal of Clinical Hypertension, the American Journal of Cardiovascular Drugs, Clinical Lipidology, and the journal Cardiorenal Medicine, and Hypertension.

Dr. Ferdinand serves on the editorial review board of Hypertension, Journal of Clinical Hypertension, the Journal of the American Society of Clinical Hypertension, Cardiorenal Medicine, as well as The Medical Roundtable-CV. He has lectured nationally on topics including cardiovascular disease in the African American population, hypertension, diabetes, dyslipidemia, and racial and ethnic disparities in cardiovascular outcomes. In 2004, Dr. Ferdinand received the Louis B. Russell, Jr. Memorial Award of the American Heart Association and the Walter M. Booker Community Service Award of the Association of Black Cardiologists. In 2010, he was recognized by the Congressional Black Caucus Health Trust with an award for journalism, as well as the Charles Drew award for medical excellence in conjunction with the National Minority Quality Foundation. Most recently, in 2015, Dr. Ferdinand was inducted into the Association of University Cardiologists.

James R. Gavin III, MD, PhD is Clinical Professor of Medicine at Emory University School of Medicine, Atlanta, Georgia and at Indiana University School of Medicine, Indianapolis, Indiana. Dr. Gavin has a long and distinguished history of research and commitment to minority faculty development. He is a past president of the Morehouse School of Medicine, Atlanta, GA (2002-2005). He served as senior scientific officer at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) from 1991-2002 and director of the HHMI-National Institutes of Health Research Scholars Program from 2000-2002. Dr. Gavin is immediate past National Program Director (1993 - 2013) of the Harold Amos Minority Medical Faculty Development Program (AMFDP) of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Approximately 220 scholars have completed all four years of the AMFDP. Of these, more than 80 percent are still in academic medicine, including 3 directors of categorical institutes at the NIH, 40 professors, 59 associate professors, and 78 assistant professors. In addition to serving as faculty and on the advisory committee to the Institute, Dr. Gavin will assist in identifying and recruiting senior minority faculty to increase the pool of mentors and assignment of mentees. Dr. Gavin is African American. He will continue to serve as a faculty member of the Institute by leading seminars on Career Development, Challenges and Opportunities for Minority Faculty.

Dr. Jobe currently works as an independent consultant to universities and research organizations. He consults on the design and conduct of randomized controlled trials; provides pre-submission reviews of research grants; provides presentations and workshops on grant funding; provides presentations, workshops, and courses on clinical trials; and serves on Data and Safety Monitoring Boards, Data Monitoring Committees, and Steering Committees.

Dr. Joseph is the Interim Chair of the Department of Environmental and Occupational Health Sciences at SUNY Downstate's School of Public Health. Dr. Joseph earned his BS in Health Science at Brooklyn College, his MPH in Chronic Disease Epidemiology from Yale University, and his PhD in Epidemiologic Science from the University of Michigan SPH. He completed postdoctoral training in cancer prevention and control at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine. Dr. Joseph is presently collaborating with colleagues from SUNY Downstate and the Arthur Ashe Institute for Urban Health on an NIH-funded cluster randomized trial that is testing the efficacy of a CBPR-based behavioral intervention to reduce heterosexual Black men's HIV transmission risks. Dr. Joseph is the Director of the Training/Education Core of the Brooklyn Health Disparities Center; in this role he provides underrepresented undergraduate and graduate students with education and training to pursue advanced study in the area of health disparities research. Dr. Joseph has administrative and direct teaching experience of several graduate courses on biostatistics and epidemiology. Because of his knack for explaining difficult concepts in a simplified, yet exhaustive fashion, his course at the Annual Meeting of the American Public Health Association, "Biostatistics for Non-Statisticians", is widely popular. He will participate in the PRIDE-CVD through didactic teaching and hands-on applications of biostatistics using SPSS.

Dr. Cheryl L. Kunis is Clinical Professor of Medicine at Columbia University in the Department of Medicine and Division of Nephrology. Dr. Kunis graduated with honors and distinction in anthropology from the University of Pennsylvania and received an M.D. degree from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine.

After completing a three year clinical/research fellowship in Nephrology at the New York University School of Medicine, she joined the faculty at Columbia University. As a member of the Nephrology division, she has been the principal investigator on a number of clinical trials and has authored a number of papers in glomerular and other renal diseases. Dr. Kunis has a large clinical nephrology practice and has been expanding her medical skills to include clinical ethics. She is focusing on global bioethical issues in the treatment of end stage renal disease and is presently completing an MS degree in bioethics at Columbia University.

Dr. Morales was born and raised in New York. She attended Harvard University where she received an A.B. degree in Biology. She obtained her MD from the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons and did residency training in Internal Medicine at Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center. She subsequently joined the CPMC faculty of the Division of General Medicine and served as an Assistant Division Director for Education and Training. She teaches both primary care and inpatient medicine. She has special interests in psychosocial aspects of medicine, physician wellness and support, health care workforce, and access to care.

Dr. Mossavar-Rahmani, Ph.D., RD, CDN is a nutrition scientist with a background in anthropology. Her research focusses on how lifestyle measures such as diet, physical activity and sleep affect cardiometabolic and overall health and how objective measures such as biomarkers of food intake, accelerometry, and actigraphy can increase precision of measurement given the high level of error in reporting these lifestyle measures. She has led or co-led studies ranging from a randomized controlled trial of diet and cognition for which she used ambulatory cognitive assessment to objective measurement of sleep and physical activity in population-based studies in middle-aged and older adults.

Dr. Palaniappan is Associate Dean for Research, and clinical and population researcher at Stanford. Her research has focused on the study of populations, chronic disease and prevention. Dr. Palaniappan specifically seeks to address the gap in knowledge of health in numerous groups. Her current work examines the clinical effectiveness of structured physical activity programs for diabetes management, as well as the best exercise regimens for normal-weight diabetics. She was recently renewed as a Midcareer Investigator Award by the National Institutes of Health to provide mentoring to junior clinical investigators in the conduct of patient-oriented research. She is currently working on implementation of evidence based genetic and pharmacogenetic testing in clinical settings.

Larry started his career as a Health Physicist. He quickly recognized the importance of mastering communications and added a degree in applied behavioral sciences with continuing studies in the social neurosciences. He continues to consult as an Executive Communications Coach with Fortune 100 clients as well as startups. His experience in 360° performance coaching, behavioral based blended training, process improvement techniques, selling skills and leadership development provides an in-depth corporate understanding.

Dr. Yongxia Qu is a cardiologist a New York-Presbyterian Brooklyn Methodist Hospital. She completed her medical training at SUNY Downstate Medical Center. Dr. Qu's clinical interests include clinical cardiology, diagnostic cardiovascular imaging, electrophysiology and cardiovascular research.

Dr. Rodriguez was born in the Dominican Republic and raised in Washington Heights, Manhattan. He graduated on the Dean's List at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, and subsequently obtained his M.D. and M.P.H. degrees concurrently from Columbia University. He completed a three-year internal medicine residency at Columbia University Medical Center and then completed a four-year fellowship in Cardiovascular Diseases and Advanced Echocardiography also at Columbia University Medical Center.

Dr. Rodriguez joined the faculty at Columbia University's College of Physicians and Surgeons in 2003 and held a joint appointment at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health and in the Division of Cardiology at Columbia University Medical Center. He was the first Dominican from the surrounding community of Washington Heights to be full-time faculty in Cardiology. His research focuses on: cardiovascular health disparities, minority cardiovascular health, hypertensive heart disease, and heart failure. His research has been published in a variety of journals including Circulation, the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, the American Journal of Cardiology, the American Journal of Medicine, Hypertension, and Stroke. Dr. Rodriguez has been the recipient of the American Heart Association Clinically Applied Research Grant and the Association of Black Cardiologists Hawthorne - Searle Young Investigator Award. Dr. Rodriguez is the principal investigator of a Career Development Award funded by the National Heart Lung and Blood Institute. He is a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Scholar and past recipient of the Harold Amos Medical Faculty Development Award.

Dr. Rodriguez has joined Wake Forest University as Associate Professor of Medicine and Epidemiology in 2011, where he is currently the principal investigator of ECHO-SOL, a national multi-center study of cardiac structure and function in Hispanic/Latinos across the United States. His research grant application was awarded a perfect score from the National Institutes of Health, a very rare accomplishment.

Dr. Rodriguez is active in various organizations, including the American Heart Association, where he serves as chair of the Mid-Atlantic Affiliate Research Committee and the, Genomics, Translational Outcomes & Observational Epidemiology Peer Review Committee. He also serves as a fellow of the American College of Cardiology. In addition to all of the above, Dr. Rodriguez also serves as faculty advisor for the Latino Medical Student Association, remains a board certified cardiologist, sees patients and performs cardiovascular procedures at Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center in North Carolina where he lives with his wife and two children. 

Dr. Yancy is a renowned American cardiologist and professor at Northwestern University, serving as Chief of Cardiology and Associate Director of the Bluhm Cardiovascular Institute. His expertise includes heart failure, advanced heart muscle problems, heart transplantation, and the prevention of early heart muscle issues. Dr. Yancy is a former President of the American Heart Association (AHA) and a recipient of numerous awards and accolades for his clinical, research, and leadership contributions, including election to the National Academy of Medicine.